Digital Sport Marketing: Concepts, Cases and Conversations 9781138701397, 9781138701403, 9781315204079

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 The development of sport marketing practice
Introduction
Concepts
A short history of sport marketing
Case study 1.1: A question for Nike?
Conversation 1.1 Dr Bill Sutton, recently retired Director of Sport and Entertainment Management MBA programme at the University of South Florida, USA
Conversation: reflections and activities
Is there a case for the re-definition of sport marketing?
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
References
2 Sport marketing in the digital age
Introduction
Concepts
The digital landscape
Digital sports media data
Case study 2.1: Wimbledon and IBM
Case study questions
Conversation 2.1 Eric Stoller, Consultant
Conversation: reflections and activities
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
References
3 Social media in digital sport marketing
Introduction
Concepts
Digital communities in sports
Social media platforms
New considerations
Case study 3.1: Sport marketing conference
Conversation 3.1 Jan Bohemer, PhD, Head of Digital and Data Science at The&Partnership and m/six Agency
Conversation: reflections and activities
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
References
4 Reputation management and sports PR
Introduction
Concepts
Sports PR defined
Sports digital PR
Reputation management
Case study 4.1: Ford and Team Sky Cycling
Case study questions
Case study 4.2: Ford and the EFL
Case study questions
Conversation 4.1 Ed Bowers, Education2Sport
Conversation: reflections and activities
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
References
5 Sports practice and fan engagement in an online environment
Introduction
Concepts
Case study 5.1: Geoff Wilson, Consultant
Case study questions
Conversation 5.1 Stephen Bourke, Founder, Adviser, and Strategist at SB1 Sport
Conversation: reflections and activities
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
References
6 Fan activation and involvement with sport business
Introduction
Concepts
Case study 6.1: Change to win: achieving competitive advantage in the sports industry
Case study conclusion
Case study task
Conversation 6.1 Luca Massaro, Founder and CEO of WePlay
Conversation: reflections and activities
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
References
7 Getting closer to emerging sports audiences
Introduction
Concepts
Case study 7.1: Bas Schnater, Newsroom Content Analyst, Mediahuis Nederland
Conversation 7.1 Fiona Green, Co-Founder, Winners FDD Ltd
Conversation: reflections and activities
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
References
8 Sports in a cultural and knowledge management context
Introduction
Concepts
Case study 8.1: EKS consultancy
Case study questions
Conversation 8.1 Dr Cath Bishop, Senior Performance Consultant and Keynote Speaker
Conversation: reflections and activities
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
References
9 The importance of sports communication strategies
Introduction
Concepts
Case study 9.1: Jon Burkhart, TBC Global
Case study questions
Conversation 9.1 Jim O’Toole – CEO, Event Rider Masters
Conversation: reflections and activities
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
References
10 Sport business in a globalised marketplace
Introduction
Concepts
Case study 10.1: Liverpool FC
Case study 10.2: SD Eibar
Case study questions
Conversation 10.1 Ann Pegoraro, Laurentian University, Institute for Sport Marketing
Conversation: reflections and activities
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
References
11 Towards new thinking for sport marketers and practitioners
Introduction
Concepts
References
Case study 11.1: Jacob Tingle and Allison Hawk, Trinity University, USA
Suggested pre-case readings
Case study questions
Conversation 11.1 Professor Jimmy Sanderson, Visiting Professor in Social Media at Arizona State University, USA
Conversation: reflections and activities
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
Note
References
12 The future of sport
Introduction
Concepts
Case study 12.1: Mike Cooper: Football Club CEO
Task
How does Football Club CEO work?
What do participants do?
Reflections on case study
Case study 12.2: Ben Warren, Somerset County Cricket Club
Case study reflections
Conversation 12.1 Ged Tarpey, Head of US Media and Entertainment Sales at Twitter
Conversation: reflections and activities
Conclusion
Chapter review questions
Additional reading and digital resources
References
Index

Citation preview

DIGITAL SPORT MARKETING

Digital sport marketing is a new, dynamic and rapidly evolving area that is having a profound impact on contemporary sport business. This is the only textbook to introduce core principles and best practice in digital sport marketing, focusing on key issues, emerging topics, and practical techniques. The book surveys the new international digital landscape in sport business and explains how to apply digital marketing across key areas from fan engagement and public relations to strategic communication and branding. Every chapter includes discussion of key concepts, an in-depth case study, and an in-depth conversation with a leading industry practitioner that demonstrates how digital marketing works in the real world. Full of useful features, this is an essential textbook for any sport marketing, sport management, sport business, or sport development course. Alan Seymour is an experienced academic in the sport marketing, engagement, PR, branding, and social media sectors. He was previously Senior Lecturer and Course Leader at the University of Northampton, UK, and has run conferences both in the UK and the USA. Paul Blakey is Senior Lecturer in Sport Business Management at the School of Sport and Exercise Science, University of Worcester, UK. He has worked on collaborative, and individual, research publications, conference presentations, ‘in-field’ event impact studies for sport governing bodies and

coordinated nationwide research projects for UK-based sport and leisure corporations.

DIGITAL SPORT MARKETING Concepts, Cases and Conversations

Alan Seymour and Paul Blakey

First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2021 Alan Seymour and Paul Blakey The right of Alan Seymour and Paul Blakey to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice:

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Seymour, Alan, 1949– author. | Blakey, Paul, 1969– author. Title: Digital sport marketing : concepts, cases and conversations / Alan Seymour and Paul Blakey.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: ÒDigital sports marketing is a new, dynamic and rapidly evolving area that is having a profound impact on contemporary sport business. This is the only textbook to introduce core principles and best practice in digital sports marketing, focusing on key issues, emerging topics and practical techniques. The book surveys the new international digital landscape in sport business and explains how to apply digital marketing across key areas from fan engagement and public relations to strategic communication and branding. Every chapter includes discussion of key concepts, an in-depth case study, and an in-depth conversation with a leading industry practitioner that demonstrates how digital marketing works in the real world. Full of useful features, this is an essential textbook for any sport marketing, sport management, sport business or sport development courseÓ—Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2020015123 | ISBN 9781138701397 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138701403 (paperback) | ISBN 9781315204079 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Sports—Marketing—Technological innovations. | Sports administration—Technological innovations. Classification: LCC GV716 .S397 2021 | DDC 796.068/8—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020015123 ISBN: 978-1-138-70139-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-70140-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-20407-9 (ebk) Typeset in Interstate by Apex CoVantage, LLC

CONTENTS

List of figures List of tables Foreword Preface Acknowledgements

 1 The development of sport marketing practice Introduction Concepts A short history of sport marketing Case study 1.1: A question for Nike? Conversation 1.1 Dr Bill Sutton, recently retired Director of Sport and Entertainment Management MBA programme at the University of South Florida, USA Conversation: reflections and activities Is there a case for the re-definition of sport marketing? Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources References

 2 Sport marketing in the digital age

Introduction Concepts The digital landscape Digital sports media data Case study 2.1: Wimbledon and IBM Case study questions Conversation 2.1 Eric Stoller, Consultant Conversation: reflections and activities Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources References

 3 Social media in digital sport marketing Introduction Concepts Digital communities in sports Social media platforms New considerations Case study 3.1: Sport marketing conference Conversation 3.1 Jan Bohemer, PhD, Head of Digital and Data Science at The&Partnership and m/six Agency Conversation: reflections and activities Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources References

 4 Reputation management and sports PR Introduction Concepts Sports PR defined

Sports digital PR Reputation management Case study 4.1: Ford and Team Sky Cycling Case study questions Case study 4.2: Ford and the EFL Case study questions Conversation 4.1 Ed Bowers, Education2Sport Conversation: reflections and activities Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources References

 5 Sports practice and fan engagement in an online environment Introduction Concepts Case study 5.1: Geoff Wilson, Consultant Case study questions Conversation 5.1 Stephen Bourke, Founder, Adviser, and Strategist at SB1 Sport Conversation: reflections and activities Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources References

 6 Fan activation and involvement with sport business Introduction Concepts Case study 6.1: Change to win: achieving competitive advantage in the sports industry Case study conclusion

Case study task Conversation 6.1 Luca Massaro, Founder and CEO of WePlay Conversation: reflections and activities Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources References

 7 Getting closer to emerging sports audiences Introduction Concepts Case study 7.1: Bas Schnater, Newsroom Content Analyst, Mediahuis Nederland Conversation 7.1 Fiona Green, Co-Founder, Winners FDD Ltd Conversation: reflections and activities Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources References

 8 Sports in a cultural and knowledge management context Introduction Concepts Case study 8.1: EKS consultancy Case study questions Conversation 8.1 Dr Cath Bishop, Senior Performance Consultant and Keynote Speaker Conversation: reflections and activities Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources References

 9 The importance of sports communication strategies Introduction Concepts Case study 9.1: Jon Burkhart, TBC Global Case study questions Conversation 9.1 Jim O’Toole – CEO, Event Rider Masters Conversation: reflections and activities Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources References

10 Sport business in a globalised marketplace Introduction Concepts Case study 10.1: Liverpool FC Case study 10.2: SD Eibar Case study questions Conversation 10.1 Ann Pegoraro, Laurentian University, Institute for Sport Marketing Conversation: reflections and activities Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources References

11 Towards new thinking for sport marketers and practitioners Introduction Concepts References Case study 11.1: Jacob Tingle and Allison Hawk, Trinity University, USA Suggested pre-case readings

Case study questions Conversation 11.1 Professor Jimmy Sanderson, Visiting Professor in Social Media at Arizona State University, USA Conversation: reflections and activities Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources Note References

12 The future of sport Introduction Concepts Case study 12.1: Mike Cooper: Football Club CEO Task How does Football Club CEO work? What do participants do? Reflections on case study Case study 12.2: Ben Warren, Somerset County Cricket Club Case study reflections Conversation 12.1 Ged Tarpey, Head of US Media and Entertainment Sales at Twitter Conversation: reflections and activities Conclusion Chapter review questions Additional reading and digital resources References

Index

FIGURES

1.1 2.1 3.1 4.1 5.1 9.1

Sport marketing chronological timeline ESPN logo The Future of Sport logo What is sports public relations? The fan engagement model Major elements in the communication process

TABLES

2.1 The Championships digital activity 3.1 Social media demographics 6.1 A typology of content for social media-based sponsorship activation

FOREWORD

Interesting as well as appropriate, I first met Professor Seymour approximately five years ago via Twitter. It might strike people as odd that two university professors, both in their sixties, would meet and initiate a relationship, but if you knew us, it would seem perfectly logical. We began exchanging ideas and ultimately hosting each other along with groups of students through conferences and exchanges. I have always been impressed with Alan’s intellectual curiosity which matched mine and has led to a very rich and rewarding relationship. I’m very pleased that Alan, his colleagues and a number of other international practitioners have undertaken this very important and timely effort. Digital marketing is a critical area of research and exploration that continues to consume more and more organisational time and resources in an effort to find a meaningful way to connect with their base and to amplify their message efficiently and most impactfully. Will it replace other forms of marketing? Perhaps in time it will, but for now it has become part of the marketing mix – although one can argue it is the dominant part. While the book identifies and introduces principles and best practices in digital sport marketing, I am most intrigued with the sections and recommendations, many in the form of case studies, that illustrate the concepts being applied in various sports industry segments and specific areas within those segments. Digital Sport Marketing: Concepts, Cases and

explores digital marketing strategies and tactics in key areas such as fan engagement, branding, public relations and of course communications. One of the strengths of this book is how the authors and contributors have integrated interviews and conversations with leading practitioners from a variety of sports organisations involved in domestic or international marketing that deal with specific examples of how their particular organisation has successfully utilised and integrated digital marketing into their marketing efforts. The case studies that have been developed and shared provide a valuable exercise and opportunity for the readership (students, faculty and practitioners) to develop a better comprehension of the why and how of digital sport marketing. Another great value for the readership is the access that has been provided to many channels and social media digital links that provide some real insight into what these efforts ‘look like’ which enables the reader to visualise how they might construct similar offerings that fit their particular circumstances. There is great value for this text as a complementary resource for any sport marketing course at either the undergraduate or graduate levels – but I’m hopeful that the publication of this work provides an inspiration for those of us in academia to create a stand-alone sport digital marketing course as it’s not only the present that we must prepare for but also the future and how we can best be prepared to navigate those uncertain waters. Thank you, Professor Seymour et al., for this very worthwhile and valuable tool to help guide us in our search to maximise our marketing efforts in the next decade and beyond. Conversations

Dr Wm. A “Bill” Sutton Director Emeritus Vinik Sport and Entertainment Management Program University of South Florida Tampa, Florida, USA

PREFACE

A new book on a relatively unexplored and important subject such as digital sport marketing is a unique challenge. ‘Doing Digital’ is much more than a statement that understates the use of technology within the era of smartphones and mobile, online and new media. It is very much an inquiry into the application of that digital technology in all aspects of sport. This textbook provides a practical understanding of global sport business, specifically sport marketing scenarios, as evidenced through the experiences of academics, practitioners and proven ‘influencers’ in the sport industry. Importantly, the textbook presents cases and conversations to showcase the impacts of digital for sport marketing applications through partnership with many stakeholders. The narrative within each chapter provide a platform for students, career aspirants, faculty members and key executives in the sports industry to evaluate and develop their key skill sets. Therefore, the purpose of this textbook is to engage with audiences as reader and listener to the sport marketing message, through personalised and direct engagement with the content as a real, living resource. For those who venture into the arena of digital sport marketing, we trust you will be enthused to add further dimensions to your sport marketing knowledge from UK and global perspectives. Enjoy the journey!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In writing this textbook alongside my co-author and academic acolyte, Dr Paul Blakey, I am reminded to reflect on a career spent in media and academia. In writing this textbook about the exciting industry we all inhabit, I have fulfilled a career dream. The study of Digital Sport Marketing: Concepts, Cases and Conversations has been a journey in pursuit of excellence. The journey was always mindful of the convergence and value of education and communications; both underpin this textbook. Let the best practice begin, in the extension of this journey, through you, the reader and partner in our work. The textbook should excite you and stimulate you to be involved in the rapid growth of digital sports across the globe. Through teaching and learning in universities across the globe and conferences and conversations with leading academics and practitioners in sport business, we are reminded that we are always a student. We are all communicators, digital specialists and journalists who will become future sport marketing professionals. To everyone, and especially to those who have contributed to the textbook, we say thank you. To our closest confidantes, thank you for your patience, advice and considered expert judgements. Personally, to Sue and Salah, you’re my loves and inspiration. The professional acknowledgements go not only to all my former students, and you all know who you are; enjoy the read and the reference.

To all at the University of Northampton, thanks for encouraging me on the pathway to write a course curriculum in sport marketing, as well as managing a new innovative degree programme. To the University of Worcester, thank you for offering me a visiting lectureship and services to fulfil a major part of this project. To Simon and Rebecca at Routledge, you have given us an amazing platform and canvas to display to, and for, the world of digital sport marketing. To my co-author Dr Paul Blakey, a ‘rock’ of an academic, with the demeanour of a patient philosopher, I owe you so much in completing and finishing this work. To all our colleagues across the globe in sport marketing education, especially Dr Bill Sutton and his cohorts at the University of South Florida, this book would have been much less fulfilled for not having met you all. To Jacob Tingle likewise at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. “Once a teacher, always a student.” Alan J Seymour University Lecturer Consultant, UK

1 The development of sport marketing practice

Chapter objectives After studying the concepts, cases, and conversations in this chapter, the reader should be able to: Comprehend the changing nature of sport marketing. Discuss the timelines and landmarks in the development of sport marketing. Explain the transition towards new thinking in sport marketing.

Introduction New platforms, an immersive and engaging fan experience, a lifestyle and entertainment orientation, an inclusive culture (Bashford, 2017): the direction of travel for sport(s) marketing in the new digital landscape. This is a 24/7, content-led global business where consumption of sport continues to gather pace rapidly. Sport has emerged as an identifiable business practice with digital at its heart. Sport is ubiquitous as digital media resonates with new audiences in new ways. Global sport through the digital lens of mobile technology attracts a younger audience of sports fans who seek authenticity through the live stream (Kirkham, 2017). Creative content acts as the conduit for brands to reach their intended audience, enhancing the customer relationship through access to their heroes. An evolving narrative extends that reach through the desire to share content and appeal to the casual fan. By extension, the creative industries of music, film, and art are natural mediums for sport through technology to feed the human need for entertainment. The evolving inclusive nature of sport, tackling issues of sexuality, gender, and disability, shares a movement of participation suggesting sport is for playing, not just for watching. Nevertheless, sport is business, and business requires sport marketing.

The sports industry, especially in North America, has embraced marketing concepts, theories and paradigms and moulded them into sport marketing practice. This is continuing in the 21st century as sport marketing application recognises the paradigm shift towards, and within, the new digital space. As academic interest in digital sport marketing gains traction, conversations with digital leaders alongside case study examples provide significant scope to highlight engagement activity between stakeholders and new audiences. Sport will always occupy ‘hearts and minds’, the emotional connection between fan and team. Brands who seek to enter this space must consider the value they can offer within the sportscape. Genuine partnership development to provide the ‘win-win-win’ (Skildum-Reid & Grey, 2014) for fan, brand and sports entity is central to future relationship opportunities. The sport marketing community (academics, students, and practitioners) can together examine the case, build the evidence, and construct the arguments to deliver practical and applied understanding of the digital domain. The digital landscape moves at pace: think digital electronics of the 1950s–1970s such as the first computer at 167 square metres in size compared to the smartphone technology of today. In fact, the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) developed at MIT for the first lunar missions had less memory and operating power than a modern-day toaster! (Puiu, 2017). Both software and hardware hold the key to the digital future of sports. Emerging empirical paradigms focus on: 1 The move to content creation. 2 The importance of fan engagement. 3 New communication strategies. Moreover, as the global sports industry transitions to the new dynamics of the digital landscape, data and analytics become a focal point for sport marketing practice. This indicates the growing importance of the techniques and processes used to enhance the commercial potential of sports through the analysis of behavioural data and patterns (Technopedia, 2018) and their subsequent use to target the sports audience. The principles of business

analytics – one key pillar of sports analytics – provides foundational data, interpretation, understanding, and, therefore, the platform for digital sport marketing practice. This is a significant development in the digital setting of sport marketing and a key track for investigation here.

CONCEPTS Sport marketing defined Amongst the numerous definitions of marketing, sport marketing is defined by Shank and Lyberger (2015, p. 5) as “the specific application of marketing principles and processes to sport products and to the marketing of non-sports products through association with sport”. Critically, the customer/consumer is the focus for any sport entity or brand with the aim to “entice people to try products or services and then keep them as long-term [satisfied] customers” (Smith & Stewart, 2015, p. 16). The new digital lens merely positions the use of digital channels to reach consumers, predominantly via digital media. Nevertheless, “the all-encompassing and unstoppable expansion of cyberspace is changing every single dimension of consumers’ lifestyle” (Jackson & Ahuja, 2016, p. 177). Just as marketing has developed from the principles of the ‘4 P’s’ to the ‘7 P’s’ and on to the 4 C’s, sport marketing too has harnessed these adaptations. New concepts and models for sport marketing have emerged and are considered for practical application in the digital age: relationship marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), co-creation and salesforce automation, alongside digital marketing, all to be explored through a customer-centric marketing paradigm (Jackson & Ahuja, 2016). Digital presents the opportunity to realise and deliver these concepts in ‘live’ scenarios through new frameworks and arguments that present a new mantra for the study of sport marketing.

Sport marketing continues to emerge as an academic subject energised by the new impetus to investigate and understand digital practice in the global world of sport and business. Mark McCormack, who founded International Management Group (IMG) in 1960, is credited with creating a whole new industry in sport marketing when he signed golfing legend Arnold Palmer to his agency. Endorsement, licensing, sponsorship, partnership agreements, broadcast rights deals, etc., took flight and have helped to consolidate the importance of the sport business industry worldwide. Such seminal moments have dictated that “the discipline of sports marketing has grown in stature despite there being no consistent agreement as to what the discipline encompasses” (Fullerton, 2010, p. 14). The role of influencers, celebrity, and meaningful personalities as endorsers of sport and non-sport products and services emerged with a handshake between two parties on a golf course. These components have become pre-requisites to help enforce connections in the new digital environment. Sport has crossed boundaries to be classified along with leisure and recreation, tourism and entertainment. Pickering (2002, p. 5) suggested that “sport is the only entertainment where, no matter how many times you go back, you never know the ending”. In a dramatic situation, sport marketing can help to surprise, change, and impact on all audiences. The philosophy of satisfying the customer is a necessity in all aspects of the live sports experience and the wider lived space of sports fans. The desire and mood for the themed message is a central pillar for all things digital and a key point of interest for academics, students, and practitioners.

A short history of sport marketing The chronological timeline (see Figure 1.1) in the history of sport marketing is often subjective, but there have been many seminal moments that

provided relevant stepping stones and selective incidents to illustrate the key points of reference. Sport has witnessed a phenomenal global growth since the Ancient Olympics in 776 BC. Through the birth of radio and TV as important mediums for the promotion of sports to the commercialisation of sports via the value of broadcast rights and now the influence of digital and social media, sport is personal entertainment and a highly prized asset available to commercial operators. Sports and brands are intrinsically linked through history. Illustrations of sports stars to be collected via their insertion in cigarette cards is an early indication of this link, with Babe Ruth becoming the first sports personality on TV as baseball became the first televised sporting event in the US. This resulted in Ruth becoming the first real professional athlete and an example of the emergent force of sport marketing seeking to boost sales and brand loyalty.

Figure 1.1 Source:

Sport marketing chronological timeline.

Adapted from Shank and Lyberger (2015).

Similarly, the legendary golfer Gene Sarazen is considered a founding father in sport marketing, and a relevant starting point to appraise the connection of sport performer to sport business. On 1 March 1923, Sarazen signed an endorsement deal with Wilson Sporting Goods that became the longest running endorsement deal in the history of sports. The original deal was for $6000 per year, plus an equal amount for travel expenses. Renewal took place every two years until his death in 1999. Jump forward to 1984, and there is no more defining event of the commercialisation of sports than the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. This dateline is often seen as the birth of true monetisation in a new era for global sport marketing; a key moment too for sports sponsorship. Sports and business were now intrinsically linked as the Olympic Games had made a financial profit for the first time. Weikel (1998) corroborates these significant datelines in the history of sport, as sport marketing developed connections with new audiences likely to appeal to brands and sponsors. A key underlying principle is at play related to strong brand association and sponsorship activations in each of these sporting moments. Jesse Owens received free shoes for the 1936 Berlin Olympics from Adidas, which was one of the first known examples of an amateur athlete used for public relations or advertising messages. The 1970s included several important evolutionary events in sport marketing. Sponsorship of athletes emerged as a trend. Joe Namath became a sex symbol and used that image to sell pantyhose (of all things). By the end of the decade the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive tackle “Mean” Joe Greene starred in one of the most acclaimed advertisements ever for Coke (Coca-Cola). The shoe wars began as Adidas, Puma, Nike, and others fought to snatch athletes for endorsements – the Air Jordan was born! Television money became the driving force behind almost every US college and pro league – NBA, NFL, etc. (Shank & Lyberger, 2015)

The commercialisation and subsequent growth of global sport business, via the publicity and promotional value surrounding all sporting events, teams, leagues, and athletes, has contributed to the need to focus on: Monetisation of sporting assets, including a significant focus upon endorsement. Associations with sporting events as both marketing and entertainment triggers for business activity. The business opportunities to gain competitive advantage, in and through, sports via sponsorship/partnership. The boom in media rights. The market forces responsible for the continuing development of sport marketing are centred predominantly on technology and new social media platforms. An outstandingly effective example of this has been the Sport England (#thisgirlcan) campaign (https://www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/). In capturing the attention of specific audiences using new media and social digital platforms, the campaign has made an indelible impression on sport marketing practice. The accolades associated with this campaign (gold and glass lions at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2015) reflect the emerging impact of sport marketing built around viral and online campaigns, as opposed to traditional practices using mainly print and broadcast media. Equally, there is a growing emergence of ‘voice’, where experience and reputation represent new ‘players’ on social platforms. Podcasts, YouTube channels, Facebook Watch, etc., present a new sport business digital model that disrupts the established media hierarchy. Their emergence as key ‘influencers’ is leading to new adoptions by brands, organisations, and stakeholders of sport. The changing dynamic and landscape of sport “points to a noticeable new emphasis on the sport marketer’s role and influence in sports business” (McCarville & Stinson, 2014, p. 151). The sport marketer role is one of creating value for client segments. Consequently, there is now even more

focus on interactions and engagements with all the relevant stakeholders where customers essentially are now ‘fans’. This judgement is summed up by Spoelstra (2014) suggesting “customers should become fans and say nice things”, indicating a move towards creating advocates of brands and sports organisations. Customer retention is a key challenge to the influence of sport marketers as these new domains of marketing practice grow, diverge, and reestablish over the coming decades. Two hugely popular areas of interest to emerge in the sport marketing space over recent times are extreme sports and professional gaming (eSports). Red Bull, X-Games, and League of Legends have each leveraged the ubiquitous nature of social media, focused on fan engagement, and worked closely with partners and sponsors to develop their brand. As Favorito (2013) affirmed, “At the end of the day, we [sport marketing practice] are not the entree … we [sport marketing practice] are the appetizer.” One conceptual argument here is for more innovative, distinctive, and competitive advantage to be created by stakeholders in sport marketing. This suggests the need for ongoing, interactive participation of all key stakeholders to be evident for successful sport marketing practice within the digital space. Clearly, the importance of being a pioneer, where the message is more important than the messenger, is under review. As the sport business industry, and sport marketing practice, evolve, consumer behaviour challenges previous mantra. For example, despite an increasingly segmented entertainment market, major sports represent one of the few remaining programming options that can still reliably deliver a mass market audience to television networks. Following the traditional escalator approach to sport marketing, as more fans are engaged in and following a team or league via broadcasts, more of them will want to attend games in person. Swayne and Dodds (2011, p. 1447)

Pedersen and Thibault (2014, p. 56) commented that there were “numerous commercialisation models in the sports business industry developed over the last few decades of the 19th century”. These models tended to be associated with sporting goods and equipment, and therefore the authors suggested “each new entrant into the sports business industry helped to popularise

sport, thus developing and expanding the market”. Television in the 20th century (and radio before it) transformed how sports evolved. The visual impact was a huge turning point for sport marketing. Now with both radio and television advertising, marketers could turn their messages to more specific, but larger audiences. People could see their sports heroes and soon wanted to emulate their great athletic feats, the equipment they used, and their styles of clothing. So, marketing of sports had arrived linked to fashion, merchandise, celebrity, and endorsements. The new digital media toolkit now plays the role of agent of transformation across the sport landscape. Case studies and conversations will detail the narrative around digital sport marketing as it develops its philosophy and practical application in the world’s most exciting industry. The following Nike case study is a composite case and activity revolving around issues that have developed in both the development of sport business, plus the balance required to assimilate key issues in the sport marketing mix. Additionally, a broader understanding of social and lifestyle considerations is included to underpin a broader appreciation to the theme of sport marketing as it transitions to digital.

Case study 1.1: A question for Nike? What do Tiger Woods and Maria Sharapova, two sporting icons of the last decade, have in common? Simple, both are (have been) associated with the world’s leading sports brand – Nike. There the story evolves. The importance of sports brands and the involvement they have with ‘superstars’, and their fans, cannot be understated. It is huge. The impact they have on merchandising sales, sponsorship, and ultimately their financial impact on profits and ROI to investors is significant. However, and this is the question posed in this case study, as a sport public relations (PR) executive: How would you handle the following PR scenarios? Do you think crisis or opportunity?

Sport is a unique ‘product’ in that most of its messages and images are conveyed through media coverage rather than through advertising or sales campaigns. Whilst the coverage is usually positive, media interest becomes more problematic in high profile scandals which can be very damaging.

(Brucea & Tini, 2008, p. 21)

A PR crisis emerged in 2009 when Tiger Woods was engulfed in a highprofile sex scandal. The following link provides some background to the case as well as the position adopted by Nike as his major sponsor. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/dec/14/nike-sponsorship-tigerwoods As a sports PR executive tasked with dealing with the crisis, some or all of the following considerations may include: Adopt the trusted PR maxim – ‘tell it yourself, tell it early, tell it all’? Go public with a staged apology? Ditch the celebrity with a moral standpoint perspective? ‘Muddle’ through the developing story believing that it will run out of ‘legs’? Go on the offensive with effective emphasis on the role of celebrity in sports suggesting that human failings and weaknesses can be a source of positive good for the brand? Ride the storm with deflective commentary? Further issues in a story like this have resonance in comments described by Summers and Morgan (2008, p. 25): In the event of either positive or negative media attention, a sporting celebrity is subjected to unprecedented scrutiny and the increasingly high expectations of fans. However, the expectations of fans are not based on the simple notion of hero worship and role models,

… fans are capable of very complex reactions to the behaviours and marketing personas of sporting celebrities.

Question: Has the adopted approach by NIKE been successful? There are echoes of this scandal in the case of Maria Sharapova, but NIKE responded in a significantly different way.

Former tennis world No.1 Maria Sharapova announced that she had failed a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open. Speaking at a press conference in Los Angeles, the 28-year-old Russian said she had been taking the substance Mildronate (also known as Meldonium) for the past ten years, and that it only became illegal on 1 January 2016. “I don’t want to end my career this way. And I really hope that I will be given another chance to play this game,” she said. www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2016/mar/07/maria-sharapova-faileddrugs-tennis-video The article and video provide background to the case and some practical perspectives for Nike’s decision. Question: Why did Nike decide to drop their sponsorship with Maria? Furthermore, the ‘PR Machine’ article suggests that some of the adoptions and questions/activities posed in the Tiger Woods case may show variations from the Sharapova case? Question: Why do you think this was the case? www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/mar/08/maria-sharapova-pressconference-failed-drugs-test-meldonium Question: Are there any differences and/or contradictions? Explain. N.B.: remember your role as the PR executive entrusted with handling the reputation of the brand. The following activity will gauge your reactions and comments to the Sharapova case: Why has Nike appeared to contradict or adopt a completely different view and subsequent action to their previous stance with Tiger Woods? What are the differences, if any, between a doping scandal and a sex scandal? Is one ‘more or less’ important than the other? The social responsibility element appears to be an important question here in all things celebrity endorsement. What do you understand by this statement?

The importance of this case is more than just PR crisis and social responsibility. It includes ‘handling the publicity’ and the ‘day-to-day’ management of a major sports brand. An important question to consider is, does the nature of a sports brand differ from a brand in another industry sector? Why did Accenture, and others, ditch Tiger Woods in the aftermath of the scandal? You may like to adopt and consider the following additional concepts for application to the case: The ‘Potter Box’ model for dealing with a crisis: https://michellebalmeo.wordpress.com/ethical-decision-making/ http://kennethcortsen.com/sports-pr-crisis-and-corporate-exitstrategies-lessons-to-be-learned/ You will note that digital has yet to be mentioned in this case study. The remainder of this textbook will focus specifically upon the latest concepts, cases, and conversations within the digital landscape of sport, so read on. Nevertheless, it is important for you to think through the level of scrutiny that currently available digital platforms may have brought to each case. Sanderson (2011, p. 449) may be a good summary note for this reflection: Sports figures with a large social media following can benefit as fans voluntarily perform public relations work on their behalf thus providing them with an unprecedented means to generate support and promulgate favourable public representations.

Question: How true is this for Tiger Woods and Maria Sharapova? The following article will help to guide your response. Further resources to support your understanding and reflection of the case and concepts raised throughout this chapter: www.tennisreporters.net/archives/11021 www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/08/maria-sharapova-drug-testwada-dick-pound www.mygolfspy.com/tiger-woods-is-killing-nike-golf/ http://realmoney.thestreet.com/articles/03/08/2016/maria-sharapova-isntonly-problem-nike-has

www.prweek.com/article/1358437/watch-2015s-big-six-pr-crises-teach-uscrisis-communications www.prweek.com/article/1386760/why-sharapova-response-will-godown-crisis-communications-blueprint www.studentpulse.com/articles/833/crisis-management-and-sports-in-theage-of-social-media-a-case-study-analysis-of-the-tiger-woods-scandal In the following conversation, the opportunity exists here for the reader to consider the history and development of sport business and sport business education across the globe, including all aspects of sport marketing. Knowledge transfer is noted as key to a successful career within the sports industry.

Conversation 1.1 Dr Bill Sutton, recently retired Director of Sport and Entertainment Management MBA programme at the University of South Florida, USA. Dr William A. Sutton is a distinguished academician and a proven sport marketing practitioner. An expert who educates and engages, Sutton possesses a distinct combination of professional experiences that blend his savvy business acumen with his significant university credentials. His academic and industry career experiences are diverse and form a unique prism through which to observe the sport marketing and sport business landscape. Dr Bill Sutton reflects on a lifetime spent in business as a sport management consultant as well as his time as an academic mentor to emergent young career protagonists in a number of prestigious US universities. Alan Seymour: Well, good afternoon to you … I’m really privileged and proud to be able to introduce Dr Bill Sutton, who’s the course director for the sport management and

Bill Sutton:

entertainment program at the University of South Florida. Why do you think sport business education is so, so important in the business of sport today, Bill? Alan, I think it’s important because you have to understand the uniqueness of sport and the demands of sport. I usually start off by telling my students, you’re getting an MBA, you’re getting an MS. You want to work in sport. Remember this. You work where other people play, and you work when they play. So if you’re a fan, this might not be exactly your cup of tea. You have to understand that you’re working, and other people are playing, and you have to be comfortable with that. A lot of people aren’t comfortable with it. I tell them all the time, you know that the sports industry doesn’t pay as well as the banking industry. So I tell my students, maybe you want to be with a bank and see how much money they’re willing to pay you, and then you can buy tickets and just be a fan. But if you’re really going to work in sports, it’s a lot of hard work. It’s a climb. It’s a job where the jobs aren’t advertised, you have to find them, and you work hard, and you’re promoted, and you probably have to move around a lot. But I think when you’re good at this job, it’s a great job. But you have to understand that whether you have bills to pay or whether your team wins or loses, you have bills to pay. You can’t make any excuse that, oh, we’re not winning, so we don’t have any money coming in. You have to figure out other ways to generate revenue. You’ve got to hire really good talent all the time. You’ve got to have a real sales mentality to succeed in this business.

Even if you’re not directly involved in selling the product, you’re still selling your ideas, you’re selling the organisation. I always emphasise to the students, you’ve got to be sales active. Alan Seymour: Tell us a little bit more on why sales is so important, Bill, in sport business. Bill Sutton: Of course. It’s where the abundance of jobs are. The abundance of opportunities are in sales, so it’s either generating revenue or retaining revenue. But that’s really what it is. Nothing starts until something’s sold. You could have a great marketing idea, but what are you marketing? You’re marketing tickets, you’re marketing sponsorships, you’re marketing your organisation. You’re really selling. You’re really having to work with the salespeople. So, you really need to be a great marketing person, you still have to understand sales. I would not want to have a marketing person working for me that didn’t understand sales, because I need to be able to generate the leads and generate the interest and generate the response, then I need to be able to do the sales portion of it. You can look at any job, with the exception of being the basketball coach or the physical development person for a sport. But almost anything on the business side, you’re supporting sales. That’s why it’s important. Alan Seymour: What else do you think an [education] program like [yours] offers to the students? … maybe in a social or a cultural sense, or a lifestyle sense for the future? Bill Sutton: In the cultural sense, Alan … now what I’ve decided, and you know ‘cause we’re coming to see you’ … I’ve decided that it’s essential in 2017 for students to understand global, how the global sports environment works. To do that, it’s not just a language issue. It’s a

cultural issue. If you don’t understand how the culture works in a particular country, you’re not going to be effective. You’re not going to understand it and you’re not going to be effective. So what I’m trying to do, and this will be the first time we’ve done this, we’re trying to bring our students over to let them see that, yes, you work in the United States. Is sports marketing more involved in the United States? Yes. But it doesn’t mean … the US way is the only way to do something. You’ve got to understand, there’s things, if we go back in a time machine and change some things about sports marketing in the US, we would do it. But we’ve learned from where we’ve evolved, and sometimes you can’t go back. But there’s also some things, when I go to a different country and I go to a sporting event, the passion that I see at a sporting event … Say I go see England versus France in rugby. Those are two countries that fought for 600 years, so the pride in the nationalism and the rivalry is so genuine, so much more intense. In the pro sports in the US, we don’t have that. You have it for certain people, but not to the degree that they see in Europe. So all my students understand that that exists outside the Olympics. It’s big, it’s important. People have a real sense of pride in where they’re from, and sports was the first way to really take that pride in place and demonstrate it. That’s what I want the students to learn. I also want them to understand that a sports team, if they’re working for a sports team, they have an obligation to give back to the community. They’re taking money out of the community. How about putting some of it back in? So what we call community

investment, learn about community investment. A great example is Mr. Vinik of the Lightning, who’s… . He’s probably the best owner I’ve ever seen. He gives away $50,000 every Tampa Bay Lightning game to a different non-profit. That’s over $2 million a year that he’s investing back in the community. I’ve never seen anybody do it to that level. I don’t know if I’ll ever see other people do it to that level. But I want to tell you, for hockey to be the number one sport in Tampa, Florida, it’s due in large part to his ownership and his view of the importance of the community and grassroots market. Alan Seymour: If you were looking at your students today, how much influence is it they’re going to have in this spread of the global message, in terms of the sport business? What kind of trends, if you like, or what kind of themes for the future, do you think that the new breed, almost, or the new brigade of sports students can offer? Bill Sutton: Well, given the importance of social media in our world right now, that’s never going to go away. It’s easy to touch people around the world. I think there are going to be other things that happen, Alan, like … I think that virtual reality, once it’s fine-tuned, is going to make a big impact. Let me give you an example. Right now, virtual reality’s not common, because it’s not convenient. You’re taking your phone, you’re putting it in a box, and putting it on your head. That’s not what people are going to do. Once virtual reality evolves to the point where the dissemination is a pair of sunglasses and you can see, you don’t have any wires and you can move the buttons on your headset and get different views, that’s a game changer.

If I wanted to be… . Say I lived in the US and I was a big EPL fan. I can watch it on TV, but I really can’t experience it. I don’t know what it’s like. I could actually have a virtual reality experience where I was sitting in the stands with the people, and I could be part of that. That would change the whole way I see things, right? Alan Seymour: Absolutely, yeah. Bill Sutton: I talked to the Golden State Warriors. As popular as that team is, I said, in my estimation, if virtual reality was effective, you could sell a half a billion season tickets for virtual seats, where people could be in their home, but in the arena watching the game from the sidelines, or watching it from a point guard perspective. I think technology and VR and social media and everything really impact things. So making sure my students understand that … In fact, Alan, I tell my students all the time, I say, there’s 30 of you in this class. 20 of you will work at something that has not even been invented or discovered yet. You have to be prepared, you have to be as good as you can be at what you do, and be able to adapt to what’s coming next. Alan Seymour: What kind of success stories … are there … of some of the … newer types of jobs, some of these students are getting in the six years you’ve known them? Bill Sutton: Okay. I think Ryan, who was one of my grad students when you were here. Ryan now is a director of the innovation lab for the Philadelphia 76ers. So you’re looking at, Alan, you’re looking at bringing in businesses, and you’re an incubator. You’re not necessarily working for the 76ers, but this is one of their arms of their business. So look,

in two years, he’s the director of … someone in their second year is the director of the innovation lab. They’ve got five clients, they work on different aspects of… . They have an esports client… . I’ve got a student that’s an executive… . Their title is now… . They’ve been with the [Orlando] Magic now for two years. So in her third year, and she’s helping design the entertainment complex for the Magic, their downtown complex. If you’re talented and you have a skill, and the skill, Alan, is the ability to think. How do you think? You need influences to influence how you think. You need to read, you need to immerse yourself in technology, you need to experiment, you need to see what you can be. The more valuable you can make yourself, the more opportunities you’re going to have. But it’s just, the days of having one job, Alan, for 30 years, those are gone. Alan Seymour: Absolutely. Bill Sutton: I think if you work in this industry, you’re going to have no less than five jobs over 30 years. That’s what you’re going to have. You’ve got to be prepared to deal with that. You’re going to be working in football and then you’re working in baseball and then you work in basketball. Then you’re working for a sports commission. You’re going to go where opportunity presents itself. To talk about the future. The future of sport is going to be very heavily eSport based. ESport is going to be seen as a disruptor to all of the further forms of the stick and ball and spectator sports we have right now, because again, eSports involves not just basketball, but fantasy sports like League of Legends, where you can play the

game 1,000 times and have 1,000 different outcomes and 1,000 different things can happen to you. I tell people all the time, the day that eSports marries VR, and your arm is going to be tired because you were swinging a sword, and you’re going to be sweating because a dragon breathed on you, and you’re going to be wet because you crossed a river… . That’s going to pose a lot of problems for the current sport organisations that cannot do that, that can’t appeal to that mind. The millennials and the centennials now are doing things that we’ve never done before. If we think we’re going to captivate their imagination the way we’ve done it for the last 40 years, we’re sadly mistaken. So we have to take into account where this is going and how it’s going. We have to be open to any new ideas and experiences that we can have. We need to be sponges. Alan Seymour: Bill, I’m holding that thought. I know my audience will hold that thought… . We’ll be sharing much of that … here in the UK, here in Europe … in things like eSports, and certainly in the arena … of disruption. I totally agree with those thoughts as well. I’m going to say farewell for the moment, Bill. Many thanks for this afternoon, and we’ll be back again in touch very soon. Dr Bill Sutton, thank you very much. Bill Sutton: Thank you, Alan. I look forward to seeing you in November.

Conversation: reflections and activities

What aspects of the conversation can you apply in your module and course? How important is this lesson for your career prospects in sport marketing? Do you agree that social media is a force for good in sport business? If so, why, and if not, explain your thinking with examples of both good and bad. Using the conversation themes, what new digital trends in the next decade do you see as influencing digital marketing in sport? Social media is a fading force in sport digital practice. Truth or fiction?

Is there a case for the re-definition of sport marketing? The economic importance of the sports industry is clear; sports in North America, worth $60.5 billion in 2014, is expected to be $73.5 billion in 2019 (Heitner, 2015). In the UK, Olympic and Paralympic sport is worth £19 billion to the economy (Howell, 2017). As the dynamics of the industry change, shifting patterns of consumer behaviour determine a new set of ‘Buyer Digital Demands’. The ‘buzz’ surrounding ‘user-generated content’ and the ‘fan experience’ is reflected in the need to generate ‘hits’ and ‘mentions’ across digital platforms. This shift in focus within the sport marketing sphere depicts a significant addition to the ‘mix’, be that participation/spectator classifications, purchase behaviours, or communications. New perspectives are emerging to define, understand, and appraise participation in sports, on the one hand, and new methods of watching, spectating, and observing the sporting landscape live, online, or on-demand, on the other. Digital has driven these channels of interactive involvement to new levels of engagement for all stakeholders in sport marketing and has presented a new discourse and relevance for students, academia, and practitioners. The addictive nature of content and its ease of access has driven a ‘gluttony’ of sports consumption – a further dimension

to consider and debate. The impact of sport marketing practice is now more surreptitious than ever.

Conclusion In any appraisal of the history of a subject, the question that constantly reoccurs is where next, or what has history taught us? Where this understanding and future direction may well point is best summarised in the phrase used by Tom Cruise in the film about sports agents, Jerry Maguire, “Show me the money.” In other words, it’s all about money! However, the academic perspective might centre upon sponsorship or media rights, and increasingly digital media rights. The concepts, cases, and conversations of this chapter have introduced sport marketing principles, a scenario to review and consider management applications, and expert comment to reflect upon as digital practices develop into the future. The timeline of important events in sports indicated the currency of digital as social change meanders towards the future history of sport marketing. On 28 August 1858 the first ever paid-for sports event happened in the US. Sketchy records of attendance exist (1500–10,000) of a local baseball game costing just 50 cents to attend. The world of sport marketing has come a long way since! The digital sport marketing landscape is the leading edge of the sports industry. Come along for the ride.

Chapter review questions 1 How does the history of sport marketing suggest that sport business is important to creative campaign planning in the future? Give reasons and examples for your viewpoints. 2 On reading about the development of sport marketing in this chapter, does it signify cultural, social, and/or technological changes in sport business? Suggest how these changes will impact new initiatives in sport marketing. 3 Pick out one of the seminal moments in sport marketing history and apply a modern digital approach to the campaign and marketing of the scenario. 4 Explore a sports event in the last decade and evaluate how it has influenced sport business thinking and approaches. 5 What will the next decade bring in the history of sport marketing? Suggest some new developments that digital may influence.

Additional reading and digital resources https://adage.com/article/special-report-2014-sports/10-great-momentssports-marketing-history/291181 https://openmedia.uk.com/the-history-of-sports-and-advertising-sportsmarketing-then-and-now/ https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d696/bacc9be5b3eb98d03277756b654988814ef 6.pdf https://prezi.com/mx0ctni3diyn/history-of-sports-and-entertainmentmarketing/ www.easm.net www.freshbusinessthinking.com

www.marketing91.com/what-is-sports-marketing-sports-marketingdiscussed-in-detail/ www.marketing-interactive.com/features/sports-marketing-reportevolution-sports-marketing/ www.marketingweek.com/recommended-reading-sports-marketingeconomic/ www.reportlinker.com/market-report/Sports/5365/Sports? gclid=Cj0KCQiAw4jvBRCJARIsAHYewPPB0OnPu40PEG3JOyu5dwazO DzMJ76IaQ7cljiofwIsUPJp3rNYkYUaAtOQEALw_wcB www.researchgate.net/publication/290955395_UNDERSTANDING_THE_CO NCEPT_AND_UNIQUENESS_OF_SPORT_MARKETING http://www.fitpublishing.com/journals/smq www.sportengland.org www.sportengland.org/media/10083/insight_go-where-women-are.pdf www.sportindustry.biz/about-us/overview www.statista.com/topics/3685/sports-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/ www.theultimatetoolkit.com/strategy www.thoughtco.com/history-of-sports-1992447 www.topendsports.com/world/timeline/firsts.htm https://www.uksport.gov.uk/

References Bashford, S. (2017) www.campaignlive.com/article/need-know-sportsmarketing-2017-beyond/1424873? utm_source=Events&utm_campaign=53fb81bcebMonthly_March_2017_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ebc768df8 9-53fb81bceb-309863773#trend02 (Accessed: 20 April 2018). Brucea, T. & Tini, T. (2008) ‘Unique crisis response strategies in sports public relations: Rugby league and the case for diversion’, Public Relations Review, 34, pp. 108–115. Elsevier.

Favorito, J. (2013) Sports Publicity: A Practical Approach (2nd edition). New York: Routledge. Fullerton, S. (2010) Sports Marketing (2nd edition). Boston, MA: McGrawHill. Heitner, D. www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2015/10/19/sports-industryto-reach-73-5-billion-by-2019/#8bbe8421b4b9 Howell, B. (2017) www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1057698/olympic-andparalympic-sport-worth-19-billion-to-uk-economy-new-report-claims Jackson, G. & Ahuja, V. (2016) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057%2Fdddmp.2016.3 (Accessed: 20 April 2018). Kirkham, J. (2017) cited in Bashford, S. www.campaignlive.com/article/needknow-sports-marketing-2017-beyond/1424873? utm_source=Events&utm_campaign=53fb81bcebMonthly_March_2017_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ebc768df8 9-53fb81bceb-309863773#trend02 (Accessed: 20 April 2018). McCarville, R. & Stinson, J. L. (2014) ‘Creating value as part of sport marketing’, in M. P. Pritchard & J. L. Stinson (Eds.), Leveraging Brands in Sport Business (pp. 51–64). New York: Routledge. Pedersen, P. M. & Thibault, L. (Eds.) (2014) Contemporary Sport Management (5th edition). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Pickering, D. (2002) Cassell’s Sports Quotations. London: Cassel & Co. Cited in Beech & Chadwick (2007) The Marketing of Sport. Puiu, T. (2017) www.zmescience.com/research/technology/smartphonepower-compared-to-apollo-432/ (Accessed: 24 April 2018). Sanderson, J. (2011) How Social Media Is Changing Sports: It’s a Whole New Ball Game. New York: Hampton Press. Shank, M. D. & Lyberger, M. R. (2015) Sports Marketing: A Strategic Perspective (5th edition). New York and Oxon: Routledge. Skildum-Reid, K. & Grey, A. (2014) The Sponsorship Seeker’s Toolkit (4th edition). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Education. Smith, A. & Stewart, B. (2015) Introduction to Sport Marketing (2nd edition). Abingdon: Routledge.

Spoelstra, E. (2014) www.theultimatetoolkit.com/strategy Summers, J. & Morgan, M. J. (2008) ‘More than just the media: Considering the role of public relations in the creation of sporting celebrity and the management of fan expectations’, Public Relations Review, 34, pp. 176– 182. Elsevier. Swayne, L. & Dodds, M. (2011) Encyclopedia of Sports Management and Marketing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Technopedia (2018) www.techopedia.com/definition/26418/data-analytics (Accessed: 24 April 2018). Weikel, C. (1998) ‘Sports marketing: A take on the history & and the future’. www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/

2 Sport marketing in the digital age

Chapter objectives After studying the concepts, cases, and conversations in this chapter, the reader should be able to: Appreciate the importance of the sports digital concept. Comprehend digital sports practice. Understand the applications of digital in sport marketing scenarios. Relate sports and digital practice to specific business sectors. Consider the digital relations between fans and sports properties.

Introduction The evolving digital landscape offers a distinctive platform for investigation, analysis, and review for sport students, academics, and practitioners. Sport marketing in the digital age can be no better signposted than the shift of dedicated sports channels such as ESPN (see Figure 2.1) (launched on 7 September 1979), Eurosport (launched on 5 February 1989) and Sky Sports (launched on 20 April 1991) to mobile technology. The proliferation of consumer-focused sports content creation continues via video, audio, and images in either paid (Netflix, Amazon Prime) or non-purchasable formats (news, advertisements); podcasts, blogs, eBooks, social media posts, etc., as examples of the ubiquitous nature of digital. Digital sport marketing has entered a new era of content creation that seeks to satisfy the sports fan and the commercial sector of sports. This is currently a shifting space with commercial rights a major consideration in a changing sportscape. Sport naturally produces great content, but as a sports fan, you likely will need to hold on for the ride!

Figure 2.1

ESPN logo.

Sport marketing in the digital age is built around topics and themes for engagement and conversation. These concepts provide meaningful dialogue for the sports consumer and a platform for management of sports brands, sports properties, and sports organisations. With the rise of technology, the move away from traditional platforms to digital consumption has been seismic. Evidence of sports media consumption indicates the changing lifestyle and consumer habits brought to digital usage by the mobile and technological revolution. As global penetration rates of smartphones have increased, social media activity has mirrored this rise, leading to a fragmented media landscape. Kirkham (2017) referred to sport marketing in 2017–18 as “an exciting mess. An elegant chaos.” The digital sport marketing environment continues to evolve; a partially scripted play necessitating improvisation from actors and audience to navigate its path. There is no doubt that TV still trumps other devices when it comes to sport, but modes and habits of consumption have shifted. The switch to streaming and multi-screening has enabled live viewing, near-live highlights, and on-demand access to sport. Of the 57 percent of internet users globally, 31–34 percent watch sports coverage online across multiple devices – that is 1.43 billion people! (Kemp, 2019).

