Season five of Netflix's Cobra Kai had a total of $14.6 million in brand placement value, with sportswear giant Nike totalling the highest value at $3.6 million according to data from YouGov Stream’s valuation tool, YouGov PQS.
Eight of the top ten assets in the show were sportswear and apparel items, which helped other brands such as Champion ($1.7m), Primitive Skateboards ($1.1m), Adidas ($910k), Puma ($490k), and Vans ($419k).
Champion’s dedicated Cobra Kai Sportswear, worn by the members of the Cobra Kai dojo, drove $852k of value for the brand in just over one and a half minutes on screen.
Household brands like Apple ($589k) benefited from exposure for products such as the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, while little-known brand Century Martial Arts Supply benefited from featuring in the Cobra Kai dojo to the tune of $524k.
Among alcohol brands, Coors Banquet, driven by frequent consumption by Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), were the clear winners with $642k in brand placement value, continuing the strong results seen from previous seasons of the show. The next best performing alcohol brand was La Gritona Tequila with $144k.
For automotive brands, BMW and Mercedes-Benz both saw solid returns with $224k and $209k of brand placement value respectively.
Looking at the demographics of viewers across both markets, season five has had a similar proportion of male (57% UK, 55% US) and female (43% UK, 45% US) viewers.
When it comes to age, however, it is notable - given the show remaking an 1984 cult classic - that more than half of viewers in both the UK (64%) and US (52%) are aged between 30-54.
Dominic Prince, product lead of YouGov PQS, said: “With the release of this data, Cobra Kai will be revered not only by its many fans, but also by the brands lucky enough to be featured in the show.
"What we're seeing here demonstrates the value that product placement can drive for brands willing to engage in it, supporting the story told by the release of our Stranger Things valuations last summer.
"Since then, Netflix have made clear strategic moves towards diversifying their revenue streams, introducing an ad-supported tier and clamping down on account sharing.
"With the ways we consume content shifting and our preferences around advertising becoming increasingly stubborn we expect product placement, which is insulated from many of these trends, to have an increasingly important voice in the ongoing conversation around the future of advertising.”
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