Talent Corp has published the Australian Talent Index’s 2024 Top Talent Report, revealing that female sports stars are leading the charge amongst Australian sporting personalities.

Retired Australian tennis star Ash Barty and Matildas’ captain Sam Kerr have been named Australia’s most popular sports personalities. Barty retains her number one spot on the list, while Kerr moves up seven positions from her 2022 ranking, to second place. Wheelchair tennis legend and radio host Dylan Alcott took out third position. Tennis star Nick Kyrgios was deemed to be Australia’s most controversial sporting star.

The Australian Talent Index is a comprehensive talent measurement system that gauges consumers’ awareness, attitudes, and sentiments towards a range of Australian talent. The index is calculated by subtracting the proportion of people who dislike a personality from those who like or love them, giving each a score ranging from -100 (universally disliked) to +100 (universally liked).

The report includes top AFL, NRL, and cricket personalities, as well as the most trusted, likeable, authentic, and controversial figures. More than 7,000 Australians were surveyed by Lewers Research, rating more than 400 personalities.

Brand endorsement is big business for sporting stars, with many companies investing millions to collaborate with well-known Australian sports people. Since her retirement, Ash Barty has partnered with several key brands nationally, including Grill’d, Jaguar, Vegemite, Fila, Head and Rado. Sam Kerr also has several major contracts, including a $1m endorsement with Nike and a substantial contract with Mastercard.

“The Talent Index is unique combining like and dislike into a single powerful metric. We developed the index to respond to the growing needs of studios, media operators and marketers to have access to a reliable, robust, and affordable way of measuring a personality’s appeal with an audience. Social media measurement is one dimensional and just not cutting it in 2024," said Mark Noakes, Talent Corp Managing Director.

“We were excited to see the rise of sporting talent like Sam Kerr this year, along with the debut of players like Mary Fowler on the index. It demonstrates that the Matildas’ 2023 success resonated with audiences nationally, while Ash Barty’s legacy continues to be felt.“Sport is an intrinsic part of Australian culture, which is why sporting stars are often sought out for collaborations with brands. We’ve seen the rise of key brand partnerships for many of the Matildas players on the back of their record success last year, as brands look to leverage their status and likeability with large audience groups.”

Talent Corp was formed in April 2020 by former Macquarie Media executives and is a specialist agency that aligns brands across a broad range of activities. Lewers is a research, insights and strategy firm established in 2005.