CONCEPTS Digital sport marketing is the practice of marketing sports entities via digital platforms to reach specific sport audiences. For brands and rights holders, digital technology enables the delivery of promotional, sales, and business messages and campaigns. Or, as Chaffey and Ellis-

Chadwick (2016, p. 11) stated, “Achieving marketing objectives through applying digital technologies and media.” This takes place through paid, owned, earned, or shared media – the PESO model (Dietrich, 2020, https://spinsucks.com/communication/refreshed-peso-model/) – via a range of digital/marketing platforms: Desktop, laptop, and notebook platforms. Mobile phone and tablet platforms. Other hardware platforms – gaming, interactive signage, wearables. Software platforms – ‘cloud’ technology. Essentially, digital sport marketing is any form of marketing that exists online and/or mobile. The PESO model, or emergent SOEP model that has re-ordered the components to reflect a changing focus to shared, owned, earned, and paid, is an aid to creating and structuring marketing efforts through appropriate channels. In essence, paid media is a monetary exchange for distribution of advertising or content; earned media trades valuable content through stakeholder audiences; shared media amplifies content through established fans; and owned media aggregates content through re-distribution. PESO cuts across PR, influencer marketing, advertising, and inbound and content marketing via the digital space. It is important to note that digital is not just about the technology, but about how the technology is used. In a recent interview as host of The Future of Sport, a sport business radio chat show on allinsportstalk.com, the issues of the digital present were raised with a leading digital consultant: “Don’t just put a name on it, activate it!” was the reply. Having the capacity to influence and apply the technology is one thing, but having the expertise and desire to elaborate and enforce the message to the audience is a major issue being faced in the sports industry. Those who fail to embrace the opportunities that digital offers will be left behind. A RACE strategy is

the essence of this assertion. PESO is applied via RACE (Reach – Act – Convert – Engage) integration (see Chapters 5 and 6 for more details on RACE).

The digital landscape Revolutionary technological change continues, characterised by rapid and turbulent digital development and digital disruption. This has re-modelled sport marketing towards an omni-channel digital content highway that can connect diverse audiences and convergent cultures, and that amplifies communication opportunities. The digital environment includes technologies for: 1 External communication and engagement with key stakeholders, e.g. email, websites, social media (including listening tools and performance measurement), CRM software, and instant chat. 2 Improving business operation to strengthen competitive position, e.g. financial software, cashless payment, and reservation and stock control systems. Cutting across this whole environment are the emerging technologies that have enabled universal and mobile internet access, the ‘cloud’, and the sharing economy. These technologies will continue to disrupt current digital practice as robotics, the blockchain, biometric identity, and nano-tech come on stream. The sports industry, including all sports organisations and individuals aligned to it, will experience this disruption as the digital landscape continues to morph. Adaptation to the challenges and impacts of technological development is key to ongoing sport business success as the digital landscape seeks to combine data and emotion to “transform our relationship with machines” (Temple, 2018). Sport marketing seeks to bridge the emotional connection between the individual and the product/service. Digital should bring enhanced value to consumers from their emotional and

financial commitment with sports to drive deeper levels of engagement, for example the development of a personal relationship through tailored individual messaging from a favourite sports team or athlete – perhaps a birthday greeting.

Digital sports media data Digital has disrupted advertising media spend. With an annual growth rate of 4.3%, global digital advertising spend was to be $333.25 billion in 2019, rising to $517.51 billion by 2023. Therefore, the percentage of digital ad spending in total increases with the majority of all ad spending in some individual countries above 50 percent – China at 69.5 percent, the UK at 66.4 percent, Norway at 66.4 percent, yet the US at only 54.2 percent. It also appears likely that Google will continue to be the number one digital ad seller in the world at approximately 31 percent, with Facebook at number two with 20.2 percent and Alibaba at number three with 8.76 percent (Enberg, 2019). As the number of internet users globally rises by 11 new users per second, or one million per day, mobile usage accounts for 48 percent of that in 2019. Average time spent online each day is 6 hours and 42 minutes which equates to over 100 days per user per year. As connection speeds improve worldwide, more and more live streaming is enabled, along with gaming and eSports consumption. Social media rates highly within online behaviour, to a global penetration rate of 45 percent. Eighteen- to 34-year-old males predominate in the audience profile and the average user spends 2 hours and 16 minutes on social media each day – Facebook followed by YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger being the top four social channels. Again, males aged 18–34 are the dominant audience on Facebook, yet this is much more even in this age category between males and females on Instagram. And as mobile usage continues to grow, the flexibility to consume whilst ‘on the move’ gives rise to an eCommerce market growth

rate of 14 percent year-on-year to a total beyond $2 trillion in 2020 (Kemp, 2019). The global market for sports is set to be worth $626.8 billion by 2023 (McDonald, 2019). Facebook IQ (2019) identified that globally 60 percent of people with an interest in sports have a Facebook account with a majority reporting that following sports events coverage was the main reason for using social media. However, UK sports fans consume sports news predominantly through online newspapers and magazines, especially those aged 55+, whereas consumption via social channels predominates in younger audiences aged 18–24 years old (Divecha, 2019). So, with sports fans at the centre of the digital sport marketing process, they dictate the future of digital sports media through their consumption behaviours. The sports consumer of the 21st century is technologically savvy and literate in all things digital.

The ‘culture’ of sports Sport is tribal; well, perhaps soccer! Sport can create primitive emotions, passion, and ‘live for the moment’ experiences – think nationalism (USA vs. Europe) at the Ryder Cup 2018, Le Golf National, Paris, France, or the near 400,000 online community of RedMen, the Liverpool FC supporters club. Digital has meant immeasurable change for fans and their sporting experiences. Fans of sport participate in content creation, content sharing, and content consumption. Fans are not just consumers of sports but act and react in the sharing of their emotions. Fans seek meaning in their experiences, and their interaction is not limited to match day; content is created, shared, and consumed wherever and whenever the sports fan desires. Sport marketers reaching into such participatory culture no longer just reside in the realm of transactional marketing, but of relational marketing and experiential marketing – the move away from a focus on customer acquisition and individual sales towards customer loyalty, longterm customer engagement, immersion, and fun and memorable experiences

– think Adidas’s D Rose Jump Store in London or Puma Ignite Energy Tracker Treadmills in New York. Typically, fans consume sport in simple, ritualised ways that “connect themselves to a cultural identity in society” (Chun et al., 2005) – think a beer before the game or in-stadium chanting. The investigation into sports fan content consumption behaviours is ongoing, and not without controversy – think the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2018. Social sharing provides an example of the development of ritualised behaviour as sports fans indicate a sense of community and recognition of belonging. Social participation through social networks during the game sees “fans strive to be the first to broadcast cool content and have their voice heard” (Nawrocki, 2016). “Social media simply does things quicker and makes it easier for the user to participate” (Charlesworth, 2014) in the conversation. Sports fans now have a ‘voice’: the conveyance of opinions – critical or in praise; a direct line of communication towards a ‘working’ relationship between producers and consumers of sport. Sports fans create an opportunity for real-time digital advertising based upon real-time bidding – the method of auctioning advertising space on websites – that can connect a campaign to a specific target audience. The intersection between brands (sports and non-sports) and the sports consumer has become a contested space as social advertising (paid advertising on social platforms) has gathered momentum. Brands piggyback on social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.) as the creation of their own platforms proves too expensive and/or cumbersome to establish. Social media is an attention-generation battleground, the epitome of disruptive activity, and evidence of the state of flux that is digital sport marketing right now. The findings of #socialsportsfan.info concluded that sports digital needs to encourage brands to avoid making assumptions about what fans want and to go with existing habits and rituals rather than try to change them. The comments of several observers (Horky, 2013; Pedersen, 2015; Sanderson & Kassing, 2011) have reactivated the playing field of opportunities that these new platforms offer. One key result of the digital

phenomenon – immediacy – is dramatic, and sport marketing is still learning how best to take advantage of the opportunities presented. As Billings & Hardin prophesied in 2014 about unparalleled new dimensions offered to sport through digital, the focus should be “on what new media allow people to do and consume, and how the interaction between media, athlete and fan is markedly changed” (p. 26). And, “defining boundaries between media forms (print, radio, broadcast, internet, electronic) and types (old vs. new) is becoming increasingly more difficult and ambiguous” (La Voi & Calhoun, in Billings & Hardin, 2016). In reality, such boundaries no longer exist. Digital makes the world smaller and adds convenience to all our lives. Digital marketing continues to revolutionise connections between sports brands, rights holders, and fans. The multiple digital channels provide the opportunity to strengthen the brand identity of all brands operating in the sportscape via search engine optimisation (SEO), pay per click management (PPC), social media, blogs and vlogs, content marketing, video marketing, and app creation. Sport as a mainstream phenomenon acts as a platform for business effectiveness, with digital technology having helped to create a ‘brand new universe’ for the industry. The importance of digital marketing is accentuated by new thinking around digital practice. The World Wide Web is being refurbished constantly with additional and complementary visual content often delivered by ‘new’ owners – including the sports fan. Data analytics is fast becoming a focal point of digital activity as sport businesses seek to understand behavioural influences on targeted audiences. The real value of data is its translation into winning strategies for teams and their investors. Technology is making data increasingly accessible to the point where organisations are swimming in information. To aid the understanding of this information, new analytics platforms have moved to transform the data into meaningful information that general managers can use immediately to inform their decisions and practice. Data sources proliferate and analytics has moved from the bootroom to the boardroom. For example, Krossover (now Hudl) (https://www.hudl.com/en_gb/), a sports

video analytics company received $20 million in Series B financing for its platform that analyses game footage, play-by-play, and distils it into usable insights. Such a company can turn around the analysis in less than a day, allowing coaches to learn all they can from yesterday’s game and put the knowledge into action the very next day. On the fan side, analytics platforms like Sportradar (www.sportradar.com) are funnelling data into fantasy sports, social media, and sports betting. In October 2015, Michael Jordan and Mark Cuban invested $44 million into the Swiss company ahead of the legalisation of sports betting in the US. The potential of Sportradar might be deemed inexorable. From another perspective, as much as 76 percent of media value for a jersey patch in the NBA comes from social media rather than from TV broadcast (Katz, 2018). Similarly, a company like the US highway transportation company Penske (www.penske.com) uses the power of digital via auto sports to promote its products. Sport as content sows the seeds for commercial opportunities to be reaped. Advertising spends are being rerouted to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat where audiences continue to grow, and digital adds measurability of the impact of content with intended market segments. This requires welldefined metrics and necessitates the mantra “if it can’t be measured, it can’t be managed”. TV viewership is in decline, yet such disruption continues to open new opportunities for organisations that are making their sports content accessible on the audiences’ terms. Digital marketing, especially social media marketing, is offering a multitude of new channels for ad sales and sponsorships, not to mention ticketing and merchandising. For today’s highly connected consumers, the question is no longer which team or sport is more popular, but rather which one is speaking ‘my’ digital language? (Sutton, 2016). The iconic brands of Wimbledon and IBM have combined and united under a unique umbrella of digital innovation. The following case illuminates this relationship to lead the way in a digital campaign to introduce new platforms for effective fan engagement. The case outlines the

involvement of new digital platforms to produce increased digital sport marketing success stories. The case study is introduced by Alexandra Willis, Head of Communications, Content & Digital at the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC). The strategic vision of the AELTC is to ensure that The Championships, more commonly known as Wimbledon, maintains its position as one of the leading annual sporting events in the world. To do so, it is imperative that Wimbledon stretches beyond its environment as a tennis tournament and embraces the opportunity presented by the broader sport and entertainment landscape. Joining the AELTC in this ambition are its Official Supplier Partners, global brands who share Wimbledon’s drive for continuous evolution, considered change, and premium experience. IBM is Wimbledon’s official technology partner, and together, we have worked hard to develop a digital strategy that has been recognised throughout the sports industry for its use of innovative technology solutions to maintain and enhance Wimbledon’s differentiating traditions. A 30-year partnership does not always result in change. But the greatest quality of our relationship with IBM is that we strive to generate solutions that not only support our ambitions, but also IBM’s strategic imperatives, and both of these have changed significantly during that 30 years. Given the backdrop of increasing competition for attention as the fragmentation of the media landscape continues to mature, developing a meaningful relationship with the Wimbledon audience has never been more important. And that audience has never had more choice, more to do, and greater expectations. They are not just judging us on what we provide to them once a year; they are judging us on their everyday experiences, which have speed, efficiency, and relevance at their core. That is the bar that we need to set. And we need to understand them to set that bar. Insight is imperative. It is for this reason that we put content at the heart of our relationships with our fans, content that is relevant to their interest in Wimbledon, relevant to them as individuals, and relevant to the changing landscape

around them. We then use platforms – digital and social media – to display our content where our audiences expect to see it. This case study is an example of one of our annual activations with IBM, a combination of content, platform, and insight to address and meet not just our challenges, but those of our media partners and Official Suppliers, and I am delighted to introduce it. As Head of Communications, Content & Digital at the AELTC, my role is to lead our strategy to engage with our audiences, develop our platforms, and deliver our content. We develop an annual marketing campaign that ties this altogether, and in return delivers value back to our partners. We develop innovation ideas that bring IBM’s focus on AI on Cloud to life. We develop a communications platform that supports the media and our broadcasters. Perhaps most importantly, we think about Wimbledon’s place in the context of sport and entertainment. Not just a tennis event. Not just sport. A part of our culture.

Case study 2.1: Wimbledon and IBM Introduction The Championships, Wimbledon, held at the AELTC (All England Lawn Tennis Club), is, for two weeks in June, the centrepiece of tennis globally and of sporting tradition in England. Wimbledon and IBM have collaborated successfully to provide innovative digital content and were DADI award winners in 2017 with their #WhatMakesGreat campaign.

The business challenge The year 2016 was one of amazing sporting experiences, events, and enterprise with the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio, the UEFA European Championships in France, and Leicester City winning the English

Premier League. Wimbledon risked losing viewers but saw an opportunity to broaden the Wimbledon experience to a new fan audience whilst enhancing the offer to their existing fan base.

The transformational approach IBM began working very closely with the editorial and social media team at Wimbledon to develop new sporting digital cognitive technologies. Together, IBM and Wimbledon actively monitored social media channels and new platforms with key objectives to broadcast new stories and shape the conversation to entice fans from other sports to visit its innovative new digital platforms.

Winning hearts and minds From a scheduling perspective, 2016 was a challenging year for the organisers of the Championships, Wimbledon. During Wimbledon fortnight, sports fans would be spoilt for choice: in addition to the tennis, they could watch three international cricket matches, two Formula 1 Grand Prix races, nine stages of the Tour de France, and nine matches in the Euro 2016 football championships. Alexandra Willis, Head of Communications, Content & Digital at AELTC, explained the philosophy behind the use of the technology. “The cognitive approach reveals what people say, think and feel about The Championships, helping us make quicker, more informed decisions about content.” Sam Seddon, IBM Client Executive for Wimbledon, stated that “Cognitive and Cloud technologies go together like strawberries and cream. We can easily combine IBM Watson services with real-time data feed and spin up new applications quickly, letting us innovate faster than ever before.” Yearon-year capacity improvements are able to handle the continuing thirst of digital activity (see Table 2.1).

The Results The combination of cognitive and cloud-based technologies helped Wimbledon’s editorial team keep the 2016 tournament at the top of the agenda for fans worldwide. Not only did the team attract the traditional tennis demographic, but they also resonated with a younger audience and brought fans of other sports into tennis. Table 2.1

The Championships digital activity.

69.4 million visits and 395 million page views from 20.9 million unique devices

24% increase in social media audience

110 million video views, an increase of 25% from 2015

Alexandra Willis commented, the focus on using cognitive social media analytics to engage with potential fans outside of the tennis community was a good way to convert the overcrowded sporting calendar from a risk into an opportunity. For example, when we saw that Liverpool Football Club had sent good luck messages to Caroline Wozniacki (who is a big Liverpool fan) we followed up with some footballrelated tweets to encourage that audience to visit our site.

The future is clearly digital, as Alexandra Willis further stated: Crucially our focus on social media was a big success. Our total audience grew by 24% compared to 2015, and we analysed over 17 million pieces of social media commentary across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. We benefited from increasing our focus on video content with 110 million video views, a 25% increase on last year.

The BBC announced an extended deal with the AELTC to broadcast the tournament until at least 2024. The partnership is the longest in sports broadcasting history. Tony Hall, director general of the BBC, said, By extending the rights to broadcast Wimbledon until 2024 we can continue our longstanding and valued partnership with the All England Club. Wimbledon is the pinnacle of the sport, and as such has a special place in the hearts of the nation.

Philip Brook, chairman of the AELTC stated, “We greatly value the BBC’s commitment to delivering large national audiences for the championships across a multitude of high quality platforms.” Evidence, if evidence be needed of traditional and new media technologies working in close harmony as sports consumption behaviours mutate.

Case study questions 1 A culturally traditional sporting competition (The Championships, Wimbledon) presented a challenge for innovation in sport marketing. Do you agree with this statement? Give supporting reasons for your judgement and consider how well IBM dealt with this challenge? 2 What does social media and technology through digital development bring to the sports industry sector? Is there another sporting event that would benefit from such an initiative as the one described in the case study? 3 Using the Wimbledon case study as a benchmark for digital sport marketing, are there downsides to the use of technology in sports? Is there such a thing as social media ‘clutter’? 4 Where next for sport marketing in the digital age? Consider examples that have emerged from your reading of this case study? Source:

https://www.spssanalyticspartner.com/case-study-wimbledon-2014/

The key aspect to the following conversation is the symbiotic considerations of digital social media. To understand digital is very important to further understanding of the impacts on the whole spectrum of sport business, and specifically sport marketing. Digital in the context of this conversation highlights the full cornucopia of channels available in communications in the sport marketing setting.

Conversation 2.1 Eric Stoller, Consultant Eric Stoller is a higher education speaker, consultant and writer. He frequently gives keynotes and workshops on how digital technologies can be used for strategic communications, learning, and engagement and uses his own social media presence to share resources and curate content. Alan Seymour: Well, good afternoon to you. This is Alan Seymour, All In Sports Talk, your host for episode 16, The Future of Sport. My first guest, delighted to welcome … Eric Stoller, an independent educational consultant who understands new mechanisms, new media, new means of communication, particularly in social media, and not really in sport, so a little off-piste today. Eric, tell us a little bit about your background. Eric Stoller: Well, thanks for having me on the show. I love the offpiste reference, having grown up in the US in probably the flattest part of the country in Iowa where it’s all cornfields. We don’t have anything like that. I live nowadays in the UK, and when you said I’m an education consultant, means a lot of different things. Most of the time I spend my days teaching digital engagement to organisations usually within education, universities, colleges, and some of the vendors that work within that space. A lot of social media work, a lot of writing, content creation. I also write for www.insidehighered.com. I’ve been a blogger for them now for several years, and it’s my primary platform for content creation. Of course, you and I know each other through Twitter. I’m all over the digital engagement space.

Alan Seymour: Eric, I’d like to start to get some insight and maybe to develop a dialogue and a conversational piece here. I’ve just returned, in the last few days, from a sport entertainment digital conference. Lots of people there were trying to give definitions of what is digital and what isn’t digital. For some people, digital may have meant, “Well, it’s social media.” For some people digital it’s all about the technology. In reality, it’s a bit like I get in a car. I don’t want to know what the car is or what makes it work. I just get in the car because I need to get to a gig or an interview. It’s the applications and the processes. Tell us a little bit about your perspectives, I suppose, maybe some of your philosophies, some of your understandings. It may mean going back historically to look at evolvement. I heard an interview the other day, somebody talking about Twitter and how quickly it’s grown from its 2008 launch to where it is today. Maybe just give us some real insights into understanding social media and how perhaps you would understand the best practices of social media and applying it, obviously particularly as you’ve said in an educational context. Eric Stoller: I think of digital and/or social media, because I guess sometimes we use them interchangeably; they’re sort of like the Swiss army knife of communications that we have in the here and now. You can use them for a variety of different things, and I think that’s where it’s hard for people who want to have that quick-hit answer about what it is and what it isn’t. For me, as someone who works in the education space, I talk about digital as something that people use for career development, something that people use for marketing

and comms, people use it for customer service, or student engagement, or to enhance the student experience, or even to break down things like geographical barriers. Alan Seymour: Sorry about that guys. I think I just had a technical blip there with Eric, but we’re back now live. Pick up again, Eric, if you would, where we just closed a few seconds ago. Eric Stoller: Sure. I love when you’re doing these types of interviews and your technology glitches, it seems like that’s always the case. I think that when you talk about digital, it’s good to be prepared for all things to happen. Back to my point about using social media for a variety of ways, I think that, for me, that’s where there’s so much excitement and energy around how we can use it for benefit, for value not just from an educational perspective, but from a marketing and communications perspective, to an engagement perspective with people who are all around the world, to journalism, and news, and to, of course, your focus being in sport. There’s just so many different ways in which you can use digital to make connections. I think that, though, at the core of it all is the ability to make connections with a one-on-one connection, or one-to-many connection in a way that transcends our previously held traditional channels for communication and engagement. Alan Seymour: Eric, I mean that is clearly, I think, we connected in this way, and the people that we connect with have connected in this way. It’s our first direct conversation today, face-to-face, but what is interesting about it is I’ve made many contacts both in sport, obviously, as you’ve suggested. It’s an area that I apply a lot of my conversations with. That extends into marketing

Eric Stoller:

comms, it extends into the whole educational sphere. I think what pulls it all together, and a couple of words that you’ve used or themes that you’ve used, energy, intensity, the ability to go global. Perhaps using some of those frameworks, if you like, would you pinpoint some great examples of how universities, without necessarily naming them per se, or contacts that you’ve made, or case studies, exemplars of good practice of doing these things? Because I might preface, this is the word I’m searching for here, by saying I go across the globe, and I have no shame in saying this. It’s kind of maybe a competitive thing I’m saying. I referred to sport as entertainment a few moments ago. If I didn’t, that’s effectively what I meant. Maybe in some cultures, particularly the USA, they can see that and they can build on it, so they kind of get it. I’ve just come out of formal academia, but I’m still in it. I’ll always be in it. I sometimes think is it tokenism that they just say, “Well, we’ve got a social media account. We’re going to do social media.” But they don’t actually get it or they don’t actually do it. Well, I don’t wonder, because one of the reasons I want to talk to you in this way today and with your expertise and reputation, and it is good, and it’s really captivating lots of audiences out there, perhaps you can give us some more insight into that. I think a lot of organisations, and you hit on it, they’ll say, “We have to be in the social media space.” They might not necessarily define what that means. They’ll put up a bunch of accounts, and they’ll start playing around with different channels. They won’t necessarily have any goals or objectives in mind with what they’re

doing with it. I’m a big fan of experimenting with new social media channels, trying different digital this or that. At the same time, you want to connect it to what you’re trying to accomplish. Do you have goals? You talked about universities. I just saw a report the other day that was talking about institutions that have an Instagram presence that is driven towards recruitment efforts are doing really well with international student recruitment, and that they’re linking it back to their Instagram accounts. For me, that’s connected to strategy. That’s connected to what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s not just we’re taking pictures of our beautiful campus just because. We’re trying to do something with it. A university library that is using Twitter for customer service, and to just share the vibe of the library. Students are taking exams and they’re looking for quiet spaces, and the library is engaging with them. There’s a lot of data on student engagement, and the more engaged students are, the more successful they will be at university. Digital engagement is an extension of that engagement that used to happen just in the hallway conversations, the face-to-face interactions. The other thing too with social, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this, is that it’s not the end all, be all. You have the on-campus conversations still, the faceto-face conversations. You have the one-to-one Twitter engagement that happens, or you have the Instagram photo that’s seen and liked and commented on. It’s all interconnected. It’s just part of this bigger sphere of how we all keep connected with one another in an increasingly global, increasingly mobile world.

Alan Seymour: I think that point, I wish you and others, and if I had to spread one kind of message consistently, in many ways part or all of what you’ve just said would be it. The number of people, if you look at communication and good communication, and interference and noise that stops that good communication, well, maybe some or all of those things are present in what all different social media channels are doing. I use Twitter, and I use other platforms. You made the reference, that’s how we met. It’s how I met lots of people who I’m now engaged with in conferences and writing articles and ultimately publishing stuff in the world of sports business. I’ve often said to people, “Don’t just believe the fact that you’ve pressed a button means that you’ve communicated.” It’s the classic student argument or default excuse, “I have contacted you. Did you not see my email?” And/or well, I’m now connected to the great and the good, because I’ve got an extra follower, and here’s the follower. It’s only the beginning. It’s what you do. The best sale is the best opportunity to get another sale. You start the roll out and the momentum of that. I think sometimes as well, give me a view on this, a typical open day might mean that the social media puts some presence out there and starts to use it, but does it seem cold? Is it sanitised? Is it just from … a social media manager for the university, or an executive? Because one of the things that I’m absolutely passionate about is students do it well, or students are involved in this. They’re the best people to not only talk to and have, but actually get them to do it.

In your experience, give us some examples maybe, Eric, of how that actually is being applied across the educational space? Eric Stoller: You see an increase in ambassador programs at universities, where they’re bringing in students. A lot of times ideally they’re paying them to run some of their social media accounts. Alan Seymour: We’re now talking about ambassadors and student ambassadors within universities, Eric. Tell us a little bit about experiences you have, … how students should be taking on board this on behalf of the universities? Eric Stoller: Sure. You can tell a lot about a university by the way they handle their social media presence. Is it a comfortable place? Are they open? Are they warm? Is there a personality behind what they’re posting on social media? Student ambassador programs are a really great way for institutions to create peer-to-peer interaction, because students connecting with other students, there’s a real authenticity there. There’s a real lived experience there. Students can say this is what it’s actually like as a student who’s in a particular course, or living in a particular accommodation. That’s a lot more real than maybe a more conventional marketing or PR-based communication that you get from someone who’s working at the institution. Now, that being said, there are a lot of really good social media professionals out there who are working at institutions who do a great job of embracing these new technologies, these new channels. You were talking about open days a little while ago, and I think the really neat thing about open days for universities is they’re exploring new channels to connect with students, students who are actually there

at open days as well as prospective students who might just be tuning in. They’re using Snapchat and they’re using a variety of ways to connect with these students, Live Instagram or Instagram Stories. I know there’s been a lot of use of WhatsApp and some vloggers. It really gives an institution the chance to show who they are in a unique way. Because after a while, everybody starts to sound the same with their website and their mission and vision. This gives the institution the chance to really shine and showcase the real humanity of the place. Alan Seymour: I mean Eric, that is such a beautiful, and it is kind of nicely emotionally and almost is personalising and perhaps taking away some sanitisation, or almost some robotic approaches. I think you’ve made some really great points. They transfer and translate very much across lots of different sectors. We’ve talked about some of those sectors. I don’t want to necessarily go down the sport route per se here. Just picking you up on… Eric Stoller: Can’t we go to sport? Alan Seymour: Go on. Eric Stoller: I would love to talk about sports in terms of student athletes, if that’s okay. Alan Seymour: Perfect. Tell us a little bit about maybe then, because I did a recent interview where an ambassador, but a professional consultant was advising athletes how to use social media. Take that as a scenario. How would you advise professional athletes to use social media, Eric? If it’s not too much of a fast ball. Eric Stoller: Exactly. That’s a great angle. I think that, well, first and foremost, I would talk about it in the context of how I talk about digital literacy and digital capability for all people, and walk it back. When someone becomes a

professional athlete, the time to work on their digital presence and develop it and mature it has almost passed in a way. Because who they are and how they post and what they post, good or bad, is already formulated. However, when you look at, say, student life and student athletes and what they’re posting and sharing, there’s this perception that young people by default have this innate digital native ability to use all things related to technology, social media, what have you. Of course, we know that that’s not the case. Everybody has this spectrum of fluency that they bring to the table, and so young people coming in from, say, school to university, or whatnot, they’ve been using social media and their digital presence for just peer-to-peer interactions, social life, and maybe building up a bit of a reputation if they have been a sports star, and people have started to tune into them early on. There’s a sense of, what does it mean to engage in these digital spaces in a way that benefits you as someone who’s posting, engages with your audience, and yet doesn’t cause you issues with your image or get you into trouble, or cause harm to other people? I think especially when you’re a professional athlete, you’re under the microscope. You’ve got media always wanting to pay attention to what you’re doing. You’ve got fans from all over the place. Everything you post, even if it’s online for just a few seconds, is subject to a greater level of scrutiny than other people. I think that my number one piece of advice for professional athletes posting on social media is: always think before you post. It sounds so clichŽ, but that’s the advice that holds true for everyone.

Alan Seymour: Eric, it’s just amazing, because I did a guest lecture a few weeks ago at the University of Worcester, and I produced this slide which was effectively, it was comparing it with the hierarchy of needs and how we grow through from the solid base and reach a safety point. I said if you relate that to social media, advice particularly strong in safety is just what you’ve said. Traffic light system for me. Red, stop. Amber, pause, think. Is it going to be okay? If you’re happy with it, then press the button. It’s a mantra almost that I’ve used as a piece of advice. Let’s build on this, because I think it’s a fascinating subject here. Something that you said, again, traditional versus non-traditional, or you’ve even I think in some part of the interview today almost inferred or used the word, well, you’ve certainly used the word experiment. If I took that further and maybe do something a little bit more disruptive, or risky even, would you recommend this? Are there ways, because Twitter or any social media platform sometimes if it is too automated or robotic, or everyone sounds the same, what kind of strategies or little, I suppose, episodes or scenarios can education and educational institutions or brands or marcomms come up with to get the most effective use and application of social media would you suggest? Eric Stoller: It’s almost like they have to have a balance, where they’ve got the channels that they’ve been using and that they’re very familiar with, and that they can continue to always evolve and tweak along the way, and then have time built aside to experiment and just learn about what’s coming, or what are the new apps, what are the new channels. Because I think it’s easy for

us to get stuck in our ways and say, “These are the elements of our digital marketing toolkit.” That toolkit is almost always changing. It’s important for marketers to set aside time to just literally learn. Google used to have, I think it was their 20 percent time, where they would allow their employees some time off from official work duties to just experiment and try new things. A lot of the tools and services that we use today from Google actually came out of that. Alan Seymour: Would you suggest, are there any natural comparisons, no, not comparable, things that really work alongside? Compatible is the word I’m seeking here. You use social media. Don’t necessarily use it at the expense of everything else. There’s still a place as I think you’ve suggested for the open days, for face-to-face as well as the social media presence. Are there some natural traditional mechanisms that work compatibly extremely well with social media? Eric Stoller: Well, I think, again, it’s about the blend. It’s about the marketing mix. There’s an institution in the US, and I won’t name names, because I was told not to. I love to brag about who’s doing things really well. There’s an institution in the US, they recently came out with a new brand identity, and they were talking about it on Twitter. They were talking about it on their web page. They were talking about it on their Instagram story. I think that you just have to get the right mix, the right blend of traditional. In this case it was about a new logo and a new brand identity, and that was going to, of course, be on all kinds of merchandise and apparel, and physical signage, and even things like business cards, to all of

their social media handles. I think again, it’s about the keepers of the brand these days especially, they almost have more on their plate now to consider and think about. It used to be, “We’ve got these 10, 20 things we’ve got to think about.” Now it’s, “Oh, wait a minute. We’ve got to update all these accounts, all these apps, all these icons all over the place.” Alan Seymour: At this conference that I’ve referred to earlier, another great example, because they won the best award at, I think, it was for football business or something related. It’s a well-known football club just gained promotion… . Part of the award and maybe the biggest reason, great advocates, great ambassadors in the use of social media. They reverted back to, it’s still digital, it’s still a newer form of communication, but it’s not the newest, email. They actually sent out over a million personalised emails to a relevant database telling them about all the highlights, giving them all the information. It was just so well-received. It showed this marketing mix, as you call it, absolutely right, but also the fact that you need to find these blends or the blending aspect of doing communication. Obviously, we’re talking in the context here today specifically about social media. Let me just take it on a little bit more here, Eric, if I may. If you were giving another piece of advice to career aspirants here – I mean you are now an independent consultant. What does an independent consultant do? Because clearly we’re having this interview here and we’ve connected through social media, and obviously you’ve built up a reputation talking about higher education and the use of social media. Do you get directly involved with brands,

Eric Stoller:

organisations, or are there some pieces of advice or thoughts, insights that you could give to my audience on that? Sure. I’ve been doing this now for almost seven years full-time since I actually left a rather enjoyable, fulfilling full-time job to try this experiment, as I called it back then, in consulting. It’s taken me from the US and from working in the US, to Canada, to Mexico, to now being based in the UK and working in Europe. I spoke at a conference late last year in New Zealand. You get the chance to explore the world as an education consultant. One of the things that I think almost always comes up with my consultations with my clients – and a lot of times those are going to be universities – is I will be brought in to talk about social media or digital engagement, and that could mean a variety of things. It could be the top-level marketing and comms for the institution. It could be what the careers office is doing. It could mean what their student services is doing. Could be from a learning and teaching perspective. Every single time I’m brought in with social media and digital as the key focus, a large part of the conversation turns into a conversation on organisational culture and a willingness to learn new things, every single time. Because the social media channels have been around there for a long time. Like you said, Twitter’s been around for quite a while. Facebook’s been around now since 2004. YouTube has been around forever, practically. New apps are coming down the pipeline, but the thing is it’s not that the apps aren’t there, it’s what it is that’s getting people to use them, to try them

out. What are the motivations involved, the incentives involved? As an organisation, are you rewarded for trying new things? Are you keeping up with your current audience? A lot of times when I’m speaking at events, I will literally ask the audience and I will say, “How many of you are afraid of using Snapchat?” Every time people will raise their hand, and I’ll say, “You’re not afraid of the telephone. You’re not afraid of email. You’ve got to think of these apps as communication and engagement platforms.” The organisational culture and almost the ethos of lifelong learning, that’s consistently something that comes up in each and every one of my consultations. Alan Seymour: I mean, Eric, again, the echoes, the resonance here, it’s just amazing. It is. I go to conferences like you do, and I always say, and I did a panel leading, moderating, talking about this. I was saying, “Shout. Go back to your CEOs. Go back and say, ‘We can’t continue to be so traditional or afraid to do something.’ ” Even the responses back, like you’ve just said with the Snapchat thing, without necessarily being too provocative here or naming, phrases like, “Well, you’ve done all your fun and entertainment, now come back and do your day job or your proper job.” I still think there’s this kind of reluctance, or this understanding, I suppose, and education is clearly going to play a big part. Resonate definitely with that. Change has to happen. Change sometimes can be slow. It can be dynamic by nature, but the very nature, I think, of digital particularly and now social media and all that space that we’re talking about today, organisations and cultural changes need to happen.

I’m going to try and bring some summations. Sadly, we’re running out of time, but I want to continue a little bit more if I may, Eric, and then close. Eric Stoller: Sure. Alan Seymour: I should give you some time to tell my audience how we can make contact with you, etc. Using my metaphor or analogy earlier here of a sporting nature, the fast ball, the curve ball, whatever analogy I can use here. MOOC, tell us what MOOC means, what your views of it are. Does it work? Is it sustainable? Is it a substitute? Just particularly obviously in education. I’m going to put a little caveat to that maybe, that I’ve now come out of formal education. I’ve never come out of education and I will continue to be involved with academia, students, and everything, because the world of education is my passion, and it’s my life. I would never want to be on the side of the argument that says MOOC is everything, or we only use online education now. I have a feeling that some people are looking at online education as a panacea, or as the be all and end all, or maybe in some cases as a substitute for everything that may be wrong or everything that may be logistically difficult in a kind of formal, traditional higher education university environment. Some thoughts on that, if I could ask you, Eric. Eric Stoller: That’s definitely another curve ball. That’s like saying, “Hey, we’re going to run a 5K, except the distance is now 26.2 miles.” Alan Seymour: Correct. Eric Stoller: MOOCs, of course, are massive open online courses. Alan Seymour: Thank you. Eric Stoller: It was all about scaling learning. How can you bring about educational modules or courses or classes

depending on where you’re located and what they’re called to a large number of people, with an online delivery system. I think that there was a lot of hype around MOOCs early on. Just like with a lot of ed tech initiatives, there’s a lot of hype, and there’s a lot of versus reality. I think that for me, online learning represents a space or a place for us to continue the conversation of learning with people who aren’t … it’s not geographically bound. Are MOOCs the answer to everything? Of course not. I think they’re useful, but I think also it’s good to separate the moneymaking initiatives from learning and from actually widening participation. I think MOOCs as a vehicle for widening participation or opening up access to these amazing institutions of learning, that’s a wonderful opportunity. Now, whether or not it actually comes to fruition for making money for these places, that’s a completely different question. Alan Seymour: Absolutely. Eric. Look, I’m going to bring some summation. We’re almost touching my magic 30 minutes here … I think the insights and the pointers you’ve made, what you’ve clearly done, and I congratulate you on this – I’m not being patronising at all; far from it – is that my audience, I’ve always believed sport is global, sport touches so many people socially, culturally, maybe politically, but I won’t go down there necessarily. Equally, the values and the distinctiveness and all the ways in which it could be done, lifestyle particularly today and the need to communicate, social media has really embellished the opportunities that exist. If you were making some closing pieces of advice to would-be students, again, on the career rung or the first step,

Eric Stoller:

would you recommend that they develop their digital literacy, have a digital footprint, and how best would they go about creating this reputation that they may have to do online, but they may also do it in other spheres? What advice would you give, Eric? Absolutely. I’ve been telling the story to quite a few people of how I built my own digital footprint in the UK, coming from the US to the UK with an audience of zero, really. Not having the connections, not having that network. I was able to use Twitter and LinkedIn specifically, as these two vehicles to connect with people on Twitter and follow a lot of people, engage in hashtag conversations, and then make a lot of connections professionally on LinkedIn. Which enabled me to just grow my network exponentially via these digital channels in a way that a few years ago would have never been possible. When I talk to students, I talk to them about the many benefits of using social media for career development. Again, that’s just one aspect of it. You can use social media for career development as well as activism. You were talking about the politics of it all. My wife and I have used social media for fundraising to do some refugee relief and refugee support projects that we’ve been involved with. The response has been phenomenal. I’m a guy who’s on social media known as an education consultant, and yet my audience, they responded tremendously to that initiative. I think that there’s so much nuance to what you can use these digital channels for. To me, that’s the best part of it, that it’s that wide variety of use.

Alan Seymour: Eric Stoller, a delight, special guest on my show today. We used the off-piste metaphor early on right at the beginning. We’re very much on-piste now and very much on trend, on track, anything else. A really huge thanks and shout-out to you today, Eric. Before I let you go, could you just give some sign-outs to my audience how they can make good contact with you, any connections that they can make with you? Just give us a few contact details if you would, Eric. Eric Stoller: Thanks a lot, Alan, for the opportunity. If people want to get in touch with me or reach out or connect or follow, you can find me at ericstoller.com. That’s my blog. Or on Twitter just @EricStoller is my handle. I look forward to connecting and engaging with everyone. Alan Seymour: Eric, great to speak to you. Great to interview you. I’m sure our paths will continue to cross and converge. I hope in the future to be able to talk to you again. Many thanks for today’s interview. Eric Stoller:

Thanks, Alan.

Conversation: reflections and activities As a result of the conversation, what is now your understanding of the boundaries of digital sport marketing? How does this differ from traditional marketing adoption in sports? Is their confusion/mixed messages in the approach that sport marketing decision makers need to take in delivering sports campaigns? Are we in danger of an over-reliance on technology at the expense of common sense practice in sport business? Give practical reasons and

examples for your perspectives.

Conclusion In the digital era, the walls of the venue (stadiums, ballparks, arenas) are coming down. Being inside the venue is no longer essential to the fan experience. Nevertheless, establishing a connection with passive fans and converting them into avid, loyal customers is an evolving challenge in digital sport marketing. As Ward Bullard of Google asserted, “To remain competitive, the industry must adopt a fan-centric, technology-first model and provide unique, memorable and highly shareable experiences” (in Mullin et al., 2014, p. 31). Sports must deliver seamless connectivity and extraordinary game-day experiences, both ‘live’ at the venue and digitally in order to give fans a reason to invest their time, energy, and money. The era of a passive experience of the screen is over, and the challenge of being relevant within a 24/7/365 days a year universal service is central to the activities of the globally digital landscape that surrounds sports.

Chapter review questions 1 “The contribution that sports digital has made to business and society is equivalent to the biggest innovation ever witnessed in sports.” Is this a relevant comment for the domain of sport marketing? 2 “Sport business without digital would be like Wimbledon without strawberries and cream.” To what extent is this statement a reflection of the connected spaces and environs that sport now needs to inhabit through digital? 3 Discuss Generation ‘C’ (Source: Google), and how the sports digital industry needs to grasp that without engagement with this cohort, you risk losing a whole generation of customers. Devise some experiences that as a sport business you could engage with them.

Additional reading and digital resources Billings, A. & Hardin, M. (2016) Routledge Handbook of Sport & New Media. Oxon and New York: Routledge. https://brandwavemarketing.com/digital/ https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2019-global-digital-overview https://serpwatch.io/blog/digital-marketing-trends/ https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/technology-media-andtelecommunications/articles/digital-transformation-and-future-changesin-sports-industry.html www.accuracast.com/articles/social-marketing/sports-news-online/ www.advisorsports.com/ www.bidigital.co.uk/blog/digital-marketing/paradigm-shift-in-sportindustry-with-digital-marketing/ www.emarketer.com/content/global-digital-ad-spending-2019

www.koozai.com/blog/branding/how-digital-marketing-is-changing-thesports-industry/ www.scripted.com/writing-samples/digital-sports-marketing-benefits-an594b5b5f-6e91-4681-a88d-53908dba2d5b www.si.com/ www.sportbusiness.com/ www.sportradar.com/ www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal.aspx www.sportspromedia.com/ www.wayin.com/blog/20-sports-digital-marketing-campaigns/

References Billings, A. & Hardin, M. (2016) Routledge Handbook of Sport & New Media. Oxon and New York: Routledge. Chaffey, D. & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016) Digital Marketing (6th edition). Cambridge: Pearson. Charlesworth, A. (2014) Digital Marketing: A Practical Approach (2nd edition). Oxon and New York: Routledge. Chun, S., Gentry, J., & McGinnis, L. (2005) ‘Ritual aspects of sports consumption: How do sports fans become ritualized?’ Asia Pacific Advances in Consumer Research, 6, pp. 331–336. Dietrich, M. (2020) ‘Spin sucks’. https://spinsucks.com/communication/refreshed-peso-model/ Divecha, F. (2019) ‘Sports fans changing sports content consumption – UK survey’. www.accuracast.com/articles/social-marketing/sports-newsonline/ Enberg, J. (2019) ‘Digital accounts for half of total media ad spending worldwide’. www.emarketer.com/content/global-digital-ad-spending2019 Facebook IQ (2019) www.facebook.com/business/news/insights/thechanging-profile-of-sports-fans-around-the-world

Horky, T. (2013) ‘Uses of sport communication in groups: Meaning and effects in public viewing’, in Pedersen, P. M. (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Sport Communication (pp. 378–387). Abingdon: Routledge. Katz, J. (2018) ‘76% of media value for NBA jersey patches comes via social’. https://engage.hashtagsports.com/2018/09/17/gumgum-nba-jerseypatches-social-media-value/ Kemp, S. (2019) ‘Digital 2019: Global digital overview’. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2019-global-digital-overview Kirkham, J. (2017) cited in Bashford, S. www.campaignlive.com/article/needknow-sports-marketing-2017-beyond/1424873? utm_source=Events&utm_campaign=53fb81bcebMonthly_March_2017_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ebc768df8 9-53fb81bceb-309863773#trend02 (Accessed: 20 April 2018). La Voi, N., & Calhoun, A. S. (2014) ‘Digital media & women’s sport: An “old” view on “new” media’, in Routledge Handbook of Sport & New Media (pp 320–330). Oxon and New York: Routledge. McDonald, S. (2019) ‘Run the numbers: Here’s how much the global sports market could be worth by 2023’. https://footwearnews.com/2019/business/retail/global-sports-market2019-statistics-1202804732/ Mullin, B., Hardy, T., & Sutton, W. A. (2014) Sport Marketing. New York: Human Kinetics. Nawrocki, S. (2016) ‘Understanding the new social sports fan’. www.ibmbigdatahub.com/blog/understanding-new-social-sports-fan (Accessed: 17 September 2019). Pedersen, P. (2015) Routledge Handbook of Sport Communication. Oxon and New York: Routledge. Sanderson, J. & Kassing, J. W. (2011) ‘Tweets & blogs: Transformative, advancement and integrative developments in sports media’, in A. C. Billings (Ed.), Sports Media: Transformation, Integration and Consumption (pp. 114–127). New York: Routledge. https://innovate.hashtagsports.com/2018/09/17/gumgum-nba-jerseypatches-social-media-value/

Sutton, B. (2016) http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2016/11/14/Opinion/Sutt on-Impact.aspx Temple, J. (2018) www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/emotion-data-willradically-transform-digital-landscape-2018/1453218 (Accessed: 14 September 2018).

3 Social media in digital sport marketing

Chapter objectives After studying the concepts, cases, and conversations in this chapter, the reader should be able to: Appreciate the influence of social media on sport marketing. Explain the social media platforms of choice for sports properties. Evaluate the benefits and impacts on all stakeholders from social media practices. Explore key influences and influencers in social media sport marketing.

Introduction Sport has been described as the ‘oxygen of the masses’, where audiences respond with vibrancy and commitment. Social media is now seen to be vital for fan response and voice for sport marketers. So, social media has changed the sport world, as information has become instantaneously available to view, comment, and share, often without permission. However, social media in sport is now an accepted practice for all stakeholders. Social media is the collective name for online communications channels, with social media marketing being the use of those platforms and websites to promote a sport product or sport service (Felix et al., 2016); “the utilization of social media technologies, channels, and software to create, communicate, deliver, and exchange offerings that have value for … stakeholders” (Tuten, 2012, p. 56). The goal of social media marketing is to create content to be shared across social networks to increase brand exposure and customer reach. So, where does the sports fan fit in? An organisation needs to monetise its offer through a culture of participation (Tuten & Solomon, 2018) –

interaction with other sports fans, the sports team, and many (often) other organisations, i.e. sponsors/partners. Fans want to communicate, socialise, learn, buy and sell, and create and share content. Therefore, “the building of communities or networks and encouraging participation and engagement” (CIPR, 2017) are primary purposes of social media.

CONCEPTS A central concept for all sport marketing activity is communication; from mass to hyper-personalised via optimised channels. Social media present a cost-effective medium that: embraces interactivity, collaboration and co-creation above one-to-many communication; integrates communication and distribution channels; provides opportunities for customisation; and delivers superior speed to the delivery of information communication and feedback.

(Shilbury et al., 2014, p. 61)

Consumers can interact with social media during multiple stages of the consumption process including information search, decision-making, word of mouth, and the acquisition, use, and disposal of products and services. Social channels have necessitated a fresh approach to the broadcast landscape. In particular, sports broadcasting has managed to jump on the social streaming bandwagon as the ‘cash cow’ of cable and pay TV fragmented. This had serious impacts on digital sport marketing practice as the sports industry scrambled to offer sports fans other ways to keep up with the action through content and highlights across social media. Facebook began streaming sports in 2017, including MLB and college football games in the US. In 2018, the social media giant began a partnership with Fox Sports to broadcast one BIG3 basketball game every Friday across the summer. Facebook gained the rights for the English Premier League in several Southeast Asian countries and

Spanish La Liga rights in India, outbidding BeIn Sports and Fox Sports. YouTube has also been aggressive in leading the cord-cutting movement; BT Sport continues to live-stream both the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Champions League finals live on the platform. In the near future, consumers will probably just pick from a range of over the top (OTT) services rather than pay for sports they don’t want. All four major US sports leagues have such a platform, while the Football League in the UK also has ambitious plans alongside its more conventional deals with Sky Sports. The presence of social media in all our lives is one of the great societal impacts of the 21st century. However, social media is a complex and daunting array of communication channels and vehicles. Tuten and Solomon (2015 https://zonesofsmm.wordpress.com/about-2/) organised the social media universe into four zones that integrate social media marketing planning for brands: Zone 1 is Social Community – channels focused on relationships of shared interest or identification such as Facebook and Twitter. It features two-way and multi-way communication, conversation, collaboration, and the sharing of experiences and resources designed to provide interaction and collaboration for relationship building, including social networking sites, message boards, forums, and wikis. All emphasise individual contributions in the context of a community through communication, conversation, and collaboration. Zone 2 is Social Publishing – channels that aid the dissemination of content, including blogs, micro sharing sites, media sharing sites, social bookmarking, and news sites such as YouTube and Flickr. Zone 3 is Social Entertainment – channels that offer opportunities for play and enjoyment, including social games such as FIFA, gaming sites, socially enabled console games, alternate reality

games (ARGs), virtual worlds, and entertainment communities such as Twitch. Zone 4 is Social Commerce – channels for online buying and selling of products and services, including reviews and ratings such as Tripadvisor, deal sites and deal aggregators such as Groupon and Wowcher, social shopping markets such as Etsy or Shopcade, and social storefronts such as Facebook Market. There is clear overlap across zones given the networked relationship and shared participation nature of social media, in particular as it is used for both personal and commercial purposes. Conceptually, the need to recognise relationships in sport marketing centres around fan engagement and brand identity. Greater individual connections have created greater emphasis on entertainment, social, and commercial entities, and this is reflected in the analysis and relevance of the Zones of Social Media established via Tuten and Solomon (2015). In essence, social channels have created a digital proximity between fans, brands, and athletes.

Digital communities in sports Communities are central to the concept of supporting your team – a part of the cultural backdrop of society. Subcultures emerge – groups/communities of people with their own cultural norms and values. Fan tribes exist in sports, seen as consumption communities by brands and right holders, but this has changed. Bauman (2008) conceived ‘liquid modernity’, suggesting that societal culture of the early 21st century is one of constant change, uncertainty, loss of trust, etc., and that the liquid model and sports fan is unlikely to be faithful to one team. Maffesoli (1996) conceived ‘neo-tribes’, whose members portray a distinct lifestyle and taste. Crawford (2003) posited that the football fan is simply a consumer, hence greater fluidity in behaviour. However, countering both conceptualisations, Best (2013),

through the eyes of a Leeds United fan, observed altruistic and serious intent – otherwise there would be no fans at Elland Road each week! Sport is an example of online fan communities existing only because of offline sports teams. This presents the need to combine multiple data sources to understand fan behaviour online. Zhang et al. (2018) investigated this online–offline interaction between team performance (offline) and fan behaviour (online) in the NBA. Unsurprisingly, online across-season activity peaks during the play-offs with game day activity within a 2- to 5-hour window around games. Fans talk about five main topics: (1) their personal opinions; (2) game strategy; (3) season prospects; (4) the future; and (5) game stats. And fans tend to be more active after a defeat, with higher user retention seen in less well-performing teams – perhaps due to fans jumping off the ‘bandwagon’ when top teams underperform. In conclusion, the authors suggested that the deep attachment that loyal fans develop provides affective significance to them as diehard fans within the online community. So, there has been a shift to the era of the ‘fluid fan’ whose allegiances and attention can shift rapidly creating multi-team fans, especially for younger fans. Two possible reasons suggested for this phenomenon are: (1) lower participation rates in youth sport leads to less attachment to one sport and team; and (2) the proliferation of entertainment options, including live events remotely, and eSports. So, what has eSports done to build a community? Professional gamers have created and built communities around themselves, but each game (Fortnite or Counter-Strike, for example) has its own fans, culture, and tournaments. So, for any brand wanting to enter this market, building brand involvement within that gaming community is necessary. Streams for watching eSports tournaments separate the audience according to location to allow ‘casters’ (commentators) to provide a local flavour for the local audience. Video content, giveaways that are fun, are engaging, and involve the players that create a character for the audience on social media appear to chime with the eSports audience: authentic, humorous engagements to amplify the message of the brand along with commitment for the long term. Branding opportunities include co-branded content, digital accessories, and

secondary experiences as gaming platforms operate as storefronts. Fortnite, with over 40 million monthly users is the most-watched game on Twitch (4500 user channels and 140,000 viewers at any one time). Special, ‘in-game’ events such as a DJ Marshmello set have been incorporated into the game and then replayed on YouTube to significant audience numbers. Fortnite has created digital communities in adjacent platforms. The key takeaway: passionate brands build passionate audiences – passion is the key to building a community in eSports (Gliddon, 2019). The world of sport will continue to prosper, especially through the global phenomenon that is social media-driven content and campaigns. This has been/is evident in the UK, where iconic brands/venues become sources for Asian/Far Eastern and American influence. The growth and support for the NFL will prosper with more matches in London at Wembley and the new White Hart Lane. There will also be the potential for new Asian and Far Eastern collaborations, through the formation of professional leagues in soccer (football) and cricket, attracting interest commercially and with existing professional sports stars with appeal to players, sponsors, and new fans: think Indian Premier League. Much more focus has been placed on social media and new technology by sports properties as they have realised the importance of connecting with fans, both existing and newly emerging fan groups, especially women and families. Similarly, the power of personal branding in sport through an athlete’s status and symbolism, underlying their commercial and social value, will be more resonant with brands, rights holders, and fans. The impact of these personalities, such as David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, and Zlatan in Major League Soccer, are great examples of the combination of all these components. In summary, there is, and will continue to be, new generations of sports fans across a changing sporting landscape, where both actual and virtual venues will continue to bring the world of sport globally closer together.

Social media platforms

The premise that fans create fandoms and tribal associations can be considered a main attribute of sports patronage. Sports creates a strong emotive connection as well as serious evocative commentaries. Social media presents meaningful platforms for this association to flourish through its distinctive nature of immediacy and personalisation that enables engagement in direct dialogue. However, stand-alone vanity metrics such as clicks, number of followers, and likes are not nearly as valuable as comments, shares, or retweets – interactions that can be more accurately defined as meaningful engagement. Brands ultimately need to focus on another core truth, the mantra that “great content garners great engagement”. Traditional rights holders and media ownership rules are continuing to be re-written or in some cases ripped up! Other voices are being heard. So, we must ask who is on social media, because understanding the social media demographics of each platform is key to identifying which platforms make most sense for any brand. The content strategy for each social media network is different – Instagram for graphics and images, Facebook for interactive chat, etc. Table 3.1 showcases the headline-grabbing numbers of active monthly users, the predominant percentage age group of users, gender split, and time spent on the platform daily. In essence, the social media network audience is evenly split across age categories (although there is a 26-point spread between 18- to 29-year-olds and 65+-year-olds), predominantly female, and dominated by Facebook. For sports, Pinterest and LinkedIn are not appropriate channels, plus Facebook requires a clearly articulated content strategy to be used successfully. Instagram and Snapchat are the best places to reach teens, Facebook and Instagram for millennials, and YouTube for a male audience (Khoros, 2019).

New considerations

Digital and social media have welcomed cultural change. Women’s sport, for example, continues to benefit from new debates facilitated on social channels around equality and inclusiveness through generating attention, creating controversy, and showcasing changes in media coverage of women’s sport. Social media has made sports coverage an interpersonal, intercultural, and international public domain. The consensus amongst stakeholders is that social media is a strong lever to bring audiences together for good (Creedon, 2014). Table 3.1

Social media demographics.

Platform

Active users

Age

Gender

Time (mins)

Facebook

2 bn

88% 18–29

F 52%

M 48%

35

Instagram

800m

59% 18–29

F 58%

M 42%

15

Pinterest

200m

36% 18–29

F 60%

M 40%

14.2

Twitter

317m

36% 18–29

F 47%

M 53%

2.7

LinkedIn

106m

36% 18–29

F 46%

M 54%

17

YouTube

1 bn

26% 35–44

F 45%

M 55%

40

Snapchat

300m

37% 18–24

F 70%

M 30%

25

Source:

Adapted from Khoros (2019).

The 2012 London Olympics was dubbed the first social media Games as athletes and fans used Facebook et al. to communicate their memorable moments. The Games fully embraced online media and used multiple social platforms. Media coverage of the Olympics changed dramatically with the

International Olympic Committee (IOC) launching Olympic online communities, and the event being billed as the “Twitter Olympics”. Clearly, technology and new thinking in communications have altered the landscape and territory for sports consumers and stakeholders. A greater amount of sport is now delivered to larger audiences via multiple digital devices. This has changed the relationship between sports fans, athletes, clubs, governing bodies, and the mainstream media, with each segment seeking to capitalise on the latest technological advance. This is the latest battleground for content, and its rightful owner and publisher. Digital impacts upon the effectiveness of campaigns, with sports teams receiving greater exposure on social media than on traditional platforms. Digital and mobile channels will increasingly be a critical component of the media ecosystem. Effectively, this rationale and argument enforces the switch of advertising spend to social media to maintain ‘eyeballs’ on sport. Gum Gum, a technology company, and just one example, analyses the images posted on social media and correlates them with brands. Gum Gum works with some of the teams in the NBA to understand the impact of social media posts and to put a monetary value on them. Football clubs in the UK have resolved to work with analytics companies to quantify an accurate measurement on the whole social media phenomena. The business mindset has moved away from the typical model that is driven by broadcast numbers. Manchester City streamed their very first UEFA Women’s Champions League game on Facebook Live in 2016, in partnership with car manufacturer Nissan. They received very impressive levels of engagement. The club has also used Snapchat spectacles to show people behind the scenes at City’s Etihad Stadium. Both are great examples of social media in sport. As European football clubs focus their efforts on driving fans from social media to their own platforms, those who are able to harness the value of their global brand in the digital space will continue to develop a competitive advantage in the coming seasons. Social media in sport marketing as an industry trend has been accompanied by an increase in commercial revenues. Whilst major sports

teams have undoubtedly profited from gaining global followers in India, Malaysia, and China by generating higher commercial revenues than domestic rivals with a more local fan base, per follower value has decreased through their lower spending power due to lower income levels. So, despite new market development activity helping to secure longer-duration commercial agreements, the capability to negotiate advantageous sponsorship deals, the location of the club, the demographics of their followers, or even follower duplication across different platforms, the monetisation of social media followers by a football club has some ways to develop yet. The framework of a sport marketing conference is an ideal vehicle for digital sport marketing. The variety of tactics and strategies deployed to manage logistics of the event, along with the digital concepts employed to interact with the sports industry for the benefit of all are showcased in the following scenario.

Case study 3.1: Sport marketing conference Is this the future of conferences in the sports industry? The triumvirate of students, academics, and practitioners – three vital cogs in the evolution of sport business and education. This brand new approach, conceived to create debate and discussion around key functions and themes of sport marketing, was a triumph in showcasing the social media community of sport. What better event to launch a new sport marketing academic programme than to host an industry-facing conference? The practitioners of the future taking an equal billing with luminaries from the sport marketing industry whom they seek to emulate. This scenario created the energy to initiate such a gathering and to continue their organisation across multiple venues on a number of occasions. All conferences were sell-out successes, and all conferences engaged digital and social media as the sole means of audience engagement. The conference reference points were:

The Inaugural Sports Marketing Conference – University of Northampton, 2010 The Future of Sport Conference 1 – University of Northampton, 2013 The Future of Sport Conference 2 – University of Worcester, 2016 The Future of Sport Conference 3 – University of Worcester, 2017 The Inaugural Sports Marketing Conference, entitled ‘New Frontiers or Action Replays’, operated in association with the Academy of Marketing and the Chartered Institute of Marketing and featured active researchers and academics in marketing, sport marketing, events, and communications. Sport marketing practitioners, agencies, sporting organisations, and properties were also part of this developing community. Themed workshops revolved around sport marketing in higher education, practitioner perspectives for sports students, and the future of sport communications. This inaugural event set the format for the Future of Sport Conferences that followed. The Future of Sport Conference 1 examined the future of sport and sports development as a vehicle for marketing and the application of marketing techniques in sporting contexts. The conference featured highly acclaimed and prestigious academics, practitioners, and invited delegates. The headline speaker was Dr Bill Sutton from the University of South Florida and other keynote speakers included the leading sports journalist Gabriele Marcotti, academics such as Professor Gayle McPherson (University of West Scotland), and Dr Leah Donlan (University of Central Lancashire). In addition, there was a live conference stream featuring Stefan Szymanski (Professor of Sport Management and co-author of Soccernomics), as well as other notable contributions from sports broadcasters and commentators Nigel Adderley and Lynsey Hooper. Throughout, there were a number of workshop panel discussions around fan engagement and new media. Conference proceedings could be followed via the #UNFutureofsport hashtag. The Future of Sport Conference 2 at the University of Worcester, in association with Final Third Sports PR and PledgeSports, developed the social connectedness of the delegates through the focus of sponsorship and

crowdfunding. Keynote speakers were Jackie Fast from Slingshot Sponsorship, Fiona Green from Winners, Vickie Saunders from the Sponsorship Consultants, and the consultant John Burkhart. Panel guests debated ‘Sponsorship Players and Influencers’, ‘How to Get Your Story Told and Heard’, and ‘Sports PR and Sponsorship Creative’. Dedicated Facebook and Twitter pages developed digital traction, along with the #FOSC16. A digital conference programme was made available to all delegates. The Future of Sport Conference 3 theme was ‘Global Sport Business Education’. Dr Bill Sutton headlined the proceedings along with his University of South Florida student cohort who showcased their applied sport marketing project work with major sports franchises in the US. Consultant Geoff Wilson delivered an expert session on ‘the fastest road race in the world’, the Ulster GP, and Andy Westlake, Jackie Fast, and Sophie Morris mused over ‘Sponsorship and Education’. The digital engagement opportunities continued from the previous year, but by now the wider world was aware of the format and benefits on offer. This fourth iteration truly established the FOSC brand as a valuable conduit to the shaping of sport marketing education. But, further editions could develop even greater digital and social media activity. Is this wise for a conference of this type, and if so, how might it be accomplished? You are now invited to consider these questions to provide some suggestions to extend the digital footprint of the Future of Sport brand (see Figure 3.1). Your task is to suggest conference themes and topics, plus construct a speaker and delegate list for the Future of Sport conference 4. What are the hot topics of the moment in digital sport marketing that are ripe for discussion and debate, and which students, in particular, could benefit? Access the link here to stimulate your thinking: http://www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/casestudies/tag/sport.

Figure 3.1 Source:

The Future of Sport logo.

Author owned.

The importance of multifaceted skill sets are a key aspect to this conversation. Digital sport marketing has embraced the cross-disciplinary functions of journalistic communications together with the practical skills required to implement campaigns effectively in sport marketing. The conversation has a unique framework to appraise this new phenomenon. The reader will see this connection as an important new development to becoming a key influencer of sport marketing practice.

Conversation 3.1 Jan Bohemer, PhD, Head of Digital and Data Science at The&Partnership and m/six Agency Dr Jan Bohemer joined The&Partnership in June 2017 to help clients develop a strategic vision for advancing their marketing efforts. Before jumping back into the industry, Jan enjoyed an academic life at the University of Miami and Penn State as a professor of new media. Jan investigated the impact of emerging technologies on how individuals and brands communicate. In addition, he taught his students how to use data and technology in storytelling and strategy development, as well as personal branding.

Alan Seymour: Well, welcome back to Jan Bohemer… . We were talking, Jan, about your connection with Penn State. So, tell us a little bit more about what your role is there. Jan Bohemer: Right now … I’m taking some time off from academia to focus basically full time on the industry, but my role there was, and it will be, being an assistant professor. Trying to push the connection between academia and the industry in the realm of sports. With a specific focus on sports journalism and sports media, and social media, I’m working closely with the Curley Center for Sports Journalism with John Affleck, a very great colleague of mine. We’re trying to involve students as much as possible. We’re taking them abroad, they’ve covered the Paralympics in Rio. They’ve covered baseball in Cuba, which is a great thing for students because their stories actually get published and they get a chance to not just write stories but also do a full multimedia coverage of that. So, that’s the teaching aspect of it. I’m also teaching journalism and trying to implement these new media styles of reporting into our traditional journalism curriculums. Alan Seymour: I just wanted to point [out] something there that you have highlighted very strongly and maybe is really our connection, this link between academia and practitioning, and obviously making it student-centric. And we can talk a little bit later in the interview about how perhaps there is some blur, particularly in journalism and new media, but tell us a little bit about the engagement that those students get from real, live experiences, Jan. Jan Bohemer Yeah, I think we’re trying to bring in as many professionals as possible, just … for our students

to hear them talk. You know, you learn a lot about the ideal world of journalism in the classroom, but, we all know and we have to be realistic, that that’s not always the case. Journalists have to be their own marketeers. They have to promote themselves, especially on social media. That’s a big part of what we try to teach them, basically outside of the classroom, and make them aware of, yes. You know, journalism is still a very relevant field but has changed quite a bit. You cannot expect to work at your hometown newspaper for 35 years … We need to prepare them for the real world and get them the real-world insights of what the field of journalism, or in general the media, has become. That you kind of need to be a ‘jack of all trades’ but still find your niche that you can actually strive in. So, we try to expose them to all of these different fields journalists can be, especially when you think about sports. And that’s another layer that has come to our field. You know, it started in baseball, sabermetrics and people focusing more on statistics in the sport itself. But then also in the reporting of that sport. So, that has taken an entirely new dimension. You see the rise of fantasy sports and eSports, these are all new fields that now also have to be covered in journalism by journalists that, with a very traditional skill set, might not be prepared to do it. Alan Seymour: One other thing that I think is very relevant in some of the introductory comments that we’ve made so far, is making, I suppose, relevancy in academia to new trends and the changing face, changing landscape. Not only of journalism, but the whole sphere of

communications. Perhaps you can tell us a little bit about this intersection if you like, in particular new media, social media. Jan Bohemer: One thing that I teach to my students when I teach a social media class, I say, “I do not teach a specific platform. I do not stand here and tell you this is how you use Facebook, per se. Now of course that’s a part of it, but what I want to do is equip you with the underlying knowledge of how social media works and why people behave in a certain way, that will prepare you and take away the fear of all the new platforms that come,” because if we’ve seen one thing, it is that the media world is changing so quickly that it would be a big mistake to prepare a student for one particular platform, and then they go out into the industry two years later, and they say, “Why are they using Snapchat? It’s dead.” Or, “Why are they using Myspace?” You know, when we started out, we thought Myspace was the biggest thing ever. It made fans very popular in all of these kinds of things, but well, if you were only trained on Myspace, that wouldn’t really work anymore. That would have no benefit. But if you learn why people like something on Myspace, why they flock around certain accounts, you can translate that knowledge into any platform that comes along. And I think that’s where academia comes in, because they have the time. Academics have the time to take a step back and try to compare and contrast the motivations for using specific platforms and then establish the framework that can then be used in a very practical way.

Alan Seymour: Perhaps tell us a little bit now about this transitional, if it is a transitional space for you, Jan, and what you’re doing in this digital space as a practitioner/consultant. Jan Bohemer: For me, I always wanted to do both, and right now for personal reasons and because a great opportunity came around, I’m focusing more on the industry than I used to. But what I’m doing is, basically I’m trying to practice what I preach. Right? I’m currently working for a big Japanese car manufacturer, trying to improve the digital operations in Europe, and especially in Germany, which is my home. And I’m trying to transition them from just doing something to doing it with a purpose. Setting up the entire flow, what is our goal with our digital operation? What key metrics are we driving? A lot of it coming from a data perspective. A lot of times, yes, everybody knows big data is kind of a buzzword out there, that we have to do something with data, we have to do some modelling, we have to have some predictions, we have to have KPIs that we try to fulfil. But … you need to understand what these things mean and how they connect to what you actually want. How they connect to what your customers do in the digital space. And I think filling that gap is what I’m trying to do here, trying to … I always say it’s data powered, but theory driven. What I’m trying to do is not just have numbers on a report that you hand out on a Monday morning, but doing so with an actual background of, okay, this happened because … and is this actually good or bad? Because that’s something that’s missing. People always, you know, as soon as they have numbers, they like to sign a plus or a minus, or a red or

a green arrow, or whatever it is. And then the upperlevel management just looks at that arrow and says, “Oh my God, our numbers go down.” And they are not putting it into any relation. And you know, bringing some expertise, some light to that discussion … Alan Seymour: I mean, Jan, at the moment, and without necessarily kind of crystal ball gazing, or maybe you can be slightly provocative … about digital and big data. I mean, there is a notion, I suppose, that digital is everything, and big data, and you’ve got to be in there. You’ve got to be inhabiting this new world, this digital space. Do you think there’s enough education, or do you think there’s enough knowledge, or do you think there’s enough acceptance of it from a real proactive point of view? Or do you think, perhaps people just say, “Well, we’ll do digital because everybody is doing it”? Jan Bohemer: Yeah. And to be honest, for me right now it’s more of the opposite. That people are focusing too much on the digital when, you know in my case you’re trying to sell cars. Digital is a part of it, but you’re not selling the car because of a tweet. That’s just not happening. And people tend to kind of cling to the things that they can quantify. And when you have a very big company and a very big country with a lot of car dealerships, there are a lot of variables that you cannot measure. Foot traffic, people just having traditional word of mouth. People just buying the same car for 20 years straight. Things you cannot really put into your predictive model of what you know from your website.

And actually I find myself more in the space of bringing these two things together and getting and generating some understanding for, okay, how does the digital world as a very important, but still only a part of the entire space of media advertising, whatever it is, how does that play in there, but how to also account for some other variables that we cannot really see on a website. So, that’s the space that I find myself in, but I know from a lot of other colleagues that do work in other companies that might not be as digitally savvy as the ones that I have contact with, that see that exact same problem that you talked about. That they say, “Okay, yes. We have to have a Facebook page, but we don’t actually know why.” They just have it because everybody has it, and they would post some stuff. Well, then they are surprised that it’s not working. Alan Seymour: Yeah, I mean, Jan, I have to come in here. I mean I do go back a long way, I’m not embarrassed to say that. But you know, we must talk about things like sales, and we must talk about things like marketing results and, you know. I can almost think aloud here, relaying a story about a dealership. It was a car dealership, and … I think the equation worked out something like out of 400 cars sold, they claimed that 90 percent of them had been out of people walking past the showroom/dealership. When in fact, those things happen, but they happened because of various prompts and other influences on that decision. Jan Bohemer: Yeah. I just wanted to completely agree with you, and I think one of the other buzzwords that’s going around along with big data is attribution modelling. How to

actually put these, all these touchpoints that people have, because I completely agree with you. Nobody just walks past the dealership if he or she’s completely unaware of whatever cars that dealer has. Right? I mean, that’s, I don’t know, a very tiny percentage of people that would actually do that. But these people have other touchpoints. To commercials, they configure the car online, they at least have a vague idea of what they want before they walk into the dealership. Alan Seymour: Absolutely. Jan Bohemer: Accounting for that in some form of model is very difficult, because how do you strike out a phone context or if they just saw a big banner somewhere? These kinds of things are very difficult to take into account. I think that’s where a lot of work will happen in the next couple of years. To actually put together models that paint a clearer picture of that process. And that’s not just for cars, that’s for all stuff retail, that applies to sports, to tickets that people buy, you know. Some people would say, yeah, they walk downtown and then, “Oh yeah, there’s a game today. And so let’s buy a ticket.” But they probably wouldn’t have that even in their mindset if they were not aware of that before at some point. Alan Seymour: I mean, I love that phrase, attributing, and the kind of influences that happen in our thinking and then ultimately in our actions. I want to kind of just segue into something not completely different here, but I know from your background that playing basketball has been a big influence in some of the things that you’ve done. And you’ve done some writing there for, I believe, NBA

Germany. Perhaps tell us a little bit more about that interest, that passion, and maybe how it also sits in your kind of portfolio of activities, Jan. Jan Bohemer: Absolutely. I have always liked basketball. I started out as a journalist covering either motor sports and North American sports with the NFL, the NBA, these kinds of things. I spent some time in the US during my undergrad studies, so I’ve always had that connection there, and then when I went back over to the US to get my PhD, but that was at the same time the company I worked for before that, they took over all of the official NBA coverage in Germany. So they became basically, when you typed in NBA.com in Germany, you would get the German NBA site that was hosted by my former company. And so they asked me, “Hey, you can get credentials. Would you like to go?” And of course, being a sportsman, I don’t tend to say no. And then it’d be basketball, it was especially fascinating because I think that the NBA is one of the most tech-savvy and advanced leagues that you can get. So just having the chance to talk to, not just the players, but also the people in charge of the digital operations of the teams and the league, was really fascinating to me. And I thought I could learn a lot being a student back then. But also, maybe help them and all of us understand what’s going on, especially, you know, I love it because there’s so much emotion involved, that’s why I love sports… . As someone in marketing and media in journalism, that’s something that you really like being into, because it’s such a field where people care about.

So, I got the chance, got involved when I studied at Michigan State. Yeah, I went to a lot of the Detroit Pistons games. But also got the chance to meet Dirk Nowitzki, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, a lot of really, really, really interesting people to me. You know, go to the locker room, every sports fan likes that. And I got to do it from a professional perspective, honing my journalism skills. That was really, really fascinating. And in the end I just tried to stay in touch with the teams, bounce off some ideas. I mean I started because I was looking for a field – for a field of interest to try some of my new analytic techniques. And I thought the NBA with all the focus on Twitter and Facebook at the time was a pretty neat environment to do that. So, I posted some stuff on Twitter, some of my analysis, some of my results, and with the graphics I had created. And so, I got in touch with a couple of teams because they really like that stuff. They really liked to know how people react to what they were putting out. And that was kind of the start of my, I don’t want to say consultancy, that I do, but maybe some of the more industry-focused output I created. Trying to develop a model that takes into account not just how many fans you have on Facebook and Twitter, but also, how much TV time did you get? What is your actual market size? And all these things, to kind of isolate the quality of work that teams put in on social media. I think that was key, and that was what caught some attention in that professional realm too… . They need a way to evaluate and put in the playing field, what are the Los Angeles Lakers doing? They’re getting more likes just because they are the Lakers. Where, maybe the Milwaukee Bucks, they do a great job but will never get

as many likes or comments or shares, because they are in Milwaukee. And trying to find a way to normalise that entire process and look at the actual work output and what works and what doesn’t work across teams, that’s how I got more into that professional basketball realm. Alan Seymour: I think, Jan … that whole, great question of metrics and evaluation… . But when you come back to why social media, and why the whole communication thing, it’s obviously got to have relevancy, purpose, and then obviously outcomes… . You’ve got a great insight to this locker room mentality on those because you refer to lots of stars, celebrities, key people in sports. They have people doing their social media for them, and there is a view to sanitise. It’s not really authentic enough. And yet lots of those are doing exceptionally well – clearly are producing content and a voice for themselves … that will then produce engagement, and real engagement. So, how would you advise individual sports stars, and maybe sports properties, how can they really maximise the opportunities that you and social media present? Jan Bohemer: Well, they have to be real. People cling to other people, and brands can be seen as actual people as well, they just have to be true. They have to be natural. And one of the things that I always say, when somebody asks me, “Can you help me create my social media?” I say, “I can help you on setting you up with the why, and what I think you should do on like a broad range of things, but I cannot write your content for you. That is something that has to come from you.” … And I think there are also cultural differences here. So, in the US where a lot of student athletes just grew up doing their

own social media, they will do their own social media. And LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, they do their own social media. On the other hand, Cristiano Ronaldo here, you know as the soccer player, or football player, one of the most popular ones in the world. He would probably never do his own social media, because his manager would be afraid that something too personal gets out there. Right? So, there are cultural differences too, and for some reason they still accept it for a lot of soccer players, and even though people probably know that they’re not doing it themselves. But the biggest thing here is to be authentic. Use that. Use that kind of backstage feel to it. It won’t always be real; you won’t give people full access. There has to be some boundaries, but you have to let them in to a certain point. Even for journalists, you know, tell people about the process that you’re going through to create an article. Show them pictures from you being on the scene. Show them that you’re not a robot. Show them that you’re not a faceless entity, that there are people behind it. So, and for LeBron James, I think it’s a great example. It shows you a Snapchat video of how he sits on his porch and has dinner. People would say, “But, what does that give me as additional value? Why would anybody watch that?” But people watch that because they can relate to that stuff. They say, “He’s a person. Yes, he has a fancy car and I would never be able to afford his house, but after all, he’s a person.” When I met LeBron James for the first time, he was laying on the locker room floor and singing a children’s song that he would sing to his son. So, he is a regular

person, and that’s something that has to come out through whatever you do on social media, or on any other type of, I would say public communication. That’s why people cling to social media, the name says it. It’s an entirely social thing. There are differences between the different platforms. People say Twitter is more of a news – you know, has more of a news character. People put out more of a harsh fact kind of persona, but they still create a specific perception of themselves. And when you go across channels, Facebook is kind of a ‘jack of all trades’ thing that does everything to some extent. But then when you move into Instagram and Snapchat, these are very, very personal channels that you kind of have to use in a personal way. It’s not a sales channel in the first place. It’s a way, how you present yourselves and maybe get some initial exposure. I read some stats recently that, especially on Instagram, 80 percent of people who view a brand post are actually not following that brand. So, they’re getting this exposure through that private-looking content to brands that they’re not following already. So that’s that huge opportunity, presenting your brand as something very personal, that has a personality. That people can actually build that connection with, but then, eventually, later on will translate into a sale in whatever shape or form that might be relevant to you. Alan Seymour: This personal and this personality aspect, it’s almost an exclusive for me today to hear … that LeBron James is a great singer and he can do everything that me and you as a real person might want to do. So I think that’s a nice little, very, very much a touching point in many

ways, but very much emphasised is this point about authenticity and reality and real. So great to hear that. Just to close, Jan, maybe if I was doing this interview with you in a few years’ time, how do you think the progression might have gone? And I know it’s probably a bit of a fastball question, but I’m asking you anyway, just to make some predictions or some projections going forward. I mean, I am particularly thinking about global here, because I’ve reached out to you in Germany, … we’re doing this over Skype, obviously, but the world now is that global village and we can make communications so much easier. So, how will academia, and how will practitioners utilise the future going forward? Jan Bohemer: Well, I think you make a good point here. I think even though we are technically connected to the entire world, we still oftentimes live in these little silos that we build for ourselves. And I think the biggest challenge, but I also think the way forward, and what we got to see, is that we tear these down. This is, within academia we cannot have a journalism department that’s independent from a – I don’t know – a marketing department. You know, they used to hate each other, the one side is the evil, the other, you know. As a journalist, you didn’t want to talk to somebody in advertising because they were the ones misleading the public. But the reality is that we are in one space, and that we have to collaborate and understand each other. That’s what I tell my students. It’s like, I know, if you want to be a journalist, yes, focus on journalism, but you at least have to be able to understand what somebody in marketing and advertising does. What somebody in PR

does, because they are playing on the same field. And you can only win in that game if you know the rules that they are playing by. Right? So, that was the academic example, but the same is true in the industry. We see integrated advertising agencies with major clients. I’m in one of those, and that means tearing down the walls that the client had with the agency, but also within the different departments or within the agency. Full-service agencies where they don’t have one … therefore putting yourself out there. You don’t have one creative agency; they all have to work together. Because television and online cannot be separated anymore. You won’t be able to have one agency that only covers one market. You will have to sync across the world. We are seeing that with some of the stuff I’m doing work on the Olympics now. Marketing for two brands for the Olympics that are world-wide sponsors. So, you have to serve that entire market, and you cannot think that a client, because he is in Germany now like I am, will never see a campaign that’s run in the US. That’s just unrealistic to believe that people will not make these connections. So, that’s a dramatic change for the industry as well, making these connections and working together and kind of synchronising that work flow across countries, languages, technologies. To just give the client and the customer a holistic view of things, because people don’t like to not find what they expect. And they will, because they have access to everything now. So you cannot say, “I don’t care what my colleagues in the UK do,” because somebody might see a UK version of a TV commercial and say, “Hey, this is … different.

Why is it different? That’s not what I expect from my favourite brand.” And then you have a negative sentiment all of a sudden. Alan Seymour: Jan, a delight and a pleasure and privilege to speak with you today. You have a great week, we’ll keep in touch. And take care and thanks for the interview today. Jan Bohemer: Thanks for having me.

Conversation: reflections and activities The cross pollination of sports communication influences is reflected in this insightful reveal in a discussion with a leading academic, journalist and sports digital commentator. Connections in the digital space mean the occupancy options have greater traction for different players and influencers. As a consequence, the roles of journalists, for example, have been transformed. They are influential, but so are we all.

Short task Choose a recent, major sports event that you attended. Think of how this event was marketed through digital channels of communication. Consider some of the important notations from the conversation with Jan and implement a promotional strategy as a sport marketing professional for future marketing of the event. Ensure you evaluate and explain the different roles and responsibilities of those involved.

Conclusion There is a predominance of social media emphasis in the world of sport marketing. The plethora of platforms has increased dramatically and quickly.

The landscape of sport marketing has changed in a world of content creation. Digital is central to bringing together brands, rights holders, and fans, and the use of social media in sport marketing is now a core feature. Social media has matured, and the participants and beneficiaries have grown accustomed to authentic content that is delivered to them on immediate and effective channels. Social media sport marketing has a new and distinct role to play in the communication process, the results of which are clearly enabling the involved partners to create more meaningful campaigns.

Chapter review questions 1 Why do you think that the consumption of social media by most stakeholders has been so explosive over the last few years? Does it appear to have reached saturation or even meltdown? 2 Given the content of this chapter, what lessons do you think that sport marketing practitioners should take into account when planning strategic sport marketing campaigns? Evaluate some relevant examples. 3 Content creation by all? What viewpoints do you have on the phenomena that everyone has a voice that needs to be heard through social media channels? Give some examples in support of yes or no.

Additional reading and digital resources http://thesportdigest.com/2018/11/the-impact-of-social-media-in-sports/ https://blog.adobespark.com/2016/09/19/winning-sports-social-mediamarketing-21-ways-to-engage-fans-online/ https://digitalsport.co/why-arent-more-sports-teams-using-facebook-instantarticles https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8964/88cf2b48c262874a3fc97f63ca705f977d6f. pdf https://socialmediahq.com/how-social-media-is-changing-the-sportsmarketing-industry/ www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/2019-will-see-a-change-in-how-sportsare-processed-over-social-media/ www.adweek.com/digital/6-winning-social-media-tips-for-sportsmarketing-success www.cnbc.com/2017/03/22/sports-teams-are-getting-more-exposure-onsocial-media-than-they-are-on-tv-expert.html

www.forbes.com/sites/rogergroves/2013/08/21/how-twitter-may-changesports-and-social-media-as-we-know-it/#43b49a103b4a www.latrobe.edu.au/nest/the-impact-of-social-and-digital-media-on-sport/ www.netimperative.com/2017/11/growing-impact-social-media-sports/ www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/business-of-sport/social-media-in-sport/ www.themeboy.com/blog/killer-sports-social-media-examples-2018/

References Bauman, Z. (2008) The Art of Life. Cambridge: Polity Press. Best, S. (2013) ‘Liquid fandom: Neo-tribes and fandom in the context of liquid modernity’, Journal of Soccer and Society, 14(1), pp. 80–92. Chartered Institute of Public Relations (2017) www.cipr.co.uk/ Crawford, G. (2003) ‘The career of the sport supporter: The case of the Manchester storm’, Sociology, 37(2), pp. 219–237. Creedon, P. (2014) ‘Women, social media, and sport: Global digital communication weaves a web’, Television and New Media, 15(8), pp. 711–716. Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P. A., & Hinsch, C. (2016) ‘Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework’, Journal of Business Research, 70, pp. 118–126. Gliddon, J. (2019) www.cmo.com/features/articles/2019/4/9/building-acommunity-the-esports-way.html#gs.icnltq Khoros (2019) www.spredfast.com/social-media-tips/social-mediademographics-current Maffesoli, M. (1996) The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society. Translated by Don Smith. London: Sage. Shilbury, D., Westerbeek, H., Quick, S., Funk, D., & Karg, A. (2014) Strategic Sport Marketing (4th edition). Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Tuten, T. (2012) Social Media Marketing. Cambridge: Pearson.

Tuten, T. & Solomon, M. R. (2015) https://zonesofsmm.wordpress.com/about2/ Tuten, T. & Solomon, M. R. (2018) Social Media Marketing (3rd edition). New York: Sage. Zhang, J. S., Tan, C., & Qin, L. (2018) ‘ “This is why we play”: Characterizing online fan communities of the NBA teams’, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Article No: 197. https://doi.org/10.1145/3274466

4 Reputation management and sports PR

Chapter objectives After studying the concepts, cases, and conversations in this chapter, the reader should be able to: Consider the function of public relations in the digital world for different publics. Identify the issues and challenges of reputation management for digital sport practitioners. Appreciate the practices of public relations from the perspectives of personal development and organisational objectives.

Introduction Sports PR is a multifarious function that promotes brands, teams, players, and sports organisations through earned (and owned) media – broadcast, print, radio, and online (www.prhacker.com, 2019) to their key publics – customers, shareholders, employees, or the local community (see Figure 4.1). All organisations rely on their reputation for survival and success. However, in a world where everyone knows everything yet mainstream media (MSM) is a filter for obfuscation, the role of sports PR in reputation/perception management is key and will be examined here. Hopwood (2010) views sports PR as a ‘different animal’ from PR in other sectors, suggesting that sport should be approached with a ‘Sport Marketing Public Relations’ (SMPR) mindset rather than a purely sport marketing mindset. In effect, the functional operation of marketing and PR should be integrated and focus on relationships and communication rather than simple promotion and transaction. The depth of fan engagement and loyalty to ‘their’ team necessitates marketing-relations actions quite different from those in other consumer commodity sectors. Being the ‘12th Man’ in English

cricket or #Team of Us in Irish rugby certainly has a very different emotional response to the purchase of a summer dress or cotton shirt from H&M! Clearly, this is an important perspective through which to view public relations theory in the digital age, and the lens through which this chapter will develop.

Figure 4.1 Source:

What is sports public relations?

Author owned.

CONCEPTS There is overwhelming conceptual and practical evidence that PR is a bedrock for communication in sports. Sports, as mainstream content, aided by digital media platforms, has resulted in PR being both influencer and conduit to ‘breaking news’. As the sports media – 24hour sports news channels, newspapers, and websites – pores over the merest snippet of official and unsubstantiated news from within the ‘camp’ of a professional sports team or athlete, the power of positive PR is evident. From the preparation of media information packs,

player/team statistical compilations, media interviews, and player appearances, through to website maintenance and social media updates, the PR function feeds the exponential growth of debate and discussion around sports. Within this process, PR practitioners are ‘professional traders’ who sell the image of their clients to those who want to find out as much information as possible about what they are going to buy. Sport sells, but it could be argued that sport is approaching a saturation point: consider the per-game value of the 2019–2022 EPL broadcast rights sale, down an aggregated £500 million on the previous deal (Copping, 2018). So what will become of the role of PR?

Sports PR defined The new model of PR (Silfwer, 2015) is based upon the ‘old’ specialisations of the classic model of PR, but with two new groups to manage: (1) the community – social audiences; and (2) inbound comms direct to the website or the app. Clearly, these groups intersect through the thirst and hunger sports fans show for content and information. To reiterate: “Public Relations is about reputation/perception – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you … with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour” (CIPR, 2019). It is “the strategic use of communication to develop and maintain relationships with stakeholders, influencers and key publics” (Silfwer, 2015). PR as a communications discipline not only is complex but has suffered with blurred perspectives, even more so in an age where publicity and transparency are front of mind. Nevertheless, PR is the strategic use by a brand to reach its organisational objectives in influencing its key publics. These audiences demand credibility in the communications they receive and necessitate greater exposure of the brand within a more forthright, demanding, and immediate social environment. PR encompasses

crisis communications, marketing communications, corporate communications, internal communications, community relations, media relations, and, as stated already, reputation/perception management. With the explosion of digital media, PR is a key SEO strategy, in particular through which to drive consumer traffic to a website. The narrative created to ‘tell the story’ of the brand drives this traffic; therefore, competence in a coordinated, symmetrical communication (as described in Grunig’s Excellence Theory, 1992) across platforms – traditional and new – is a PR must. The role of PR has always been to: Establish and maintain mutually beneficial long-term relationships. Raise awareness. Inform. Educate. Build trust. Make friends. Give people a reason to support. Create fan acceptance (Hopwood, 2010). But, as the world of sport marketing has moved at pace over the last three to five years, so has the sports audience. This more than anything is transforming the objectives of PR to include two-way and multi-way communication that enacts the idea of Grunig’s two-way symmetrical model through the following: Giving audiences a voice. Giving technology to all the stakeholders. Giving two-way engagement a platform in sport management. Giving social and societal issues prominence. Giving digital and newer communications more priority. Giving PR in sports better coverage and image. The notion of genuine two-way and multi-way communication underpins three further PR theoretical perspectives: (1) Dialogic Theory, where an

organisation should be willing to interact with its publics in honest and ethical ways to establish communication channels; (2) Organisation-Public Relationship, which identifies the role of communication within the function of PR, towards determining how PR has helped achieve organisational goals through openness, trust, reciprocity, etc.; and (3) Online Relationship Cultivation strategies, based on disclosure/openness, information dissemination, and interactivity and involvement (Wang, 2015). PR has become a key consideration in the sport practitioner’s toolkit. As Favorito (2013) eloquently suggested: now we are all about positive and proactive engagement in a 24/7 world where you can communicate peer to peer or to millions at once. The information we send out from various devices is essentially non-retractable, so discretion and understanding of the medium we use is essential.

Recall the conversation with Jan Bohemer in Chapter 3 asserting that anyone performing a PR function must understand the medium of social media. The reliance on and interaction through digital and social media are central to the new approach to sports digital PR.

Sports digital PR Digital and social media are consuming us all. It is the greatest advantage and the greatest issue for communications. Nevertheless, through digital sports PR, brands and rights holders have the capacity ‘to tell the greatest story ever told’. Sports digital PR is complex, technical, and precise, requiring an evolving digital skill set to maximise competitiveness, diversity, and distinctiveness. PR is about people and people’s opinions, viewpoints, and behaviours. New media communications have heralded a new awakening for PR. Digital PR practitioners must have strong and creative communication skills, and digital literacy in writing and presenting, to ensure clear and persuasive expression to appeal to diverse groups.

Practitioners must also be able to initiate and manage events which create an opportunity for organisations to talk to their publics and develop dialogue. All these skills and abilities must use creativity to appeal to each stakeholder group. Consequently, PR is concerned with managing an organisation’s interaction with its ever-broadening range of publics. In essence, PR has its roots in ‘activism’, meaning that for many years PR has raised issues that may never otherwise have been heard. It has given ‘voice’ to communities and issues. A key feature of Public Relations is the use of ‘third parties’, that is, credible people who support the organisation’s views but are more influential as they are independent and not part of the organisation itself. Advocates and influencers – individuals with the power to effect the purchase decisions of other people through their authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with the audience (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2019) – are at the heart of any third-party strategy to amplify and multiply the message. With communication at its core, digital sports PR has progressed towards building and developing trust in networks and communities. Public relations is arguably the least understood, most under-utilised, and attractor of the greatest criticism and negative opinion of all the tools available to a contemporary sport business. However, because of its unique characteristics, public relations, when it is implemented knowledgeably and strategically, can exert a significant influence within sport marketing communications (Hopwood, 2010), especially where credibility and support are to be established. The adage that PR is more about publicity and press agentry has changed, especially with the advent of social media and digital communications. The less regulated technologies of social media present an ongoing challenge to sports organisations through their management of ‘information accidents’, where scandals and public criticism may harm the stakeholders of the sport. The digital PR sport practitioner must therefore display PR functionality, PR responsibility, and PR accountability. There is a distinctly close relationship between sport and PR. The reality is that in today’s markets, sport relies ever more on the exposure and dynamism in the ‘buzz’ PR creates. This is all part of the increased clamour

for notoriety of sports entities (brands and rights holders) and the need to create and reach new audiences and publics. The effectiveness of this buzz is that it can both create and alter trends in sports consumption, and in the pervading atmospherics so paramount to fans. The world of digital sports PR has created a new lexicon where practitioners seek to establish what it can do for the range of publics out there. This has morphed into a culture of content creation for all in PR, where essential maintenance and status quo have been transformed to stir up the dictionary, create stories that grab attention, give voice to new audiences, and seek out the ‘attention economy’.

Reputation management The essence of digital PR for sport in the 21st century is its focus on trust and reputation – essential base criteria for any brand or rights holder. Reputation is underpinned by ethical behaviours; something not always obvious in society at large, and sport as a microcosm. It could be argued that the needle is moving in the right direction, as ethical business practice has filtered outwards with the increased attention to ethical, transparent, and authentic public relations behaviour in new media and elsewhere. Good ethics build character and reputation, whilst bad ethics destroy them! The importance of stakeholder groups and targeted publics is crucial in digital sports PR. Reputation is now identifiable through ‘knowledgeables’ or ‘influencers’ based on others’ opinions of these individuals. These publics are the thought leaders in sport. Sport has undoubtedly fuelled the relationship and reliance on image within reputation management. Its core principles are: Be clear about your own distinctive purpose and values. Be prepared to give a lead in all relationships you foster by communicating a consistent themed message. Be clear that all your relationships are reciprocal. Know that your business is not ‘closed’ but part of a wider system

Be flexible and prepared to compromise and manage ‘trade-offs’ to benefit stakeholders. Have measures for assessing performance and change. Reputation is a signal of cooperativeness and reciprocity of human interaction. It creates mechanisms for reducing uncooperative behaviour and guides the choice of partners in a social network. Its relevance is significant to society today, where large interacting networks increase anonymity, thus reducing the ability to monitor reputation – think avatars on social channels. Reciprocity, as a fundamental underpinning principle of reputation management, creates benefit for at least one individual involved. However, the benefit is not always immediate and is a form of altruism because it is disadvantageous to the ‘investor’. Theories abound to explain this phenomenon, be it competitive altruism theory, indirect reciprocity theory, or strong reciprocity theory, each requiring to establish reputation via cooperation. Reputation, therefore, is a stabilising factor that reduces uncooperative behaviour and leads to rewards. The digital/online world monitors reputation via feedback loops, for example ratings and comments about each party in the transaction on eBay. High ratings lead to an enhanced reputation and more sales. Such practice is commonplace across eCommerce platforms. Furthermore, the concept of the audience maintains a focus on positive reputation management. Avoiding the potential for anonymity keeps people ‘honest’ in their interactions and avoids the potential to be lost in the ‘crowd’ (Tennie et al., 2010). As Bettina Cornwell tweeted in February 2019 in relation to those brands using the Super Bowl as an advertising platform, “Brands are beginning to … communicate their values, and that includes empowerment, environmentfriendly behaviour, and societal support.” Brands are visible and want to generate reciprocity. They are managing their reputation post #MeToo and are beginning to reflect societal concerns. It has been a slow transition to embrace the potential of digital sports PR. One counterpoint to note is that the 24/7 nature of global society appears to sensationalise every nuance of behaviour, as people are ‘turned on’ by the

capture of sporting headlines, dramatic incidents, and tumultuous happenings. Or, is it just a reflection that every news item now contemplates first reaction, and then the detail? Is this now the default template for digital sports PR? Sport (and especially football) seems to be the breeding bed of anger and frustration from fans, players, managers, and media alike. How has this happened? Can PR be blamed for creating an angry sport public? As an increasingly litigious society, a ‘blame culture’ has emerged. Easy scapegoats are the norm. Surely the argument should be that in a pluralistic society, sports PR is about giving ‘voice’ where the voice gives authority, credence, and value to ‘groups’ and ‘publics’ who may well share but also have different views. For sports fans given reason to rant on Twitter, maybe take note of this notion? For Michael Erlich, PR Director for Adidas, the changed media landscape has fused traditional editorial with real-time storytelling. Social media is at the root of everything PR related. It’s where media break stories, it’s where athletes interact with fans, and, he suggested, it should be where PR professionals ‘live’, both to consume and understand media, but also to activate their stories. Having a presence on social media is essential for PR leads today. In some instances, social media is even the best place to communicate with media targets, garner coverage, and extend brand stories. Beyond leveraging platforms as PR tools, social media offers real-time feedback from the consumer. This enables an instantaneous read on the impact of a story; it acts as the ultimate focus group.

Case study 4.1: Ford and Team Sky Cycling Ford’s 22-year UEFA Champions League sponsorship was pulled in June 2014 and switched to Team Sky Cycling (now Team Ineos). As a founding sponsor of UEFA, Ford was successful. But then the world changed around sponsorship and partnership. Ford had been using the traditional sponsorship model around reach and awareness through broadcast TV. The brand had achieved global recognition and didn’t need to

create further awareness. They needed to tell more of the Ford story, as research had shown that people didn’t know what Ford was anymore. The UEFA model was about paying a very high fee every year, which took a big slug out of the marketing budget and left little for activation; it was about getting rights, then displaying the logo. But the ability to tell a story through that kind of traditional sponsorship and to engage with consumers was becoming harder to do through that model. The partnership with Team Sky Cycling provided the ability to connect with a smaller audience, but in a more relevant way. Ford found they could do that through a digital/social model in a way they couldn’t through a mass-reach broadcast sponsorship. In fact, they don’t even use the word ‘sponsorship’ at Ford anymore. They talk about ‘partnership’. The other thing that the Team Sky Cycling partnership did, which has become increasingly important in sport marketing, is that it gave Ford relevance; research had shown there wasn’t a close connection between the brand and the UEFA property. People were thinking, why does an automotive manufacturer get involved in the world of football? Where is the authenticity? For brands like Heineken, there is a more natural connection because many people watch a match and have a beer. With cycling, however, Ford can put their products in the middle of the team and it makes sense, because you can’t have the race without the cars. This close connection allowed Ford to create some really relevant content that was shared through their own channels and Team Sky channels, and they had some significant results from their first year in terms of engagement and reach. It was about not just Facebook ‘likes’, but what people were actually doing with that content. Ford also tracked sentiment and saw that change positively throughout the season. Whereas with UEFA and the footballers, because of contracts, Ford didn’t have the flexibility or feasibility to have a bit of fun, with Team Sky Cycling they were able to play around with content. For example, for the last day of the race in France, they swapped their black Mustang for a bright yellow one to get ‘the money shot’ and create a buzz. An example of sports PR that earned great traction and attention across digital channels. Ford made sure

they had really engaging, authentic, natural stories to tell, and Team Sky was really interesting behind the scenes. In fact, one of the most successful content strategies was when Ford used people like the logistics staff, or the chef, to tell their story. That worked for the Ford brand, but it also worked for Team Sky, in terms of humanising the face of its brand. Ford really valued the collaboration and partnership relationship. But they observed that true collaboration doesn’t come easy and requires very hard work. Fortunately, Team Sky took a very similar approach to Ford with their PR and marketing, so both parties sit down and plan together. Ford had learnt from UEFA the importance of planning for potential things that might happen. Ford couldn’t just do things like bring in a yellow Mustang. It looked spontaneous, but it was planned.

Case study questions 1 How has the increased recognition by brands to reputational values of their core consumers been considered in digital strategies? What lessons are key to the way these two major organisations made their decisions? What new problems have occurred in this new relationship between Ford and Team Sky? 2 Given your new understanding of value marketing in sports PR, assess how the relationship could be monitored and evaluated. 3 What PR campaign would you advocate for both these brands in the current social and digital climate?

Case study 4.2: Ford and the EFL Drew Barrand led the rebranding of the English Football League (EFL), which was undertaken to create a more engaging environment for fans and

commercial partners. Given the criticism levelled at rights holders for being too outmoded and inflexible, Barrand was asked for an insight into sport marketing from his insider perspective. There’s a degree of truth in that [the claim that a lot of the big properties are still living in the dark ages] but for sponsors who are only interested in brand awareness, then the traditional media value approach still has merit. For those that want to say something with their sponsorship and have it mean more, then they need to identify what their message is from the start and then create a set of valuations that track success against that. In this regard every sponsorship is unique; there is no set approach that works across the board as every brand’s objective and message is different. In practice bespoke is hard to deliver, particularly if you’re sitting on inventory of 72 football clubs. They’re all different sizes and they all have different capabilities and resource. So, trying to find a consistent approach is challenging. After all, you have to contract on tangibles, not intangibles. The classic argument from brand sponsors is that sponsorship is still measured by media value, by how many times a logo flashes up, rather than the message. I take that point, but we can’t do this differently until somebody can put a value on those intangibles. We’re always looking at different ways to commercialise the product but sometimes brands do not understand that it is not that simple. Nevertheless, none of this excuses right holders who do not support partners in helping them to activate their sponsorships in a better way, or to understand how they can add value. Or rights holders who do not commit to working with brands to create a differentiating message. The rights holder should be working in partnership with the sponsor and the primary broadcaster to make this happen. My best advice to a brand or sponsor entering sports marketing for the first time is to appoint a marketing agency that knows what they’re doing. If you don’t, you could waste the first year working out the basis rather than activating your sponsorship. Agencies can dive into what a brand can do to make this deal different. The most important thing is to be clear about the value you are bringing to the sport and the fans. What are you delivering above and beyond the money? Too often brands look long and hard at investing and they make it all about what they want to get out of it. But you have got to flip it. Ask yourself: “if I’m a fan, what do I want?” That’s the only way to get credibility. The most frustrating thing for me, as a rights holder, is the lack of understanding about a sponsor’s role in the sport or in a fan’s life. Sometimes they have a lack of desire to activate, or haven’t even thought about activation. It’s not just about buying rights; you have to have internal budget to activate a sponsorship properly. Then you have to be consistent with your message. The worst sponsorships are those that change their message every season because they haven’t identified their role.

Case study questions 1 Does PR play a part in creating, and sometimes repairing, repositioning, and redefining, the value and image of a brand? Extend this perspective to the previous case with reasons for your view. 2 “The stakeholders on all sides need to wise up!?” Is this an accurate appraisal for this case study and therefore an appropriate ‘trigger’ point to implement new PR activities? Give an indication of what activities would be appropriate. 3 Is sponsorship relevant to digital campaigns? Evaluate your understanding of the merits of sponsorship as part of a digital marketing mix in a PR context and the previous case study for the EFL. In the following conversation with Ed Bowers, the focus is on learning and the journey for aspirant sport marketing students. It is a journey seen through the lens of developing an understanding of the sports industry with immersive, real practitioner experiences.

Conversation 4.1 Ed Bowers, Education2Sport Ed Bowers is the founder of Education2Sport and host of The Sport Industry Access Podcast. Each week, Ed interviews inspiring sports experts about the core skills you need to pursue a career in the sports industry. Alan Seymour: Well, good afternoon, everybody. This is your host, Alan Seymour, here on The Future of Sport, All In Sports Talk. Delighted this afternoon, my first interview on today’s show is Ed Bowers. He has been involved in a ‘sports scholar, access to the sports’ industry programme. Ed, tell us a little bit about how

Ed Bowers:

you came in to the podcast world, and specifically how you’ve been involved in the sports industry. Well Alan, firstly, thank you very much for having me as a special guest on your show. For me, it all started very young like most people. You’ve got to participate in sport to understand the sports industry, because as you probably know, Alan, the sports industry is about passion. So, a little bit of background about my academic journey, very young … I’m not that academic and so when I was at Shiplake College I started there getting Es and Fs and then things changed around when I was 15 where I wanted to go to university and study sport, especially being a sports psychologist. There’s something I find fascinating with the mind of athletes, but how it also relates to business as well. So, I got into Durham University which I’m extremely proud about. I think the listeners who go to university keep forgetting the industry, that it’s very tough to get in to a university degree program. So, from then I did the three years at Durham, which I have to say, stretched me massively from an academic perspective. To put it really bluntly, at the age of 13 I had a reading age of 6, so to see how things have transcended now and how I’m speaking to you, it’s taken me a long time to really develop my learning but also have the ability to engage with others. So, after my time at Durham, I already knew I wanted to kickstart my career. As I said to you before when we first ever spoke, Alan, I wanted that perfect start. You want the flat, you want the car, and then you want the career job, but in reality it takes time. So, relating to your question about podcasting, it was around about, gosh, 16 months ago I paid a domain for

Education2Sport, so I took a lot of responsibility. I know it costs you £15, but it’s the pressure behind it where you think, “Wow, I’ve set up a business, now what?” And, I looked at different ideas like events, but when it comes down to it, it all comes down to money. But, it was only when I thought to myself and I said to my Mom, “Mom, I need some inspiration.” So, anyway, I went on iTunes and like you do, you just put sports podcast or business podcast and whoosh, here they come. I listened to John Lee Dumas’s interview with one of his special guests, and it just blew me away. So, for six hours, Alan, I was listening to podcasts, and every one, I was going to that website getting the free eBook, getting their tips off their tutorials. So, the point where I got involved in podcasts is, it creates you to take action for yourself, and most of all take responsibility. But, before then with regard to experience, shall we say, in the sports industry, I wanted to understand it. So, with my experience in the sports industry, in my second year I managed to do a week of work experience with Sky Sports where I was doing some of the editing for the Australian Lions tour, which they won, and I was actually there on the final week, and gosh, if you love sport it’s like being a kid in a candy shop. You’re seeing what Sky does behind the scenes. So, being there for a week, I understood the media side of sport and how it builds engagement. Then, that same summer I worked with a company called Soccer X, and this is where I knew… . The first introduction, shall we say, to the sports industry side, what goes on behind the scenes of an event. If you’ve

never heard of Soccer X, they work with FIFA with regard to building football events, with regard to the World Cup, so when you’re there, you’re getting a better understanding of what the industry’s about. But it was only when I worked in London – and I did drift, to be honest, because like anything, when you’ve finished a degree and you want to get a job, you think, “Wow, where do I go next?” Despite that I’ve had the experience, the problem is that network, and it was only lucky enough, seriously, one phone call, which I received, and I was in a pub in London, didn’t know who it was, rang them back a bit tipsy to be honest, and he said, “Ed, I’m looking for a position to find leads to companies.” I went, “Right, I’ll be there.” And, that same day actually, I had an interview with a recruitment company in IT, which as you probably guess is nothing in regards to what I’m passionate about and where I wanted to pursue a career, but as a student or as a graduate you get really desperate. So, from then after the time with this London agency where it just opened up doors with the industry side, I started to connect with some peers from Durham, speak to university lecturers, and already I realised that there’s no clear connection, and I know a lot of friends now actually who aren’t working in the sports industry, but they got firsts, and they’re really talented, so that’s how I got introduced to going, “Right, how can I build this engagement podcast? What’s the way forward?” Alan Seymour: I mean, that for me … I mean, I could almost draw a line now and put it out there and say there’s a testimonial, there’s evidence. That’s aspiration, commitment. You can put all of these connections and

Ed Bowers:

association with the Ed Bowers story almost. I want to pick up on a couple of the things that you’ve talked about here. This is the way I think our interview will go today, and what it’s all about is, almost from both sides here, from both of us teaching and learning, and also the themes that I’m doing with my recent shows that I’m going to be doing a lot more of this type of show over the coming weeks and months, is all about the importance of global sport business and global sport business education. So, the real examples you’re giving here, the experiences, and all of those examples I think are absolutely crucial. First of all, never give up. I mean, for you personally and for you to go on the record almost now and to say the leap that you’ve made, so how important were those early experiences? Let’s start with Durham, a great university, great sports traditions, etc. Tell us what you really felt you learnt and how you’ve been able to apply some of those learning perspectives that you got in the early stages and now applying them both to podcasting and probably ultimately to a sports business career? For me, Alan, what I learnt the most when I was at Durham was that it stretches your independence of a particular subject. So, again to be clear, the sports science degree I did, I wasn’t really that interested in the science side of it, I was more interested in physical activity and sports policy which I find fascinating, those elements relate with the skill sets in the sports industry. So as I’ve mentioned already, if you think about psychology you may want… . And as I said, I wanted to be a psychologist, but working in the sports industry, the business side, psychology is a great tool to

communicate with people and connect with people in an authentic way. So, with regard to your question, that’s what I learnt. Also, what I learnt were the topics, a good example, and it relates to how I have got the confidence, for example, in interviewing people. During my dissertation, for example, I interviewed world champion fighters from the Brendan Ingle gym in Sheffield where I looked at how boxers prepared themselves to get in the ring. Now, I’ve never fought a fight, I’ve never been involved in boxing, but I wanted to challenge myself in interviewing elite athletes, and that opportunity only came, Alan, when I was at Sky, when I spoke to the boxing department. Alan Seymour: Right. Ed Bowers: So, just giving people the awareness that sometimes when you’re in an opportunity you’ve got to build the network, you’ve got to really connect with people straight away, and that’s how I had the confidence interviewing people. I have to say, my first three interviews, I’ve still got them recorded and gosh, I learnt a lot from them, and now I’ve got the confidence doing it with CEOs, and people in the industry direct. Alan Seymour: Tell us a little bit, then, it’s not going off on a tangent here, but I think it’s quite an interesting point you make here. Can you relate to a direct interview that you’ve done, or with someone very special? You mentioned early on, right at the outset … I haven’t talked about it yet, and we’ll go onto that later, but I kind of inferred about Education2Sport, and the link that you’ve got with that, so maybe tell us a little bit about the formation of that and maybe relate it to some specific interviews that you’ve done with people.

Ed Bowers:

Absolutely, before I start and go into the nitty gritty of who I’ve interviewed, the big common themes I have realised now, because coming up to a year, Alan, this time last year it was just an idea. So, the biggest themes I’ve already learnt is that the people I’ve interviewed are role models. I don’t think in the sports industry we talk about people as role models like a child who wants to be the next Ronaldo or Messi, that principle is the same in the sports industry. You need people to look up to, to get inspiration from, and relate to. So, regards to my interviews, gosh, I’ve launched 40, and I can happily say on that show there are 40 role models in different sectors of the sports industry, from PE teachers, CEOs, elite athletes, to performance coaches… . And, lastly of all, people who specialise in the sports industry, such as sports sponsorship, fan engagement, and sports marketing. So, just to give a highlight of the few people that I’ve interviewed, for example, from an industry perspective you’ve got somebody like [Anonymous] who is based in New York, and she specialises in sponsorship, and there was a great case study she spoke about in the interview which was just really different and cool. She spoke about how a lace company, so a trainer company specialising in laces partnered with Danny Willett during the Masters. Now, this one opportunity just sparked everything for this one company. Another example could be Sophie Morris who specialises in sponsorship but mostly in marketing strategy. Now, she works with the RFU, for example, and different rugby clubs, and for me on a learning perspective, she explained the different processes of marketing, and really explaining social media – for

example, how you promote your posts personally will be different if you’re a business. Alan Seymour: Yeah. Ed Bowers: Sounds very simple, but that’s how you build that engagement. Alan Seymour: I mean, Sophie Morris is on the European Sponsorship Association board. She’s very, very good at making case studies and bringing them up, so that was certainly a great opportunity for you there. Ed Bowers: But, the last example if you wouldn’t mind me giving is somebody like Dr Dave Alred. Now, if you’ve never heard of him, he specialises in performance for athletes with regard to pressure. Now, he was part of the 2003 Rugby World Cup side, where he was actually Johnny Wilkinson’s kicking coach throughout his whole career, and now he’s working with professional golfers around the world. So, for people who have, let’s say, done sports science degrees, or you have an interest in coaching, he started the core skills at schools. He was a PE teacher, and how many PE teachers are out there? But, how many PE teachers transform themselves into coaches of Johnny Wilkinson, for example? Alan Seymour: I was once a PE teacher. In fact, and what is quite interesting here, and I’m very proud to put that, and it’s out there now on the record, and many people who know me obviously know that fact. But, that again is very important because people listening to this interview when it comes online next week will not necessarily, but I’m sure they will be able to get the passion and intensity that’s coming out now because we’re obviously doing this as a video as well as an audio, and that drives people. You’ve got to have that innate inspiration, your own inspiration, but

Ed Bowers:

inspiration as you’ve rightly said from your peers, your mentors, and all of those people who influenced you along the way. I always wanted to be in sport. I’ve gone a circuitous way, I graduated, I did a degree in history and politics, but I got involved in sport. I was a sports person and the rest of my career and everything that I still do and want to do has emanated, or has been born out of that, so I think that’s a fantastic… . Let’s flip this slightly. I know how difficult it is for students, and I talk and I’m with lots and lots of students, but the best students will always survive, will always succeed, and will always do well because they’re driven by lots of motivation and the sports psychology aspects that you’ve talked about. If you could change things in maybe some of the teaching or learning processes to begin with, I know it’s a very difficult question, I don’t mean it to be difficult, and nor do I mean it to be necessarily an innate criticism, a negative criticism of what’s there because we’re all teachers and learners, and we’re all progressing, and the digital world particularly has made a massive, massive difference. But, are there any learning lessons that from your perspective you could give, maybe to people like myself, or maybe to people who are listening out there that are involved in course curriculum and various other processes, particularly maybe from a practical application as well? Absolutely, the great thing I did at Durham as well, Alan, I was actually the sport representative for my degree program, so I actually have been in meetings behind the scenes of how degree programs are made, and they are adjusted. So, from an administration point

of view, being at a university it’s full on, again the industry don’t really respect that, shall we say, because everybody’s on strict, strict deadlines and everything’s in place. Ed Bowers: So, learning lessons I’ve learnt from Durham is, the hardest part is you’ve got a student for example, who is having an experience. I still believe to this day that going to university is building experience of the whole package, the educational side, the social side, and also most of all the learning of your own self-development. But, there’s one hiccup which people sometimes forget from day one, it’s the careers. Alan Seymour: Yeah. Ed Bowers: From day one, the career’s element, it is lost, but it’s just because there’s so many other things going on, and from a student perspective, I’ve been there. You’ve got priorities, those deadlines, if it’s in the business world it’s like writing reports. It’s the same principle, but the difference is you may get away with it a week later to finish it in the industry, but in universities there’s guidelines, to change a date, for example, it isn’t as easy as it says. With regards from a degree program perspective, shall I say, this is there, and I’m trying to tap into it to really acknowledge the students that they need a better understanding of the career journey; to be a psychologist you need to have X, Y, and Z in the academic side. People need to see the full journey. Like, the same with a footballer, they started at an academy, they did x amount of years with the under 16s, the under 18s, the under 21s. People can visualise it and see it, but when you leave a university or a degree program and you’ve graduated, that vision’s gone, and that’s

where on my podcast shows, the first question I say is, “Please explain to me about your career in the sports industry start to finish.” From then, you’re giving the listeners a better understanding, because your career, Alan, in the sports industry, is a totally different journey to mine, but there are little key similarities where you can relate to, i.e. the academic side, the experience side of being a PE teacher, which I haven’t got, but it’s something I’d like to be, maybe when I’ve got a grey hair, a cigar down the line. So, I do want to get into teaching, but this is why I’ve got a bit of an experience in a certain niche. But, with regard to students working in sport, because you said earlier that the talented students stick in there because they’re determined. The best advice I can give, and it’s something I’ve experienced, is you’ve got to explore the sports industry. If you want to be a sports scientist, there is a plan for you, because to get ethically approved, i.e. to be a sports psychologist, you’ve got to have a master’s, a PhD, and there’s the route for you. But, to work in the sports industry, as you’ve already said about sports digital, you’ve got to explore it. It is very frustrating, but you’ve got to see what fits. For example, at Soccer X, a great company, I learnt the basics, but it didn’t feel right for me; nothing bad about the company, just didn’t feel right of what I wanted to do and explore. But, same with Sky Sports, I’m not really that techy. I know we do podcasts, and a bit of a technical element, but for me what I enjoy the most now is the journalism side. If we’re putting it to a career boundary, it’s that journalism and interviewing people, but in a different sort of way.

Alan Seymour: Do you know what is quite amazing in listening to you? There’s going to be no one-fits-all, there’s going to be no magic wand or whatever metaphor we can use here, and I would never want it to be. I did a podcast, an interview on my show probably now, four or five shows ago, and it was actually in the same kind of framework that I did with Fiona Green who’s from customer relationship marketing, and CRM and talking about Sophie Morris as you did earlier in sponsorship, and Jim’s done everything, and Jim O’Toole I’m referring to here, is the CEO of Worcester Warriors, but that only tells a very small part of his career, and his advice was never be afraid to keep changing and to make as much of opportunities when they come on. So, a journey, and it will be a journey, and explore every road, every avenue, and every opportunity, get on different roads, go into different places. I always remember one of the things is, we’re sometimes creatures of habit. You make the same journey every day, you go out of the home every day at the same time. Instead of turning right every day, turn left once in a while, do something different, don’t be afraid, and I think as a lesson for us all, and equally you have to be multi-talented, you have to be multifaceted, you have to explore but find something that’s good for you. Don’t ever be afraid, that if you see a route now through sports psychology, and through that route it’s going to take you into sponsorship opportunities, or into branding or whatever it might be, explore all of the possibilities. Where do you see your podcast career, and maybe where do you see the program that you have, Education2Sport, how you can

do and develop that either commercially, business-wise, or just as a communication process? Ed Bowers: As I said before, it’s been a year now. Next month it’ll be officially a year, and I’ve realised now I’ve had an idea, I’ve tested it, interviewed people, and I’m getting great responses through the interviews. I’ve now realised I need to make it a business model, but most importantly a resource. So, I’m at the stage, Alan, doing interviews, and I did one today in Tokyo on Skype. My aim is to … I’m rebranding the whole website, and I’ve already written some content. I’ve created actually, two eBooks where it’s going to build engagement with students. I call it having the industry in your hands, so this eBook’s going to have basically nearly over 150 companies in the UK which I’ve explored, I’ve researched when I was… . The first jobs I had, but also added it to new companies I’ve just discovered. Alan Seymour: Right. Ed Bowers: But, if you look at something like the digital industry, for example, in sport, it’s huge. There’s sensors in tennis that are coming up, and it’s quite big. But, what this eBook is, I have literally put the industry in six sections where it’s different skill sets for different categories, so there’s sport management, sport agencies, for example, and then there’s sport tech and technology, sport foundation, sport hospitality, all these different sectors still relate to the sports industry but all can provide somebody a better vision of where they can fit in with regard to their education and their skill set. So, that’s my next step, it’s to make the website resource where people can get authentic advice but feel that they’re not pressured in the job either. I think

that’s an error I’ve found, when you leave a university or just graduated for some reason you have pressure through, let’s say your parents, your friends going, “Now what? What’s your job?” I want my website to be a place where they can go on, get some career advice, then they use it for their advantage, take a breather, do a bit of meditation, and then they can plan out where they want to go because that’s what I want. I really want it to be the place where people or students can discover their careers. Alan Seymour: Fantastic. Ed Bowers: That’s my aim. Alan Seymour: I wasn’t wishing for that answer, but I detected and from the empathy that we’ve developed over our conversations in the last few months. I think that’s a fantastic positioning, or it’s almost a positioning statement for anybody wanting to make the next step or to use what you’ve done so far to make some forward progressions, if you like, in developing your own industry. I think it was this morning I heard it, I’m absolutely sure, brand new industry, or a brand new concept about how you go about making a living if you like, or earning money, or doing a job. I think it’s called a gig industry, and basically it’s you or I would not work for anybody, you or I would not have a contract, you or I probably would create our own markets, and we’d decide to work for two days or two weeks, whenever we wanted, and we would charge our own fees, we would make ourselves available, and digital is driving this. The internet has clearly made a massive difference, but what it’s also doing is that people who have skills, and people who have experience and expertise and you

Ed Bowers:

put all of those things together, it’s a commodity, it’s valuable, and it’s something that people should appreciate. The danger sometimes in giving advice, and I work in education, and I could go on and on about this kind of culture that may have developed that is almost like, you give your advice and you give all of your tuition and whatever it might be free of charge has to change. It has to change, and I believe that lots of new generations, and people like yourselves can drive this forward, because if it’s a win-win for everybody, if there’s value coming out of it, there’s nothing wrong in asking for a fee, or getting remunerated for something knowing that what you’ve given will reproduce itself, and that will be an investment for the person buying into your services and your professional skill sets. So, I would advise, and it’s kind of me almost answering the question in some ways, but I do think it’s very important through podcasting like we’re doing through shows in business and in the world of digital that we do this. Have you got a viewpoint of this specifically, or is there a way in which you can address that, or what are your thoughts on some or all of those considerations? With regards to what you’ve just said, this is now not advice I’m giving, but it’s just through my experience over the last two years. The first thing with anything like this, Alan, the first big question is how you make money, but really I’m learning through different selfdevelopment books, through different people who are doing podcasts. Look at Tony Robbins. I know it’s a different sector of the industry, he’s more finance, but it’s all about value, and to me I’ve had to really address

that, and it’s very difficult when people ask me, “How do you make money?” Because, it feels really personal, but it’s not because they’re not trying to be rude, they just want a better scope in how I put bread on the table. But, it’s like the chicken and the egg. This is the big catchphrase in our house, chicken or the egg, it’s literally like that, so for me I realise with regards to my vision, is let’s just get things basic, such as a website. It is through my savings, but I know the people on the way are meeting and networking people. So, from a personal perspective there’s development, but now it’s trying to help the student who’s graduating, shall we say at the end of 2018, that’s my objective. My aim is to help that generation. Unfortunately this year, the year goes so fast, we’re in March, but it feels like it’s been like a month. So, I’m looking at 2018 with services, eLearning resources where a student can do it in their own environment, where they can take a breather in regards to their career future, and also educate the degree programs that you’ve got to slice in some time, maybe a reading week for example, where they can focus on careers. Alan Seymour: Do you think there will come a time, Ed, where people will probably still go to university, people will still want to have a certification, people will still want the experience and all of those things? I’m a massive, massive fan of university education and education period. But, there are clearly moves out there with MOOCs and online learning and lots of other things, and do you think maybe sport is different? Do you think there will come a time when students or people who want to learn about the sports industry, instead of

Ed Bowers:

going to a Durham or another university, will say, “No, I’m going to go to Ed Bowers’s consultancy,” or, “I’m going to learn from Education2Sport, and I’m going to give him some of my money that I would’ve spent or given aside to tuition fees, and get a better experience, or to get a better perspective on what I want to do.” For me, Alan, universities are vital. I’ve experienced it, and the biggest thing it taught me, and it all started from episode one with Dr Martin Roderick who is a lecturer who inspired me, I’ll always look up to, and the biggest thing he always said during his lectures is, “You’ve got to challenge things.” And, that’s what university does. I have to say, being honest, I’m very frightened about the career element of apprenticeships what’s going on at the moment, because I think it should be considered with regard to what the student is inventing at the moment. Put it in perspective: when I was at Durham I was the final year group where it was about £7000 a year, not £9000 a year. So, you’re looking now, Alan, around £70,000, £80,000 including accommodations; that’s an investment. This is one thing I would… . When I do workshops, when I do the eLearning is, at the end of the day, your education is an investment. So, I’m not suggesting just because you invested in yourself with a degree you deserve a job at the end, but accessing the opportunity, that’s where I firmly believe I like to say I can help, in that sector or that process slot. But, I think for me the student needs to understand themselves, and I try to do that, but I’ve had to chill out to be honest. When I was at university I was putting too much pressure on myself with the career. I should have just let it open up naturally. I had to make sure I had that

work ethic of course, but with regard to what you’re saying, universities are vital because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter which industry you’re in, research defines change. Alan Seymour: Yeah. Ed Bowers: And, the students are learning from the word go the basic elements of how research takes place, and that’s how industries move forward. A really good example, Alan, where I can relate to it is, look at women’s sport now; it has grown massively. When I was at Durham four years ago, I was challenging in my essays with theoretical areas to it about why isn’t there more media coverage of women’s rugby or at the Olympics, and now it’s actually happening, but it’s taken four years. But, it just proves that research is always going to be behind the new ideas, the new entrepreneurs, but at the end of the day it’s the students who have got the ideas, because their essays reflect that. Alan Seymour: But it’s interesting, I totally agree with you and it was more a conversational piece than a statement or a judgement, and it’s fascinating. We’re going to have to sadly tie up the interview shortly, but I want to keep continuing because it’s interesting, and I think I made a comment off-air to you earlier about a recent interview that I’d done, and I just got back into it, and it was a judgement call on legacy from the Olympics. It was talking about Team GB, and what is fascinating about what you said, I made a comment then that there was all this hype and adrenaline, and everything is great, but have the UK – or GB, sorry – bought their medals and bought the success story, and all of the investment, and to what extent was that elitism, or a whole range of issues.

Ed Bowers:

But, one of the comments I made was, and it relates a little bit to sponsorship, that now it’s not just so much the brand Team GB, what we’re now talking about will be individual athletes themselves being branded, and they can control that, and what is interesting where I think we’re going, and why I posed the question, if you want Ed Bowers sports consultancy, it will be great, go and get that advice, go and seek that advice, because we’re all brands today. We all have a voice, and those who do it best, and those who do it, I was going to say for effect then, but those who do it where it is effective in giving advice that will produce results, so it’s true learning if you like, and experiential learning, and development, then that has to be advocated and we have to push that. I think guys like you, the new students, the new millennials, whatever label you want to put on them, it’s content creation at its best, a voice, it’s there to be listened to, and it needs to be heard, and it’s you who can control that. So, let’s put some summations to some of those things. Where would you ideally like to be, let’s say in five years’ time, Ed? If you were looking forward and gazing forward as to your career aspirations? For me at the moment, I’m focused on what I’m doing, and to me that’s a pipeline around five years. I’d love Education2Sport to be the home hub, but if we push it on to ten years I would really love to be part of a national governing body with regards to the directors, board directors. Because to me, you look at any board of directors, let’s say UK Sport, each person has done something really unique, but most of all added value to a type of person, or a geographical location if it’s

making a certain area of the UK more physically active. To me, that’s my vision. If I was head of UK Sport, that would be a career goal. Alan Seymour: Okay, and what is interesting there is, it didn’t matter what aspect … I mean, my show is called The Future of Sport. I’m a marketer, I’m very proud to be a marketer, but I’m also socially responsible. I’m also an ex-PE teacher, I’m also massively, massively involved and always have an opinion, whether it be political, social, cultural, and why not? And, you can bring all of those things together. Now, in many ways almost having that as an ideal we need people like that, and we need younger people like that who are going to make the next decisions. Governance is a massive, massive issue today. We’ve got to relate and be good at sport, and also make sport good for business, and obviously for lots of other considerations. So, I think that’s a great aspiration you have, and the career path, you can be lots and lots of things. You have a great interest in just being a sports fan. You talked earlier about the course, fan engagement, branding, marketing, sponsorship, but also it’s now about social responsibility, it’s now about journalism, it’s now about digital skill sets, and so on. So, the more you drive these things through, and the more you understand them, then that’s going to be better. Before we finish the interview, just give us a few links, would you, for my audience, and for my listeners? I know you’ve got plenty of them, and maybe just talk us through them, how you perhaps are going to use these links or have used these links. So, maybe just revisit and recap on some of the key things that you’re doing at the moment and where you’d like to

direct people to as a learning resource as much as anything, because I think that comment you made very early on is absolutely spot on, that Ed Bowers, and what you’re doing, you’re creating a resource, and that’s perfectly summed up I think, our interview today. Ed Bowers: Absolutely, and thank you, Alan for this chat, I’ve really enjoyed it. With regard to getting engagement with the podcast show, it’s on iTunes, it’s actually called The Sport Industry Access Podcast. Alan Seymour: Okay. Ed Bowers: You can also get engagement through my Twitter page which is @edbowers101, and also @Education2Sport. But, if you want to go straight to my website and really know about me and what my values are and the company values, go to Education2Sport.com, and all the information is there. You can contact me direct. I’m on LinkedIn as well, and you can have a look at my profile, and lastly my email address, I love emails. It’s the best reward I get so far, and I’ve had about 50 so far; people thanking me and how I’ve helped them move on. So, my personal email address is Edward.Bowers, which is B-O-W-E-R-S, @education2sport.com where you can contact me direct. Alan Seymour: Brilliant interview, Ed. Yeah, I always get a sense with any interview that I do that you’re never worried about the next question or the next answer, and you’ll know that from your experiences recently, and if you’ve done 40 of the top CEOs over the world you’ll have that really, really locked in now. I think the other interesting thing about today’s interview, which has been totally unique in lots of ways is, there’s a lot of openness here,

Ed Bowers:

and my style has always been to be very open in wherever I’ve been, and I think if you can admit to things, if you can open up to things, if you can express yourself, there’s lots of metaphors, shirt on your sleeve, and thumping the badge is a sports thing … whatever it might be. But, I want to just close and I’m fascinated to know how you’re going to develop because I know you’re going to be a success, and I also wonder, and it’s a kind of wonderment in everything that we do that the next stage might be totally different to what you’re planning, there are all these things. But, one thing I could relate to is, I’m writing a textbook at the moment and it’s a challenge. A challenge is, you meet so many different stakeholders and you’ve got to do so many different things, it’s almost like going through the hoop time and time again, but you know where you’re going to end up and you know it’ll be finished at some point. It’s a labour of love for me, and it’s in a brand new area of digital sport marketing which clearly in many ways, and I repeat this a number of times in my textbook that no one’s really done it yet, and therefore because nobody’s really done it yet it’s a great challenge. But, you’re also entering a little bit into the unknown. Now, you talk about eBooks, and I just wonder what you feel, or what you fear, or both in what direction, and where do you see this eBook finishing if you like? Well, in regard to my self-development, and you said to me where do I see myself, I’m always challenging, and as Alwyn Belcher said who’s Nicola Adams’s boxing coach, who’s a lovely fellow. I’ve known him a few years now, he’s been on my podcast show. “You can never stop learning.” So, at the moment I’m still

mastering let’s say, a really day-to-day routine where I feel good, that I’m buzzed for the next day because I have no boss on my shoulders. I’ve got posters here, I’ve got an achievement contract right in front of me. Alan Seymour: Fantastic, yeah. Ed Bowers: So, you’ve got to keep learning, and learn from the experts in different fields, and you just nitpick what inspires you, and with regard to the eBook side, for me it builds engagement, and this was my one mistake. As I said to you in our first ever chat on Skype, I wish I spoke to you earlier because two years ago when I bought that domain, I was so secretive because when you watch films, read articles, and people take ideas, well they could take an idea, but doing it is another as they say, kettle of fish. So, to me being open and adding value, that’s the sort of philosophy, which has taken me a while. It doesn’t come overnight, but you will see the work you’re doing for example Alan, how you’re making a difference, and as I said to you, hopefully you’ll be my 48th special guest as a role model on my show. So, that’s where. Alan Seymour: We already have that in the diary, so breaking news here on All In Sports Talk, next weeks’ show, March the 22nd, 5:00 p.m. UK time, midday eastern time, USA. Ed Bowers is going to be my first guest with me, Alan Seymour, your host. Openness, it is quite amazing because going back to school days, and this won’t come out over the radio, but if you’re writing something and someone’s sat next to you, the tendency was this is what you do, you can’t see or look at what I’m doing. Have an open book, have an open page. I spoke off-air to you, I promoted another radio station, another podcaster this morning

from an interview I did 12 months ago. I talk openly and honestly about great podcasts that are out there, we’re all together in this. Now, if you’re going to open a shoe shop, open it up next to another shoe shop, not miles away from shoe shops and compete against each other and help each other. We’re a family, we’re a community, and we need to develop this and build it, and you know what? Everyone in that industry, and everyone in that community will benefit from it, and that’s what a lot of things are doing. It’s been great to interview you today, Ed. I wish you every success in the future, and obviously we’ll talk later and off-air and I’ll obviously be glad to talk on your show soon, so many thanks. Ed Bowers: Thank you very much for the opportunity, thank you. Alan Seymour: Take care, bye bye.

Conversation: reflections and activities The ability to be an ‘all round’ sport marketer is the essence of this conversation. The teaching and learning of future sport professionals is much needed in the transition from aspirant marketer to successful practitioner. These short snapshot interviews with leading successful sport marketers and digital practitioners highlight the skill sets required to fulfil a career in sports.

Reflection activity to the conversation Appraise the interview and organise a classroom discussion centred on the following suggested topics:

If the opportunity arose to work within each of the sectors mentioned, which would you choose, and why? What, if anything, would you say from a future sport marketing career perspective is the best advice you can gather from this interview? What, if anything, do you feel was not considered as best advice for you? Explain why in your own learning environment.

Conclusion Sports PR set within the context of reputation management is a key functional skill in sport marketing. As brands seek deeper relationships with key audiences, the dynamic of digital is an ever more important feature of that communication process. When a brand requests additional ‘buy-in’ from sports fans in the digital domain, they enter a contested space where reciprocity is key to favourable outcomes for all stakeholders. Through the necessity to uphold ethical values, to be responsible and accountable, benefits are delivered to all parties. Beware of standards falling below expectations: promise only that which can be over-delivered.

Chapter review questions 1 “The sports brand is all about its reputation.” Discuss this assertion with knowledge from both the chapter content and your own personal involvement with a sports brand. 2 Public relations has often been seen as a non-marketing activity that is just spin and fiction. What new aspects of reputation management do you see changing this negative perception? Give examples of your reflections. 3 Are there new developments in the world and culture of PR globally that would escalate its professional practice for sport business?

Additional reading and digital resources http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/92902/1/92902.pdf http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=1080&context=comm_fac https://everything-pr.com/sports-pr/ https://iabm.co/archive/influencer-marketing-strategies-for-sportsmarketing-and-pr-agencies https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-an-influencer/ https://preportdotinfo.wordpress.com/2018/03/22/public-relations-in-sportsindustry/ https://prhacker.com/ https://prhacker.com/sports-pr-definition/ https://thephagroup.com/service/sport-fitness-pr/? gclid=Cj0KCQiAw4jvBRCJARIsAHYewPMh4GNHjy89SCan4xdna9Awr M5mxPX3tsvONsbeKb605D3z0umlh9YaAp3YEALw_wcB www.holmesreport.com/latest/article/new-balance-hands-global-prbusiness-to-mullenlowe

www.publicrelationstoday.com/2017/examples/sports/ www.publicrelationstoday.com/sports/ www.researchgate.net/publication/305044397_Using_public_relations_in_sp orts www.sportsprsummit.com/7-questions-with-adidas-sr-pr-manager-michaelehrlich/

References CIPR (2019) www.cipr.co.uk/ Copping, J. (2018) ‘The English Premier League: 2019–2022 domestic TV rights sold for £4.46bn’. www.sportsandtaxation.com/2018/02/theenglish-premier-league-2019-2022-domestic-tv-rights-sold-for-4-46bn/ Favorito, J. (2013) ‘Sports publicity, marketing & brand building in a new age’. https://joefavorito.com/2013/03/08/ Grunig, J. E. (2010) in M. Hopwood, P. Kitchin, & J. Skinner (Eds.), Sport Public Relations and Communication. London: Routledge. Hopwood, M., Kitchin, P., & Skinner, J. (Eds.) (2010) Sport Public Relations and Communication. London: Routledge. Influencer Marketing Hub (2019) ‘What is an influencer’. https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-an-influencer/ Silfwer, J. (2015) https://doctorspin.org/public-relations/pr-industry/what-ispublic-relations/ Tennie, C., Frith, U., & Frith, C. (2010) ‘Reputation management in the age of the world-wide web’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14(11), pp. 482–488. Wang, Y. (2015) ‘Incorporating social media in public relations: A synthesis of social media-related public relations research’, Journal of Public Relations, 9(3).

5 Sports practice and fan engagement in an online environment

Chapter objectives After studying the concepts, cases, and conversations in this chapter, the reader should be able to: Have a greater understanding of the issues relating to fans and fandom. Discuss the nature and differences in aspects of fan engagement both online as well as attending sporting events. Explain what impacts the online fan environment has on digital sports practice and marketing for all stakeholders.

Introduction Fan:

a fanatic, devotee, aficionado, supporter of a sport, sports team, sports club, or competitor who generates the fan base for that sports entity. Their collective fandom creates a sub-culture of empathetic feeling through shared interest. Engagement: the act of engaging: attracting, occupying, and holding the attention and efforts of a person. Fan engagement: “[the] growth strategy of long-term relationship management between sports institutions and fan groups, where institutions facilitate fans in self-expression and in-group acceptance using both modern online and offline technologies with the goal of creating social value for fans which can be transformed into profit optimization” (Schnater, 2016). In essence, the purpose of fan engagement is to grow fan bases, improve fan experiences and create new business revenue opportunities. Examples include the Super Bowl Experience, Wimbledon AI highlights, the F1 App and the Manchester City Hackathon (Other Media, 2019). Sport fans’ engagement, either attending, watching, purchasing, or reading, depicts

extrarole behaviour – pro-social, effort-intensive behaviours (de Ruyter & Wetzels, 2000) – of support, collaboration, and cooperation indicating sport fan loyalty through persistent and resistant commitment to a sport team (Funk & James, 2001). Attitudinal understanding of sport fans has dominated the academic discussion, for example, fan loyalty (Funk & James, 2001), team identity (Heere et al., 2011), and spectator-based brand equity (Ross et al., 2008), although a switch to focus upon behavioural responses around engagement has emerged more recently (Yoshida et al., 2014; Vale & Fernandes, 2018).

CONCEPTS Consumers of sports have unique relationships with their favourite teams. Fan loyalty is determined by the intensity of fan commitment, plus the frequency and complexity of repeated fan engagement behaviours. There is a difference between those who are loyal and those who exhibit spurious or latent fan loyalty. Differences in the levels of fan loyalty impact on segmentation and relationship marketing strategies. For example, Fan-Type 1 exhibits a low loyalty level, such that they might be watching ‘TV’ games only. Fan-Type 2 exhibits a medium/high loyalty level with a tendency towards nontransactional fan engagement behaviours (high online engagement and a high number of televised matches watched). Fan-Type 3 exhibits a truly strong level of fan loyalty. Their transactional fan engagement behaviours and offline engagement behaviours are high. Many of them might be members of a supporters club. Therefore, it is important to identify the reliable revenue generators (transactional-loyals) and devoted part-time marketers, who co-create the team’s image and online fan community (non-transactional-loyals). The club generates revenue from both: directly from transactional-loyals and indirectly from non-transactional-loyals (Huiszoon, 2018).

Kemp (2019) noted the end of the passive fan due to a shift in social media marketing in sport. Intimacy is one of sport’s greatest strengths – the fans’ connection to their sport and team. Social media shortens the distance between players, clubs, brands, and the audience. Twitter, for example, creates a feeling of communication directly to a team and its players. To enter a conversation with consumers around sport, brands need to have a reason to be there, and brands need to earn their place in that conversation. For brands such as Vodafone, this meant sponsoring EPL clips. In many ways, such sponsorship deals work like traditional broadcast deals, but social media enables more segmentation and targeting. There has been a growing value around real-time clips and minute-long segments. In this new ecosystem, the players are able to cut through the noise with their authentic voices. For example, Raheem Sterling was vociferous on Instagram condemning racism. The gatekeeper is now redundant, as connecting with an audience is direct. The rules of the game have shifted, and brands need to think carefully about what they are exposing themselves to. The era of the ‘passive fan’ is over, as opportunity increases for more meaningful connections. The Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) (Funk & James, 2001) suggested that engaging in continuous sport consumption activities progresses along four hierarchical stages: awareness, attraction, attachment, and allegiance. This is very similar to the AIDA model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) and the RACE strategy (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage), and linked to the concept of the Sales Funnel – the journey a customer goes through when making a purchase. As a prospect passes through each stage of the funnel, it evidences a deeper commitment to the purchase goal. So, communication messages aim to move the consumer up the PCM elevator based around the principle of involvement. This construct represents a person’s level of interest, desire, and motivation to engage in a sport or related consumption activity. Three facets underpin the concept of involvement: pleasure, centrality, and sign. Pleasure is the

enjoyment derived from the activity; centrality is how central the activity is to someone’s lifestyle; and sign is the symbolic value of the activity. To create awareness in a person’s life, parents, peers, media, schools, and sport subcultures are important inputs. Social media is now one of the most important socialising agents, especially for younger consumers (Generations Y and Z). Viral marketing is a recommended strategy due to the minimal cognitive effort required to understand the message in the awareness stage. One example of a viral marketing campaign designed to socialise consumers through sport was Nike’s Da Da Ding campaign in India. This challenged the narrative on sport and gendered identity in India as Nike commissioned a host of female celebrities from sport in India to present athleticism as aspirational, and sport as sexy. Awareness measurement identified 3.93 million unique authors with an almost equal gender split (51.1 percent male and 48.9 percent female), and the main source of content being via YouTube. Attraction occurs through volition when an individual selects to engage in a sport activity. Communication messages that focus on promoting desirable inputs, such as functional attributes and intangible benefits, influence the progression from awareness to attraction. The attraction stage is high in pleasure and low in sign and centrality, so a communication strategy should aim to trigger an emotional response and increase a consumers’ pleasure in sport. For younger fans of sport, attraction is facilitated by being cool! And the cool formula is: 45 percent Appeal; 43 percent Originality; and 12 percent Popularity. So, to attract the younger audience takes originality in product innovation or communication, or working on appeal to engage emotions. This could be a ‘Snapchat takeover’ by a celebrity athlete, as Wimbledon did with Serena Williams. Snapchat and WhatsApp are forms of dark social media which are difficult to measure and understand. Attachment represents the emotional, functional, and symbolic meaning an individual places on a sport object, strong enough to

motivate behaviour. Self-image, involving personalisation through customer loyalty programmes, is designed to move an individual from attraction to the attachment stage. Twitter analytics, for example, can inform of personalisation efforts to increase the personal meaning of the sport product/service. Analysis on a large sample of tweets about the World’s Fastest Road Race – the Ulster Grand Prix (UGP) – identified that the UGP Twitter account did not sufficiently exploit the topic of the ‘UGP Brand over Time’ to drive engagement. Something to work on. Allegiance activities are focused on increasing sports fan loyalty and devotion to a sport object through attitudinal (emotional, functional, and symbolic meaning) strength. High consumer loyalty – both attitudinal and behavioural – is typical of consumer tribes. Sport fans are viewed as ‘tribes’, and so a tribal marketing and branding approach can be adopted around shared values, practices, emotions, and group narcissism (the sharing of identity, for example among diehard fans or sub-groups such as extreme sport enthusiasts). At this stage of the PCM model, social media serves for meaning co-creation which can be encouraged by engaging with that community in the design of products/services before launching them, perhaps through a dedicated app. High levels of fandom, team identification, and emotional attachment towards sport teams have often been associated with the term ‘engage’. Fan engagement is a central construct for the customer relationship management of professional sports teams (Huettermann et al., 2019). Sports fan engagement requires an amalgam of related factors for fans: the need for information, empowerment, and brand love are the main drivers of consumption, contribution, and creation, respectively. The need for integration and social interaction are also the main motivations for engaging with sport teams, etc., on Facebook (Vale & Fernandes, 2018). The need to continue to appeal to fans’ emotions to develop, maintain, and increase fan loyalties is most evident.

Meng et al. (2015) provided a suitable benchmark for sport marketers in their management strategies for online engagement with fans. 1 Fans turn to social media to access up-to-date information on the team, players, and other related aspects of the organisation: classified as ‘Informing’. By providing real-time updates, ‘sneakpeeks’, and exclusive news, teams are able to satisfy fans’ desires for timely and relevant information, increasing their satisfaction. 2 Sport organisations can personalise their contact with individual fans through directed conversations: classified as ‘Personalising’. By increasing the accessibility to representatives of the team and creating a more personable front, this can solidify the relationship with individual fans. 3 Contact with fans can be directed at the entire group by asking questions, getting fans involved in the creative process, and eliciting feedback: classified as ‘Activating’. This strategy is particularly effective in creating opportunities for group affiliation and increasing fan-community involvement. 4 Through social media, sport organisations are provided with a valuable opportunity to expose their direct target market to marketing communications related to the team, games, and events: classified as ‘Marketing’. By ensuring promotions and advertising are relevant and of value to the fans, sport organisations can encourage greater financial commitment by the highly identified audience found through social media. However, by promoting too often through social media, sport organisations may also run the risk of over commercialising the space, potentially losing fans. Never forget the similarities between sport fandom and organised religion. Think about the vocabulary associated with both: faith, devotion, worship, ritual, dedication, sacrifice, commitment, spirit, prayer, suffering, festival, and celebration. (Wann et al., 2001).

Case study 5.1: Geoff Wilson, Consultant Geoff runs his own Sports Consultancy, working with clients such as FIFA, UEFA, AFC, and FIBA across the world. He is also on the board of Tourism Northern Ireland. You can follow Geoff on twitter @geoffwnjwilsonconnect on LinkedIn on at linkedin.com/in/geoffwnjwilson.

Figure 5.1 Source:

The fan engagement model.

Wilson and Fowler (2016).

Acknowledgement to David Fowler regarding the fan engagement model.

Fan engagement: from game day to every day

Engaging your fan base and enhancing their experience when they are at the stadium on game day has been a challenge for many sports clubs and federations to get to grips with. However, as most sports organisations slowly find their feet, the new battleground of fan engagement is the period between game days. Progressive sports clubs and Federations are shaping a holistic fan engagement strategy as they push beyond the game day in search of the ‘every day’. They recognise that fan engagement must play a central role in their overall growth strategy and that a balance of activities reflecting each of the below four strategies is key. They also recognise that every fan engagement touchpoint represents an opportunity to collect data that can drive further value to the club, to fans, and to sponsors. Digital plays a vital part as well as the traditional face-to-face events and activities. Both combine to become an effective force. Figure 5.2, that I co-created in 2016 with my good friend David Fowler, can be applied to digital and non-digital fan engagement. For the purpose of this chapter, I will focus solely on digital.

1 Host fans (at the stadium on non-match days)

Non-game days provide opportunities to “host” fans at your venue and make them feel part of the club by giving them an intimate experience. Stadium tours are a well-established way to achieve this. EE have shown with their smart guide (produced for the Wembley Stadium tour), that the integration of technology can enhance the traditional idea of a stadium tour and present valuable data collection opportunities. Many clubs are now embedding AR and VR technology within their stadium tour which has added great value for the overall fan experience. Moments in history and messages from players and head coaches are being brought to life through AR and VR platforms. Museum tours are another area touched by the digital revolution. The Minnesota Vikings are using virtual reality to bring their rich history to life

for fans. The so-called “Vikings Voyage” is a 10,000-square-foot interactive experience located at the clubs U.S. Bank Stadium. English Premier League (EPL) club Tottenham Hotspur showed how a venue can be used to host fans and serve the community through the use of the club’s facilities to host job fairs which connected thousands of local job seekers and over 90 employers. In addition, Tottenham has signed an agreement with the NFL to host games at their multi-functional stadium. Equally, clubs such as Manchester City, Chelsea FC, and Bayern Munich have hosted “Hackathons” to engage with new target audiences while solving a particular issue or challenge. eSports is likely to continue to be an attractive area for clubs and federations (and sponsors) in terms of fan engagement. Sports teams, event organisers, and leagues have signed agreements with eSports teams and players. This is hardly surprising given that the global eSports market is estimated to be worth USD 1.79 billion in 2022 (source: Statista, 2019). Finally, venues or stadiums are being used on non-game days for a wide range of activities such as hosting eSports tournaments, events and conferences, music concerts, or other sports events (for example, boxing at football venues).

2 Connect fans (away from the stadium on non-game days)

Fans are tribal and want to feel connected to fellow fans as well as the club, players, and/or the team. Facilitating these connections is critical to an everyday fan engagement strategy. Virtual reality, augmented reality, and 360-degree video technologies are now enabling clubs and federations to create exciting behind-the-scenes experiences. In American football, Visa and Bank of America gave New England Patriots fans the chance to “Travel Inside the Game” to Patriots’ training sessions via Google Cardboard. Top sports clubs are becoming more like media houses producing lots of digital content to fulfil and satisfy the craving of fans for information on

players and team news. Developing exclusive content outside of game day is a challenge, not to mention the issue of feeding the multiple channels that the average club or federation now operates. This includes platforms such as the organisations’ website, app, OTT platform, YouTube, and social media feeds. Fantasy gaming has taken off in the US and beyond, with a number of technology companies offering fans the ability to play fantasy games, from one game to the other. The Fantasy Sports Trade Association claims that daily fantasy players consume on average 40% more sports content than non-players do. While Fan Duel and Draft Kings have grabbed the headlines, new players are emerging all the time. Many sports organisations such as F1 are using fantasy gaming to engage with fans throughout the week and on event days.

3 Bring fans closer to the live action (not at the stadium on game days)

Engaging those fans who are not in the stadium on game day is a key challenge for most sports clubs and federations, particularly since live content rights can be tied up with central media rights partners. Clubs have become more creative in recent years with the development of behind-thescenes content (such as tunnel cams and creatively deploying GoPro cameras) as well as making use of live games during pre-season friendlies and youth and women’s games. Many are also serving a broader base of fans by creating a presence on new platforms in new markets (e.g. Bayern Munich has been very successful in China via their Weibo and WeChat presence). As virtual reality technology continues to develop at pace, many are predicting the dawn of an era when sports clubs can offer an infinite number of fans a pitch-side view of the action via a VR headset from the comfort of their sofa.

The rise of OTT platforms has seen a number of clubs creating their own platforms. Clubs such as Manchester City and Barcelona are using the internet to live broadcast friendly, youth, and women’s matches to their global fan base. In addition, leagues are also getting in on the act. LaLigaSportsTV has its own OTT platform showing a range of live games, highlights, and behind-the-scenes content.

4 Enhance the live experience (game day at the stadium)

For now at least, the live experience at the venue is at the core of the value proposition for sports clubs and federations. Empty stands lead to a flat atmosphere for the players and those watching at home. Therefore, this must remain the cornerstone of engagement activities with sports fans. For many sports clubs and federations, fan engagement rightly begins with understanding the fan journey and ensuring ‘pain points’ are addressed. The Miami Dolphins, leveraging IBM’s Intelligent Operations Centre technology, smooth the fan journey by monitoring and reacting to weather forecasts, parking delays, and even concessions shortages at specific stands in Sun Life Stadium. In addition, many sports clubs and federations are now deploying cashless ticketing, such as Orlando City SC. Live entertainment before the game, and at half-time, including dedicated fan zone areas with live music, specific sport-related games, etc., can add significant value to the match-day experience. Manchester City’s City Square, a fixture in the match-day ritual for City fans, is an award-winning example of how to build such a concept. Strong stadium Wi-Fi is now expected (and can be a crucial facilitator when collecting fan data), yet in certain stadia slow networks have been a source of frustration. Levi’s Stadium (home to the San Francisco 49ers) has a Wi-Fi access port for every 100 seats in the stadium, and for the fan who doesn’t want to leave his or her seat, there is a specially developed app to order food and watch on-field replays. With the roll-out of 5G connectivity at stadiums and venues, this will open endless possibilities from multi-

camera content to enhanced customer experience offerings to gathering more data on fans at the game. Providing behind-the-scenes content and serving this exclusively to fans at the game is a valuable way to reward those that have come to the stadium (Liverpool FC do this particularly well at home games in the EPL). GPS player tracking technology is advancing at a rapid pace, allowing coaches to track individual player data. As we move into the future, it is a question of when, not if, this data will be used by clubs and federations to enhance the live experience by providing player and team detailed data and enhanced betting opportunities. Chatbots, computer programmes designed to simulate intelligent human conversation, promise to play an increasingly influential role in driving content consumption amongst fans on game day and non-game days. The NBA showed what is possible with the introduction of a Facebook Messenger chatbot around the NBA Finals that helped fans locate historical NBA content featuring the two teams. Chatbots are gaining popularity because they offer sport clubs and federations a chance to engage with fans in a manner never seen before. A fan with match tickets in hand the morning of a game can quickly ask the chatbot for the best place to park near the stadium or, immediately after the game, inquire about the seats for the next home match. Followers, young and old, can ask a question at a moment’s notice, providing them with the answers they seek and casting a positive light on your brand.

• The importance of having an integrated fan engagement platform More and more sports clubs and federations recognise the importance of having a digital platform on which fans and fan engagement activities are hosted 365 days per year. The best platforms integrate activities across all four of the fan engagement strategies outlined here. As CRM continues to be an important source of business growth for sports clubs and federations, platform choices are more important than ever.

A greater number of data sources are being linked in to a back-end CRM system; from social media, to ticketing, merchandising, and more.

• Engaging fans from one game day to the next It’s not easy to go from game day to every day, but hopefully this chapter has given you some food for thought to bring your fans closer to your club or federation and reduce your reliance on the game-day experience. Technology is likely to continue to shape the future of fan engagement and, for example, chips implanted in fans that allow a club to engage with them on a far more sophisticated level than we can imagine today promises to test today’s legal frameworks and ethical standards. Ensuring that you are engaging and not annoying your fans, as well as not distracting from your core product, are probably the biggest challenges you will face in moving from game day to every day.

• Looking forward It is very difficult to predict the future of fan engagement and the role of digital, but the following broad themes are important to consider: Greater personalisation of marketing messages linked to data gleaned from a variety of sources will present relevant information based on preferences, behaviour, and location-based data. Data capture: the need to link various data streams together to build a picture of the fan. This data must be gathered in real time as well as static forms of data. A key element to consider is the quality of the data captured. Single view of customer (SVC): linked to the previous point, sports clubs and federations must roll out CRM platforms that link together the various databases while providing tools to give the organisation the ability to provide meaningful and actionable insights. A key component

on the SVC will be to make content timely and relevant to the recipient based on the data captured by the organisation. A key area to consider would be the employment of knowledgeable staff who have the skills to analyse the data. Artificial intelligence: this is an area which is linked to many of the points outlined in this chapter. AI is becoming embedded into many parts of our lives, and this will be no different in sport. AI technologies will be employed in a wide range of ways to engage fans in a more personalised way, from asking clubs and federations routine and nonroutine questions through to automated responses being answered through the medium of voice. Through AI, we will be able to discover hidden patterns in sports – both on and off the field/court. This will allow us to better understand the complexities of a game, to project patterns forward to predict future outcomes, and to predict fan engagement behaviour. Greater impact of voice-activated commands: fans will use voice activation to conduct everything from searching for content to booking tickets, to buying merchandise online and much more. Chip under the skin: we have been used to cash, then credit/debit cards, and the next progression will be a chip under the skin that will be used for the buying and selling of all products, services, and travel. In a sporting context, this will mean being able to scan the chip to gain entry into the stadium, to purchase food and beverage, to gauging your heart rate and overall health, to being able to travel out of the country for away games (doing away with the need for a passport!). Greater collaboration between sports clubs and federations with sports tech companies for improved fan engagement: for example, Real Sociedad and Barcelona have set up programmes to focus on fan engagement, stadium operations, and player performance.

• Digital checklist for sports clubs and organisations:

Invest in people with digital and data skills and strategic thinking. Keep ahead of the game. Follow key marketers or sports organisations who are killing it on digital. Get close to the sports tech industry to see what technology is coming down the line. Have in place the right culture at your club or federation for embracing digital and digital transformation. Ensure a clear digital plan is in place. Make sure your club or federation understands data and data insight. Ensure you have a digital leader within your organisation.

Case study questions The use of a framework model and the subsequent discussion is a very effective case study mechanism within this textbook. 1 Geoff Wilson is a master tactician and craftsman in effecting sport marketing campaigns and strategies. What lessons can be learned from this case study when blending both his practical skills and business acumen for your own personal development as a sport marketing student? 2 Apply the case study model and reasoning to a project of your choice that you have studied in a research or assignment task as a student. Sport doesn’t need to create advocates – the type of customer that most companies can only wish they had. Sport has them by the millions. They’re called fans. The following conversation with Stephen Bourke delivers a fascinating perspective on fan engagement, digital transformation, and tech – and these lessons hold regardless of industry.

Conversation 5.1 Stephen Bourke, Founder, Adviser, and Strategist at SB1 Sport Stephen Bourke is on a mission to inspire and educate those in the business of sports about digital transformation to empower work lives and improve well-being and fan engagement. The conversation with Stephen illustrates the importance of digital data and digital analytics in fan experiences and fan activations through engagement. When we say digital, Stephen anecdotally suggests that the inference is technology. However, it is much more than this, and ultimately, it’s about people and personalisation. Alan Seymour: Well, Stephen, it’s really, really … well, firstly, I appreciate the opportunity to have this discussion with you on all things digital, particularly digital strategies. And probably, a good starting point is, where did digital start for you? Stephen Bourke: The thing for me was, I went to a conference, it was actually in London in 2014 and talking about topics that I hadn’t been exposed to and talking about the return on the investment of Wi-Fi built into stadia, the new terms like digital technology. Even eSports was just starting to be spoken about as well. And I realised that I was probably a bit off the pace, which made me realise how overwhelming the whole topic of digital is in terms of how quickly it appeared and how big it is. It’s kind of like a tsunami coming, and then you’re not prepared for it. So, I then spent the next half of the decade getting to understand the context of what the digital economy is, but also, more specifically, how sports businesses

best operate, or should best operate, in the context of the digital economy. But more than that, the thing that I take from it now, that I didn’t know back then, is this is really the first time in history where it’s the people in society, or fans or consumers, who are actually driving the change. It’s not industrial revolution or other. The TV came along and the businesses were always able to drive the agenda. Now it’s people, and businesses who are running after those people. And that has to change. It’s a whole paradigm shift in thinking. No longer thinking efficiency inside of the organisation; you’re thinking about how to best access the market through digital channels and all that. That means in terms of recalibrating the operations of the organisation, the organisation structures, the skills and capabilities needed, the technological investments that you need to do. So it’s really, for me, become a fascinating case study of what business is now and is always going to be for the foreseeable future. Alan Seymour: Well, firstly, I had and still have the same, not concerns, but I too had those similar thoughts and questions to be asked where we were with digital, and like you’ve expressed, I think, it was so consuming and so overwhelming to begin with. And in many ways, you’ve almost given me the foreword for my textbook because I think it’s a fantastic start for it … Can I just develop that a little bit with you, Stephen? I think there are a lot of misconceptions about the power of digital, so can you give us some pointers or indicators, perhaps, as to what you consider digital limitations, or some of those digital concerns?

Stephen Bourke: I think the great irony of the whole topic is, when we say digital, we’re talking about technology, but the reality is, it’s about people and it’s about personalisation. And actually, the sports business product these days is getting to have a personal relationship between the team or the sporting property and each of its fans and members and that challenges the organisation a couple of ways. One, to understand who it is as a person. Because if you’re going to be personal, you’ve got to stop being corporate. And so, okay, what does that look like inside of the organisation? And because social media and digital media are so powerful, and that’s where society’s going first to get their information, that’s really the outward expression of the heart and soul of the organisation. And so, organisations really need to consider how they appear there, rather than to be broadcasting, which is, coming back to my original point, how we’d always been business or economyled things. Now it’s people-led. And so, … as I said from the start, the irony is that we can, as organisations, now be more personal, and that means personally and how those messages are delivered out broadly and how they are engaged on. But the second part of it is the need to be personal with individuals. Now, if I’m a lifelong supporter of the team, I expect that the organisation is going to know me. I’m so invested, I’ve transacted so much with the organisation, whether it’s tickets, whether it’s going to the stadium, buying stuff at the stadium, logging onto the Wi-Fi, using the app, going to the website. I’ve given the organisation so much data that I expect them to have the same level of understanding

of who I am as a person than if I just went and bought a book at Amazon, for example. So each sports business now has to become its own mini-Amazon. And that’s really challenging in the context of what budgets we have in sport; the fans have a big business expectation of the sports organisation. But the reality of it is it’s going to be a small to medium enterprise. But the great thing about digital is because of cloud computing, because of scalability and another term called economies of unscale, you don’t have to be the biggest to be able to do these things. So you don’t have to be Real Madrid, or FC Barcelona, or Liverpool FC. You can be any organisation and be able to tap into the technologies, because most of them now are available as software solutions. They’ll live outside of the organisation. So a big part of the challenge is to strip back the insides of the organisation; to become lean and agile and focus on the new things that the organisation needs to do, which is to connect with people at an individual level through data, through innovation. And we see great examples in how stadia are being invested in and refurbished at the moment. How teams are innovating on what’s possible in their apps and on social and digital media. Some organisations are really pushing the agenda on being really brave with their content as well. So there’s a lot of organisations who haven’t started down the path of working towards digital transformation; there’s a lot of pioneers out there now, and their lessons should be learned by others, because they’re the ones who have made the mistakes, gone through challenges and so on.

Alan Seymour: I mean, the whole scenario that we’re discussing and you’re expressing and articulating so superbly, Stephen, I often think, even if you took an adage so simple but so explicit and so often used, you can’t please all of the people all of the time. We talk about expectations and now fans, their expectations could be such that they almost believe that they’re empowered to almost be the owner of the very team that they’re asking to be engaged with. I don’t know whether I’ve expressed that as best I can, but I’m just looking today, in breaking news, with some of the football league teams, some household founder members of the football league here in the UK, Bolton Wanderers and Bury, a lower-league team now on the verge of extinction. And all the kind of opportunities that are presenting themselves to all the stakeholders in this. It’s a very difficult question. But can you give me some insight, perhaps, on how maybe digital strategies could actually prevent or at least alleviate some of the problems that have occurred? And maybe on the flip side of that is digital, not to blame, but sometimes is this term about expectation, and what fans should actually expect, not necessarily the same thing? Stephen Bourke: I think that we can’t control what the fans are going to expect, and they’re going to expect what they can get from their best performing apps. And that’s why I mentioned Amazon before, Facebook, Google. And so you can never get away from that. And so what every organisation in sport needs to work out is what is its best version of itself in the digital era? But you know, one of the things – you know I could go to so many different points – but

from my opening, one of the things that I think is really challenging for leadership is to understand what the best path to digital maturity is. And it’s not something that I’ve grown up with. In fact, when I was telling you my story from 2014, I hadn’t finished a master’s in international sport management all that long before that. So the information quickly become redundant. So one of the challenges for organisations is to actually work out what the best path to their own version of digital maturity is. Startups are different. We think of the Ubers and Netflix and all of those kind of things that they were on a mission from the very start, now as legacy organisations that used to just be concerned with the team, and then the fans would turn up and watch them regardless, and now have a bigger set of dynamics that it’s actually now fan-led. So they can’t shy away from that. What they can do is work out what’s the… . How do they think of themselves in a different way now? And that’s the, that’s the starting point. And I like a quote from Real Madrid, when they were announcing their transformational partnership with Microsoft, they said, “well, we’re a fan company now. We used to be a team, now we’re a fan company.” And that changes everything. And so what every sports organisation needs to do is to find what being a fan company means to them because we can’t all decide, “Okay, we’re a fan company.” No, it’s, “Okay. Being a fan of this team, what does it mean to the individuals who follow that team?” You know, because you’ve got your own geography that they exist within, their own history, the stars of yesteryear. There’s different songs

and rituals and traditions and colours, and everything that goes around. It’s about mapping all of that into what makes belonging there special. And we talk about that personalisation part of it. What that is, it’s tapping into the psyche of the team in terms of what emotion and what value it brings to the people who follow it as the fans in their lives. And so once the organisation has scripted that out, and that’s why A.S. Roma do it so well because they say “We want to be the most digitally active team in the world.” And so their business model is then based around that, so that becomes the next thing. Firstly, you’ve got your strategy defined, and then you need to know what your business model is. Because otherwise, different departments are doing different things, and probably they’re just trying to continue to optimise efficiency. But now you need to innovate rather than just get better at what you were always doing. And so a really defined business model is needed. And the best ones do either of a couple of things. One, they look at becoming a digital media company, which means that they really push the online content side of things so that they’re growing the engagement in growing audiences outside of their own geographic location. You look at Bayern Munich [which] has done that quite well, and so has Manchester United. Some of these have got millions of millions of followers, and that wasn’t possible before. Globalisation, which the internet enabled, but what they… . But it’s a long play, and that means, okay, so you’re investing in social and digital because you know that you’re going to reward the people who are

already your fans, but you’re also going to grow your fan base. And then through investment in data platforms, for example, you get to know who those fans and followers are, so that you can then potentially open up the eCommerce side of things but also have better discussions with commercial partners and leverage those assets into digital assets. And so you’re selling more sponsorship and advertising. And every revenue stream can be enhanced by digital. And now, with so much disruption around broadcast and what’s going to become of the broadcast value in the future, the only things that sports properties can control, their match day, their merchandising, their ticketing, and commercial partnerships, so they have to really double down on those things and work out what’s the long play towards getting that. So with that business model set, then the next thing is, okay, you need to make some hard decisions inside of the organisation in terms of how are we going to change the internal processes, and what people are going to support those processes because it’s a different set of skills. And probably also the other thing that has to change is culture. You can’t just keep being siloed in operations, which is what organisations will do unless there’s a force greater than each of the individual departments that are pushing that. And that really needs to be collaborative technologies, collaborative digital technologies. And social media shouldn’t just be owned by the content department, because there’s stories that exist across all of the departments, or even the feedback coming should be given to different other departments like the sales or servicing, the

commercial team, even the HR area should be involved in positioning the organisation as an employer of choice because of the insights that they show on LinkedIn, for example, about how great the place is to work in, what projects are going on, and those kinds of things. So it really needs to be like that saying, “strategy gets eaten for lunch by culture”. If you don’t get the people engaged by communicating with them and really sharing the purpose of the organisation, then the organisation isn’t going to go anywhere. Alan Seymour: Stephen, and I think we’ve got a wonderful little segue here because there’s so much I do want to talk to you about, and clearly we could have this conversation for hours and hours rather than 30 minutes plus or so. I think some of the lessons, and clearly you’ve expressed them and articulated them extremely well in this short interview, you talk about two things to me. Digital maturity, and I think in that respect, which it kind of leads me on to, if I had a tunnel or my blinkers were on, I’m in sports, I have sports education, I have sports marketing, I have sport business. But what digital has done is it’s either enabled me to take those blinkers off or that what we should all be talking about is that, in the consumption of sports and if you’re in digital sports, whatever, you have to think a lot more than just sports as it traditionally was viewed. And I think that really is grasping the opportunity here. And you talk about the very personalising, but you talk about colours and traditions and cultures and heritage. And I think that’s to me the most exciting part about what digital has actually given to us all.

And in that context, perhaps let’s take it on a pace here. I know how much you’re involved in digital sport education and how we do need to train people or how people need to become. The future, if you like, and a big part of my textbook and what I’ve been involved in, it’s very much on the future of sport. So tell us a little bit about what you’re doing and what your views are on what we need to do in terms of digital education, particularly through the lens of sport. Stephen Bourke: You know, I’ll start with what we should do, and then I’ll talk about what I’m doing. Because there’s a point that I thought of while you were speaking as well. The highest level thing that we have to consider now is that sport operates in competition with all other things that anyone can do in the moment. It used to be that sport was in competition with itself. Okay, is my child gonna grow up being a footballer, or a cricketer, or a baseballer and that kind of thing. Or we’re worried about them becoming a fan of the other team within our league. Now we need to think more broadly and holistically and say, our potential fans, they can be gaming right now, they can be talking to friends on Messenger, they can be just scrolling through digital social media. Most of the things that grabbed people’s attention now are digitally based. And so sport needs to work out where the attention of the next generation is also going. Because we’ve got two different things that we need to focus on. One is retention. So we’ve got a set of fans and how can we keep them engaged? And if you’ve got your over 55s and so on, then you’ve got your younger fans, how do you keep all of those

people happy? So what you need to do is through technologies, work out, okay, what are the fundamental transactions and interactions that we have with them? A kind of customer journey … to work out where technology can be leveraged to reduce friction for them. And people have different needs depending on whether they’re a family, they’re on a night out, they’re with friends, all of those kinds of things. Or whether they’re just an online follower. That’s what that personalisation part brings in once again. But the other point, and I think this is sport’s biggest challenge is, we don’t want engagement in sport globally to fall off the cliff. You can look at Uber and say, “Okay, well didn’t they come along and disrupt the taxi industry overnight?” Well, it may have appeared like that in some ways, but really the forces of supply and demand were changing much before that, that eventually there was a tipping point. And they were able to fly. But now we’ve got the new generation of kids coming up, and they’re finding stars on YouTube and influencers that we never knew about. And what sport has to address now, so, okay, it might be great for the father to take his kids and experience their first game when they’re 6 or something. Put the strip on them. But if they’re going to go home and sit in their bedroom all day and play Fortnite and not think about sport, then we don’t want to lose those. That next generation who are 6 now and 16 and have a big goal for men’s sport, wakes up and goes, okay, now we really need to work out what our digital ‘twin’ is about matches.

And one of the reasons why sport is one of the most disrupted industries of all is because we’ve got a regulated event that maybe is played for 90 hours – sorry, 90 minutes on the weekend, whereas I can go to Netflix at any time at the click of a button. So we need to extend that whole experience from the 90 minutes to the whole of the week, because I want to be a fan the whole of the time, and I expect it to be now. We talked before about the expectations or perceptions from the fans. So, there’s all of that part that is really changing things. And I think that, to segue, then, into what I’m doing is, having developed a curriculum, having delivered the curriculum to some of the biggest rights holders and teams going around, I’ve now taken that and made it more accessible and more scalable. So it was boutique at the start to validate the lessons and so on. Now it’s a very scalable and accessible item. But also, more than that, the area that I’m moving into is to advise sports organisations on how to digitally transform. You look across the economy and across the industry and there’s lessons that hold true for all organisations who are undergoing digital transformation. And we need to consider that probably at best, 10–15 percent of sports organisations are digitally mature. So they’re not only leaving a lot of value on the table, they’re misfiring, if you like, and people inside of the organisations are frustrated. Everyone is feeling so many different pressures, and new technologies come along, and they kind of tilt thinking and so on. But what we need is really focused thinking in the way that it needs to be in. So that’s the offering that I’m now putting out there.

Alan Seymour: I think it’s almost a stopping point. I don’t want to stop quite just on this point, but I think it’s a kind of natural stopping point. But I think this transformation and what is out there for everybody, I mean in many ways you’ve almost given me the testimonial for the reason why we need this textbook. And I think in that sense as well, it’s quite a nice way to round things off. What has always struck me, Stephen, is that, like education, per se, you never, ever – even if you’re teaching it, even if you’re perceived as big, either an expert or somewhere on that kind of ‘go to’ organisation person – you never stop learning. And in fact, in many ways, today you’ve got to be much more a learner than you have necessarily as if you kind of want to be seen as the teacher. And I think it’s a true interaction that everybody needs to get involved with. And I think this conversation has just really emphasised lots of the thinking that me and many others who’ve contributed and now are certainly contributing in no small way. Because we are going to have to change. We are in the process of looking at all of these new dynamics. And again, I think both of us in the roles that we’re playing and meeting some or all of those challenges going forward. Can I ask you, maybe just as a summary here, Stephen: you are now clearly of the mind that because of the values that are either being left on the table as you suggested, or if we talk about this digital maturity, that maybe at best 15 percent so you look at the opportunities out there with the remaining 85 percent, if you could give some advice or general tips in terms of strategy for the digital future, how would you go about advising some of

those companies or organisations that seem to lack or have not really grasped what is needed in terms of digital maturity? What advice would you give them? Stephen Bourke: I’d probably put three quick messages out there. One, it starts with re-imagining your purpose, because your purpose today is different than, as I said before, your purpose today is different from being the focus of just putting the team out to now being a fan company in the context of this economy where people’s attention is so fragmented. So you need to really define your purpose. The second, but it could be the third point, is that you need to build your house on data. So if you don’t have a good data engine, you’re not going to have a sustainable business model for the future. So it’s about connecting the data to the enterprise strategy and working out, okay, what data do we need? And actually, what data do we have that enables us to get closer to our fans in the way that they expect us to be? And so there’s a whole program of learning, but unlearning as well. And then investment, collaboration, and so on that goes around that. And then in between both of those things, there’s what I call a digital line of sight. And so that would be my third point, if you can have your purpose, but if that just stays in the boardroom, then… . It only means something when the CEO is talking to the shareholders or the board. It needs to be communicated, and it needs to be a need to connect to all of the plans and where the money is going inside of the organisation. Now, that can sound pretty boring, but that’s the reality, is that there needs to be

a formalised marketing or digital marketing plan, if you like. Because there’s different types of marketing models that you can pursue. And each of them has different skills, capabilities, different analytic investment requirements, and so on. You take a simple example, Ticketmaster will have a much different digital marketing model than a sports business, where Ticketmaster isn’t looking to have deep engagement with you, but the club is. They’re just looking to get their word out across as many people as possible in the hope that some will buy tickets for the next entertainment or whatever they’re selling. Whereas a club, a team, is looking at having an ongoing relationship with each of its fans, so a totally different marketing model. So from that, then, the narrative of the organisation, how that’s going to be told needs to connect to the corporate strategy. And actually, only at best about 30 percent of organisations connect what they do on social and digital media to the top line, which is quite surprising in some ways, and then finally, when you’ve got all that organised, okay, what are the technological investments that we really need? So I know I’ve spoken for quite a bit, but the three points are, know your purpose, define it in strategy, communicate that, build your house on data, and then have a digital line of sight that connects all people and plans to the overall purpose of the organisation. Alan Seymour: Stephen, it’s been marvellous. It’s always difficult in these situations. Keep the recording button going, because you just prompt another thing, and this must be something that you’re doing all the time with your

clients or students and everything else. The last time we met, in fact, I think it’s the only time we’ve actually personally met, was at Twickenham at the conference. And I always remembered I sat in one of the seminars or one of the speaking groups, and somebody mentioned that they’d sent some of their execs out to go on a course and look at social media content disruption and what it was all about. And the boardroom sent them out, or the CEO or the MD sent them out. They came back, and came back with all excitement and all of these, and to be in revolt virtually, “We can’t do that.” “That’s nonsense.” “We won’t do that.” And I think that resistance is probably still one of the biggest challenges, which is another reason why me and you must keep beating that pathway and why what you’re doing and what hopefully I’m still continuing to do even in supposedly retirement, but with the book, if nothing else, if we can keep getting this message across, then the future of sport is going to be very healthy. Stephen Bourke: And that’s why transformation is such a unique concept because it’s not that, okay, this is the handbook. Every organisation, go and do this. You firstly need to assess where you’re at as an organisation. And maybe it is that leadership, for whatever reasons, are blocking the thing, but maybe it’s because of other political factors that are impinging upon them as well. So without really knowing what your starting point is as well, it’s really hard to chart those initial steps. The first thing that you want to do is get momentum into a program that has a defined direction. Because probably most

organisations just feel that there’s so much complexity, so much pace of change that, okay, we’re rushing here, we’re rushing, not feeling efficient, not feeling effective, and that kind of thing. Because those disruptive forces just keep coming. You can’t just sit back and understand the context that we want the organisation to operate in. And so that’s framing the challenge that exists for every organisation is the first step to really acknowledging that it has some way to go. Alan Seymour: Absolutely. Stephen, wonderful to talk to you. I wish we had the chance to meet occasionally from time to time. Maybe that’ll still present itself. I’d be very grateful, obviously. Stephen Bourke: Yeah. So I’ll stop. Okay, I’ll stop there.

Conversation: reflections and activities 1 Using the frameworks of fan engagement, what is the most important element for sport marketing? Support your viewpoints with examples of current practice in sport marketing. 2 The phenomena of sports fans settling in tribal communities associated with sports teams and organisations is well established. Using the conversation as a benchmark, do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain your answer. 3 How would you describe the culture and practice of fan behaviour through the use of digital technology? What impacts does this have for sport marketers? 4 What evidence exists to indicate whether sports fan involvement with digital technologies is a hindrance or a help to sports teams and sports brands (including non-sports brands)?

5 From the conversation, what lessons for fan engagement could sports properties adopt? Give some examples.

Conclusion The fan is the most important consideration in any sport marketing campaign, online or offline. Understanding their associations, behaviours, and patterns of engagement has become a key consideration for sport marketers in the digital age. Identifying match day as central to the whole experience of being a fan enables a focus through which all other activity is viewed. New technology and the drive for great content, along with creativity in delivery, give purpose to the process of engaging with fans to develop ‘favourable’ loyalty to their team, sport, or athlete. Use of the live experience has become the conduit to remote fans who would love to experience match day for themselves.

Chapter review questions 1 How important is the fan to sport? Examine the content conversation and case to make an informed judgement as a new career sport marketer. 2 Explore the evidence that there is a new type of fan in all sport marketing audiences. Appraise how these fans can be reached effectively online. 3 What do you feel is the likely outcome of sport marketing practice both online and offline in the near future?

Additional reading and digital resources http://alexfenton.co.uk/digital-sport-for-fan-engagement/ https://digitalsport.co/ https://digitalsport.co/Ulster-Rugby https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/news/insights/the-changing-profile-ofsports-fans-around-the-world https://librisblog.photoshelter.com/9-innovative-sports-fan-engagement-tipsfor-social-media/ www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/end-passive-fan-sports-marketings-socialshift/1523542 www.digitalsportsgroup.co.uk/ www.espn.co.uk/ www.linkedin.com/pulse/fan-engagement-commitment-loyalty-whatsdifference-who-paul-huiszoon/ www.scripted.com/writing-samples/digital-sports-marketing-benefits-andstrategies www.theshelf.com/the-blog/sports-viewership

References de Ruyter, K. & Wetzels, M. (2000) ‘With a little help from my fans: Extending models of prosocial behaviour to explain supporters’ intentions to buy soccer club shares’, Journal of Economic Psychology, 21, pp. 387–409. Funk, D. C. & James, J. D. (2001) ‘The psychological continuum model: A conceptual framework for understanding an individual’s psychological connection to sport’, Sport Management Review, 4, pp. 119–150. Heere, B., James, J. D., Yoshida, M., & Scremin, G. (2011) ‘The effect of associated group identities on team identity’, Journal of Sport Management, 25, pp. 606–621. Huettermann, M., Uhrich, S., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2019) ‘Components and outcomes of fan engagement in team sports: The perspective of managers and fans’, Journal of Global Sport Management. https://doi.org/10.1080/24704067.2019.1576143 Huiszoon, P. (2018) ‘Fan engagement behaviours: A definition’. www.linkedin.com/pulse/fan-engagement-behaviours-definition-paulhuiszoon/ Kemp, N. (2019) ‘The end of the passive fan: Sports marketing’s social shift’. www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/end-passive-fan-sports-marketingssocial-shift/1523542 Meng, M. D., Stavros, C., & Westberg, K. (2015) ‘Engaging fans through social media: Implications for team identification’, Sport, Business and Management, 5(3), pp. 199–217. https://search.proquest.com/docview/1693178825?accountid=15133 Other Media (2019) ‘Winning examples: The best of sports fan engagement 2018/19’. https://other.media/winning-sports-fan-engagement-examples2019/ Ross, S. D., Russell, K. C., & Bang, H. (2008) ‘An empirical assessment of spectator-based brand equity’, Journal of Sport Management, 22(3), pp. 322–337.

Schnater, B. (2016) ‘Defining fan engagement’. www.linkedin.com/pulse/defining-fan-engagement-bas-schnater/ Vale, L. & Fernandes, T. (2018) ‘Social media in sports: Driving fan engagement with football clubs on Facebook’, Journal of Strategic Marketing, 26(1), pp. 37–55. Wann, D. L., Melznick, M. J., Russell, G. W., & Pease, D. G. (2001) Sport Fans: The Psychology and Social Impact of Spectators. New York: Routledge. Wilson, G. & Fowler, D. (2016) ‘Fan engagement: From match day to every day’. https://geoffwnjwilson.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/254/ Yoshida, M., Gordon, B., Nakazawa, M., & Biscaia, R. (2014) ‘Conceptualization and measurement of fan engagement: Empirical evidence from a professional sport context’, Journal of Sport Management, 28, pp. 399–417.

6 Fan activation and involvement with sport business

Chapter objectives To appreciate that fan-centric digital activity centres on Awareness, Attraction, and Activation. To contextualise the directly symbiotic relationship of activations and campaigns built around getting fans to respond and react to the message and promise. To more fully identify the proximity required by sports brands to affect fan behaviour.

Introduction Fan activation:

“the process of attracting people from die-hard fans to casual by-standers to your brief via an experience. The end-goal being to transform them into the ultimate fan” (Tradable Bits, 2018) – the ultimate fan being the fan of tomorrow – the future. There is now the necessity for great digital campaigns, often brand focused through the medium of partnership/sponsorship, not just to engage fans but to activate them! This requires engagement with branded experiences through viral mechanisms to increase reach on social channels. Tracking of every fan is advocated to configure every stage of the user journey – the means of interaction with campaigns and programmes, the level of engagement, the number of social referrals, etc. The tracking of active and dormant fans is crucial so that brand advocates can be identified and amplified across websites, micro-sites, and apps.

CONCEPTS

Companies such as MVPaudience (powered by Umbel) focus on a fourstage process to bring the biggest names in sports and entertainment closer to their fans: 1 Acquire – grow the fan base by unmasking and activating unknown fans with engaging data collection campaigns on any channel. 2 Access – unify data from various sources – CRM, email, social, ticketing – to create synergies across sales and marketing channels. 3 Analyse – know the audience to segment groups to identify ‘lookalikes’ to target. 4 Act – drive revenue by converting fans to customers with the right message, at the right time, on the right channel (as advocated by Fiona Green in Conversation 7.1). In essence, the RACE Digital Marketing Planning Framework (Chaffey, 2015 www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/race-apractical-framework-to-improve-your-digital-marketing/) intersects with this process at stage 4 to implement planning activities via: 1 Reach – builds awareness on other sites (some offline) to drive web presence on the website, microsite, or social media. Multiple interactions are achieved using paid, owned, or earned media such as social media marketing, online PR, SEO, PPC, etc., and measured by the number of unique visitors and value per visit. 2 Act – engages the audience with the brand and persuades site visitors/prospects to take the next step that might include signing up to an eNewsletter or registering as a member. KPI’s include bounce rate, pages per visit, and product page conversion. This stage necessitates relevant, compelling content with clear navigation pathways.

3 Convert – to sale via lead generation techniques and conversion rate optimisation, etc. The dashboard includes number of sales, conversion rates, average order rate, and revenue. 4 Engage – building customer and fan relationships through time to achieve retention models for fan loyalty and repeat purchase. Website communication, social presence, email, and direct interactions all boost customer lifetime value (CLV). As well as the percentage of active customers and customer conversion being measured, brand mentions, shares, and sentiment are important social referrals to track.

Fan activation is a complex task requiring patience and persistence to transmute the ultimate fan. The Fan Activation Checklist (Tradable Bits, 2018) suggests all sport organisations and brands should: 1 Listen to the fans and analyse the market – incorporate fan feedback into campaign planning to ensure the correct content is produced on the right platform for consumption. 2 Be innovative – with the technologies being used, the content produced, and the overall marketing strategy. 3 Use corporate sponsorships to diversify content (see more in the following sections). 4 Trigger emotions – make the audience feel excited, proud or motivated. 5 Look at the data – uncover trends and connections to be turned into actionable data. A quick example of a winning campaign from the Football Business Awards 2019 is that of Carabao Energy Drink who created the ‘This Fan Girl’ photography project with the hashtag #WeAreFemaleFans – a campaign that aimed to drive representative images of female England football fans to the top of online search engines ahead of the FIFA Men’s World Cup in Russia in 2018.

This Fan Girl held five images of female fans on their website and through national media and broadcast coverage, celebrity fan support, and current and ex-women’s international players, the campaign gained traction. The campaign achieved its top objective on the day of the first England game as anyone searching for ‘female football fans’ found four #WeAreFemaleFans images in the first eight results on Google. One main focus for fan activation activities revolves around sponsorship. Skildum-Reid (2019) pointed to activation being a narrowed focus from sponsorship leverage. Leverage is everything a sponsor does to achieve marketing objectives and business goals and activation narrowing to: (1) onsite (at the property) activities – ‘activation spaces’; and (2) social media in a tight time frame around the property. Therefore, there is plenty of opportunity left unrealised because activation: (1) ignores the remote fans; (2) can be inefficient due to reaching only a limited audience; and (3) plays in the most cluttered space. So, what to do? Well, Skildum-Reid (2019) suggests that activation should be used as a component of a broader leverage strategy, and that great activation ideas should consider scale to involve more fans, remote fans, and other markets. To delve a little deeper, several academic studies have focused on sponsorship activation campaigns. Gillooly et al. (2017) centred on Uses and Gratification (U&G) theory to map sponsor-generated content against known user motivations for consuming social media. A typology of content emerged that focused upon sponsor tweets around the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, linking type and category of tweet to its purpose and frequency (see Table 6.1). The vast majority of sponsor tweets centred on informing, be that sharing news or activational promotion. Certainly increased informing around event observations, along with sharing news in line with sports fans’ use of Twitter for real-time updates, would aid brand engagement. Increased content of the sponsoring brand through company promotion and activational promotion were also encouraged.

Entertaining was significantly under-utilised, as was rewarding. With the advantage of access to athletes and venues that sponsors have purchased, scalability to remote fans should be considered through competitions, quizzes, surprising facts, etc. Interacting was deemed the greatest opportunity to generate significant value from social media activation that nurtures relationships through dialogue, for example, wishing the team good luck or offering congratulations – O2 being a great example of this activity around their sponsorship of the England team at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan with their ‘Be their armour’ #WearTheRose activations direct to O2 customers. Such a campaign brought benefits of association and image transfer to O2 in line with the findings of Dos Santos et al. (2019) when investigating the relationship among the sponsors’ image transfer process (attitude towards the event, attitude towards the sponsor, and intention to buy the sponsors products), fans’ level of patriotism, and fans’ fulfilment of sponsorship activation (FSA). Table 6.1

A typology of content for social media-based sponsorship activation.

Type

Category

Frequency %

Informing

Company promotion

Sharing the news

Deal announcement

Activational promotion

Event observations

13.2

21.8

0.5

25.6

7.2

68.3

Entertaining

Playing games

Fun facts

1.1

1.1

2.2

Rewarding

Prize competitions

Winners

Rules

10.2

2.2

0.5

12.9

Type

Category

Frequency %

Interacting

Following recommendations

Follower greetings

Chit-chatting

Wishing them luck

Congratulations

Q&A

Participant messages

1.5

0.5

6.3

2.1

3.1

1.8

1.2

16.6

Source:

Adapted from Gillooly et al. (2017).

Patriotism was seen to significantly and directly influence a fan’s attitude towards a sponsor and intention to buy a sponsor’s product. Therefore, sponsors can expect favourable reactions to their content in social media as FSA strengthens connection with the sponsor’s brand. As a result, global brands can segment their markets geographically to use social media, more simply and at lower cost than by alternative means, to include national pride symbols in their content. Furthermore, as FSA has a direct and significant influence on attitude towards the sponsor and intention to buy the sponsor’s product, brands need some control and management of the events they sponsor to increase sales of their products. Dos Santos et al. (2019) also observed that where sports organisations can implement corporate responsibility actions to increase attitude toward the event – perhaps through donations to a charity. This in turn creates a better attitude toward the event, creating a better attitude towards the sponsor, with an increase in sales – similarly observed by Choi and Yoh (2011). Finally, and in line with the rewarding component exposed by Gillooly et al. (2017), Dreisbach et al. (2018) investigated the role of fan benefits in shaping responses to sponsorship activation. The SOR Model (Stimulus Organism Response) of sponsorship activation (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296318305976) determines activation campaign-related factors – content and

communication – that shape the inferences audiences make regarding a sponsor’s underlying campaign motivations – altruistic (good intentions) or egoistic (self-interest). Such inferences impact perceived sponsorship fit which can influence fan’s attitude and loyalty towards the sponsoring brand. Context and partner-related factors help to explain how effectively activation campaigns generate sponsor outcomes through the benefits offered to the audience. These could be financial (a product-related promotion), social (a player ‘meet and greet’), or symbolic (a community benefit) in nature. As expected, the study observed sponsorship to be successful when fan benefits were part of the activation strategy as attitudes towards the sponsor and intention to buy products from the sponsor were affected positively. Consumers appreciate personal benefits from activations, although symbolic and social benefits were superior to financial in lowering negativity towards overt egoistical sponsor motives, thereby improving loyalty towards a sponsor. Interestingly, with higher levels of fan identification, symbolic benefits are more strongly associated with altruistic motives of the sponsor, as it is a greater signal of the sponsor’s association with the property. So, the overriding implication from the findings was that goodwill fostered by sponsorship can be enhanced by sponsorship activation comprising fan benefits of a symbolic or social focus rather than a financial one. However, such benefits are more difficult to design as they require a thorough understanding of the fans. Nevertheless, an increasing number of such benefits are being activated; for example, Canterbury and their ‘Be Part of It’ community campaign based around the 2019 Rugby World Cup. An example of a creative rewards strategy via digital is the partnership between Marriott Bonvoy and Manchester United. Bonvoy is the newest rewards programme from hotel chain Marriott. The brand has started ‘rewarding’ Manchester United fans with money-can’t-buy prizes such as seeing match day from the kitman’s point of view and laying out the kits for the players before the game, or shadowing the stadium announcer at Old Trafford. This is activation rewarding loyalty, and a partnership in development (McMullan, 2019).

Another great example is the Samsung Slider – part sofa, a fraction rollercoaster, and billed the ultimate sports viewing experience. The fourperson carriage, set on an 80-metre-long, custom-built track next to the Twickenham pitch for the London Sevens tournament, whizzes its cargo left and right at speeds of up to 20 mph, gracefully keeping pace with the action. It proved a massive hit, created a buzz, and, unsurprisingly, everyone wanted a slide. One hundred eighty passengers – all social-media competition winners – had a go. Samsung’s public relations team were apparently inundated with requests, with pleading reasons for a stint that ranged from birthdays to honeymoons. A competition via @SamsungUK, the electrical giants’ Twitter handle, gave a chance of trying out the Slider at Twickenham. Additionally, on the weekend before the tournament, there was a ‘Tweet your seat’ game elsewhere, with attendees urged to post an image of themselves in the ground with the accompanying hashtag #samsungslider. This was a great example of activation via a pioneering in-stadia fan viewing experience, along with an opportunity for Samsung to showcase their latest range of products (Pickup, 2017). The following case covers IBM’s partnerships with Wimbledon and England Rugby. Sam Seddon is the IBM Sports and Entertainment Sponsorship lead for the UK. His role includes the contract negotiations and rights activations through to the technical delivery and showcase of IBM’s industry-leading technology. Sam works in collaboration with his client to deliver innovative technical solutions to support their business objectives and feed IBM’s marketing and communications campaigns. N.B.: engagement and activation are two sides of the same coin (or at least used interchangeably). Chapters 5 and 6 have made the distinction, but do continue to remind yourself that engagement with audiences is a deeper association than the awareness-grabbing (at least initially) practices of activation. Activation moves to retention and, hopefully, engaged audiences, if done with purpose and authenticity over the longer term – the ultimate desire for many sponsoring brands through sport.

Case study 6.1: Change to win: achieving competitive advantage in the sports industry At Wimbledon, Sam has responsibility for managing the client relationship for all the services that IBM provides to The Championships as part of their role as the official IT provider to the AELTC. This includes a team of 180 at peak during the fortnight, from capturing data from the courtside to media services, security systems, and all digital platforms. He also oversees all marketing activation including the strategy and execution of the advertising campaign through to performance/events marketing, internal and external communications, and on-site hospitality experience. He is also responsible for managing the IBM sports rights relationship with the RFU where IBM are the Official AI and Digital Partner delivering fan-facing digital and analytics solutions and CRM services. As fans change the way they behave, disruption is becoming the norm rather than the exception across the sports industry. Before sports organisations can formulate a response, they need to understand where and how change is occurring. Sports organisations are competing not just against each other, but against anything that could claim a share of people’s leisure time and money. As well as the typical dining out or going to music events, younger generations are increasingly taking up gaming, growing the global games market by billions of dollars of revenue annually with no signs of slowing down. eSports are growing fast, and the sports industry is feeling the effect not only from gaming but also from new viewing habits. For example, crowds attending midweek English football Championship (Tier 2) matches shrank significantly when games were made available to watch via their iFollow streaming service. The average age of a season ticketholder for the English Premier League has risen to 41. If it continues to increase, the next generation of season ticketholders may never arrive. Fans of all ages are also watching fewer NFL matches and quitting them faster; attendance at Major League Baseball games is dropping year after year.

Fans’ media consumption habits are changing too. A recent study found year‑on‑year increases of 53 percent in the minutes of sports streamed and 24 percent in the number of paying subscribers to sports streaming services. The same study found that the number of unique devices used to access over‑the‑top (OTT) sports content, which is delivered via the internet rather than traditional cable or satellite pay‑TV services, rose by 32 percent. People are second or even third screening, analysing matches on social media and with friends via WhatsApp while they happen. Sports organisations ignore increasing audience diversity at their peril. Capturing and monetising global audiences is a crucial part of many clubs’ growth strategy, and it is clear that they cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach to engaging with local and international fans. And there are changes to rights models as sporting events dominate the list of most‑watched television broadcasts; thus it is no surprise that new rights buyers are entering the market. This offers sports organisations the opportunity to boost profits but also introduces the risk of fragmenting or alienating existing audiences. Free‑to‑air channels may offer greater exposure than paid alternatives, but they are being disrupted themselves, as they contend with changing viewer habits. Sports organisations must consider how and where their fans want to consume content – not just now, but in five years’ time, or even further into the future, plus how changes in viewing behaviours will affect broadcast revenues. Increasingly, thought leaders in the sports industry are exploring new sponsorship and viewing packages based on OTT solutions. They have the option to either team up with OTT providers, build their own OTT platform, or do some combination of the two. Whichever route they choose, they need to consider how accessible their content is to fans. While fan loyalty is strong, there will be many who will not want to purchase multiple subscriptions to follow their teams or favourite players across multiple sports. Sports organisations must consider how mature existing OTT offerings are, with recent examples showing that the technology may have some way

left to go. For example, Amazon faced a backlash for its coverage of the 2018 US Open in tennis, which saw more than 80 percent of customers give the service a 1‑star rating due to the lack of replay and recording options, inadequate picture quality, and limited choice of courts to watch. Similarly, Formula 1 was compelled to offer users compensation after service outages to its F1 TV Pro during the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. OTT providers may also wish to partner with sports organisations in a way that differs from their traditional relationships with media rights buyers. For example, OTT providers often have horizontal offerings such as merchandise available through their online platforms. It is easier for OTT providers than traditional media players to gain value via consumption data, which they can monetise. If sports organisations choose to work with these providers, they must be able to obtain and gain value and turn that data into insight. Sports sponsorship is thriving, but sponsorship models are changing with brands keen to connect with consumers via their passion for the game. But the days of simply putting a sponsor’s logo on players’ shirts are long gone. Instead, sponsors are moving away from the pure ‘brand eyeballs’ approach towards co‑creation of content for delivery via digital and social platforms. This approach enables sponsors to develop a personal relationship with fans, but it also creates an expectation to demonstrate measurable ROI. Decisions about media right sales should also tie into sponsorship strategies. Increasingly sponsors will be attracted to sports organisations not just because of global scale and brand affinity. They are becoming ever more demanding on needing to know who the audience is so that they can use targeted marketing at ever-increasing levels of granularity. While a linear broadcaster has limited ability to personalise and localise, an OTT provider can tailor what each viewer sees. The scale of media rights deals will generally outweigh individual sponsorships, but the commercial balance to be struck is coming into focus. As rights and sponsorship models evolve, sports organisations must adapt and find new sources of value, increasing revenue per fan by delivering better experiences.

Clubs are also being pulled towards investing in fan experiences by increasing expectations: people want greater convenience, personalisation, and immersion from every interaction. As a result, a study found that 40 percent of broadcast TV and video providers, digital service providers, and sports franchises rate highly personalised engagement as their top business priority for the next 18 months. Sports organisations can increase fan engagement and revenues through a two‑pronged approach: increasing investment in both the stadium and digital experiences. To keep people coming to matches, the on‑site experience must continue to excel. Empty seats in a stadium do not just represent a missed opportunity to sell a ticket; they also affect other revenue streams. For example, the higher the stadium attendance, the bigger its sponsorship potential and the better the media product. By providing a rich digital experience, sports organisations can make fans who are unable to attend a match in‑person feel like they are there, which can be key to capturing highly sought‑after international fans. With so many opportunities to engage digitally, sports organisations need to raise their game to win consumer attention. In doing so, these organisations can grow and build their brand like never before. Failing to step up could lead to other businesses with expertise in digital customer experience moving in to offer the experiences that fans crave. To compete, sports organisations need to understand their audience and how their behaviour is changing at a more granular level. By anticipating and meeting consumer desire through superior experiences, sports organisations can maintain and grow their fan bases. In order to deliver unparalleled digital fan experiences and to succeed as a media and entertainment business, sports organisations must harness the power of technology to enhance the digital experiences they provide to fans inside and outside the stadium or venue. Compelling digital fan experiences have the power to support overall objectives as an organisation, so it is worth investing resources into getting them right.

Start by assessing where you want to drive business growth and hone in on what that means for your target geographies and fan demographics. Then, conduct research to establish the type of experiences that will drive engagement with those fans and the best channels to deliver it. From this narrowed focus, develop a prioritised digital transformation roadmap with a clear supporting business case. Drawing on real‑life client engagements and discussion with leading sports organisations, IBM has developed four recommendations for the creation of digital fan experiences:

1 Capitalise on your history; do not hide behind it It is no coincidence that many of the digital leaders in sport are organisations that have achieved recent success, but do not have a long history at the top. A legacy of success brings with it time‑honoured traditions and huge global followings, both of which are often used as excuses to avoid innovation. Yet it is precisely this heritage that appeals so strongly to international audiences; failing to communicate it through digital experiences could lose you prospective fans. You must blend your traditions and brand history with innovation.

2 Reward fans for the time they spend Hospitality and merchandise sales are a major source of revenue for many sports organisations, which can result in a digital strategy that overly focuses on high‑spenders, who also tend to be older. In fact, advocates who spend time and effort on promoting your brand can be just as valuable to your organisation. They can stimulate further growth and engagement of your fan base, resulting in a virtuous circle that sends benefits rippling throughout your organisation.

3 Measure the success of your digital content with an objective eye In the arena of digital content, it is no longer enough to look at impressions and reach – you should be assessing fan engagement across multiple touchpoints. Although it may sound simple, this is complex to do in reality, requiring more sophisticated tooling, capabilities, and end‑to‑end tracking than many sports organisations have in place today. The benefits go beyond evaluating your success, allowing you to validate ROI for your own business and your partners. Define the purpose and value of your content: some will be designed to drive revenue indirectly by getting people to engage in the first place or make a purchase, while some will be intended to turn casual fans into lifelong advocates. Ensure that you look at benchmarks from leaders in the media and entertainment industry, not just your own. For example, research shows that the younger generation is increasingly placing its trust in influencers over content directly from brands.

4 Enhance, but do not detract from the live event Digital technology gives you the chance to create unique on‑site experiences, but you should ensure you are adding to rather than diluting the live event. Anything that accelerates and simplifies the stadium experience – such as digital ticketing, crowd control, access to food and beverages – will be well‑received by fans. Just look at the reaction to the hands‑free beer pouring system at Tottenham Spurs’ new stadium, which allows staff to pour multiple servings at nine times the rate of a traditional tap. By amplifying on‑site fans’ excitement about innovations such as these via digital channels, the club had a chance to build support and positivity across its entire fan base, not just people who attended the opening. It’s an exciting time for fan engagement technology – sports organisations have a dizzying array of options. However, budgets are limited. A recent study identified that the next wave of media transformation will be led by sports franchises. It is estimated that the push towards a

converged, scalable, and modular fan engagement ecosystem will lead to a rise in spend by sports franchises on ICT services of over USD 3 billion by 2022. Our primary research showed that sports organisations are divided over what the next big thing will be. However, an over‑arching theme did emerge: the desire to create more consistent, personalised fan experiences across different channels using technology, which starts with utilising data effectively. Harnessing data for your business, athletes, and fans with ‘datafication’ of every aspect of sports is increasing, from what happens on the pitch or court to every interaction with fans. However, our findings indicate that data is often gathered by different teams of employees in siloed systems, which can include merchandise sales, hospitality purchases, debenture or season ticket holders, and social media sentiment. Connecting these teams and systems is a complex but worthwhile task, as it enables you to utilise one of your most significant assets – your data – to its full potential. Once you can mine your data effectively, you can drive better decision‑making to deliver personalised, innovative fan experiences, operational efficiencies, effective marketing, and demonstration of ROI for partners. Equally, analysis of sports performance data is giving organisations a competitive edge on the field and providing new insight to fans. Athletes have expertise in more than just physical performance; often they also have a deep understanding of nutrition and mental health. Sharing all of these insights would help bring fans closer to their idols and offer them something of unique value. For national governing bodies and leagues, consolidating data across teams and connecting it with grass roots players and fans could transform game development and fan engagement. Yet the collection and use of personal information from athletes is fraught with legal issues. Overcoming these challenges is complex, so it is imperative that sports organisations factor in technical and legal considerations in all discussions to ensure a secure and controlled environment for such data. While not simple to do, the organisations that can truly harness all the data at their disposal will be those that set the bar for success.

Case study conclusion In this case study, we have set out five tenets for success in the sports industry: 1 Understand the nature, degree, and speed of disruption facing your business in the coming years. 2 Learn from media and entertainment businesses, giving fans relevant, timely, personalised content and building communities where they can share their passion. 3 Deliver unparalleled digital fan experiences at the right time, through the right channels, to inspire lifelong fan loyalty that drives higher direct and indirect revenues. 4 Adopt the right fan engagement technologies that harness data to enhance the fan digital journeys both on‑ and off‑site, delivering new insight and including immersive video technologies and AI‑powered personalisation. 5 Secure your own enterprise capabilities by bringing in new experts and empowering them with open, flexible architectures and agile development practices that remove barriers to cost‑effective innovation.

Case study task Over the course of two classroom seminars (maybe 2–3 hours): 1 Apply these conclusions for success and give an example where they have been applied to an activation campaign for a sponsoring partner. 2 Then, as a small group activity, debate the merits and demerits of the arguments presented in the case study. Present your observations to the class from the perspective of an executive in a newly formed digital sponsorship marketing group.

The following conversation epitomises the exactness and detail that new, innovative practitioner-based digital approaches have given to sport business. It’s all about digital. If you are not in digital, you are not in sports!

Conversation 6.1 Luca Massaro, Founder and CEO of WePlay Luca is the former lead for social media and product development for Chelsea FC, then worked at Target Media until founding WePlay, a digital engagement agency working with brands to reach, engage, and convert audiences in the sports domain. Disruption and being different are ‘stand out’ key components of digital sport campaigns. The competitive distinctiveness and points of difference in appraising campaigns has created a paradigm shift in sports practice in the business and marketing world. Alan Seymour: I think we’ll begin if we can, Luca, with digital sport. What is your core philosophy or core thoughts on the way sport, particularly digital sport, has opened up opportunities for you in your business, and maybe for all others who are engaging with it through various platforms? Luca Massaro: Yeah. I mean, we’ve been in it for seven years, and even longer for me, when I was in Chelsea Football Club. So I’ve seen the evolution of digital, certainly from its inception. And from our perspective, we focus on helping organisations, brands, broadcasters, and rights holders to achieve long-term sustainable commercial growth. So when I first started, obviously, social media and digital, they didn’t really have a direct, measurable impact on commercial returns, unless you were doing Google PPC or you were doing search marketing.

Particularly, when social came along and I set up Chelsea’s Twitter and YouTube in 2010, there was no direct return on investment, it was about creating audience and community, and that’s where terms like community management came from, because it certainly wasn’t about managing customers. Now, the market has shifted somewhat. We’ve seen a disruption of the sponsorship world, and brands asking for more than just badges, banners, boxes. You’re seeing broadcasters challenged as well because of the rise of on-demand and subscription platforms. And the rights holders themselves. When I was at Chelsea, we positioned ourselves as a media platform because we had significant reach, and brands would come to us. The rights holders themselves also could no longer advertise, but when they have 40 million people flow to them on the social media channel, they can’t reach 40 million people anymore without having to pay the platforms to engage their entire audience. So, we’ve seen a large amount of change in this space. I think, from my perspective, our business has evolved because of these challenges. And when you have a business that fully understands how to solve an organisation’s problem, because that’s essentially how a business can or cannot sell a service, we’re seen as a specialist, go-to agency for helping sports organisations, brands, and broadcasters to achieve scaled growth, scaled returns on their direct-toconsumer market investments. It’s very much something that’s different to a lot of the other agencies in the space that are developing content or activating partners etc., etc. That’s really what we’ve built as our niche.

Alan Seymour: I mean, I think, Luca, that’s a fantastic introduction for me, and in a way the whole of my textbook is flowing because there’s not been a great deal of, not necessarily advocacy, but there’s not been a great deal of take-up by a lot of the people that are clearly now consumed, involved, some might say obsessively so, in the whole realm of what digital sport means to a lot of people. I’m interested to know, because it’s a question I’m asked most of all, probably by mainly students or aspiring career sport marketers, do you still see that the content creation episode, if you like, of where the voice of the – if I can use the term – the ordinary fan can be seen, can be heard, and it is important to the people who are in the business? How do you deal with that phenomenon of getting the fans involved, or your appreciation of what they can do and contribute? Luca Massaro: Yeah. I think we live in a world now that’s more cluttered than ever. Fans, consumers, people, etc., we all have access to media today. Gone are the days of it being a very much push environment where organisations and media would push content out there at us. Now it’s very much a push-pull environment, and influencers, athletes, people, etc., are what people now follow and buy into; most of them are badges and brands. That changes the dynamic, I guess. Brands now, if you want to create a sustainable long-term growth, you need to have a full proposition for your fans, and you need to know enough about what your fans want to be able to create, so propositions for them or with them – and that’s pretty standard – brands have been doing that for years. It’s essential now that you and your fan base have a direct relationship and fully understand what it is that motivates them. When you

start looking at potential advocacy, influencers, ambassadors, and you look at the importance of that, if you’re a small up-and-coming brand, it means it’s much more important than being a global brand. Say you’re worldwide local brand here at Manchester United and stuff, they don’t really need you… . Except the landscape is a challenge to your brand. So the rest of the marketplace has to think, they have to think creatively, they have to look within the platforms, look at the algorithm, the dynamics of how fans currently engage with content, how they engage with the brands they follow, and they have to get creative with different types of solutions, campaigns, initiatives, activations, etc. So there’s no one size fits all. That’s quite key. Good agencies will work with a brand from a slow start off right on the way to global, and that’s important because it keeps the agency on their feet, and you can often, as an agency, bigger agencies getting lost in the big brand scape, the multi-million-pound contracts, and they don’t really fully understand how to market the organisation from nothing upwards. That’s something that we really hold true to what we do, is that no brand is too small. Certainly budgets can be too small, but once a brand has a budget and says, “Look, I have the ambition but I’m only three, four people, and we want to grow this thing”, you have to get creative because the things that we would do for, say, AC Milan are different to what we would do to a start-up. And that’s where you start looking at how we can engage ambassadors, how we can bring a small beta environment of say 100, 200 people close to an experience and then introduce those to a few thousand

people of them at work. So there are lots of things that you can do. Alan Seymour: I mean, one of the things that you’ve really touched on, and it’s almost going over seamlessly through some of the comments that you’ve made, you talked about in the early days and what you had to do, adapt and adopt and evolve. Do you see … I mean, WePlay obviously has been very successful in this and what we’re talking about, small and big, you treat them all the same. How do you get clients, and what are the key benchmarks that you might use for being as successful as you are? Luca Massaro: So, I appreciate it’s very kind of you to say that. Our growth has certainly made an impact on the industry. We are still a drop in the ocean in comparison to some of the larger, more established agencies that have been around for maybe half a century or such. We fully understand that, seven years old, we’ve made an impact but we’ve got a long way to go. When it comes to winning business, there’s two ways of attracting potential leads. There’s what comes to you, and there’s what you come out and find. Now, if you build a brand and you build your marketing, your credentials, and you deliver great results, work will come to you. And the longer you do it, the more you put ads in the marketplace, the more material you release, the more case studies you put out, the more conferences you speak at, etc. You create brand awareness, and you turn it from a push to a pull environment, the same as if you were selling a product to a consumer, the audience comes to you. And we’ve done a good job at that. If you were to look at our keywords on Google – digital sports agency, digital

marketing agency, sports marketing agency, all those things – you’ll see us somewhere around the top of page one on Google, and that’s because we built that brand. Segue from that is that being a little bit more ambitious and going out and speaking to organisations that are coming to you, and simply maybe because they’re not involved in the process, they’re not looking for a new agency, or maybe they’re big enough that they always get contacts coming to them. So, they have to start getting creative. What we don’t do is ever approach anyone with a generic, “We’re an agency, we work with these companies, you should work with us.” We don’t do that. What we do if we approach an organisation [is] by firstly doing a small piece of analysis to see what are the problems that we can identify initially from the outset. We would build some kind of initial three- or four-page presentation of something that’s bespoke to them. And we go in and say to them, “Listen, we recognise that whether it’s [that] you’ve got 25 percent attendance in your stadium that you need to fill, we can help you fill that. You’ve got a decline in audience on social media, you’ve got problems with content output. Your content is good, but isn’t great, we can help you develop that.” It could be many different things, we go to them with a couple of different things, I would say how we can help them. We also go in with a test pilot. We don’t go in and say we want a two-year full contract. We always go in and say, “Hey, we’re coming to you.” And we need to make sure that you look at us and say, “Well, these guys come to us, what are they

willing to do to get our attention?” So we are in our nature, you see everything about what we do is called performance-driven sports marketing. And what that means is being able to believe in the results that you will deliver enough that you are willing to offer something for free or a light cost up front. So we go in and we go to the organisation that we’ve identified, we’ll do three months at zero cost, low cost, whatever, and if we hit a KPI, you can give us a bonus, give us a longer-term contract. And that, we find, the whole thing around performance, where you get into… . Today, we’re in perfect 20/20. Brands can now do a lot of things themselves in house. They’re now looking for specialists. It’s not about generalists; they’re looking for depth, it’s not about width. They’re looking for those agencies that tell them something they don’t know, bring something new to the table with a different type of commercial proposition. That’s where we come in, and that’s allowed us to scale quite quickly by being somewhat refreshing in the market. Alan Seymour: I love that word, Luca, ‘refreshing’. We’re all seeking to be different, or the new… . You’ve used the constant theme, again, through this about doing just that. I remember when I first started, in a way, teaching and lecturing in this brand new and very wonderful world, we’ve had it in sport, business sports for marketing. I had a background in PR and branding. It was always the comment, “How do you know it’s working?” Or one of the points of reference – return on investment, etc., sponsorship, and pay-off, particularly for that problem. Do you still think digital has that problem? Or how are you using, let’s say, analytics or some of

the new techniques, and the new measurement tools that you can use? Luca Massaro: Yeah, absolutely, I remember going to the CEO of Chelsea Football Club and asking him about investing into more content platforms, and he was like, “We can’t measure it, it doesn’t impact on our revenues. I’m not going to do it.” At the time, you think that’s a bit shortsighted, but it was very pragmatic in a way because very much, we’re business and fast forward to where we are now, the whole game has changed. We can measure absolutely everything. One of the key things that we offer to the market is that we approach the sports industry as digital experts first, sports fans, sports experts. So my team comprises of specialists in the field of marketing on the cutting edge of where digital is today, and then appended on to that is a passion and an interest in sports. So what you get there is you get people who love the work they do, and then love the organisation that they work with, but it’s not the same as what you find in a lot of sports, traditional sports marketing agencies where you get people who are runners, cyclists, swimmers, played football, and then want to have a career, and they want to work in marketing. It’s very much different, so that’s why our people are specialists first. Now, what that brings to the market is that we will challenge any non-sports digital agency. You go to any digital agency that’s working with anything from Kraft to Nestle, all the biggest global brands in the world, and you look at their digital agencies that are amongst the five or six massive advertising groups of WPP, have ads, publicity, you look at those agencies, and they’re

considered best in class on what they do. We absolutely rival them on technical ability. When you bring that to one specific industry, it means that you go back to what I said earlier, about this is not a game of width; this is a game of depth. When you bring that to an industry, you find that a lot of our clients in that industry have never seen this level of detail before. And then you talk about how we generated over £50 million in new revenue for our clients just in the last 12 months. That’s measured. That’s completely measured. That’s WePlay who brought this money to the table, it’s not media value. It’s not as if we bought this page in a PR campaign, what it would be worth if we had to pay for it, all of that; it’s clear to do it. What this is, is direct measurement for returns from strategies and acquisitions we’ve developed. So it’s all now measurable. And that’s where the game has changed. Alan Seymour: I mean, for me, that’s quite unusual … I don’t patronise, but in a way, what you’ve just said, is absolutely everything. A lot of my career, and certainly the way we’ve engaged in things that we’ve done, the uproar about this textbook on digital sport marketing. So it is refreshing. It’s reassuring. Well, let’s try and just, if I can, bring a little bit of summation to everything. I think the thing that just stands out there … I recall my early days in radio, and then my latter days, as it were, in developing sports marketing courses, and one of the first questions I always ask people, if you interview for radio, do you want to be in radio, or do you want to be in sales? Or, if you’re coming to study sport business, are you coming because you’re a great sports lover, or are you

coming because you understand that you need to learn how to apply sport in a business context? I think what you’ve done echoes and resonates that. If you were predicting, it’s a horrible question, I know, but some of the changes that are happening, you talked, I think, in the very first question about disruption, and some of the things that are going to change the landscape, more for good and bad. How would you put some summations to some or all of those thoughts to finish off with? Luca Massaro: I’m not one, Alan – too many people are out there singing and they care mostly about headlines, all of that garbage. I don’t really care. I care about building a business and solving problems that customers and our clients have right now. So, for me, I see more of the same. I mean, we are one of the only agencies in the region to have a global partnership with Facebook, and we have a partnership with Google. We’re working very closely with these organisations, and what’s evident is the value of sports to the advertising marketplace. You look and you think sports brings an incredible amount. You look at the two and a half, maybe three billion people using social media, and you think about a third of those people have an interest in sport. What that means is that when the sports rights holders, broadcasters, and brands post content on these social channels, that gravitates fans together. What that means, it creates a platform for advertisers to then show their messages to more people because sponsors brought more people to the platforms through those fantastic sports. Now, when you look at that, and you think of that economic transaction that is happening

between the technology companies, between publishers, between the consumers, you look at that and you think, that’s only here to stay. Sports is evidently one of the single biggest drivers of consumer engagement in the world, right? Alan Seymour: Yeah. Luca Massaro: And you look at that, what are the predictions? Well, the platforms are going to continue to evolve, that’s for sure. You can go deep and you can look at Instagram, its algorithm is certainly playing in the favour of right now, of organisations as they want more people to find more content, versus Facebook has reduced a lot of that organic reach and made it a pay-to-play environment. You look at the same with platforms like Snapchat and Twitter, and you’re going to see more of the same. You’re going to see these platforms deepening their ability to attract advertising dollars from customers. You’re going to see consumers probably getting more and more appeased on the fact that they’re seeing more and more ads. And eventually what happens is that marketing does tend to ruin everything. So, I believe at some point, we’re going to move into an environment where it’s either going to be new types of platforms, new types of ways that consumers can consume, more pay-to-play environments with consumers where they’ll be willing to pay for environments which aren’t advertising at them, so it is quite interesting because you move content into an environment where there are no advertisements, and it’s purely the content. I watch people, they care more about their time than they do about their money. You start seeing those things start to happen.

So, from my perspective, I think if I was going to say a prediction, I’m going to say that we’re in a place right now, where the industry’s still learning about it being a free-to-market environment, to then being a paid-tomarket consumer environment. I think we’ll see more of those great experiences that cost anything from a few pounds start to evolve, and we’ll see a lot more people start to recognise, “I care more about the experience I get than I do about the money, and I’ll be willing to pay for those experiences.” Alan Seymour: I’m just going to ask one final question. You’re always trying to weave education into it, and you almost touched upon it there that the industry is all things. You went to your CEO at Chelsea, relatively new, and everything else, and talked about what you’d like to do all the way forward. You hit the wall with him or her on a pragmatic basis; have you found it much easier? Or is this still a little bit of a block when you make the first moves, or you suggest something creative new in digital? Or are they getting better at being more receptive, I suppose, is my question. Luca Massaro: Oh yeah, you only have to look at that every single sports organisation brand and broadcaster is on social media. There is no organisation, probably the world over, doesn’t really advertise on these platforms, other than I think Apple don’t really advertise on these platforms; they don’t really need to. They have a Facebook page, and they probably have about 50 million followers on it, but they don’t really advertise, and that’s because of who they are. But everybody else recognises that they need to be out there. Now, what that does is it means that there is a continuous selfeducation piece happening in these organisations,

because there are continuous transactions happening between … or workforce engagement happening between fans and brands. Now, once you see that happening, it’s addictive. The first time we got onto Twitter and we saw, “Wow, ten followers.” That becomes addictive, and you’re checking those stats endlessly. So once you see these CEOs, CMOs, CTOs, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Information Officer, whatever you call it, once you see these people and you recognise that they deal in the same metrics that you understand, they care about growing their brands, which is a great metric, they care about building a fan base, which is about engagement and data, and they care about making money. Once you go in and you understand those things, language where it makes things infinitely easier because you offer something, and you know that’s what they want. There is never a world where they don’t want to grow those things. So in our game, it’s certainly easier when you can measure it and go back to when I was at Chelsea; the problem was I couldn’t measure. If I was to say to him, “Invest 10,000 pounds.” He would say to me, “How much money am I going to get out of it?” I didn’t know that then. If I go to the organisation now and I say, “Pay us this.” They’ll say, “What return can you make?” And I can immediately say to them, “It’s going to be somewhere between this and this, but don’t give us any money if we don’t break even.” And I can do that now, which I couldn’t then. So the game has completely changed in the positive. Alan Seymour: Brilliant. I mean, they’re making a judgement, you’ve made it a call, you’ve used that word ‘value’. And at

the end of the day, if there’s something coming out of it, that value is probably now more measurable, is measurable, and also you can get the experience awareness and all the other things. Luca, it’s been great, I haven’t talked to you enough over the years. It’s wonderful to hear somebody like you sharing your story. The passion just runs through everything. And I like to think we’ve got a lot going for us in that regard, if nothing else. Luca Massaro: Seven years still going strong. Alan Seymour: Absolutely. I think just a bit of nostalgia before I let you go. I remember one of the first gigs I almost did in an overt commercial way rather than me just doing my, as it were, day job in talking to students, was I wrote a couple of early blogs for you when you were just starting, I think. I can’t even remember who I dealt with. But anyway, you’ve obviously got a lot bigger since then. And I think everything is good that has grown alongside you and in so many other ways. Luca Massaro: Absolutely. And just to finish, if you haven’t already, please do share the Facebook page with your students, at your university, and it would be great to have the next generation knowing early on the types of things that are happening in our world. Alan Seymour: Absolutely. Thanks, Luca. Luca Massaro: Absolutely. All the best, Alan. Alan Seymour: Yeah. Cheers, my friend. Take care. Bye bye.

Conversation: reflections and activities

Luca epitomises the exactness and detail that digital new innovative practitioner approaches has given to sport business through digital. It’s all about digital. If you are not in digital, you are not in sports. Disruption and being different are stand-out key components of digital sports campaigns. The competitive, distinctiveness, and points of difference in appraising campaigns for a digital paradigm shift in sports practice. What are your reflections from this conversation?

Conclusion Appraisal of fans and fandom has begun to preoccupy the digital sport marketing agenda. Fortunes rise and fall, new rules and regulations come in, but the ability of sports to unite people has not changed. Off the pitch, however, the picture is very different. Facing disruption from every angle, sports organisations must transform how they engage with fans, sponsors, and rights buyers to grow fan bases and revenues. It is also now truer than ever that success off the pitch leads to success on it.

Chapter review questions 1 In any sport marketing campaign, what are the key elements of activation strategy? Suggest some innovative tactics to deliver an effective campaign built around fan engagement/activation for a sports brand of your choice. 2 Sponsorship is a likely form of fan activation. Think of a sponsorship campaign that is a good exemplar of fan engagement activation and assess its merits as well as perhaps some of its failings. You can look at this as an activity group session as both a sport management team as well as individual sports fans. 3 Consider how you might evaluate a sports fan engagement/activation campaign for a launch of a new sports brand with a focus on a global market and audience.

Additional reading and digital resources http://huggity.com/8-best-sponsorship-activation-ideas-humanizing-brand/ http://mrblairhughes.com/fan-engagement-2016-year-in-review-100-globalfan-engagementexperience-activations/ https://mciexperience.com/creating-brand-experiences-for-fans-of-sportingevents/ https://rtrsports.co.uk/blog/what-is-sports-sponsorship-activation/ https://strivesponsorship.com/2019/01/05/what-are-the-best-sports-andsponsorship-marketing-campaigns-of-2018/ https://tradablebits.com/blog/top-13-the-best-sports-contest-and-in-gameactivations-of-2018 www.becausexm.com/ebook-best-sports-sponsorship-activation-campaigns www.eventbrite.com/blog/brand-activation-ideas-ds00/

www.fotball.no/globalassets/dommer/the-future-sportsfan_spilleregler_english.pdf www.ispo.com/en/trends/sports-sponsorship-marketing-trends-2019 www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-andtelecommunications/our-insights/we-are-wrong-about-millennialsports-fans www.pinterest.co.uk/cheyanne_pay/sport-activations/ www.thedrum.com/opinion/2018/01/12/looking-back-six-winning-digitalsport-activations-2017

References Chaffey, D. (2015) ‘Introducing RACE: A practical framework to improve your digital marketing’. www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketingstrategy/race-a-practical-framework-to-improve-your-digital-marketing/ Choi, Y. S. & Yoh, T. (2011) ‘Exploring the effect of communication channels on sponsorship effectiveness: A case study of Super Bowl XLII’, International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 9(1–2), pp. 75–93. Dos Santos, M. A., Vizcaino, F. V., & Campos, C. P. (2019) ‘The influence of patriotism and fans’ fulfilment of sponsorship activation in the sponsor’s image transfer process’, Sport in Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2019.1619700 Dreisbach, J., Woisetschlager, D. M., Backhaus, C., & Cornwell, T. B. (2018) ‘The role of fan benefits in shaping responses to sponsorship activation’, Journal of Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.11.041 Gillooly, L., Anagnostopoulos, C., & Chadwick, S. (2017) ‘Social media-based sponsorship activation – A typology of content’, Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, 7(3), pp. 293–314. McMullan, C. (2019) ‘How brands have worked with clubs, leagues and publishers to produce the best results of the season’.

https://digitalsport.co/how-brands-have-worked-with-clubs-leaguesand-publishers-to-produce-the-best-results-of-theseason#.XN7BpZD3rFY.twitter MVPaudience (powered by Umbel) ‘Fan activation: Interactive campaigns grow your reachable fanbase’. www.umbel.com/activation-campaigns/ Pickup, O. (2017) ‘The Samsung slider: The ultimate viewing experience’. www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/samsung-slider/unique-fanexperience/ Skildum-Reid, K. (2019) ‘Sponsorship leverage vs activation: The difference and why it matters’. https://powersponsorship.com/sponsorshipleverage-vs-activation-the-difference-and-why-it-matters/ Tradable Bits (2018) ‘The fan activation checklist: 5 things to consider’. https://tradablebits.com/blog/the-fan-activation-checklist-5-things-toconsider

7 Getting closer to emerging sports audiences

Chapter objectives After studying the concepts, cases, and conversations in this chapter, the reader should be able to: Comprehend that sport marketing is extending, and has extended, its appeal to new audiences. Examine the opportunities that these audiences present. Evaluate how these opportunities translate into greater focus on helping buyers to buy rather than sellers to sell. Explain the changing dynamics of the customer relationship in all the previous points.

Introduction The business of sports is changing, has changed, and will need to change ever more dramatically to meet the challenge set by the ‘persuaders’ of highly customised messaging. As Philip Kotler put it back in 2003, “In the coming decade marketing will be re-engineered from A-Z. There is little doubt that markets and marketing will operate on quite different principles in the … twenty first century” (p. 156). This is happening now! The most influential sport businesses will organise demand rather than supply, and the dominant form of marketing will revolve around helping buyers to buy, rather than sellers to sell. The way any sport business operates is primarily determined by the way it communicates with its customers. Effective communication is about breaking down barriers. The lyrics uttered in the famous musical Paint Your Wagon provided foresight – “I talk to the trees, but they don’t listen to me. I talk to the birds, but they don’t understand.” The ultimate guideline, therefore, for effective communication is to remove the noise! The mind of the customer is like an

umbrella – it works best when open – so stimulate it with positive messages, personal incentives, and active involvement. Break the mould by being positively different, maybe turn right occasionally instead of always turning left. ‘Familiarity breeds favourability’ (Gilfeather & Carroll, 2005) where the better-known company is better regarded.

CONCEPTS It is imperative that there is a story to tell products/brands/services indicate four key characteristics:

and

that

Memorability, image, distinctiveness, packaging for purpose Remember, all businesses are competing for the consumer’s attention – the ‘attention economy’ – where a wealth of information tends to blur and create a ‘poverty’ of attention. Any form of communication therefore needs to stand out and be ‘memorable’ – hence the need to communicate directly with the buyer, to relate to them individually, and to, ultimately, persuade. This involves direct ‘talk-to-talk communication’ where the age of ‘mass speak’ is reduced and personal dialogue is developed. Hence a new preponderance of persuasive marketing is fostered through relationship marketing and marketing public relations (MPR) – ‘familiarity marketing’ – an approach engendered by: 1 Tailored objectives. 2 Specific outcomes orientation. 3 Unique benefits. 4 Personal attention from inception to completion. 5 Ultimate consumer focus-driven activities. 6 Win-win-win scenarios – business, customer, stakeholders.

These sports ‘menus of persuasion’ should constantly be refreshed through feedback dialogue and channels of communication with current, existing, and potential customers. Remember that time is the ultimate ‘non-renewable resource’ – to be used wisely and effectively. For consistent, top-line growth, any company must be good at developing new products/services aimed at new customers and new markets. In line with the sentiment expressed previously, three critical tasks come to the fore when reaching out to emerging markets: 1 Asking the right questions at the right time during new product development. 2 Minimising spend (in time and resources) on ideas unlikely to find market success. 3 Delivering the data decision-makers need to make large investments in the best ideas. As the global marketplace morphs with the emergence and acceptance of new technology, all organisations employ innovative practices to capture new audiences. Three types of innovation exist that push the boundaries between risk and reward (https://hbr.org/2012/05/a-simple-tool-you-need-tomana): 1 Core innovation: existing products are improved based upon customer feedback, competitor activity and industry trends. Such innovative thinking is aimed at existing customers in markets already being serviced. This has the effect of cannibalising sales of existing products, but is necessary to continue to expand the revenue base. 2 Adjacent innovation: a Existing customers – new products to existing customers, for example, the use of improved technological options with current customer groups, e.g. mobile ticketing. b New customers – existing products to new markets, for example, development into international markets where it is more difficult

to have a conversation to fully understand needs, perhaps around digital acceptance behaviours. 3 Transformational innovation: new products/services to new customers. In this scenario there is greater uncertainty, and therefore greater risk, because it involves customer needs that no one is fulfilling. However, this approach promises big returns if successful. Is sports really doing this? Most companies focus 70–20–10 on core, adjacent, and transformational innovation, yet returns over time result inversely. Therefore, whilst not all companies need to act in a similarly strategic manner, a shorter product life cycle points towards adjacent and transformational opportunities. However, bear in mind that riskier projects have a lower success rate, so Nagij and Tuff (2012) advocated a 30 percent core, 25 percent adjacent, and 45 percent transformational focus on new projects to achieve 95 percent, 50 percent, and 20 percent success rates in these cases. In reality, considering the long lens of strategic importance for any organisation, all projects are equally important – see Case Study 10.1 for Liverpool FC and their Local Heart, Global Pulse (LHGP) philosophy. But whilst core projects will appear to be profitable in the short run, it is the transformative initiatives that eventually achieve the business goal of reaching out to emerging markets – see Case Study 10.2 for SD Eibar and their international development. Deloitte’s Growth Portfolio Model (2013) similarly identifies the core, adjacent, and new (transformational) view towards product/service development opportunities. In particular, the adjacent opportunity to expand the value chain is something top sports teams have done very well through partnerships/sponsorship. The new (transformative) opportunity to reach new markets is best exemplified and corroborated by the strategies implemented by major sports franchises when optimising the power of their brand to leverage emerging international audiences – the NFL, NBA, MLB, and EPL in particular.

As the point of access to audiences widens via new media technologies, be that linear TV, video-on-demand (VOD), or over-the-top (OTT) offerings, mainstream sports and niche-themed sports emerge to satisfy core and passionate fans able to watch at any time from any destination. OTT services such as MyOutdoorTV and Outside TV Features (both produced by the Outdoor Sportsman Group) give outdoor and action sports enthusiasts (of which there are 78 million in the US) an opportunity to watch original fishing, camping, and surfing shows. App bundles charge $9.99 per month and are available in 195 countries and five languages. Sticky and engaging free content draws viewers to the subscription offer and targets younger viewers not subscribing to cable. Where an OTT service is resisted – as in the case of auto-sports-themed service MavTV – YouTube TV, Hulu TV, and Sling TV have been viewed as viable options to reach their audience (Umstead, 2018). An example of presenting a powerful communication message is no better exemplified than the imagery utilised around the Paralympics. The London Paralympics in 2012 set new records for ticket sales and media coverage, thereby acting as a platform to raise the awareness of the sporting excellence of disabled athletes and to highlight the broader issues of social inclusion and equality. Bartsch et al. (2018) observed that eudaimonic gratification factors (meaningful and thought-provoking experiences) including empathy, elevation, and reflection played a significant role in stimulating audience interest in the Paralympics. Furthermore, it was established that empathic feelings associated with eudaimonic entertainment can contribute to the destigmatisation of persons with disabilities. In particular, story formats are likely to elicit empathy and pro-social responses. Thus, such narratives can be utilised to increase audience share, inspire, and change attitudes around inclusive sport. How many sports are in need of such a powerful narrative? Back in 2015, a Nielsen survey indicated that 96 percent of the population of China were positively interested in sports (followed by Russia with 95 percent). Estimates have suggested that this growing number of new fans in emerging markets could boost the global sports merchandise market to a total of $48 billion by 2024 – from a base of $28 billion in 2015 (Transparency

Market Research, 2016). As investment in, and from, emerging markets continues to rise – the Wanda Plaza Chinese Super League (CSL); Tencent (China’s premier social networking company) and Wanda Group (a Chinese real estate giant), both partnering with FIBA; and eCommerce company Ali Sports and online video company Storm Sports, both investing into Chinese basketball (Xinhua, 2016) – competition is heightened to connect with fans in emerging markets. Vasseur (2017) noted the volatile expectations of this new fan base, China specifically, having grown up with limited leisure time, and thus preferring digital media over cable; not forgetting that market regulations can be unclear in China, recreational venues still being developed, and broadcasters often centrally controlled. Therefore, solutions for success in an emerging market, where demand has been difficult to predict with traditional methods, where brand exposure is into an intensely competitive market, and with limited test time, have been: 1 Ensure back-office operations are business support functional with accurate data analysis and performance measurement systems. 2 Integrate local structures and leadership. 3 Ensure a flexible, responsive, and lean management structure. 4 Use innovative technologies for better connectedness. 5 Ensure a ‘glocal’ branding strategy as there are global brands but no global people! (See Chapter 10 for more details on strategies for the global marketplace.) From the perspective of a sports organisation seeking to get closer to an emerging new audience, the advice is to recruit professionals with experience in managing such implementation within an industry subject to such complex forces. However, Montez de Oca et al. (2016) considered “how NFL marketing uses technologies of subjectification [conveyance of an attitude or viewpoint] to draw youth into an inter-textual pedagogical [teaching/taught] and performative [language that effects change] narrative space in order to train them in consumer citizenship and NFL fandom” (p.

9). This is a mainly virtual space within the NFL Rush Zone (NRZ) broadcasts and new media (nflrush.com and downloadable apps). The NRZ story creates advertainment to present the NFL through a lens of inclusiveness and healthfulness that makes the brand relevant to both male and female youth audiences in order to continue to increase market share. Montez de Oca et al. (2016) identified that the youth market has become “both the object and the subject of NFL discourse” (p. 9), and that two basic lessons persist in the NFL pedagogy: (1) fan competencies, evidenced through the imagery of the game, plus what it stands for and how it enacts its practices; and (2) the time and effort employed by the individual who engages with fantasy forms of the game, communicates with friends, etc., to produce fans. Gamification is an example of stealth marketing in action! So, “unlike industrial era schooling that appears detached from the real world and engenders resistance to its didacticism … gamification’s detachment from the real world makes disciplining labour for the postmodern shop floor agentic and pleasurable” (p. 10). Furthermore, Montez de Oca et al. (2016) identified several emergent themes: 1 Governmentality – the marketing practices of the NFL were seen to act in a similar way to a parent by orchestrating the actions of the youth market. 2 Corporate and consumer citizenship – through the ‘manufacture’ of word of mouth/mouse marketing. 3 Subjectification – ultimately producing valuable consumers. 4 Multiculturalism – depoliticised difference in maintaining relevance to changing demographics. 5 Commodification – fans become commodities themselves as they engage in UGC ‘on behalf’ of the NFL. Consumption via digital has changed the implementation of sport marketing practice, and this will continue to evolve. Products for consumption now have the ability for fans to be advocates for the brands they watch and the

brands they wear. Fans, both consciously and sub-consciously, give meaning to the brands with whom they feel a close connection. Nevertheless, whilst considering the NFL’s approach to reaching out to future fans, consider also the type of content and channels of consumption preferred by sports fans. McCarthy (2019) cited the findings of a recent Bleacher Report study indicating that 63 percent of US soccer fans prefer watching a full game to highlights. For these sports fans, their viewing experience will still be via TV into the foreseeable future. Traditional TV will continue to be dominated by news and sports, with ESPN, Fox, and Turner the biggest players in the US. With each having strong assets in sports and/or news, their revenues will remain dependent on the traditional TV mix of advertising and affiliate fees (Thompson, 2019). Sports fans want access to live sport, and are prepared to pay for it – ESPN leveraged affiliate fees via Sunday Night Football in the US in 1987. Therefore, cable and satellite are the most reliable distribution channels as the delay effect in streaming can result in second-screen usage, informing the fan ahead of seeing the action for real. Plus, with natural breaks during the action, advertising as a medium still fits (Thompson, 2019). Nevertheless, with the advent of Amazon Prime purchasing exclusive rights to EPL games across two weekends in December 2019, this maxim was under test and review. The headline ‘Women’s World Cup Final Draws Bigger Audience Than 2018 Men’s Final’ (Porter, 2019) was true in the US as 13.98 million viewers on Fox watched the United States beat the Netherlands 2–0 – a 12 percent higher figure than for the France versus Croatia 2018 men’s final. Streaming added 289,000 viewers, and Telemundo added another 1.6 million – 15.87 million in total. In the Netherlands, 88 percent of viewers were watching the final. Big audiences also existed in Germany, the UK, and France. However, the US audience figure was nearly 10 million down on the 2015 final (which the United States also won) due to matches occurring during daytime rather than prime time – the previous tournament was staged in Canada (Porter, 2019).

Women sport fan numbers have seen a significant growth and visibility recently, and they have been embraced as a highly lucrative target market for team clothing, especially in North America (Toffoletti, 2017). Consumption of products created for women sport fans acknowledges a desire to belong to a fan community (Toffoletti, 2017). Nevertheless, the work of Sveinson et al. (2019) concluded that sport teams need to offer a wider range of styles, sizes, and fit for women. Clearly, many sports teams have some way to go towards understanding this potentially lucrative, and developing, audience within their core/adjacent strategies. Women sport fans indicated that they wanted team clothing that demonstrated their status as real/authentic fans, in addition to fitting their body shape. Radically, women sport fans prioritised non-gender colour, accessorisation, or style desires, and it was proposed that unisex clothing of various styles, sizes, and cuts be a solution for product development. It goes without saying that the world of competitive gaming is a fastgrowing international phenomenon with millions of fans and billions of dollars of prize money available. Streaming services, such as Twitch, and live events have turned casual gamers into high-profile professional gamers who can earn significant sums from winnings and endorsements (Willingham, 2018). Digital technology, streaming in this case, is where gamers have built their fandoms – via Fortnite, League of Legends, Call of Duty, etc. According to Newzoo (2016), 427 million people worldwide would watch eSport in 2019 – almost equally split between enthusiasts and occasional viewers – within the major emergent markets of North America, China, and South Korea. With Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, and Team OG featuring the greatest pro gamers, and the NBA 2K game operating a draft system to select players, this seemingly unstoppable cultural momentum of eSports will only continue to grow (Willingham, 2018) One further example to note is Salford City FC. Promoted to the English Football League in 2019 after a meteoric rise up the football pyramid, Salford have been subject to relentless media attention since their takeover by the ‘Class of 92’ (Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, and Phil and Gary Neville) in 2014, plus David Beckham who purchased a 10 percent stake in

2019. The club acquired 139,000 (to date) followers on Instagram – incomparable to any other team in the same league – and increased the capacity of their stadium to 5,000 from 1,400 to accommodate growing demand. Local brands Vimto and Seven Bro7hers brewery have benefited from this surge of interest, but partnering with Salford gives brands direct access to the clubs’ shareholders. Clearly, partner brands have the opportunity to incorporate sporting icons from Manchester United into content marketing strategies to drive fan engagement, and potentially, reach enormous emerging audiences (Catto, 2019). A great example of core and adjacent innovation in action. Bas Schnater is responsible for all fan engagement and CRM activities at Dutch Premier League club AZ Alkmaar, a football club known for relying heavily on data for on-pitch performance optimisation. Now, AZ has started to translate this approach off-pitch. Having gained experience in Australia and Belgium, Bas helps AZ to form a data-driven strategy to allow the club to successfully challenge the traditional top three Dutch clubs.

Case study 7.1: Bas Schnater, Newsroom Content Analyst, Mediahuis Nederland “Real Insights, Real Growth: AZ Alkmaar turns annual membership decline around in one summer using data-driven insights.” Dutch Eredivisie club AZ Alkmaar is living up to its promise of being an innovative club. On-field performance is fully based on data-driven insights, and as of last year, the club had started to implement this approach in its business operations as well. In a recent article for fcbusiness, Bas Schnater, the club’s fan engagement and CRM coordinator, explained how they use data to increase fan engagement. Now, they’ve applied the same methodology to their season ticket membership campaign, and after years of decline, the first results look good with growth of 10 percent so far.

Having seen the success of a data-driven approach during their halfseason ticket membership campaign last winter (+300 percent sales compared to a traditional marketing approach), the club also applied a datadriven approach to the season ticket membership campaign in 2018–19. Together with their partner, marketing agency Two Circles, AZ set out a strategy to maximise results. In this case study, Bas expands on the club’s approach.

Planning Like most clubs, AZ Alkmaar had been suffering from an annual decline in season ticket membership. “We saw a drop in memberships every year, and assumed this was due to societal changes”, Schnater explains. As part of the new campaign strategy, the club started with an in-depth analysis of its data. It appeared the club had suffered from an average retention rate of 78 percent over the last five years. “We wanted to turn this around, as this means a decline in revenues,” he continued. In-depth analysis showed the club suffered from a retention problem over an acquisition problem. So AZ decided to disconnect retention and acquisition and decided to focus more on retaining current fans. “Normally, we always looked at the total sales numbers, but it appeared more was happening under the surface.” This meant that the last home games of the season were going to be important moments for the campaign. Secondly, AZ conducted a survey amongst its current season members. This survey generated valuable qualitative insights on the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of its season members. These insights translated into a communication strategy specific to the differences between the stands. “We portrayed very different values to the stands. An example is the family stand, where we focused on family photos and our mascots, where for our fanatics we focused on fireworks and interaction with the players.” Another important element was the adoption of a predictive model for retention. From the data analysis, four variables appeared to be significantly

predictive for renewal of memberships. After that, the club formulated feasible KPIs, being 2017–2018 members +1, via an increase of the retention score to 85 percent plus acquiring new members.

Using data for offline activation On 5 April 2018, AZ’s season membership campaign launched. At the beginning, the club focused on segmented email campaigns tailored to the four stands. “For example, we’ve made five variations of our campaign video, tailored to the specific requirements of the four stands, as exposed by the survey.” One of the most effective campaigns happened around the last home game. Before the match, AZ used its insights to activate non-renewed members offline. By working together with their supporter groups, AZ distributed ‘hand-written’ flyers by the most popular players at that time (again, based on survey insights) and planted these flyers only on the seats that hadn’t been renewed yet. In the note, the player thanked the fans for a great season and asked for their support in the next one. “The beauty is that all our supporter groups got behind it. Our fanatics distributed the flyers on their stand and the Supporter Federation helped us with distributing flyers on the main stand,” said Schnater. “The fans want the stadium to be sold out just as much as we do, so when I discussed my plan with them, they were happy to help. To me, this is a perfect example of optimal fan engagement.” It appeared to be effective. The campaign resulted in a major peak in sales after that match, with the flyered stands showing a significant increase in sales compared to the non-flyered stands. “What we noticed is that we now weren’t only able to reach our members who aren’t normally easy to reach via email, but also that the effect of the campaign lasted longer. Where an email campaign mostly has an effect span of 24 hours, the impact of this flyer lasted four days.” The club won the last game 6–0 on a very sunny day, with Iran international Alireza Jahanbakhsh winning the league top scorer title that

match. “Obviously sportive results have a substantial impact on these things. Though I do believe as a marketing team, you have to be there to yield maximum results. It’s about leveraging the important moments,” said Schnater. The retention phase of the entire membership campaign lasted until 31 May. However, instead of having a retention rate of 78 percent, the club managed to increase it to 93 percent. “We will still try to question what to send out in a survey to those non-renewals, which we can use as an input for next year’s campaign.”

Acquisition of new fans With a retention rate of 93 percent, AZ managed to slow down the loss of memberships and actually turned it into growth. “According to our own analytical model, we will now end up with a predicted increase of around 10 percent in memberships,” said Schnater. New fans are harder to find, although the club does have the advantage to leverage sportive results. though the club follows a different strategy. “The season members’ survey told us clearly that fans come to AZ for many other reasons than sportive performance. I think those other motivators are crucial to understand because as a marketing team, we can’t influence results on the pitch,” said Schnater.

Learnings Now that AZ’s retention campaign has been a success and the overall campaign projection is positive, the club has learned some valuable lessons, as Schnater concludes. “Our biggest learning is that a season ticket membership campaign requires a lot of strategic planning,” he said. “Where we normally had a good set plan but varied still according to the flow of the day, we now fully

respected the campaign planning and maximised online and offline campaign opportunities. I believe that made the difference.” But also the element of surprise seemed to have an unexpected effect. “I hoped that we would get some kind of result from the simple flyer campaign, but I didn’t expect such a response. I guess that is partly because so much nowadays happens online that offline impact is often undervalued.” In the end, the results of the flyer campaign accounted for 11 percent of the total renewals. Another learning was the use of predictive modelling. “This was the first time we used such a model. It appeared to be accurate up to 89 percent in predicting the propensity. We will continue to develop this model created by our partner Two Circles to maximise predictability of retention.” Questions from the case: 1 Given the insights of this specific case on AZ Alkmaar, appraise the effectiveness of the campaign to engage with new audiences. What considerations do you perceive to be the main objectives in such a campaign? Do you see them being able to retain a growth in these new audiences? 2 “The emergence of new technologies.” How effective can such technological innovation be in sport marketing campaigns? Give some examples of your own experiences or knowledge on ticket sales initiatives. 3 As a newly recruited sports sales executive to this football club, what recommendations would you initiate to reach new audiences? Consider key aspects of social media platforms that might be suitable to implement your recommendations. How could sponsorship fit into this approach? The following conversation highlights a new transparent, evidence-based framework using CRM for sport business/marketing practitioners.

Conversation 7.1 Fiona Green, Co-Founder, Winners FDD Ltd Fiona Green has operated in the sports industry for 30 years, including three in the US and three in Switzerland. Her vast experience has predominantly been agency-side representing rights holders in sponsorship, TV rights, and merchandise/licensing across a plethora of sports including but not limited to football, athletics, cricket, sailing, rugby, Formula 1, and tennis. Fiona runs a Sports CRM and Business Intelligence group on LinkedIn that encourages knowledge-share and debate, and invites anyone to join here: www.linkedin.com/groups/5187641. Data is king! But, more importantly, it is not just the understanding of data but how that data is applied effectively to deliver results. Alan Seymour: Well good afternoon to you, everybody here on The Future of Sport, All In Sports Talk radio, with me, Alan Seymour, your host. I’m delighted to welcome as a special guest to my show today Fiona Green, who is the CEO of Winners. Perhaps, Fiona, to begin with you can just give us a little outline, especially, I think, to all my sports students listening about your career, how you got into it – you know, some of the highlights, and perhaps why Winners. Fiona Green: Thank you, Alan; yes, I would be delighted to. I’ve had a fantastic career to date and obviously I hope it continues to be so, but I started 30 years ago working for the oldest football league club in the world. Do you know who that is Alan? Alan Seymour: I think I probably do, just hang on one sec … Notts County? Fiona Green: Well done, definitely.

I started my career back in the day, we didn’t even have computers, nobody had heard of Twitter, I was doing what people do in football clubs selling sponsorship, selling match tickets, selling advertising, and then I had a spell working in international sports, primarily football. I went to the ’94 World Cup, European Championships in 1996, Euro 2000, and just started working on Japan/Korea 2002. I then moved back into club football representing what was then called the ‘G8 clubs’ that went on to, I do believe, the ‘G14’. Alan Seymour: Right. Fiona Green: I formed Winners about five years ago, though when there was already a movement towards the move of data in sports and it was really like a light bulb going on for me, when I understood the power of using data to inform decisions to engage more directly and more relevantly with fans and stakeholders, and there’s been no looking back since. One of our key clients is UEFA, and we’re very proud to be working with them, but we also work with much smaller clients such as British Taekwondo, because the needs of British Taekwondo are the same as the needs of UEFA, in terms of analysing data and understanding engagement with stakeholders. It’s just the scale is very different, as you can imagine. But the principles are exactly the same, no matter who the sport organisation, club, team, league, event, governing body. Alan Seymour: Wow, right, and I mean I really do want to tell my listeners at this point, I think there’s an adage – well, I know there’s an adage; you know a picture of, spells or tells a thousand words. I also believe a voice does as

well, and detecting and denoting in your voice there the passion, the engagement, and the commitment to what we are all in here sports business, and I think that’s a really great trait to have, and what I have always advocated particularly with sports students to come into the classroom with a smile on your face, and so it’s really reassuring to hear from a practitioner that that’s very much in evidence. Just building on that a little bit, Fiona, I mean CRM … let me throw the question to you. Tell us what you think CRM is, in very much a sporting context, and then maybe building on that. You know, I have often thought we were at the debate at our conference a few weeks ago, The Future of Sport, and it was on sponsorship. I was in radio many years ago when it was known as the 2% medium, and I just think is CRM where it should be. Should it be more a career choice perhaps, and what are the big things that are going to happen in CRM in the future? Fiona Green: Okay, so back to your first question, what is CRM? If you Google CRM, you get tons and tons of pages about CRM software, technology providers that have a piece of CRM software. Back in the day, 15–20 years ago, it was a piece of software that enabled you to manage your contacts better. The faithful CRM system was a Rolodex, it was literally where you captured the information, who you’re in touch with, and when you last contacted them. But with the advent of technology, with the advent of data, and with the advent of all these digital channels we now have, our definition is far broader. CRM is about getting the right message to the right person at the right time. We also add on to that on the

right platform, because people use different ways of engagement, and most importantly, it’s to support your business objectives. It’s a very specific objective, whether that’s to increase participation, increase ticket sales, increase sponsorship, or just increase engagement, the point is the right message, right person, right time, to achieve business objectives. So, where is all this heading? Where we see our heading, we’ve only scratched the surface. When you think about businesses like Amazon, Lastminute.com, eBay, they are all about data. I don’t know about your own experience, Alan, but if you log into your Amazon account, or you’re a Netflix user, you log into your Netflix account, you’re presented with things that are of interest to you. Alan Seymour: Correct, I’ve just done it this morning. Fiona Green: Yep, things are related to purchases you’ve previously made, things you would be interested to know, and this is CRM in action, this is Amazon knowing so much about you that in order to get you to stay on their website longer, ideally to make a purchase, they make it easier for you. We’re also time poor, attention poor, we don’t want to spend minutes on a website trawling for things, we want to see what we want straight away, so put that in the context of, for example, a football club. A football club has so much competition, where can a fan get their football content? My goodness me, you can reel off a dozen names off the top of your head, from sports media websites to blogs set up by individual fan groups, to the governing bodies, etc. So how does a football club cut through? By making sure the information the fan wants is there, it’s easy for

them, and the way they do that is by knowing about the fan that is visiting the website and giving them the information that they want. So, it’s fundamentally about knowing who is out there, who you’re engaging with, and why they are engaging with you. Once you understand that, you can get them to do what you want them to do – buy a ticket, click on a sponsor banner, buy a shirt. The reason why it’s continuing to grow is because we’ve only scratched the surface. The sports industry has been quite late coming to the use of CRM and data. It’s not a criticism, it’s just a statement of fact. What sports organisations can do better than anybody is put on a major event, put on an event. Football clubs do it 20 times, 24 times a year. They are unrivalled in that space, and they’ve never had to think about it before. The attitude has tended to be, open the gates and they will come, but with the advent of technology, with the advent of choice, with the world getting faster, smaller, and everything more accessible, people have choice. Instead of putting on a pair of football boots and going out playing themselves, they are turning on their PlayStations and playing FIFA, so it’s this colliding of forces, driven by technology that is now suggesting that sports organisations need to be adopting the same tactics and strategies as people like Amazon, but to the same degree Amazon is a pure play online retailer whose primary function is to sell, sell, sell. The Football Association of England does not have that objective. Yes, they need to bring revenue into the sport, maintain it, but they also need to govern the sport, they need to increase participation. They need to train people to become coaches, they need to encourage

people to become volunteers, so they don’t have quite the same commercial focus as Amazon. Clubs sometimes do have the same commercial focus, clubs don’t generally have a remit on people participation, although they do take the sport into the community and get as many people playing as they can, but of course it’s usually with the same objectives, to help them generate more revenue, so they can achieve those three points, so they can hire the best players. So, depending on the business objective, it would depend on the role of CRM, but it’s not going away. If anything, it’s increasing. Now what’s ironic is, you know the ‘moneyball theory’, the Moneyball concept film. Sports have been using participation data for many years. I don’t know any football club, any professional club, that isn’t using some data provider like Prozone to analyse performance, but it’s the business side of things where we are a little far behind and need to play catch-up using data to inform decisions in the same way club managers use data to inform performance decisions. Alan Seymour: I mean, Fiona, that’s a fantastic and a fascinating point. I mean, we started the interview and you talked about your introduction to Notts County and football per se. I’m going to quote you something from a very good friend of yours and mine, Ben Wells, from his White Paper recently. And he talks about “it’s not all about match day” and he cites an example of a typical football club Saturday, the known Saturday, which could be a Monday evening these days, 3–5 p.m., 70 to 90 percent of revenue.

That’s 0.89 percent of the week, so classically that does lead on, maybe not to a criticism, but as you say, it’s an opportunity for football clubs, and probably sports businesses need to look at many other mechanisms and opportunities. So, where do you see CRM playing a major role and enabling not just football clubs but all other sports properties to maximise how they use the data and analytics, etc? Fiona Green: That’s right, it’s not just about the match time which is 90 minutes or whatever the sport is, the period over time the event takes place. It’s also about the people who can’t attend that event or that match. I mean you have some clubs or sporting organisations who are fortunate in that they are sold out so their stadiums, or their venues are at capacity and there are thousands or hundreds of thousands of people who physically can’t get there. You’ve got other sports who may not necessarily be sold out, but again the fan base can’t physically get there, they could live on the other side of the world, the other side of the country, or they have family commitments that means they can’t physically get away. So, the spectacle of the live event is important, as it is should not be the tip of the iceberg, it should be about reaching out and managing to deliver something to everybody, even if they can’t physically get there. Alan Seymour: In terms of, and I am probably going to close and will do some summations here at the end of this very short, sadly short interview, Fiona, but I think you’ve maintained a high level of perspective here and opportunity, and kind of bringing that into the world I inhabit in sports business in education and with university students particularly, what advice would

you give to aspiring sports students, their first step on the career ladder, and perhaps how, particularly in the area of CRM, should be appealing to them, and perhaps you could tell us a little about the work that you do through Winners and yourself, with your engagement with sports students? Fiona Green: So, this field isn’t going away, as I mentioned. It’s getting bigger, and whatever your interests might be in the sports industry, for those students who are currently looking at it, CRM will play a role. You’ve already heard us talk about the performance side of things, so if you’re into the performance, it’s already there. If you’re into the business side of things, whether it’s digital marketing, event management, player representation, sponsorship which is my big area, data and CRM is a strategy and process that will play a role. I read a piece in Marketing Week some time ago that future marketers of tomorrow will be the people who understand data today. Alan Seymour: Correct. Fiona Green: So there will be no loss for people currently studying a field to add data into that. Conversely, CRM really should stand alone as an independent, but crossorganisational function. So we like to see organisations where they have a dedicated CRM department, that supports almost as a service provider for the other business units. So, sports students could decide they are going to focus purely on CRM, which starts with data and understanding how to use data, and this isn’t the same as being a data scientist. A data scientist is a very specific skill and people study that as a stand-alone. I’m

not a data scientist. I understand what data can do, so I’m looking for the message in the data but I need a data scientist to help me find it. But if you have a natural tendency towards, for example, economics finding stories in data that puts you in a good position to understand CRM, or if on the digital marketing side you are interested in analysing results, what happened, what can I do better moving forward? I also have some advice for academics as well, Alan. Alan Seymour: Great. Fiona Green: I also feel that sports course providers ought to be considering adding CRM and data specifically into their modules, into their course materials, because it’s big and so relevant and whatever course modules they have currently within the Sports Management degrees, there will be a role for CRM in data. And to your point about what Winners is doing in this space. We do support universities, where we can. We talked with you in one of your courses, we’ve talked with the University of Burnley Football Club, but we also support Columbia University in New York with some course content for their Sports Management programme; it’s a post grad, but we provide them with content and we do sessions over there as well, because it’s so important. It’s not going away, it’s only growing. So we’d like to see both students and the course providers embracing this area. Alan Seymour: Fiona, I mean I don’t want to stop here, but in many ways it’s a very nice segue into a stopping point, but it’s also an opportunity to engage and develop further. Whatever the metaphor is here, it is music to my ears to hear what you say, and I do agree with you, and I

am not ashamed here or even embarrassed, but I do think it needs mentioning that universities and education courses, modules, etc., do need to wake up a little bit to the opportunities that are presented here from things like CRM and many other module development themes. I would call on them, and that’s what in many ways we both are all about. And you kindly have done, as you said, many things for me over the last couple of years, and that’s going to continue moving into 2017 with a lot of student projects, conferences, and other things. So, my little kind of promo is, watch this space, and obviously, Fiona, I would like to give you that opportunity. So tell my listeners, particularly my sports students, how they may get in touch with you in the future. Fiona Green: Firstly by Twitter, LinkedIn, or email; contact details are on our website. My Twitter is @fionagreen66. We also run a LinkedIn group, Sports CRM and business intelligence; there’s a lot of information there. People generate discussions, students are welcome to post their own questions in there or feedback on discussions. We are also currently looking at whether or not to take on an intern, another university graduate in the new year, so if anyone has got aspirations to come learn more about us with a view to finding a role, we’d be pleased to hear from them. Alan Seymour: Well thank you very much, Fiona. You heard it first exclusively on The Future of Sport, All In Sports Talk Radio, that will be a great opportunity for somebody out there. Thanks very much, Fiona. Fiona Green: Thank you very much indeed, Alan.

Conversation: reflections and activities As a group activity you should consider the implications for how this conversation points to digital data holding the key to reaching new audiences. In the activity, debate the following: a Fiona quotes Marketing Week: “The marketers of tomorrow will be the people who understand data today?” Using examples of data-driven sponsorship or sales campaigns, consider the importance of this statement? b CRM: evaluate its role in digital sport marketing. To what extent do you consider it to be a prominent component in any future ‘digital marketing mix’ for any campaign in sports? c Correlation and signposting consumer preferences is at the heart of digital relationships in consumer behaviour. Is this now a matter of major influence in the way sports properties target new audiences? Who is the Amazon equivalent in digital sport marketing?

Conclusion In essence, any brand or rights holder must know their audience. Data abounds to enable this task, even as new audiences emerge or are created by more specialised segmentation and targeting, alongside the development of new sporting opportunities, viewing channels, and technology adaptations. The sports fan is a ‘dynamic’ entity that needs personalisation as well as maintenance through a degree of continuous engagement; the ultimate goal being to retain them as life-long advocates, and patrons of your brand.

Chapter review questions 1 Segmentation and targeting of the market is more important than ever in a cluttered competitive environment. Evaluate this proposition from the content of this chapter specifically against the benchmark of emerging audiences in sport business. 2 Direct engagement is an important consideration in sports campaign planning. How does this relate to the emergence of a market for female sports? 3 What other audiences are not being reached in sport marketing planning? Why do some audiences appear either out of reach or ignored?

Additional reading and digital resources http://nielsensports.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/nielsen-top-5commercial-sports-trends-2018.pdf https://imagen.io/resources/sport-audience-engagement/ https://impakter.com/the-surge-of-the-new-sport-fans/ https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/the-latest-trends-driving-sportsmarketing/ https://rtrsports.co.uk/blog/savvy-audiences-sports-sponsorships/ https://stratechery.com/2019/disney-and-the-future-of-tv/? shared=email&msg=fail www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/need-know-sports-marketing-2017beyond/142487 www.edelman.co.uk/insights/sports-millennial-bug-race-younger-audience www.ejss-journal.com/index.php/an-emerging-social-configuration-thesports-media-sponsors-triangle

www.fourthsource.com/branding/why-womens-sports-enthusiasts-are-avital-but-untapped-audience-for-british-brands-23955 www.gbgc.com/news/new-sports-audiences-keep-it-simple www.globalwebindex.com/reports/sports-around-the-world? utm_campaign=Paid%20Search&utm_source=ppc&utm_medium=google &utm_term=Sports&utm_content=sports-around-the-worldreport&utm_source=ppc&utm_medium=ppc&utm_term=%2Bsports%20 %2Bmarketing&utm_campaign=GWI+-+US+-+EN+-+Trends+2018++Online+Sports++BMM&hsa_kw=%2Bsports%20%2Bmarketing&hsa_grp=72451187474&h sa_net=adwords&hsa_acc=9903771596&hsa_cam=1837439473&hsa_tgt=k wd-297124439471&hsa_src=g www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/how-to-engage-and-retain-audiences-forfootball-cricket-and-rugby-key-takeaways-from-onside-law-s-sportsbusiness-seminar www.marketingweek.com/whats-the-value-of-being-an-early-sponsor-ofemerging-sports/ www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-andtelecommunications/our-insights/we-are-wrong-about-millennialsports-fans www.mobilemarketer.com/ex/mobilemarketer/cms/opinion/columns/17885.h tml www.netfluential.com/blog-articles/2019/4/16/womens-sport-the-newbattleground-for-brands-amp-broadcasters-looking-to-connect-withyoung-audiences www.sportengland.org/research/understanding-audiences/sport-andwomen/ www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2019/11/06/fight-attract-new-audiences-goodmuch-reform-can-destroy-sports/ www.themeboy.com/blog/grow-sports-audience-with-casual-fans/ www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/global-licensed-sportsmerchandise-industry.htm

www.wayin.com/resources/20-sports-digital-marketing-campaigns/? utm_source=googlead&utm_campaign=CBS&utm_medium=adwords&g clid=CjwKCAiA_f3uBRAmEiwAzPuaM2DfdwUMPxJZa5Fb6EhC9Zi49N xcJXkPNHnZAKrPSUllMmnygjJaIxoC0_wQAvD_BwE

References Bartsch, A., Oliver, M. B., Nitsch, C., & Scherr, S. (2018) ‘Inspired by the Paralympics: Effects of empathy on audience interest in para-sports and on the destigmatization of persons with disabilities’, Communication Research, 45(4), pp. 525–553. Catto, L. (2019) ‘Salford City: The most interesting football proposition for brands this summer?’ https://digitalsport.co/salford-city-the-mostinteresting-football-proposition-for-brands-thissummer#.XN7BKA_tYho.twitter Coleman, J. S. (1965) Adolescents and the School. New York: Basic Books. Deloitte (2013) ‘Deloitte predictions seminar breakout growth & emerging markets’. https://issuu.com/deloittenl/docs/deloitte_cb_predictions_seminar__b_f9149d665e3381/5 Gilfeather, J. & Carroll, T. (2005) http://195.130.87.21:8080/dspace/bitstream/123456789/836/1/Understandin g%20is%20the%20Beginning%20of%20Approving.pdf Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2003) Principles of Marketing (International edition). Cambridge: Pearson. McCarthy, M. (2019) ‘Soccer fans prefer full games to highlights, study says’. https://frntofficesport.com/soccer-study-bleacher-report/ Montez de Oca, J., Meyer, B., & Scholes, J. (2016) ‘Reaching the kids: NFL youth marketing and media’, Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture, 14(1), pp. 3–11.

Nagij, B. & Tuff, G. (2012) ‘Managing your innovation portfolio’, Harvard Business Review, May. https://hbr.org/2012/05/managing-yourinnovation-portfolio Newzoo (2016) https://resources.newzoo.com/hubfs/Reports/Newzoo_2018_Global_Espo rts_Market_Report_Excerpt.pdf?submissionGuid=b655872f-663d-4b8180a4-5fb99aef5f2b Porter, R. (2019) ‘Women’s World Cup final draws bigger audience than 2018 Men’s final’. www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/womens-world-cupfinal-outdraws-2018-mens-final-us-ratings-1222814 Sveinson, K., Hoeber, L., & Toffoletti, K. (2019) ‘If people are wearing pink stuff they’re probably not real fans: Exploring women’s perceptions of sport fan clothing’, Sport Management Review, 22(5), pp. 736–747. Thompson, B. (2019) https://stratechery.com/2019/disney-and-the-future-oftv/?shared=email&msg=fail Toffoletti, K. (2017) Women Sport Fans: Identification, Participation, Representation. New York: Routledge. Transparency Market Research (2016) www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/global-licensedsports-merchandise-industry.htm Umstead, R. T. (2018) ‘Fielding subs, streaming content’, Multi-Channel News, 39(25), p. 10. Vasseur, G. (2017) ‘How to leverage emerging markets in the global sports economy’. www.workinsports.com/blog/how-to-leverage-emergingmarkets-in-the-global-sports-economy/ Willingham, A. J. (2018) ‘What is eSports? A look at an explosive billiondollar industry’. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/08/27/us/esports-what-isvideo-game-professional-league-madden-trnd/index.html? __twitter_impression=true Xinhua (2016) www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/201612/23/content_27757425.htm

8 Sports in a cultural and knowledge management context

Chapter objectives After studying the concepts, cases, and conversations in this chapter, the reader should be able to: Consider culture and knowledge management as ‘new age’ concepts for digital sport marketing. Appreciate the adaptation and embodiment of these ‘value-driven’ extensions to ‘sport for good’ as well as being ‘good for sport marketing’. Understand the broad sense of ‘opportunity’ that sport affords us all.

Introduction Jarvie et al. (2017, p. 2) comment that It is impossible to fully understand contemporary society and culture without acknowledging the place of sport. We inhabit a world in which sport is an international phenomenon. It is important for politicians and world leaders to be associated with sports personalities; it contributes to the economy; some of the most visible international spectacles are associated with sporting events; it is part of the social and cultural fabric of different localities, regions and nations; its transformative potential remains evident in some of the poorest areas of the world; it is important to the television and film industry, and the tourist industry; and it is regularly associated with social problems and issues such as crime, health, violence, social inequality, labour migration, economic and social regeneration, and poverty.

So, sport mirrors society at large. A microcosm, built around winning at all costs – be that cheating to gain an advantage, violence and aggression, gender inequality, racism, and issues around disability sport and LGBTQ+. Is this the ethical and moral code that sport portrays as the world has moved from ‘old media’ to ‘new media’ with the rapid and widespread increase in the use of digital technology by professional athletes, sport clubs, leagues,

and fans? With constant connectivity, the always-available communications environment has transformed relations of time, space, transmission, and reception. This has meant an accelerated information order in which immediacy, instantaneity, and immanence constitute the social experience of the populous. All, seemingly, a part of the new sporting ‘culture’. A question to be posed for the 21st-century sport marketer is: with trends suggested of ever more digital matter, how will it be best to manoeuvre in a culture of social media (especially) overload? As the media landscape fragments and ‘new’ consumers are more noisy and public, these increased choices of consumption determine a new breed of tribal and cultural dimension in sports. But where does the ability to ‘change the agenda’ and learn new lessons in the knowledge society fit?

CONCEPTS Knowledge is actionable information; relevant and available in the right place, at the right time, in the right context to aid decisionmaking (Tiwana, 2003) – echoes of Fiona Green from Conversation 7.1. Knowledge is “the key source in intelligent decision making, forecasting, design, planning, diagnosis, analysis, evaluation and intuitive judgement” (Tiwana, 2003, p. 37). Knowledge is formed in, and shared between, individuals and, increasingly, machines. Knowledge evolves through formal and informal learning which includes past experiences, failures, and successes, both within and outside the sports organisation. Knowledge has become so important that there have been fundamental changes in the nature of economic and social life which have seen its importance grow significantly (Hislop, 2013) – digital technology in the business of sports! To clarify, Hislop (2013) suggested that data, information, and knowledge are commonly used terms that should not be used interchangeably. Information provides facts from data, whereas

knowledge allows for making predictions, casual associations, or predictive decisions about what to do (Bali et al., 2009; Tiwana, 2003). Data refers to raw numbers, images, or words derived from observation or measurement that are arranged via intellectual input into a meaningful pattern to become information. Knowledge is data or information with further intellectual analysis conducted; where it is interpreted, meaning is attached and is structured and linked with existing systems of beliefs and bodies of knowledge. Knowledge provides beliefs about the causality of events or actions, and the basis to guide valuable information storage space, skills, and practices (Hislop, 2013) – sport marketing in the digital age. Knowledge management can help to manage risk, integrate technology advances, build stakeholder intimacy, and can help an organisation to become more adaptable and innovative (Ragab & Arisha, 2013). Knowledge management “promotes an integrated approach to identifying, managing and sharing all of an enterprise’s information assets … including databases, documents, policies and procedures as well as previously unarticulated expertise and experience resident in individual workers [termed Domain Experts by Alonso et al., 2012]. Knowledge management seeks to enable knowledge sharing” (Gartner Group in Butler, 2000, p. 32). Knowledge is one of the most valuable assets any organisation can have, and its successful handling can create competitive advantage in the market, organisational growth and survival, increased performance effectiveness, and improved service quality (Ragab & Arisha, 2013). It also helps to minimise duplication and waste of effort. Nonaka and Takeuchi’s (1995) Socialisation, Externalisation, Combination, Internalisation (SECI; www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13673270810875831/full/ html) model suggested that knowledge is created through the transfer of both tacit (informal/personal knowledge rooted in an individual’s values) and explicit knowledge (tangible knowledge stored in documents, databases, web pages, emails, charts, etc.) between

individual, group, and organisation levels, which interact in a knowledge cycle resulting in knowledge creation. Tacit knowledge is shared in the socialisation process and is converted to explicit knowledge, or formal knowledge, in the externalisation process. It is then converted to organisational knowledge when it is shared throughout the organisation in the combination phase. In the end, it feeds back to the individual where it is internalised, and the individual grows. Thus, acquiring organisational knowledge becomes a selftranscending process (Vorakulpipat & Rezgui, 2008). The model helps target knowledge creation as an important activity of the knowledge management process and highlights the different types of knowledge conversions. It also highlights the value of the stakeholder network in terms of knowledge sources, since each stakeholder has the potential to contribute new knowledge beneficial to other stakeholders. Capturing tacit knowledge is a key skill for any sport organisation (Parent et al., 2013). However, it is rather inarticulate, developed with experience, and deepened through problem-solving activities, explicit knowledge being more easily articulated, written, or codified (Parent et al., 2013). Knowledge transfer expedites the knowledge from a sender to a receiver with acceptance and integration by the receiver – an important activity both intra- and inter-organisationally (Jasmuddin, 2012). The acquired knowledge can be applied/used in three different forms: instrumental use, or direct action; conceptual use, or indirect action, such as influencing others; and symbolic use, such as using the knowledge to justify other actions (Nesheim et al., 2011). The most noteworthy example of these principles being applied in practice in sports is that of the IOC’s Olympic Games Knowledge Management (OGKS) programme established in 2000 during preparations for the Sydney Games. The programme provides an integrated platform of services and documentation, which assists organisers in their preparations, while also aiding the transfer of knowledge from one Organising Committee (OCOG) to another.

The OGKM programme consists of three main sources: information (explicit knowledge) such as the Official Games Report, technical manuals, knowledge reports, and a range of other useful documents and publications that are all available on a dedicated extranet, services and personal experience (tacit knowledge) such as workshops, seminars, and a network of experts with Games experience. Experts are available to the OCOG throughout the life cycle of the Games and help to translate technical manuals into operational delivery. OCOGs are also able to gain personal experience on Games preparations and operations through the Games-time Observer Programme, the official Games debriefing and the secondment programme, which allows staff members from future OCOGs to work on the current edition of the Olympic Games in order to gain first-hand experience of Games operations. During Sochi 2014, more than 370 participants from three Organising Committees (Rio 2016, PyeongChang 2018, and Tokyo 2020) and five Applicant Cities for the Olympic Winter Games in 2022 (Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing, China; Krakow, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; and Oslo, Norway) observed the Games-time operations and activities of different functional areas. The process is a key learning opportunity that transfers knowledge into the OCOG with successful delivery of the next Games as the outcome (IOC, 2014). For the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, the Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC) noted the importance of their stakeholder network becoming a principal knowledge source. In particular, delivery expectations were discussed with national and international sport organisations as key stakeholders (Parent et al., 2013). The principles of knowledge management are relevant to all sport organisations from grassroots to international level. So, the five doctrines that any sport organisation should consider are: 1 Capture, share, manage, and harness their corporate knowledge to reduce uncertainty of outcomes and to coordinate and facilitate

strategy and policy implementation (Halbwirth & Toohey, 2001). 2 Realise the significance of knowledge management and its inherent benefits and value (Parent et al., 2013). 3 Information technology plays a vital role in creating serviceableness (Hislop, 2013). 4 Exchanging and sharing of knowledge helps to invent new knowledge for organisational improvement (Hislop, 2013). 5 Organisational structure and culture, working procedures, and the obligations of the workforce need to encourage and promote constant learning and knowledge implementation practices (Parent & Smith-Swan, 2012). Don’t forget that sport organisations in the contemporary global sporting environment encounter numerous challenges such as: Unpredictability and rapid change. Information overload. Demands for accountability and transparency in decision making. Finance reliance on sponsor and broadcast organisations. Growth in contract and short-term employment patterns. Increased flexibility and power of information technology. Interconnectivity and reliance between organisations. Efforts to improve efficiency and decrease complexity. (Halbwirth & Toohey, 2001)

Knowledge management has become a powerful weapon to deliver successive Olympic Games in different cities, countries, and cultures and has highlighted the importance of knowledge tailoring in sport. Knowledge tailoring passes knowledge to an external source and then on to those operating in a different context (Parent et al., 2013), and it is now used in non-Olympic Games such as the Malaysian Games (Ghaffar et al., 2011), Rugby World Cup (EKS, 2014), and Commonwealth Games (EKS, 2014).

Specialist service providers are now available for sport federations, cities, and countries who wish to host sports events. The network of provision is small in number, so the need to learn lessons as the dynamism of global society impacts upon sport, and the expectations of consumers (on- and offline) is enhanced. There is a clear need for experience in planning and managing global sports events, and the following case outlines one such organisation.

Case study 8.1: EKS consultancy EKS is a specialist independent consultancy supporting the technical delivery of major sporting events. They provide strategic guidance, event planning, production services, and operational expertise. Direct experience counts for a lot in the sports industry, and EKS has many years of experience through association with many of the world’s largest, most successful sporting events. The founders of the company ‘cut their teeth’ at the 2000 Sydney Games. To this day EKS maintains close working relationships within the Olympic family. The executive team has led successful bids to host this great global celebration and has been involved in just about every Games cycle since Sydney.

Knowledge and networks The company has built on their Olympic pedigree as partners to other event owners as well as event organisers and sports federations. EKS has supported many nations and regions that dreamt of hosting great sporting events. And for event owners, EKS has developed leading-edge services that ease the burden of delivery. Their handpicked team has been assembled across the globe. EKS people thrive on collaboration. Their diverse experiences and complementary skills add breadth and depth to the services on offer. The core team brings in leading international experts in crucial

areas like transport planning and venue design. The experience of the team ensures they have the knowledge to understand what works and what the pitfalls might be. This can save time and money. However, the spiralling cost of hosting major events has put the focus on value for money. How can a few weeks of sport ever justify the years of preparation and hundred-million-dollar budgets involved? How is the popular imagination captured? How do you make people feel and act differently? So, because EKS understands how value gets delivered through major events, the company knows that everything starts with a compelling bid. Successful events rely on smart planning and efficient operations to build backing and sustain momentum. Across the board, they have the experience and the capabilities to crystallise a vision and bring it to fruition. EKS works with the client to help maintain, develop, and extend their brand. Their groundbreaking work with event owners enables more effective oversight and lowers delivery risk because they: Prepare common standards and documentation for event bidders and organisers. Appraise and assess competitive bids. Ensure their knowledge management service reduces risks for event owners. They organise and collect content that simplifies the transfer of knowledge between event organisers. They develop systems and processes to enhance event coordination and oversight. Embed teams to work alongside event organisers. EKS advisors support host cities and liaise between owners and organisers. They collect performance data, maintain knowledge management systems, and monitor progress on the ground. EKS offers a range of expert services such as strategic guidance, planning, and technical assistance to support event scoping, planning, and delivery. This all helps to reduce risks and lower costs. EKS begins their involvement

at the earliest stages of bid preparation and continues well beyond the closing ceremony: Feasibility audits define costs and viability at an early stage. They lead on strategic and technical advice for cities and regions bidding for events, as they know the technical requirements inside out. During the planning of the event they can identify potential pitfalls, compress timelines, and deliver savings. In the delivery phase, their experience of Organising Committees and host cities is invaluable. They manage overall event programmes and project manage individual delivery elements. They work to build programmes and organisations that can meet challenging milestones when time is constrained. When the curtain goes down, they stay at your side, auditing the impact, repurposing facilities and capturing lessons learnt. Each event cycle brings unique challenges and opportunities. EKS people have operated in senior roles for federations, National Olympic Committees and successive Organising Committees. Here are some of the clients EKS people have supported in recent years. Olympic Games Olympic Bidding Cities Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games Candidate Cities Commonwealth Games Feasibility Studies Regional Games International Cricket Council (ICC) World Rugby Golf Equestrian Swimming World Rowing

International Ice Hockey Federation Every assignment is unique, and so working methods adapt accordingly. EKS operates behind the scenes right across the event cycle. They work with their clients to stage celebrations that resonate worldwide, deliver great impacts, and achieve lasting legacies. They focus on placing the right people with the right skills in the right places at the right times. Their flat management structure attracts talented individuals. EKS people are confident, motivated, and proven in the field. They have the authority and the expertise to manage complex issues on the ground. They assemble purpose-built teams to fit client culture and priorities. Team members are practised collaborators with extensive experience. They are supported with smart tools, clearly defined operating procedures, and an extensive knowledge base.

Precision-engineered consulting EKS arrives on site to work with the client to help clarify and achieve their goals. The event owner or organiser is best placed to develop a compelling narrative for their city, region or discipline. EKS helps you bring it to life. With many years’ industry experience, EKS can quickly identify the specific requirements of the client and develop purpose-built solutions. Their tailored approach reduces your costs and delivers better results. Here is an example of one major event partner that EKS has worked with:

Glasgow 2014: Congratulations Glasgow 2014 “Best Games Ever”, EKS role Advisory and Consulting Services, 2007–2014. Technical Advisors, CGF Coordination Commission, 2007–2014. Technical Advisors, CGF Evaluation Commission for selection of Glasgow as host city.

EKS founder lead development of Scottish Event Strategy 2001–2002, which identified. the Commonwealth Games as a major milestone. More information: www.glasgow2014.com (www.eks.com).

Case study questions Visit the Glasgow 2014 website (www.glasgow2014.com). Here you will find an array of documents detailing the success of the Commonwealth Games. 1 What were the key points of learning that were transferred to the next Games in Australia? 2 How might other sporting events benefit from this kind of assessment and forward-thinking process? 3 How important is knowledge transfer for sports events? In the following conversation, Dr Cath Bishop draws upon her experience as a leadership speaker, facilitator, coach, writer, and consultant and draws on her practical experience from two high-pressure careers as an Olympic rower and a senior diplomat specialising in conflict stabilisation.

Conversation 8.1 Dr Cath Bishop, Senior Performance Consultant and Keynote Speaker Throughout this conversation, Cath explores the amazing impact that sports can have socially, culturally, and economically. The relevancy for elite athletes to demonstrate their considerable experience and expertise once their sporting career is complete is a central theme here. Alan Seymour: Well, good afternoon to you. This is Alan Seymour hosting yet another edition of The Future of Sport here

on All In Sports Talk. This is episode 19. It’s a great pleasure, it’s certainly a privilege because today, Olympics and Olympic idealism, and everything that the Olympics represents, has always been with me throughout my career. I’m very delighted to welcome an Olympian, a rowing Olympian, Cath Bishop. My first introductory question, almost, Cath, is, tell us what made you an Olympian, and tell us some of the history and the background to your rowing successes, Cath. Cath Bishop: Sure, great. Really good to be here with you, Alan. I guess my first taste of the Olympics was growing up, and actually watching the 1984 Olympics, the Los Angeles Olympics as a child, as a 12-year-old and being utterly enthralled by it all, and seeing it like a Hollywood film release, something incredible that I was frankly compelled by, but never ever thought I would do. I loved the whole Olympic idea from whenever I first saw it as a child growing up. I didn’t actually have a successful time at school in sports. I was quite a good student in my academic side, but I didn’t have a very imaginative PE teacher, I think, and so I didn’t really do well. I was not viewed as a sporty type at school, and I really thought sport wasn’t particularly for me. It was when I got to university that things changed and shifted significantly. Quite by surprise, really, and not intending to take up rowing, I remember arriving at university thinking, “I’m going to be up late solving the universe”, so I wouldn’t have to get up early to go rowing. But somehow, when they all came with their clipboards to say, “Oh, you’re tall, you want to row don’t you?” I said, “Well, not if you’re going out really

early in the morning, and I’m not very sporty really.” Initially, I kind of brushed them off, but it got to me in other ways, and all sorts of people had been coming to my friends and talking about rowing. There’s a big buzz about it. Quite inauspiciously, I just got dragged in to fill in a seat when, in the novice crew, there was a seat missing, and I got bought beer in order to fill in the gap. And so an encounter with a completely different world of sport began, than that I’d experienced on the footy pitch at school. I fell in love with the sport. I absolutely loved being on the river, the camaraderie. To me, the teamwork was so much closer than anything I’d experienced on a hockey pitch, or a netball court, where you could stop running if you didn’t like it, and I didn’t really like it very much. I was quite passive, whereas when you’re in a boat, you can’t opt out, not unless you literally dive over the edge, which is inadvisable. So, you’re in it and you’ve got to opt in and make the best of that, and I loved that camaraderie that came from that really close teamwork. And over time, being at university, I kind of moved through the levels; did the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, had some access to some fantastic coaches there who dangled the idea that the Olympics was a possibility. And so, of course, you can’t ignore that, and so the exciting journey began that took me to Atlanta, Sydney, and Athens, with lots of ups and downs, downs and ups. Alan Seymour: Cath, can I just pause for one moment? This is audio. I kind of wish that, yes, there are classically word pictures, but if I was kind of doing this video style as well, the emotion that’s coming through, I mean, we’ll

talk a lot more in the interview, but there are lots of peripherals that I could think about here. But if nothing else from the interview, in this very early stage, I’m telling my audience, I’m telling my students, I’m telling all of those people connected, just listen to this because if you wanted drive, inspiration, a starting point, maybe it was destiny but some of the things that you do in that regard, you’ve got to drive them yourself. And, obviously, competition and discipline, and all that sport brings. And some of the words that you’ve used here, you know. Let me just pick up maybe on one particular point, if I may. I mean, I’m a firm believer, I’ve taught at university for many, many years. I’ve been there, my daughters have all gone through the process and have all been inspired, just a little bit like you have, in a variety of ways. But prior to that, when I came out of university, I did a post grad and I did a Cert Ed, and I went into teaching as a PE teacher. Without obviously using too much of the, maybe, sensitivities, what role do you think a PE teacher plays in the formative considerations and the formative development of potential, not just Olympians, but sports people per se, Cath? Cath Bishop: It’s huge. It’s the same for any teacher, isn’t it? It’s an opportunity to really show the possibilities of what could be achieved through your subject. Whether that’s Geography, Biology, or PE; it’s about how this can add meaning and experience to your life. And I guess the added advantage you have of PE is it’s really physical as well as mental. So, it’s the mind and body in one when you’re learning PE. So, you’re really helping people to kind of understand who they are, both of

their mind and body, you know. Looking at how that works. We’re with our minds and bodies all our lives, but we choose what we do with our minds and our bodies. PE gives us that kind of structure and framework to do incredible things. Whether that’s whatever goal we have, Olympics or personal goals in fitness. I think for PE teachers it’s about opening up a world of possibilities for us to explore. Alan Seymour: Okay, yeah. Cath, can I also ask, it’s a fairly direct question I suppose, and no means in our interview today will it be anything other than conversations and maybe some touchpoints for us to start debates and get people to think a little more. The question that I often think of, in this context, particular with elite athletes, if I can say that, is, are you born to be, or are you taught to be, or can you be coached? And, I guess, the answer probably lies somewhere between all of those considerations. But particularly in your sport, maybe, and as you came to it a bit late and maybe even reluctantly, how much is the influence of coaching and being taught, and or natural talent, I suppose? Cath, what are your perspectives on that? Cath Bishop: I think you have to harness everything you’ve got, and that is your upbringing, the boundaries you have, your identity, who you are, and it is all the coaching and all the information and experience and other inspirational role models you can get your hands on. So I think you have to use everything you’ve got to get to the top of the sport. You have to absolutely maximise everything you’ve got going and find a bit more. So for me, it’s about using whatever you have and combining those things that aren’t always that separable. I think coming

to sport late, I felt I was on a really steep learning curve. Alan Seymour: Okay, yeah. Cath Bishop: There were things that I could transfer, and I’d actually done quite a lot of music as a child quite seriously. And so I did competitions; there was a performance added affair. There were lots of things about getting a rhythm. Really being in the right mindset. Living in the moment in your performance to be in the present. So there were some things that I’d come across that absolutely could be transferred across. Just doing your exams; just preparing, the stress, the pressure. There were things I could transfer but at the same time, I felt, gosh, people around me who have been doing the sport a lot longer who just knew their bodies longer, and I was on this sort of crash course. But I also kind of lost that, almost. I’m here kind of almost by mistake, but wow, what a wonderful place to end up. What are all the things that I could do to kind of help me learn? It’s so obvious I needed to learn stuff, and I learned not to take anything for granted and sought out people really quickly. Rowing is a small sport where people are really, really supportive, and it’s a tight community. Therefore, you have easy access to the top role models. You could talk to Steve Redgrave; he wasn’t hidden away like perhaps the top footballer might be from the footballers coming through. For me, I had great access to people with so much experience and wisdom in the coaching world as well. And it was just about grabbing as much as I could and translating that to where I was. Alan Seymour: I mean, Cath – you used a word earlier and it’s probably not a word and maybe you’ve already answered this in part, and it’s not a word that I would

often, or a trait, characteristic maybe, that I would always associate with successful sports people, but it’s an interesting debate here. You used the word ‘passive’, and that was maybe because in your early stages, you focused more or you Leant more towards academia or academic pursuits rather than sporting pursuits. What I detected, if I could assume this, and it’s always dangerous, maybe, to do that, but it was like an awakening, and I know that from many, many sources, and we’ve not got time to talk about those today, but it was almost that destiny once you started. You got in the boat, you started to train, and how much do you think that moment was the light bulb moment? Or how much do you think it’s changed your life? I mean again, it’s a very broad, general question, but maybe just give us some perspectives on that, Cath, if you could. Cath Bishop: I think you’re right. It engages you. It’s almost like an addiction, isn’t it? Alan Seymour: Absolutely, yeah. Cath Bishop: When you do a sport at that level, that you actually do it to the exclusion of everything else, which isn’t necessarily 100 percent horrible when you get the opportunity and the privilege where you can just focus on seeing how good you could be, seeing how world class you could be at one thing that you fundamentally love doing, then it’s a wonderful journey to be on. And it makes you feel very alive. There’s nothing like sitting on the start of an international race, an Olympic final, and feeling utterly alive in your, sort of, mind and body. And those experiences stay with you. If you ask anybody about key moments in their life, it’s often big moments where the essence of who you are is something you discover at the next level, whether it’s

getting married or a massive job opportunity or having a child. It’s up there in those things, an Olympic final. It’s something that is always a part of who you are, you carry with you. You’re kind of tested with what’s possible. You’ve pushed your mental, physical boundaries. You’re just stronger for knowing that, and it’s sort of putting your neck on the line and saying, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to go out there and see how good I can be, and I could fail horribly, but I’m going to put my neck on the line in this next seven minutes.” The opportunity to do that, and then the fact that you seize the opportunity and do it, is something that just becomes a huge part of your life. Alan Seymour: I mean, Cath – I knew this was going to happen, I’m holding my hands up here but it is my show so maybe I can be almost forgiving of myself. I knew, in this interview, it was never ever going to be long enough, and every time you mention something, I want to interject or talk about something. So I’m going to have to be quite disciplined in this, but before we move on maybe to another phase in the interview, and another phase maybe in your career progression, I just want to finally – well, maybe not finally, because I’m sure we’ll come back to it in a way – but I want to talk about the Olympics and Olympic ideals. I saw something I think, in fact, you probably, like we often do, re-tweeted something or you used it as a benchmark for people to think about, there are changes within the Olympics, the Olympic movement, and multi-events, you know. The global perspective of it, the erosion of maybe some things; whether it be integrity or too much money. And there’s a whole range of things, but recent announcements about

introducing new sports, how that might affect other sports. I saw a note that athletics was now not going to be the major sport in the Olympics. I think swimming was going to take over, but one of the comments, maybe from a colleague of yours, had made that they didn’t see the Olympics, in its format today, being ever likely to be the same or even maybe to disappear, within the generation of that time scale. What are your views on where the Olympics may be going, or do you see the Olympics lasting out against maybe some of that backdrop, Cath? Cath Bishop: Yeah, that’s a fascinating question, and I was shocked by the idea of the Olympics not surviving because they seem to me as, the Olympics will outlive us. We’ve destroyed our planet, but the Olympics will sort of somehow still be going. It’s been there since ancient times. It encapsulates such a fundamental essence of who we are; trying to jump higher, run faster, etc., etc. I kind of think that idea might change, but I guess what the Olympics looks like can change as it has changed. And I can see it has this struggle to stay relevant, certainly in the world we live in. Fundamentally, the fact that it survived sort of from ancient times to now makes me think it’ll be fine getting through the next 20 years because it’s bigger than that. Of course, the IOC, they do what they can to modernise and all those sort of normal pressures that normal organisations have and need to be aware of but actually, if you sort of take a step back further, in my view, the fundamental essence of what it’s about; that never goes away whilst the human race is in existence. I think it’s about tinkering and sort of tweaking formats. Mixed relays, I think that sounds like great

fun. I think rowing lends itself very well to mixed crews, as rowing now has mixed crews. So I just get envious, then, that, oh, why didn’t they have that when I was rowing, because that sounds fun. It’s an interesting concept and I guess if you think it’s heralded to coming to an end at some point, but for me, the Olympics is just some sort of fundamentally human show that will continue. It will ebb and flow, maybe, in what the global population-viewing figures are, but that’s not really what it’s about. Alan Seymour: I often – very rarely, sorry – put a very strong personal perspective on some of my interviews with these, but I’m gladdened to hear what you say because I share that. I’ve grown up with the Olympics a lot longer than you have. For what it’s worth, and I think it’s maybe worth me putting this in as kind of a nice little segue to the next part of the interview, I was very fortunate in 1972, how time flies, I was just coming out of university and was advised by my then physical education lecturer and tutor during my teaching diploma to apply, and I was very successful, as it happened to be, to be selected as a GB representative at the International Olympic Academy in Greece. I went to that for three weeks, and that idealism and that contact with the Olympic movement, and I’ve done some research on it, have stayed with me. Legacy, tradition, time scales would suggest, I mean, it’s frightening to think how many years ago that was, and here I am today talking about it with an Olympian. So that’s a kind of beautiful little, I think, script to the fact that the Olympics will outlive us all. A segue in, and I’m being very diplomatic here probably, as we probably both have, which kind of

nicely moves us into, you moved into diplomacy. A diplomat in various places in the world, mostly in Bosnia, Sarajevo. Just tell us a little about that experience and maybe, obviously perhaps if we can, in that regard, talk about and accentuate the positives obviously that have come out of that, maybe for your career going forward and how business and diplomacy and sport are all interlinked. Tell us a bit about those experiences, Cath. Cath Bishop: Becoming a diplomat was actually what I intended to do before I went off on this sort of big tangent of trying to go backwards in a boat as fast as I possibly could of which I spent more than a decade doing. I had gone to university and studied languages and international politics, and so for me, this is a world that really fascinates me. It’s, sort of, real life. It’s seeing the rest of the globe and things that are very different but just a few hours away, the conflicts of this world. I guess all of it, when I reflect now, is about people. Diplomacy is about building partnerships with the unlikeliest of allies. Trying to find something in common when it’s really clear what you don’t have in common and many disputes are decades, centuries old. Trying to find a way forward through. Again, there’s a sort of fascination in that, and diplomacy has existed forever in different forms, really, and it’s about how we connect. How we find a way that we can get to a better place. I was always fascinated by that world; it’s a very much, kind of, real-life world you see today. We’re very fortunate we’re not exposed to wars, and we live a very privileged life, in many respects. I think, for me, I always felt like I needed to understand your perspective in other places in this world and the people

born in other circumstances experience really different lives. We have a responsibility being a well-off, established, and previously very influential, still slightly influential, country. We have a responsibility to try and make the world a better place. That sounds trite, but it is really about cooperating and finding ways to collaborate and resist the urges that pull us in a more destructive direction. Alan Seymour: I think, Cath, it’s obviously a much bigger subject than we can discuss here in a 30-minute interview and I’m fascinated by the whole subject area. In fact, there are so many synergies, apart from the fact that I’ve never been an Olympian. I wish I could have been. There are so many synergies. My first degree at university was, in fact, in modern history and politics, and I was always fascinated by some of the issues in the ’70s and ’80s, at a time when I was teaching it and involved in it. I think the synergy and the connection that goes with sports is very good; the societal and maybe sport is forgotten, lots of lessons that we can learn and certainly, the discipline and the value aspects do very much come out of that. Do you see yourself fulfilling a role, maybe? I mean, gazing here, looking in a crystal ball into the future, because I want to close the interview shortly, but we’ve got another ten minutes at least to start talking about what you’re doing now and maybe the links between public speaking and visiting professor at the Surrey Business School and one or two other little touchpoints there. But do you ever see yourself maybe going back into politics, diplomacy, that kind of area going forward, Cath?

Cath Bishop: I think it’s unlikely, I think it’s unlikely. I think certainly when I was younger, I saw that as where I wanted to be. I think sports took me on a different tangent and it, in a way, showed me a different way of reaching people and helping people to understand themselves. The challenge is that sport can feel quite sort of sidelined from a national political view, in many ways. I think I want to stay, in a way, involved with the sporting world, and big IOC politics is not something that I think is very relevant, and I think it’s about just feeling where you fit in and can make a difference. I don’t think so, but I’m certainly very interested in political issues – I’m engaged as a member of the public, as it were, and I certainly have issues I care about, and I certainly want to fight to make sure we use sport because it’s such a constructive element we have in society. Coming back to that question to about what teachers do, they can help in so many different issues in education and health. It’s a force for good and I don’t feel like we really maximise that. It gets sidelined. Alan Seymour: Cath, I mean, again, we’ve really structured – I’m not going to say planned here, maybe a little bit because of the conversational way this interview has gone – but that kind of, again, nicely fits in with where you are at the moment and maybe some of the things where I’m at, and maybe I can see some synergies here. We need people like Cath Bishop. Now, when you choose or are invited – I see you’re doing some work not only on the speaker tour, but I know that you’re a visiting professor at the Surrey Business School, tell us a little bit about your role there and how that role came to be and what kind of added

value do you think you get in some of the work there and beyond. Cath Bishop: Currently, over the last few years, I’ve been increasingly engaged in the leadership development world, I guess, which is a broad world. In many ways, what is it about? It’s about human performance. It’s about how can we help people be more effective in what they do. It’s working with organisations in all sorts of forms and as part of that, working with business schools and particularly, recently, collaborating with Surrey Business School. Around these questions about what is performance, what is leadership, what can we learn from sports, so obviously bringing those sort of crossovers and some really clear parallels and really clear analogies around how to get the best out of ourselves but also with the understanding that it’s a very complex, massive world, from my experiences as a diplomat. So understanding the clear analogies of sporting performance, about having an appreciation that life can be a lot messier than that, a lot more complicated than that in certain ways. A lot less predictable, and therefore understanding that we have to translate those kind of performance approaches into the difficult, everyday life we live and work in. The difficult, complex organisations; the unpredictability that we face all the time and trying to help translate all those. For me, it’s making sense of the two very intense careers that I had that were very high-pressure, highstakes environments in different ways. Sitting at the start in the Olympics and then working in war zones. Just making sense of that and then seeing those as useful lenses within which to apply to other people

who are, you know, we’re all under pressure in what we’re trying to do in one way or another and trying to see how that lens can help us to work out some of the fundamentals about how we can be most effective at whatever it is we’re trying to do. So it’s this sort of ongoing obsession with human performance, I think, that’s seeing different worlds and at the moment, really enjoying working with business schools, colleagues, and MBA students and organisations who are also hankering to learn those lessons and perhaps realise that they’re not doing things the best way they could, and take off at discovering how to increase it. Alan Seymour: Do you see, Cath, that there is not just a market for that or a culture for that? I mean, stakeholder-wise, you’re talking clearly maybe to organisations, to not-forprofits or businesses or whatever. Where is the audience? Where is the Uptake, and do you think that people embrace the need for this because quite often people say we know it all, or we’re traditional or management consultants? I mean, I’m throwing some wild, maybe, commentaries out here. Some politicians recently have kind of spurned the fact that we’re all too swayed often by notional experts in their field. I totally disagree with some or all of those commentaries, but do you think there is a real need and, more importantly perhaps, they take it, you know, they embrace it for all that it’s worth, something like leadership development and management? Cath Bishop: Well, of course there’s a spectrum across organisations, and half are engaged with it but what I observe is an increasing interest in this area. That companies increasingly see that if they overlook this area, then

there can be grave consequences. I think there’s been a phase where creative obsession – people wanted to expand and raise the importance of an organisation they just hired. People can’t do that now. They can’t afford to do that now, so they need to look at the performance of the people they’ve got, and I think again, there’s sort of an increasing realisation that having a culture that’s actually positive, supportive, it does increase the performance. But it’s tricky to do so; I see a real interest in this issue of culture. Again, it’s not good enough to just send a few individuals off to training courses or to send them on a leadership program because they come back, into an environment that then restricts them, often, from putting into practice what they learn. Therefore, you’ve got to look at this environment itself. Now of course, some people don’t actually want to look too closely at how things are; they’d rather just stick to the mission statement and the values on the roll on the wall, rather than actually how they’re gaining experience. I think most companies, in order to survive and then thrive, realise that this is because of what they ask, because of what they offer their employees, and if they want to retain and attract the best and they want to be relevant for the next generation coming through, then they need to embrace this stuff. It’s a responsibility, and it is part of the bottom line. It helps performance. So, I think, again, all the kind of increasing literature are coming out of Harvard Business Reviews, all that world, is around this stuff matters. It affects the bottom line. It’s not a luxury, it’s not a ‘nice to’; it’s a ‘things go badly wrong’ if you get some of the culture issues wrong. Either because you get a, sort of, gold star

situation occurring; Enron, those sorts of big famous situations which really dramatised what can go wrong if you don’t spend enough time on this. So I think there’s an increasing swing in this direction, but of course, some people are at the front of that wave and some people are at the back, kind of wishing they didn’t have to go there. Alan Seymour: Absolutely. I mean, Cath, I don’t know how to put this very politely without being insensitive, maybe, but I’m going to say it anyway. You’re hired, where do I sign up, because I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s interesting because many of the connections I’ve made, a little bit outside – I wouldn’t say restrictive practice of higher education, academia, and all that’s going on in this world in that particular sector – that’s for another debate, maybe, but there are very common synergies in what you’ve talked about. I’ve done some guest lectures recently in sport business, particularly, but touchpoints like communications, like social media, and, you know, while you’re there, one of the buzz things at the moment is disruption, and clearly it needs a special person to go out and do some of those things. You know it works, I’ve seen it work, I’ve been involved in it but you’re knowing as well that these guys are going to go back to their organisations and kind of say, “You want me to do that?! Really!?” when they’ve done it very straight-lined, very traditional. So, it’s all about making it right at the right time for the right people and so on. I’m fascinated, not least of all, by the notion, as much as anything, that what you pass on and how you’re influenced in your whole life is very important. I know it’s probably going to be slightly difficult in having a

really detailed response to it, but if I go out and talk to students as I do, all my life and I’m continuing to do that, how can they create the opportunities that were presented to you or you seized or what kinds of things – the do’s and don’ts, I suppose, in some ways? I’m going to be as blunt as that, to make a success of the talent you have, the opportunities, and clearly today, I’ve always believed, as times progressed in the arenas of, particularly through new media and social media and technology, you have so much more opportunity. So, what kind of touchpoints or tips would you give and maybe some of the things that people, students particularly, in a career-aspirational way, should avoid as a kind of close to today’s interview, Cath? Cath Bishop: Good question. That’s one I’d like to think over, but my immediate thoughts are really about being open to trying new things. Really, that’s what happened with rowing. I nearly didn’t bother, because I thought there’s no point and it seems so obvious. All the evidence pointed to that, and everybody around me would have agreed with me. There was no evidence to suggest that it would work, and yet it was literally life changing. I think for me the biggest thing in my mind is to try new things because you don’t know where they’re going to lead you. And it might not be anywhere sort of obvious, it might not be the Olympics, but there are all sorts of other things that it brings you into contact with. So, it’s try new things, leave your comfort zone, and have some persistence. Don’t give up easily. If you like it, if you care about it, if you’ve got a passion for something, then throw yourself into it. What have you got to lose? That, for me, was a big question in my

mind at that moment. What have I actually got to lose by trying this crazy sport of rowing that everyone seems to think is really fun? Well, actually, why don’t I give it a try when there’s so much potentially to gain and to explore, to find out? Grab those opportunities, be open to them. If you’re open to them, I think you find more. They come to you if you’re out there being curious. Feed that curiosity; another great quality, I think, to just have an interesting life if you’re open to trying new things. Alan Seymour: Cath, if I may, you’ve brought out everything. There is the reason why Cath Bishop has been such a success. I mean, your diplomacy, in a way, kind of saying, ‘I’d like time to think about that question,’ and clearly, that’s very much the case. That if you can do one thing, and it’s very much a shared vision and a shared practice of mine that I’ve taught and always have. It’s almost like Roosevelt, “The only thing you fear is fear itself.” Be open, don’t be afraid to go with things. Seize the moment, take those opportunities if they present themselves, and find out. And the more that you do that, and I think sport is such a vehicle and driver to do all of those things. And what it also does as well, with what you said, Cath, it gives me the opportunity to do a Cath Bishop #2 interview at some point in the future. To be continued. So, may I say, it’s been a real privilege and pleasure to interview you today, Cath. So, all the success in the world going forward. How can we contact you? How would my audience make contact with Cath Bishop going forward? You can leave a few contact details if you would, Cath.

Cath Bishop: Yeah, sure. I’m on Twitter; that’s probably the easiest thing to link to for those sort of things. But it’s been brilliant chatting with you today. Alan Seymour: Many thanks, Cath, and I’m sure we’ll speak again. Take care. Thanks for the interview. Cath Bishop: Cheers, bye.

Conversation: reflections and activities In a classroom discussion, consider Olympian values and elite performance measures as key indicators for success in sport business. What essential qualities and traits can you interpret from this conversation from a successful Olympian? “Multi-talented people are a very good benchmark for competitive distinctiveness in sports.” Is this a ‘truism’ for success in sport marketing? Think of some examples from your own experiences. What aspects of ‘sport for good’ initiatives can you point to that perhaps demonstrate the growing cultural changes in sports campaigns? Give some examples.

Conclusion To become successful in sport business, it is imperative that you are able to ‘be remarkable!’ – an inference made by Seth Godin in his seminal marketing text Permission Marketing. Mindful in summary that the double inference of being remarkable points to being exceptional and distinctive, whilst leaving the impression for good – a dominant tenet in this chapter. Throughout, the direction towards benchmarking new philosophies and new approaches in the management of sport marketing prevails. Management by results clearly still predominates but is countered by a more pragmatic and

decisive thinking of ‘are we right’ and ‘are we transparent’ in reaching the targets set.

Chapter review questions 1 Sport is as central to society as it has become to the business of sport and sport for sport’s sake. Discuss how the relevance of this statement applies given your comprehension of the content in this chapter. 2 Social media in sport and digital marketing has eroded trust in many corporations – inside and outside of sport. How can sports brands resolve this dilemma? Give some examples of sports brands that endeavour to achieve this. 3 Using a traditional marketing PESTEL model, appraise the issues delivered in this chapter through a sports campaign dealing with societal cultural and ethical values.

Additional reading and digital resources http://aassjournal.com/article-1-704-en.html http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.sports.20160603.05.html https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2167479516638125? journalCode=coma www.coe.int/en/web/compass/culture-and-sport www.icsa.org.uk/assets/files/policy/research/Organisational-culture-insport.pdf www.researchgate.net/publication/324099943_Role_of_knowledge_managem ent_in_sport_Organizations

References Alonso, F., Martinez, L., Perez, A., & Valente, J. P. (2012) ‘Cooperation between expert knowledge and data mining discovered knowledge:

Lessons learned’, Expert Systems with Applications, 39(8), pp. 7524–7535. Bali, R. K., Wickramasinghe, N., & Lehaney, B. (2009) Knowledge Management Primer. Abingdon: Routledge. Butler, Y. (2000) ‘Knowledge management: If only you knew what you knew’, Australian Library Journal, 49(1), pp. 31–43. Ghaffar, A., Beydoun, G., Shen, J., & Tibben, W. (2011) ‘Towards knowledge management in sports event management: Context analysis of Malaysian biannual games with CommonKADS’, 6th International Conference on Software and Data Technologies, Spain, pp. 377–383. Halbwirth, K. & Toohey, S. (2001) ‘The Olympic Games and knowledge management: A case study of the Sydney Organising Committee of the Olympic Games’, European Sport Management Quarterly, 1(2), pp. 91– 111. Hislop, D. (2013) Knowledge Management in Organizations: A Critical Introduction (3rd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press. IOC (2014) www.olympic.org/news/olympic-games-knowledgemanagement-programme-provides-essential-resource-for-gamesorganisers Jarvie, G., Thornton, J., & Mackie, H. (2017) Sport, Culture and Society: An Introduction (3rd edition). Abingdon: Routledge. Jasmuddin, S. M. (2012) Knowledge Management: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Englewood, CO: WSPC. Nesheim, T., Olsen, K. M., & Tobiassen, A. E. (2011) ‘Knowledge communities in matrix-like organizations: Managing knowledge towards application’, Journal of Knowledge Management, 15(5). Nonaka, I. & Takeuchi, H. (1995) The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. New York: Oxford University Press. Parent, M., MacDonald, D., & Goulet, G. (2013) ‘The theory and practice of knowledge management and transfer: The case of the Olympic Games’, Sport Management Review, 17(2). Parent, M. & Smith-Swan, S. (2012) Managing Major Sports Events: Theory and Practice. Abingdon: Routledge.

Ragab, M. & Arisha, A. (2013) ‘Knowledge management and measurement: A critical review’, Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(6), pp. 873– 901. Tiwana, A. (2003) Knowledge Management Toolkit: The Orchestrating IT, Strategy, and Knowledge Platforms (2nd edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Vorakulpipat, C. & Rezgui, Y. (2008) ‘An evolutionary and interpretive perspective to knowledge management’, Journal of Knowledge Management, 12(3), pp. 17–34.

9 The importance of sports communication strategies

Chapter objectives After studying the concepts, cases, and conversations in this chapter, the reader should be able to: Identify the centrality of communication to the function of digital sport marketing. Appreciate the need for integration and coordination of the communication messages through multiple digital channels and platforms. Appreciate the immediacy of communication within the ‘attention economy’ of the globally digital 24/7 world we inhabit.

Introduction Big data is dominating sports communication as new media has promoted the collection and mining of large data due to the increased demand for sports information by sports fans. As media communication channels have adapted to this initial fundamental change, the resultant spread of this information by new entrants and new stakeholders – ‘new voices’ – via new media channels has created a strategic revolution in sports communication; from generic mass media to more sophisticated individual content creation. The impact has been felt from an organisational standpoint evidenced by Shannon Gross, the Dallas Cowboys’ Director of Content Strategy, in 2018: We actually restructured our department recently. We needed to restructure because of three emerging trends, among others, in the digital world. One, because of the rise of ‘big data’ or the rise of big content with big volume, velocity, and variety. Two, the need to reach out to the viewership, meaning in the way that it appeals to different segments of viewers. Three, to use the data in some way, somehow, for data analytics and to be informed from that and repurpose our strategies, when necessary. (Abeza, 2018)

CONCEPTS Digital media, and the web, have enabled the sharing economy to flourish with user-generated content (UGC) on social media and immersive experiences on websites and mobile apps. The ability to personalise across advertisements, website, and email around crossdevice usage requires a tailored communications plan to reach the ‘multi-channel majority’. Any such plan would consider longer-term continuous online visibility to aid search and develop connections in order to deliver informed fans. The reality of the communication message in the ‘dog-eat-dog’ world of the 21st century is that it will very quickly and easily be forgotten. Constant advertising is one option, but consistent messaging is key. A clarion call to Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is required. The IMC paradigm is still unclear in terms of definition and limits of application and has been viewed as a “management philosophy”, an “educational movement”, or even as a “unifying management practice”. Nevertheless, one workable explanation of IMC is as a concept of marketing communications planning to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact, speaking with ‘one voice’ to a set of communication objectives linked to business objectives and brand management. Essentially, coordinating messages across channels increases brand awareness, familiarity, favourability, and purchase intent. An integrated marketing communications programme includes written, spoken, and electronic interactions with stakeholder audiences. These interactions create the awareness, interest, and involvement in the organisation, its activities, programmes, people, services, and products. Messages conveyed by each of the promotional tools are harmonised so that audiences perceive a consistent set of messages (Fill & Turnbull, 2019). In other words, the integration of a variety of communications methods ensures that the message remains focused

and therefore achieves far greater impact – a ‘through the line’ approach. Emphasis is placed on the need for careful planning and control of the communication process, as even controllable communication methods need to be carefully monitored to determine their effects on the receiver model (see Figure 9.1). The model recognises the possibility of the receiver taking a different meaning from the communication from that intended by the sender due to the encoding/decoding process and the ‘noise’ associated with any sports property. Communication is the process whereby thoughts are conveyed and meaning is shared between individuals or organisations, but it can go awry. Digital communication with its multi-way relational, consumerfocused (rather than transactional) approach goes beyond persuasion by aiming to build dialogue with stakeholders in the attempt to achieve three main objectives: to inform, listen and respond. Schultz et al. (1993) introduced the concept of IMC and suggested that it was time to abandon McCarthy’s 4 P’s (place, promotion, price, product) and to replace them with the 4 C’s model: consumer, cost, convenience, communication. As faith in the effectiveness of the mass media has reduced, the move towards highly targeted communication methods has focused on the increased need to demonstrate return on investment, and on the coordination and integration of the ever-widening array of communication tools and media available to the sport marketer.

Figure 9.1 Source:

Major elements in the communication process.

Author’s own adaptation.

Classic models of marketing communications propagate a series of effects on consumers as they move through three major stages in their responses to promotional instruments – cognitive, affective, and behavioural stages. The hierarchy-of-effects model and the classic AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) model indicates how consumers respond to promotions (www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/314266880219283804/). Integrated marketing communications has brought together the concepts of integration, alignment, measurement, and accountability in communications. With the convergence of traditional and new digital marketing approaches, the integrated deployment of all instruments of the promotion mix has transitioned beyond relationship marketing to truly customer-centric IMC to satisfy the need for distinctive communication. Customer-centric IMC promotes multi-way communication as the focus has shifted to consumers, communities, networks, participation,

and invitation. The traditional information distribution paradigm (an inside-out perspective) has been enriched to an information co-creation paradigm (an outside-in and an outside-out perspective) to include the uncontrollable space that is social media. Here, sports fans actively search for the information they want and decide when and where they want to ‘pull’ the communication. Furthermore, user-generated content, such as a feedback channel in social media, can be deployed to plan and implement communication activities as it provides an indication of meaning, needs, and wants of sports fans. This is the basis of customer-to-customer interactions – central to the concept of social media. However, most of this interaction-based exchange is in the space outside the direct influence of the sports organisation. This interaction space empowers UGC, thus lowering the level of control held by the sport organisation, even with sponsoring partners who are encouraged to deliver their own branded content. As a result, IMC now focuses upon the communicative coordination of all contact points (Bruhn & Schnebelen, 2017). The new communication order of IMC (https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EJM-08-20150591/full/html) arranges IMC tasks with respect to goals, messages, and instruments in a strategic hierarchy that differentiates between a horizontal and a vertical order. Vertically, the model refers to the degree of specificity within the hierarchy of communication goals, messages, and instruments where the lower, more operative levels (specific communication) are deduced from the higher, more strategic levels (overall communication). On the strategic level, the IMC activities are embedded in the overall goals, values, mission, and strategic positioning of a company to ensure communication consistency. Below this, the strategic content is delivered in respect to the target groups to ensure optimal target-specific communication. The lowest level differentiates the communication contents according to

communication contacts using communication instruments (Bruhn & Schnebelen, 2017). Therefore, for each of the hierarchy of goals, messages, and instruments, that same vertical order exists. So, for example, the primary goals of strategic positioning feed the target goals for each target group before their individual implementation. Similarly, the key message about the organisation is refined to individual and precise messages delivered by specific instruments that interplay the content to the target audience. The horizontal order indicates the relationship between goals, messages, and instruments of the content target and channel (Bruhn & Schnebelen, 2017). Ultimately, any IMC approach must consider all levels of a sports organisation, its communication contact points, and its specific target group to deliver content they want via a range of communication instruments. GoPro – the video camera brand that sells portable, durable devices that encourage thrill-seekers to record their adventurous moments – used its ‘Be a Hero’ campaign to emotionally appeal to the masses. The campaign spanned multiple mediums, including magazines, billboards, in-store displays, and digital marketing. The campaign included footage from surfers riding the waves, to drivers heading into the sunset. The brand’s message was clear: heroes are all around us. IMC is not just a communication process, but a process related to brand management. It is designed to achieve competitive advantage in the market, and/or to (re-) position the organisation and/or its products/services, in the mind of the members of the target market, by influencing their perception and understanding. The goal is to generate attitudinal and behavioural responses. So, the process of integrated marketing communications planning should involve the wider components of situation analysis, objective setting, targeting, positioning and message strategies, method and media strategies, communications budget, implementation, measurement, evaluation, and control. These are all logical and sequential elements of any strategic I(Sport)MC approach in practice.

One more important consideration is that, in the 21st-century digital sport marketing world, grabbing the attention of sports consumers is a key, but increasingly difficult, task. According to Kelly (2008), the attention economy is increasingly one where the consumer product costs virtually nothing to reproduce and the problem facing the supplier of the product lies in adding valuable intangibles that cannot be reproduced at any cost. He identifies these intangibles as: 1 Immediacy – priority access, immediate delivery. 2 Personalisation – tailored just for you. 3 Interpretation – support and guidance. 4 Authenticity – how can you be sure it is the real thing? 5 Accessibility – wherever, whenever. 6 Embodiment – books, live music, sports. 7 Patronage – “paying simply because it feels good”. 8 Findability – “When there are millions of books, millions of songs, millions of films, millions of applications, millions of everything requesting our attention – and most of it free – being found is valuable.” IMC takes account of these factors and creates a strategy to ‘stand out from the crowd’. The following case study from Jon Burkhart, an award-winning keynote speaker and content strategist attacks this issue head-on. John is best known as author of Newsjacking: The Urgent Genius of Real-time Advertising. As the “Real-Time Guy,” Jon makes you more memorable in the moment. He helps brands stand out. John understands and works to advantage brands within the realms of the attention economy.

Case study 9.1: Jon Burkhart, TBC Global As founder of marketing consultancy TBC Global, Jon Burkhart employs a refreshingly different approach to inspiring clients, inventing interactive

games to enhance the content-making process. Jon speaks regularly at South By Southwest Interactive (SXSW) and serves on their programming committee. As a workshop leader and emcee, he brings the energy to conferences such as Cannes Lions. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Fast Company, and The Guardian. This case study is provocative. It’s all about the most important word in all of marketing in 2020. It’s my C word – conversation. It asks the readers the same question that I build my keynote speeches and workshops around. Why should I care about you if you don’t meet my every need NOW? Okay, so the other double C word I use is also all throughout this meaty tome – creating content and fan experiences that appeal to the fan’s constant curiosity. The tag team of Seymour and Blakey have gathered some of the most interesting people in all of sport to contribute to this important book. We need folks like them to synthesise and celebrate all that’s great in the world of getting and keeping fan attention. I know it’s been a labour of love for these two renaissance men as they work and network between academia and brands/teams. I think you’ll benefit greatly by devouring this book in large doses. I can’t put it down, but then again, I’m on a train now and not operating heavy machinery, so be careful when and where you ingest this super-valuable book. “The most ______ team wins over the most fans globally in 2020.” Fill in that blank. Man, that’s hard. Since 2009, I’ve been helping sports teams and their brand sponsors be more disruptive in delightful ways – usually through content and social media. What gets me most ‘fired up’ is when I’m allowed to help clients create deeper, more emotional connections with their fans. I wrote a book on this behaviour called Newsjacking, and it’s all about hijacking the moment to create conversation with fans on social media. Of course, sport was the sector that embraced me the most because fans CRAVE hearing from their team and players. Those fans could be those from a Slovakian hockey team who wanted to help their beer sponsor hijack live TV coverage even though beer’s outlawed

in the arena. The beer brand gave fans a plastic mouthpiece to put on top of an empty beer bottle, turning it into a trumpet. On TV, everyone looked like they’re drinking beer the entire time. Dis-frickin-ruptive (https://beercommercial.blogspot.com/2009/11/topvar-beer-ambient-bottle-ortrumpet.html). I have hundreds of examples of brands and teams doing this sort of thing and I think disruption is even more important in 2020 when the average fan’s attention is spread between their phone and the action in quite a chaotic manner. When it comes to disruption, I am particularly obsessed with the matchday experience. I attend matches with clients and on my own in between my speaking gigs and I look for examples of teams adopting a certain rebellious tone. When I was speaking in Italy, I stopped by the San Siro for a mid-week Inter Milan v. Lazio match. Inter’s tagline is “Not For Everyone” and I felt this ballsy attitude everywhere – in the massive Fan Village and in the stands – even in the family section. Sorry, I couldn’t get tickets to sit with the Ultras.

The 3 C’s and the three S’s For me, my entire career has been focused on one of this amazing book’s 3 C’s – it’s the ongoing CONVERSATION with fans. My smartest clients focus on this word as well as my theme CONSTANT CURIOSITY (the other two C’s) as they employ my 3 S approach to creating disruptive fan-centric content – sorry, lots of letters and lists here.

Story If you work for a team or brand, you should help them find a unique, provocative way to tell their story as well as their most curious fans’ stories.

Surprise Help them continually flip the script and delight their most interesting fans in delightful ways.

Speed Help them be lightning quick to respond to opportunities to highlight the ever-growing affection between player and fan. What does this look like in practice? To paraphrase my author friend Mark Schaefer in his epic book The Marketing Rebellion, “The most human brand/team wins.” To disrupt in 2020, you must be more bold and brash, but you also must be more real. It’s a difficult balance. You need to keep the USP in mind. The USP of Your Disruptive Brand or Team in 2020. Forget the old definition of USP. Every team’s Unique Selling Proposition is and must always be to get closer to fans in real-time. My USP Theory: You have three weapons. That’s it. Unbridled Joy, Surprise and Personalisation.

Unbridled joy Life is tough for most people. Sport is often the only outlet for fun and diversion. We must consider what emotion is the most powerful and selfishly, the most shareable. For me, that emotion is definitely joy. To demonstrate this in my workshops, I usually show a video of a woman dancing with reckless abandon at a Golden State Warriors game. “Dancing Mom” went viral of course (https://fansided.com/2016/12/21/golden-statewarriors-dancing-mom/). How can you inspire this uncontrollable outburst of emotion within your fans? Also, how can you use data and technology to make sure that you find

the right fans and make sure you capture their joy – with permission, of course.

Personalisation Fans want everything now, and they want it made just for them. They’re very self-obsessed. I say we should consider fans to be just like, wait for it – toddlers. Yep, 1- to 3-year-olds. That is the phase in life where we are the most innocent, most selfish, and most curious. If we’re going to come up with the best ideas ever to reach our fans, we must pretend like they’re toddlers, or the term I coined, ‘toddults’. We must brainstorm and come up with 73 toddult questions a fan would ask as they selfishly crave the most personalised experience ever. Why 73? That’s the average number of questions a toddler asks ever day (www.studyfinds.org/children-parents-questions/). Like a toddler, be sure to ask “Why?” at least four times and go deeper into what really motivates your toddult fan.

Surprise Creating joy and personalising it through your content and fan experience are great, but the hardest thing for teams and brands to do by far is to consistently surprise their fans in new and unexpected ways. The teams that will win big in 2020 are the ones with the biggest EARS. That’s not a third acronym. Don’t worry. I’m talking about the art of listening to your fans. Sure, fans give teams great ideas for real-time content by having CONVERSATIONS – that word, again – with them on social media. And yes, the teams that win are the ones that respond the quickest in the most surprising ways. The more surprising, the better, in my view. I love the Russian team that noticed that a fan brought a massive rug with him to the match as he was renovating his house and had no room for it. The team won big that day so

they created a fourth ‘carpet design’ lucky kit (https://www.sportbible.com/football/news-fc-rostovs-lucky-carpet-fourthkit-is-all-kinds-of-mental-20180822). Finally, as you go out and help brands and teams fight for their fan’s attention, please use all the tech and data you can find, but keep putting yourself in their shoes. Keep believing that every fan in the stadium can one day have a completely personalised experience. Keep fighting the lazy brain that says life is better watching it on the telly. It’s not. Sport is entertainment. Fans need the community. It’s a tribe. We must preserve the sanctity of match day with whatever weapon we have at our disposal. Use unbridled joy, personalisation, and surprise at your own risk. You may be surprised at how you can shock and disrupt fans out of their expected ‘pie and pint’ routine in glorious ways. And let me know when you have some successes as I’ll add them to my fan engagement card/drinking game.

Case study questions This is a seminar activity (1 x 3 hours or 3 x 1 hour) 1 Consider the questions and suppositions that Jon asks of you in the case on the importance and relevance to the future of sport. Either individually or in groups, discuss your thoughts. 2 Discuss the values and implications for disruption and chaos in sports sponsorship and activations for sports brands. 3 Give your best example of a sports disruption campaign that (a) matches the insights you take from this case study, and (b) does something unique and/or different. Best practice sports communication is done when there are expertise and a knowledge-based leader at the helm. This conversation is a testimony to this in practice. Jim O’Toole emphasises this intersection between information and activation to deliver effective sport business campaigns with resultsbased sport marketing.

Conversation 9.1 Jim O’Toole – CEO, Event Rider Masters Jim O’Toole has over 25 years’ experience in the sports industry, having been a founding director of Premiere Consulting which became part of WPP Group, Chief Executive of Powerboat P1, and later World Match Racing Tour for professional sailing. O’Toole subsequently held senior roles at London Irish Rugby Club and had an eventful three-season stint at Aviva Premiership club Worcester Warriors which saw one promotion and two successful battles against relegation during his tenure as CEO. Alan Seymour: Well, good afternoon to you all. Welcome to Alan Seymour, your host here on The Future of Sport at All In Sports Talk. I’m very pleased today to welcome on to the show Jim O’Toole, who is the Chief Executive Officer for Worcester Warriors. Jim, just begin, perhaps, for my audience and listeners today by telling us a little bit about Jim O’Toole, your career highlights, and how you’ve ended up at Worcester Warriors. Jim O’Toole: First of all, thanks very much for having me on, Alan. It’s a great pleasure. I have been in this industry for about 25 years. I started in music sponsorship with a program for Tennent’s Lager in Scotland and subsequently the Republic of Ireland, where they were trying to address a very topical challenge they had at the time, which was the Australian lagers were having a huge impact on the lifestyle of young Scottish drinkers, and to try and reinforce the Scottishness, they launched a program called Tennent’s Live, which subsequently became, many years later, T in the Park. It aimed at getting back to the roots of guitar-based Scottish rock in the mid-1980s, and encouraging the

growth of that industry by basically sponsoring all manner of arts from a band that needed 500 quid to play in the local pub up to Bryan Ferry at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. A great grounding in the principles of sponsorship and subsequently sports marketing, because it taught me very quickly that somebody pays for something, somebody delivers something, and there is usually a guy in the middle making it happen. My job at that time was to make it happen for Tennent’s. I was thrust into the industry as a project manager of what was a million pounds a year spend on music, which was probably the biggest music spend outside of Coke and Pepsi at the time. That was quite a responsibility and a huge learning curve. I hate to look backwards, to look at the mistakes I made. But from your mistakes you learn. Alan Seymour: Absolutely. Jim O’Toole: I have certainly learnt from that. I then moved into sport industry work, I worked for Alan Pascoe, they had the British athletics. Alan Seymour: Oh wow, I didn’t know that, great! Jim O’Toole: Yeah, I was an account director on skating and swimming. Now, if you mentioned ice skating sponsorship today, people would laugh and think, “What are you talking about?” But in the late 80s, you have to remember, we were just in the post-Torvill and Dean phase. Alan Seymour: Right. Jim O’Toole: ITV and Channel 4 spent significant amounts of money on broadcasting rights for these, and the number of events that we had up and down the country, whether it was grassroots club activity, national championships,

and the big international galas, where the best skaters of the world came. Again, not a sport I would’ve set my hopes on working in when I was a kid, but you learn a hell of a lot from doing different things. Same with swimming for TSB Bank as it was then; they sponsored all the school swimming, and we subsequently moved them into athletics, so you learn a lot from working in different businesses. After that, I set up an agency, which went well, but unfortunately the parent company was taken over fairly early into our production plan. In terms of me personally and financially, there was no real benefit of staying, so I moved on and set up another agency, which we subsequently sold to WPP in late 1999, and then had seven years working in WPP, which was a fantastic experience. Alan Seymour: Absolutely. Jim O’Toole: Very, very talented people and organisations around the world. I wish I had done it earlier, because I really had my eyes opened into the multidisciplinary approach, where they would put together a team of specialists from around the world to work on major global clients. You would have Team Samsung, was a really good example, where we had about eight or nine different companies working on it. They put together a team, which we then lead on Vodafone’s sponsorship of Ferrari and Manchester United, which were two fantastic projects that were just at the start of the digital era. Alan Seymour: Right. Jim O’Toole: The management of activation sponsorship was moving dramatically and swiftly away from advertising boards, and appearances, and hospitality, and tickets to “How

do I get David Beckham to launch this new thing called a phone camera?” Sorry, camera phone. You probably remember that in the early days, Vodafone had that phone, I cannot remember what it was, but it was called the Beckham phone. They used him in all of their through the line ad, a stunning campaign, Vodafone did it well. They had a team of people running the sponsorship that came from a CocaCola background, so the very systematic, very processdriven, very clear vision of what you’re trying to achieve, what rights do you need to buy, how are you going to use those rights, identify the rights holder, go negotiate, only buy the rights that you are going to use, then activate them, do it again, get better, and improve. Which is a very simple, but robust discipline to make sports marketing work. After that, I had another three or four years in WPP working on really great clients like AIG with their Man United sponsorship. One of the first properly global programs that I worked on that had a robust budget behind it, and we did some good work on that, some phenomenal results in terms of the immediate return on investment that AIG got from the Man United relationship. I remember one instance, where the first year of the relationship they flew 260 people from Korea, which was a combination of six months’ sales promotion activity worth. All the AIG companies got together around one match to produce a coordinated campaign. They produced 110 million dollars of new business in Korea alone. Phenomenal. After that, I decided that I wanted to work on the rights-holder side. I went as a commercial director of the Powerboat World Championship, which was an

interesting project. I travelled around the world setting up new events, managing a fairly complex marine water sports business. Subsequently, I had my own business for a year consulting to clients of all shapes and sizes like MoneyGram [and] FA Premier League. Then I had a two-year fixed contract in professional sailing, another two years of travelling around the world, and spending 130+ nights away from home. After that, I accidentally ended up in London Irish Rugby Club and loved it, loved what rugby had to offer. Did that for a couple of years, and Worcester came calling in October 2014, so I joined the club in February 2015. Alan Seymour: Jim, that, if I may, is a perfect stopping point for me to just reflect on many of those things that you’ve said. I think what will fascinate, it certainly fascinated me in listening to you, and one of the great things that I am doing at the moment, and you were there to witness it, and I really thank you and many others who came along to the Future of Sport conference at the University of Worcester. It was very much a home gig for you. But what fascinates me most about what you’ve said, apart from all the variety of jobs that you’ve kept learning in, and you made that as a very strong bold statement. And the second thing is that sport marketing is very much about, my definition has always been “make it happen”. I think, I hope my listeners, and particularly my sports students, will reflect on that and pick up on that. Whilst you have been at Worcester, Jim, it’s great to see a new sport in many ways. I don’t mean new in the sense that the sport itself is new, but the way it’s adapted, and the way it’s having to adapt to the

commercial levels of the premiership and sponsorship. What problems face you at Worcester, and what are the problems you think rugby as a sport faces in attracting in commercial sponsors? Jim O’Toole: I think the two key points. One, you have to remember that professional rugby union is 21 years old. Alan Seymour: Right. Jim O’Toole: There are a multitude of professional sports, which are way more established, that have been through a variety of cycles, and are much more developed commercially than rugby union. People are aware of the rugby World Cup every four years, and it is hugely successful wherever it’s staged. Generally, it’s multi, multi-million pounds of turnover, economic impact, sponsorship, and other commercial revenues. They look at the Six Nations, which in its variety of forms has been going forever, and is now a really strong commercial brand. They are in the marketplace at the moment with a new title sponsor, and I have absolutely no doubt that out of all the rugby properties on the table, it would probably be the first one snapped off because of its rich history, value, and everything else. All good stuff. The problem with that from the club’s perspective is that World Cups like we had here last year and the Six Nations, and the autumn internationals to a lesser degree, which features all of our domestic countries, it actually sucks out of the ecosystem a hell of a lot of people’s time and money. And I always give the example I was discussing with a colleague from Gloucester the other day. If a rugby fan from Worcester or Gloucester goes to Twickenham for the autumn international, he is probably looking at a personal spend of 220–250 pounds. If you take that an

average cost of going to Worcester or Gloucester for a home game, all in all, you would probably do it and have a really good time for 50 quid. So, what those trips to Twickenham do, and it is the same for the other countries, they suck that money out, they suck it out of the available disposable income. People have to budget for their various pastimes sports, etc. And when you take five kids in one go, it’s going to impact on the clubs. So that’s a challenge for us as clubs, as businesses, and as a league, because there are only so many times we can lose a customer, a fan, a supporter for four, five times in a season. It’s suddenly they get out of the habit of committing financially, they get out of the habit of committing their time. They will still be supporters that give you their passion and their time, but not necessarily present at the stadium, and that can have an impact. The second part of the problem is that rugby union in England anyway is very much commercially focused on the local basis. If you look at the presenting sponsors and the main sponsors of the 12 clubs in the premiership, parts of DHL, they are actually based just up the road from Harlequins. But most of the sponsors of the clubs are local businesses. This is a slightly limiting factor as we have not been successful in attracting national brands. Alan Seymour: Do you think – because one of my next follow-up questions is that we live in this world of digital. I mean I’m writing about digital, and many people in our industry have said, you know, “It’s the future, it’s the panacea, it’s the saviour”, whatever perception you want to put on it. Do you see a club being able to tap

in, as you kind of intimated there, maybe using extensions, maybe using going out to fans outside your locality? Would digital provide an opportunity to do that? Jim O’Toole: Well, it’s pretty interesting. Let’s talk about digital fans for a second. Alan Seymour: Okay. Jim O’Toole: We have a capacity of 11,499. We can squish some more in, but that’s our comfortable capacity. We have 32,500 followers on Twitter and Facebook. If every single one of them turned up, we would have a serious problem. Alan Seymour: Correct. Jim O’Toole: But part of my challenge, and my marketing teams’ challenge on a daily basis, is how do we turn people from commenting on Twitter, positively or negatively, encouraging us or complaining about scores or whatever, to actually saying “Hmm, these guys need my support, I am going to go next week. I am going to travel up, if I work in London”, for example, wherever people move on to, or Manchester, Birmingham, or the local people, who got out of a habit of coming for whatever reason. It could be, you know, their kid no longer wants to go, or their neighbour no longer goes with them. Whatever the reason is. However, those people remain as vociferous as the passionate fans that are here every week. A good example, I was on a corporate golf day yesterday, and one of the guys I was playing with, they had a comment about our line-out last week. I said, “Well, what did you think of it on the day?” “Oh, no, no, I wasn’t there, I read about it on the Internet.” “So, when was the last time you went?” “Oh, a year and a half ago.”

This man considers himself a passionate fan of the club, and this is the downside of the whole digital landscape because people can consume a brand, can consume the experience online, on the phone, on the tablets, on illegal streams, on live broadcasts, on highlights, not very long after the event has happened. They are consuming rugby on their terms. This is the same problem with other sports. They will have as much of an opinion and, you know, a voice about the club, but they are not spending a penny with us. Alan Seymour: Right. Jim O’Toole: Not a penny. And I monitor it quite closely, the most vociferous people on social media, because when you’re in a difficult season that we’ve had in the first half of this season, you can imagine the chat, and social media, of which I’m a great fan and exponent, gives people the opportunity to have a brain dump of what their thoughts are at that time. While it’s in a Facebook post, on forums, on emails, or texts, or whatever to me or on Twitter. It’s immediate, it’s not always wellthought-out, and it just grows. Alan Seymour: Yeah. Jim O’Toole: And that negativity, you know, with all the sentiment analysis that we do, it grows very, very quickly. Someone makes out a strongly held negative comment, and 20 or 30 people say, “Yeah! Chuck it! Sack the coach! Oh, it’s horrendous!” And one of the issues we find is that rugby has always had a certain set of values, and there has been a little bit, just a little bit of values from – your favourite sport and mine – football coming in. Alan Seymour: Yeah.

Jim O’Toole: Some of those have been extended into the rugby world, which is something to get used to. It is what it is, and if that’s how your fans or supporters are, and they say what they’re feeling, and what they believe, then you just have to deal with it. Alan Seymour: Jim, I mean this conversation has been absolutely brilliant. I don’t need to patronise a guy like you, me and you have had fantastic careers. I hardly know you, but I know we’ve had fantastic careers from these vehicles that we have been using sport as a main driver. I am going to have to close fairly soon, but it’s not a closure for me, because I want to come back to you, I’m writing a textbook on digital sport at the moment and social media, and we can discuss lots of those touchpoints that you have just described, which I think the emotion and the immediacy, and the combination of all of those make for interesting discussion, and hopefully effective usage, which I know you’re trying today in using social media, and many other things. If I asked you a final question. You are a fan of social media, so am I. If my sports students needed some good advice, not just with social media, but to have as good a career as you’ve had, what things would you advise them to be doing before they make that step into the real world of sports marketing? Jim O’Toole: First piece of advice: don’t set your heart on doing one thing in this very broad industry. I made a mistake, I think, in staying too long on the agency side, I should’ve gone to the rights-holder side or the brandside earlier. I would seek a broad career, if you’re absolutely committed to it. Take the first ten years to get as much experience as you can in all areas of the

business. Work for an agency, work for a brand, work for somebody selling sponsorship, work for an activation company, so by the time you get to your early 30s, you are a rounded individual who is capable of taking on senior manager responsibilities. Alan Seymour: Okay. Jim, I am going to close there. Brilliant interview, brilliant commentary. I wish you and everybody connected with you at Worcester Warriors a great season, and we will connect again, Jim, in the new year very soon. Big thanks. Jim O’Toole: You’re very welcome. Alan Seymour: Cheers. Jim O’Toole: Bye bye.

Conversation: reflections and activities The importance of experience in sport marketing is a great asset. Given your understanding of this conversation, do you agree with this premise? What lessons from digital and social media can you take from this conversation? A varied career is a great benchmark for becoming a better practitioner in sport marketing. The adage is relevant to the changing dynamics of the sports industry. How would you utilise the aspects of career diversity and challenges to good effect if you were advising future sport marketers?

Conclusion Sports without communication would be like the new age of sports fans without mobile. Metaphorically, in the digital age of the 21st century, we

never travel alone! We have become normalised in our behaviours with mobile, and the sports communicator has acknowledged this in redefining many aspects of sports communication in their marketing models and activities. Traditional marketing communication has been replaced by new innovations in digital hardware, but to be effective it has to be complemented with new ideas as well. The objective is to create more personalised messages and impressions, plus to disrupt the conversation with sports communication messages that grab the attention of the target audience.

Chapter review questions 1 Digital relates to distance in personal contact with target audiences in sport marketing. Is this a concern for sport marketers moving forward? Give some examples of any concerns you may have, and how sport marketers can overcome a sense of distance in direct contact. 2 What are the difficulties that lead to ineffective communication strategies in sport marketing campaigns? How can these be overcome? Choose a recent example to illustrate your viewpoint.

Additional reading and digital resources http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar? q=communication+in+sports+pdf&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=schola rt https://athleteassessments.com/importance-of-communication-in-sports/ https://econsultancy.com/sports-digital-marketing-campaigns/ www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbelzer/2018/09/25/the-worlds-most-valuablesports-agencies-2018/ www.globalsportscommunication.nl/athletes/ www.referralcandy.com/blog/sports-marketing-examples/ www.researchgate.net/publication/247520839_Chapter_10_Communication_ in_the_Community_of_Sport_The_Process_of_Enacting_ReProducing_C onsuming_and_Organizing_Sport www.researchgate.net/publication/316715576_Making_effective_communica tion_with_athletes www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/39933_1.pdf

References

Abeza, G. (2018) ‘The past, present, and future of social media in professional sports: Interview with Shannon Gross, Director of Content Strategy, Dallas Cowboys’, International Journal of Sport Communication, 11(3), pp. 295–300. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsc.2018-0092 Bruhn, M. & Schnebelen, S. (2017) ‘Integrated marketing communication – From an instrumental to a customer-centric perspective’, European Journal of Marketing, 51(3), pp. 464–489. Fill, C. & Turnbull, S. (2019) Marketing Communications: Touchpoints, Sharing and Disruption (8th edition). Cambridge: Pearson. Kelly, K. (2008) ‘Better than free’, The Edge. www.edge.org/3rd_culture/kelly08/kelly08_index.html Schultz, D. E., Tannenbaum, S. I., & Lauterborn, R. F. (1993) Integrated Marketing Communications. Columbus, OH: McGraw Hill.

10 Sport business in a globalised marketplace

Chapter objectives After studying the concepts, cases, and conversations in this chapter, the reader should be able to: Identify global trends that impact upon the digital economy of sport. Appreciate the cultural and societal influences of sport across the world. Consider the reach that sports brands now leverage to reach international audiences.

Introduction “The world is a global village”, once famously remarked Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher. From cricket in the back streets of Mumbai to Centre Court at Wimbledon, sport touches every part of that village. Sport is truly a global phenomenon!! Headlines, such as ‘The World’s Richest Sports Team Owners 2019’ through ‘LaLiga Goes Global with New Microsoft Digital Partnership’ to ‘Pro14 Partners with SteamAMG to Launch New OTT Service to Fans in International Territories’, indicate the reach, impact, and commercial possibilities that sport can provide. When brand partnerships connect nonsports entities to dedicated fans, and the broader audience of sport, the global sport business is defined.

CONCEPTS

One defining characteristic of sport is that most customers are fans who portray loyalty to their sport, team, individual athlete, and country. Sport has become an inextricable part of people’s lives with high levels of emotional attachment to their relationship with sport. Adding branding and marketing creates a formula that, once made accessible through the live experience, telecommunications and digital platforms now reach that vast global audience. In considering the implications for the business of sports globally, fan behaviour, sports broadcasting, sports industry trends, and the financial benefits for stakeholders are the foundations of this new future in digital. And, the psychological and personalisation profiling of the sports world, and its monetisation, is the most significant factor in global growth for sport business in the immediate future. So, in the case of LaLiga and Microsoft, LaLiga now shares its digital content with Microsoft News and other Microsoft platforms, thereby reaching a global audience of over 500 million fans in 26 languages. Digital content such as match highlights, club videos, and player stats are available to Windows, Bing, Edge, and Xbox Live. In return, LaLiga has access to Microsoft AI and cloud services that provide personalised fan interactions and digital engagement channels. Fans specify their favourite LaLiga teams and players and access a personalised content feed (Tibke, 2018) – clear evidence of the desire for sports content projection globally. The Pro14 became the first rugby competition to offer an OTT streaming service in selected international territories (not the UK, Ireland, Italy, or South Africa due to broadcast deals already in place) after partnering with StreamAMG. Pro14.tv offers subscription to live match coverage and on-demand content – all part of the Pro14 Rugby commitment to innovation and embracing of new technologies (McMullan, 2019). This is evidence of the growing international fan base for rugby union. Perhaps the number one example of sport business in the global marketplace is the ownership of teams in major sports leagues around

the world: 58 billionaires own a collective 70 million teams worth a combined $359 billion (Badenhausen, 2019). Mukesh Ambani is worth an estimated $50 billion and owns the Mumbai Indians Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team. His petrochemical business makes him the 13th wealthiest person on the planet. Steve Ballmer, at 19th on the planet, owns the Los Angeles Clippers, and the third wealthiest owner of a sports franchise is Dietrich Mateschitz (53rd in the world) with an estimated fortune of $18.9 billion and who owns Red Bull. Sport is big business worldwide, often for genuine business and marketing opportunities for the company of the owner! The global sports market continues to grow – to a value of $614.1 billion by 2022 – driven by increasing sports sponsorship, the growing popularity of eSports, economic growth, an increase in the number of internet-accessible devices and the continued emergence of multiple sports channels capturing viewership. The spectator sports market is expected to continue to grow the fastest, centred around sports teams and clubs, with merchandising the key segment of growth at a forecast compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7 percent. This growth continues to be focused in the regions of Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Furthermore, two strategies of the key players in the sports industry have been: (1) to expand by building new facilities in cities globally to help improve brand name and presence; and (2) to increase revenue through sponsor portfolios and merchandise sales. The future focus will be around continued mobile technology adoption, entertainment at sports events, competitive pricing, partnership with big brands, and goods and services aimed at the female market (The Business Research Company, 2019). By example, the expanded sponsorship portfolio for FC Barcelona includes a total of 39 sponsors (17 global and 22 regional) from 19 countries around the world (18 alone from Asia), to a total annual revenue in 2018–2019 of €195.8 million solely for the first team (Baczek, 2019).

Never forget that “in a fragmented media landscape, live sport remains one of the only types of content which viewers will make an appointment to watch” (Bayindir & Kavanagh, 2018, p. 16). Eighty-five percent of internet users regularly watch sport online or TV (90 percent of men and 79 percent of women, with a peak of 16- to 34-year-olds). With an increase in online TV viewing and a decrease in watching broadcast TV by Generation Z, score updates and highlights on mobile predominate. Watching sports coverage on mobile has overtaken watching on PCs/laptops, and 90 percent of sports fans report using a second screen (79 percent using a mobile device on social media) as they watch TV. Only 38 percent of internet users are interested in playing sport (50 percent in Latin America), and swimming and badminton outscore regular participation levels in soccer, despite soccer being the most watched sport globally. Nike and Adidas are the two top sports brands purchased by the 14 percent of internet users and 22 percent of sports fans when buying sports clothing/equipment (New Balance, Puma, and Under Armour are the next three) – no wonder Adidas paid a $1.25 billion 10-year renewal deal with Real Madrid to keep their brand in the ‘shop window’. Similarly, the partnership between AB InBev and the NBA now has built-in on-field performance incentives that trigger additional investment. AB InBev’s number one brand Budweiser is the preferred choice of beer/lager by NBA fans and Bud Light is 1.87 times more likely to be consumed by NBA fans (Bayindir & Kavanagh, 2018). And so it is that streaming services are changing the way we watch sports. Amazon won the rights to show 20 English Premier League games per season between 2019 and 2022 and made these available free to Amazon Prime’s UK members. Prime membership cost £79 a year or £7.99 a month and could be streamed through any smart TV, mobile device, or an Amazon Fire TV stick (BBC, 2018). Netflix and Amazon Prime both produced docuseries with Juventus and Manchester City football clubs respectively to satiate the off-field desire for sports content of football fans. Such series are likely to run in parallel with

content provided by other ‘official’ platforms, but partnerships of this type act as a ‘two-way driver’ for the exclusive content produced and – in the case of Amazon Prime – the physical product deliveries available (CNN, 2018). A brand operating in multiple countries has to consider the balance between global consistency and local flexibility in the business strategy it pursues. The mantra “Think globally, act locally” can result in greater influence from global pressures than true local influence; or at best, the need for greater local oversight that has the effect of reductions to the benefits of global integration. The balance between local and global cuts across a spectrum that varies around the brand strategy is its message and consistency. Product brands such as Nike are able to devise genuine transnational ‘glocal’ brand strategies; yet, ironically, sports clubs and teams are unique as their product is fixed in one location, along with the local audience. The development of a global fan base through broadcast rights distribution has been further enabled through digital technology. This has facilitated sports team brands to move from an international to a multi-domestic brand strategy through investment in local networks, e.g. supporters clubs to reach fan groups, and local offices to service partners/sponsors, for example Bayern Munich with offices in New York since 2014 and Shanghai since 2016. In essence, there are four strategic opportunities available to a brand when pursuing their global vision (https://baileygp.com/article/globalbrand-strategy/). See Case Study 10.1 for a further exploration of an English Premier League team reaching out to its global audience. Nevertheless, as the growth of sports in China continues, new opportunities for brands to connect with consumers become available. New activities such as climbing and fishing are being embraced within a desire to ‘show off’ and signal success to peers. Sports apparel is seen to dominate sponsorship awareness as beverages, automotive, and alcohol categories lag behind. This suggests brands are under-investing

or failing to cut through to consumers consistently (Maier, 2018); the need for a more controlled yet flexible brand strategy is evident. The following two cases present the reader with a unique view of global sports branding and sport campaigns. ‘Global as local’ has its own challenges, and striking an equilibrium in the pursuit of business objectives is key to the success of both of these brands.

Case study 10.1: Liverpool FC Liverpool FC has an estimated global footprint of 771 million followers, including a TV audience of 440 million. With over 2 million unique, annual US visitors to the LFC website and more than 675,000 US fans on Facebook, the ‘Local Heart, Global Pulse’ (LHGP) philosophy has enmeshed the traditional fan base with the opportunity to reach a global audience via technology. The need to drive revenue and growth to ‘stay in the game’, LFC enacted a mobile first philosophy. With content at its core, that global outreach required the building of network-backed infrastructure with global database management, mobile, and web experience optimisation. Through the mobile app and LFCTVGo, the club has subscribers from all around the world, serviced by 24/7 content produced by an in-house TV company. The LHGP approach has seen the owner (Fenway Sports Group) invest in Anfield (the home stadium) and a training complex, creating employment locally, and has engaged with that wider fan base to help re-invest in the team. Sponsoring partners seek to benefit from, and contribute to, the emotional connection created between the fan and the club. This has had the effect of fans ‘leaning in’ to gain a closer and deeper attachment to their football club. The OneLFC platform matches content with data to develop knowledge of each fan individually. The power of database management and CRM from IBM and Oracle enhanced by the motivated and aligned efforts of all club

employees determines a synchronised voice across all communication channels – digital and traditional. This ‘Fan Connect’ using technology as an invisible enabler creates a single-user ID fit through which to ‘Acquire, Engage and Grow’ the audience through a horizontal lens that tracks the journey of a fan in a day. This approach has produced emotional content of a unique football club to achieve off-field growth to invest in player recruitment for on-field success – ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ #YNWA. Adapted from Yahoo Finance and YouTube Leaders.

Case study 10.2: SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (SD Eibar), the Spanish LaLiga football club with over 8,000 shareholders from 48 different countries (including over 400 American investors), nestles in a Basque valley town of 27,000 people. The football club is lauded for its management model of clear values and judicious financial planning that has ensured zero debt. This despite in 2014 being ordered by LaLiga to pay €1.7 million in line with new financial regulations designed to ensure ‘promotion’. An international crowdfunding campaign, ‘Defend Eibar’, raised the money to preserve their status and acted as a platform to grow their fan base. The unexpected on-field success of the football club helped generate improved year-on-year revenues that equated to a CAGR of 44.1 percent in 2016–2017, and the club was listed in the FT1000 as one of the fastest growing companies in Europe. Alignment with the strategy of LaLiga to grow their revenues globally meant successful exposure in the US, Japan, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and India. The unique connection between independence in India and the building of the club’s stadium in 1947 was the basis of an initial social media campaign. Campaign response indicated a regional strategy be formulated based predominantly in the South East of India around Kerala. Football development programmes, alongside strategic partnership formation,

focused on developing the game in India, were part of a long-term commitment to becoming the fans’ second favourite team after their local club. This strategy avoided disrupting the organic growth of the sport in India – the game flourishing rapidly as a result of commercial investment from broadcasters, sponsors, and team owners, and professionalisation in marketing, etc., in the Indian Super League (ISL) in 2014, as well as the benefits brought by the FIFA U17’s World Cup in 2017. The FIFA U17’s Women’s World Cup in 2020 will help develop the sport even more. More information: www.ft.com/content/2a9c439c-2a35-11e9-9222-7024d72222bc www.joe.co.uk/sport/between-mountains-and-monsters-sd-eibars-laligaadventure-207691 www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/sports/soccer/eibar-a-rare-debt-free-teamin-la-liga-faces-stiff-challenges.html

Case study questions 1 What are the challenges for sports clubs (in particular those deemed to be ‘small’) when seeking traction into emerging markets? 2 Consider further the importance of congruence between brands in a strategic partnership. Is this a developing theme across sports, or is the alignment of organisational values and philosophies mere myth? The following conversation is a representative indicator of sport business education today being truly global. The symbiotic relationship between playing, participating, and then teaching is profound, as is the intensity to develop learning through patterns of teaching. These are then adapted as key skill sets for progression in a sport marketing career, as well as signposting the way forward to the future practice of sport marketing.

Conversation 10.1 Ann Pegoraro, Laurentian University, Institute for Sport Marketing Ann Pegoraro is the Director of the Institute for Sport Marketing (ISM) and holds an appointment as a Full Professor in the School of Human Kinetics, all at Laurentian University. Dr Pegoraro holds a doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an MBA degree from Laurentian University. Check out www.sportmarketing.ca and http://ann-pegoraro.strikingly.com for more details about Ann and her great work. Alan Seymour: Well good afternoon to you. This is Alan Seymour, your host here on All In Sports Talk, The Future of Sport, episode 10. My very special guest today is Ann Pegoraro, who is a university lecturer in the USA. Her specialisms are in sports digital and has done a lot of sports research, particularly in social media. In many ways that’s one of the ways we’ve managed to connect, particularly via Twitter. What I’d like to begin with, and if I may, is if you can give a thumbnail sketch or some kind of highlights in your career to date, and why sports research, why sport digital? Ann Pegararo: Yeah, sure, great. Thanks for having me, Alan. I think, like a lot of other people who got into sport research, if we choose an academic path, we’re some sort of exfrustrated athlete or had some sort of job in sport. So I came from playing sport as a child, and a little bit through my university career, and just still loved the area. At the same time, I was also quite keen on marketing, and so I ended up starting my career in

academia in a business school teaching regular business courses. Probably my favourites would’ve been consumer behaviour and marketing communications, but still always trying to find a way to put it into sports. I’m very lucky to work at a university here that has a sport management program in a business school. I got an opportunity in 2009 when the director left the program to move from the business school to the sport marketing management program, and be the director there. That was a key moment for me. I was able to say, “Hey, I can take my research in teaching and switch it into this passion of being an athlete and sports fan, and put the two together.” Alan Seymour: I think that’s very similar to me. We’ve obviously chatted before, and we’ve exchanged some pleasantries and some very particular pertinent relevance to our conversation and interview today, and we have similar pathways. I think one of the interesting things, I have some colleagues, friends, and I’ve developed quite a lot of connections globally in the world of academia, but also in the world of practitioning and sport management. I’m going to ask you the question. Sport management degrees in the US, they’re significantly way ahead of us in the UK. I will be not ashamed to say that here in the UK, but equally the way you approach maybe a sport management degree or what you’re trying to achieve with it, perhaps give us a little bit of an indication on some of the modules, some of the approaches you’ve taken. Maybe the relevancy of the learning process, and then in turn, how the students will be able to apply their learning into the real world of sport business.

Ann Pegararo: Sure. So, my experience of it is to understand the evolution of sport management in North America is, it really started in kinesiology or human kinetics programs, and this, “Hey, sport is growing and we have to actually figure out how to manage sport.” Where I am in Canada, we’re the only program in the entire country that isn’t in a business school, and we started like that from the beginning in 1972. So, we’ve been around for a long time. The evolution of our program started from someone in sports saying, “We’ve got to stop having X athletes running everything, and we need some actual business practices.” That was in 1972 and it was from the NHL, the National Hockey League, here in Canada. That’s the people who started our program and said, “Okay, let’s actually build it.” So, we started as a hybrid between kinesiology and a business school, and it stayed that way. Whereas I think what’s happening in the United States is that it was very much more focused on kinesiology, but I would say the last seven to ten years, we’ve seen a really big switch to moving them into business schools and having a business degree at the end. As well as MBA programs, much like I think Bill Sutton is doing in Florida and Chelladurai does at Ohio. The idea behind that is I think we finally recognised, and you would probably know this too or had this experience, the traditional business schools didn’t think of sport as an industry. So, we’ve always had to argue it’s no different than the automotive industry. Alan Seymour: Correct. Ann Pegararo: Or another very, very, large sector given how much money is spent and accumulated, and revenue that comes from sport. So, our approach here has always

been solid grounding and regular business courses. They take accounting and finance, etc., and then we take the context of sport and teach them sport finance, sport marketing. Once they get the grounding in traditional business, we try to do a lot of experiential or hands-on learning with our students so that they can actually touch the industry before they become part of it, and gain some knowledge and experience. So, we do that through the entire part of our program, but very much it’s based on sport is a business, and let’s treat it as such. Alan Seymour: Okay. I mean, there are so many similarities. I’m glad I’ve asked the question. I also need to make an apology. Like many in the UK, I often, as we often do, put the USA and Canada so close together or as one, and they’re clearly not. My owner and partner, and everybody else, I’m going to give a big shout-out now to Dr Steve Genarro, who’s at York University in Toronto, and if he’s listening as I know he will be, Steve, I apologise. No, not withstanding that, and I think the marvellous thing about what you’ve said is that sport has to be recognised. It has to be recognised in practice, and I think it also has to be recognised now in the areas of sport research, and very much the ways in which we look at the whole ethos behind sport. Not only as a business, but all the things that pertain to it. The next question that follows on from this is that I believe that sport now is very much part of social, it’s very much part of community. I often use a phrase that it’s both front- and back-page news. I think it’s very important that everybody out there recognises this. So in taking on board, you need to understand business processes, do you think students, and therefore do you

think perhaps some of the businesses that the students go into, share the same value? You know ‘show us the money’, or just think maybe that quite often sport is all about the agents making the money. I don’t know whether you’ve got a view on that, but just tell us a little bit about your philosophy in terms of sport management as both a subject to study and as well as the practitioner element. Ann Pegararo: Well, I think that it’s seen very differently depending on where you’re situated. You don’t need to apologise; a lot of people think North America is one big place. That’s until some walls start getting built, maybe that’ll be different. I think in the end in Canada, we have a healthy respect for sport as part of our society beyond just being a revenue-generating business. Alan Seymour: Absolutely, yeah. Ann Pegararo: I think it’s a little different, I would say, in the United States from my experiences down there, but we do still see this. So, a really great example of how that’s evolved for us over time would be our Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). So, that’s the governing body for all Olympic sport in Canada. If you know a little bit about us, we love to succeed at amateur sport, particularly the winter sports. We like to say that we are winter, and we own it, mainly because we live it regularly. I’ve seen an evolution and a really good change in the business model around the COC. What’s fascinating to know is we hosted the Olympics in 2010, the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and we were the first Olympic hosting country to raise more money in sponsorship after hosting the Games than in the four years leading up to the Games.

A big part of that was a refocusing after we saw the impact of the Olympics. The Canadian Olympic Committee, I give them full credit. They saw amateur sport as a business and said, “Wait a minute.” While we do have an impact on society, and it’s about participating and getting people to play the sports and be active, we also were evolving at the upper side of our sports with high-performance athletes, and this is attractive as a business. So, they really revitalised their entire business model, and then the COC that we see today in 2017, seven years after hosting that Games, is vastly different. I’ve had the opportunity to work with them, but through a program that they invested money and called the National Sport Federation Enhancement Program. They actually put some of their sponsorship money aside to help the amateur sport associations increase their business activities inside their own agencies. So, if I took a summer sport like Rugby Canada and helped them with the evolution to the rugby sevens, and be included in the Olympic Games. They provided funding for rebranding and creating new images that people would want to buy clothing in, to bringing in people like me to help amateur sport organisations increase their capacity and knowledge in digital, and how to use that for their fan bases, for sponsorship, and for their key stakeholders. So, I see that evolution at the amateur sport level, which I think has really been a good move, and it also shows our students that you could have this two-way street about sport. You could still think about participation, but about it as a business too. So, both get to live together, and that’s what I see in our Canadian Olympic Committee.

Alan Seymour: I think, again, it’s just so marvellous to hear and witness those kinds of examples, and also the connection that is made. We had a chat briefly before we went to record, and you told me that you’ve been involved in non-legal or less than professional, serious amateur sport. You spent a little bit of time in Northern Ireland, I think. Tell my audience a little bit about how that experience came to be, and maybe use it as a little precedent or exemplar of how to use maybe digital, maybe social media, and translate good marketing practice into the area of sports marketing. Ann Pegararo: Yeah, I’m very fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend some time in Belfast with the Northern Ireland Football League. I think it’s really interesting to tell you how that came about. That came about from Twitter and the relationship I built on Twitter with a professor at Ulster University, Dr Damian Gallagher. Alan Seymour: Oh, wow. I mean, I was previously chair of the Academy of Marketing here in the UK for the sport management special interest group. Damian, whom I’ve actually never met, we’ve spoken. But he took over from me, but he works alongside another colleague of mine, Paul Kitchin. He’s there at the same university. Small global world you see, sport business. Ann Pegararo: It is a very small world. So, Damian and I met on Twitter. We started talking about common interests and again, he’s in a business school. So, we actually met up at the North American Conference, the NASSM Conference for sport management professors. Talked a lot about a project. He told me what his interests were in helping the Northern Ireland Football League. Similar to the types of things that I talk about to the COC, where, hey, listen, we’ve got this professional

league. It’s mostly run by volunteers. It’s looking to increase its business capacity and its knowledge of business around sport, and we crafted a project together that really unfolded as a survey that was run through the initial sites, asking fans what they expected from digital. What do they follow? What sites are they on that sells? How much time are they on a day? What do they expect from football clubs on digital platforms? So, we had a whole bunch of data that we could then sift through and provide some feedback to the league itself, and give them an idea what their fans wanted. Then we went further because Damian’s model is really about having an impact and making change. I spent a weekend in Northern Ireland in October where I did actually meet Paul Kitchen too. I had a really great time with Paul where we put on some workshops. We put a workshop on for the Northern Ireland Football League, sharing what we learned from the survey and sharing my ideas and knowledge together with Damian’s context as to how they could use social and digital media to build their fan base. We had a oneday, full-out workshop with them that was fantastic. Alan Seymour: I mean again, just marvellous to hear this. It segues very, very nicely for me into a couple of other things and questions that I want to put to you. Sadly, I know it’s going to be much too short an interview, but there will be another Future of Sport interview. Two, three, or maybe even more, but the question I wanted to pose here, the importance of fan engagement. It’s such a huge topic in itself, but it has almost become very much buzz and very much topical on trend in the whole sphere, particularly through social media. I want

to maybe touch on the idea of content creation, and how important that is, and the power of voice. There has certainly been a transferable acceptance, I suppose, with all stakeholders and all parties too. Just that the fan has always been important, but he/she takes on a much more important influencing role, shall we say. Do you think that the transfer of the power of voice and the importance that fans themselves are now seen as important in the area of content creation? What are your views on some of the ways in which fans should be heard and listened to, and maybe their role going forward, and the effectiveness of making sport business more effective? Ann Pegararo: That’s a great question. I think that digital media, in particular social media platforms, have provided everyone with a voice. We all can support our team, criticise the manager, suggest some line-up changes, and just be a part of the brand from wherever we are in the world. So, I think that it took a little bit of time for some organisations to realise the power of that. In our discussions, Manchester United is going to have millions of fans regardless, and it’s going to be hard for them to engage and even talk to a fan, but if I go back to the Northern Ireland Football League, we have a smaller fan base. The ability to not just have a conversation with your fans, is also to leverage what they create in terms of content. So, fan… Alan Seymour: Well, sorry about that folks. We just seemed to have a little bit of a technical issue with my connection to Ann in Canada. Perhaps I’ll revisit. We’re talking about the importance of fan engagement and fan voice, particularly using the example of Northern Ireland. So, carry on a little bit more with that if you could please.

Ann Pegararo: Sure. So, I think what we were talking a little bit about is how social media platforms give everyone a voice now. Not just a voice. What we see is some great content created by fans. Fans are your most passionate brand ambassadors and will dress their dog in your kit or whatever, or produce some amazing content. So, when you’re looking at small to medium-sized sport enterprises, if they’re lucky, they might have one person dedicated to digital; if not, it’s somebody who also does marketing, PR, communications. So, the more content you could leverage out of your fans, the easier it is for you to keep putting new content out there. I mean, everybody loves the pictures that fans share wherever they are, or how they share their fandoms. There’s so many different ways you can use social platforms to keep fans engaged if you have a strategic mind about leveraging the content they produce for you, engaging with those who want to talk about your brand. Just really allowing them in by asking them questions, and engaging with them. Things that maybe we didn’t do before. People didn’t ask you. A Twitter poll about who’s going to score the first goal today, or who’s the man of the match? Whatever it is that you come up with allows me, where I am in Canada, to vote on a Crusaders game in Belfast. Alan Seymour: Ann, I think again what you’ve been able to evidence, and clearly this is great evidence because it’s real and it’s all about all of the consumption in many ways that we all love as passionate fans, but also as many of you are in the world of being educators and communicators. I’m going to pick upon a phrase that you used, which I totally endorse, and enhance, and

agree with. You talked about, through social media, that the fans themselves can become great brand ambassadors. However, does this present maybe one or two sensitive issues? As we know from our marketing background as much as anything, we’ve branded tribal associations and even maybe the words that you’ve just used, fandom, maybe fanaticism. Does that bring sometimes in content creation its positives and negatives? What are your views on maybe how far this passion sometimes? … I mean there are people out there, wrongly I believe, who think with Twitter it’s only an excuse to have an argument or a rant. In many ways, I think Twitter, it’s the beginning, not the end of everything, and it should be the start of making a conversation possible, and then having critical debate and so on. So, what are your views? Maybe the do’s and don’ts in terms of Twitter for fans particularly. Ann Pegararo: Yeah, and it is that double-edged sword, because for as many people as you have, will they be that positive ambassador? You’re always going to have the guy who stood at the end of the chairs at the pub, who always just had to get their last word in and share with you their negative thoughts on either the manager, or the star player, or the way the team is being run. So, that is going to be present in Twitter and particularly in Facebook as well. I think you’ll see it there. Less so on visual platforms, I think. So when you’re running it, if you’re running an account or you’re running it for a team, it is difficult to decide when do you weigh in, when do you not? Because sometimes, some of these people are waiting for you to engage.

So, there’s a couple things that I would caution about. I’d look at the person’s profile and who they are before you engage with them. If it’s an ape [sic]-based account with 25 followers, then it’s somebody who’s just sparring for a fight for the most part. You can see that on Twitter all the time. If it’s somebody who seems to have a different type and very positive about your team, and maybe has a negative thought now, then that person may be somebody worth engaging with because you can actually see that, all right, they have been positive about the leader, or the team, or whatever is going on, or the club. So, you have to do a little bit of research before you engage with them, and it goes fast. It is no different than an argument at the pub, it just plays out publicly where a lot of other people see it. So, you need to decide what to do. I’m very cautious about blocking people or removing comments because that just angers people more. So, it’s better to let it sit there and not engage with it, because again, if somebody has 25 followers and you don’t engage with them, who’s really seeing what they’re saying about your team for the most part? It’ll get buried. Sometimes on the other side I will say your highly engaged brand ambassador type fans will take them on for you. Alan Seymour: Absolutely. I mean, this is a fascinating conversation in its own right. I think everyone has a very personal view, and then a very pragmatic view, which may well be a professional view. I even posed a question I think only yesterday or the day before. Why do people block people? It’s almost as though criticism per se is seen as a bad thing. I mean, criticism is good. Criticism should be embraced and encouraged because it’s only through

that, as both the teacher and the learner, that you actually get the opportunity to have the full debate and resolve things, and talk about things, and come to some conclusion. So, I’m not going to digress necessarily, but I think maybe just parking that for one moment. We had a brief discussion, as I mentioned earlier, just before we came to record. One of the comments you made, and I again totally embrace this, is that the origins of dialogue through the social media platform is a little bit like a business. It’s slow to react. We are reluctant to change, and if you don’t get on it and change, then you’re going to get left behind. Even so, when some actually did embrace it, have they actually embraced it fully? The education of business to actually use social media for all the right reasons and in the right way. I mean, I do have some views on this, but if we put it into the context of traditional broadcasting, for example, is it on the wane? Is it in decline? Subscribers to Sky here, well Sky all over, but now ESPN, and all those broadcasters losing subscribers. Facebook and Twitter are going to take over some or all of those streams and opportunities. What are your views, and I know it’s a very broad question, but perhaps give some insights from your perspective on some or all of those things? Ann Pegararo: Well, I think we’re seeing some really interesting shifts in the way that we consume sport. The fact that I think the research has shown that you and I will watch a match and have our phone going at the same time and talking to people on Twitter, because that’s what we do. That’s where we live. Has it been lost on some of the leagues? So, if I take the biggest league here in North America and talk about the National Football

League, American football, it has seen a decline in viewership in the last year of 8 to 9 percent. Which, you think, “Oh, it’s not that big,” but for them, that’s a big chunk of their audience disappearing from watching live broadcast games through NBC or CBS, or whatever game is going on. Putting it in context, ESPN paid a billion dollars to just broadcast Monday Night Football. So, that’s 17 games a year, a billion dollars. If my eyeballs aren’t watching their billion-dollar game, they can’t sell the commercials. So, we’ve had to see how are we consuming sport as fans, how has that changed, and changed the business model. So, we are seeing Twitter streaming. We’re seeing Facebook Live. We are seeing shifting to broadcasting parts of the game or all of the game on these social media platforms where fans seem to be spending more of their time. It’s experimental a little bit, but every couple of days, it seems Twitter is signing a new broadcast. They’re going to broadcast PGA golf now. I think there’s a big technological shift. Alan Seymour: I mean, I think, Ann, if again, sorry, could I just interject because it’s oh so fascinating. And so on cue here. I mean, as one of my guests a few weeks ago. I had the pleasure of talking to a guy called Ged Tarpey, who actually went to my old school. I only discovered that through Twitter, again, enforcing the point about the global village, the global sports community. He was an ex-Manchester City footballer, to cut a long story short, had gone over to play college professional football, soccer as you call it, and worked his way up. Did a marketing degree at Ohio, incidentally, and now is one of the top executives in the world of sport and entertainment at Twitter. I had a marvellous interview.

I’ll have to send you the link to the show because he was telling us, he couldn’t give all the confidences away, but he was talking about the fact that Twitter was now going to broadcast some PGA golf tour events, and watch this space. So, it is all happening. One of my guests last week was a guy who’s very much involved in doing all the broadcasting from Wimbledon, and made the announcement that Wimbledon are becoming a media player in their own right, as well as a venue for the world’s greatest tennis tournament. So, that whole shift that you talk about, it is going to be very much worth watching this space. I’m going to have to close off the interview here, but we’ve got a few more minutes at least. I’d like you to close by maybe the classic question in this case, in this world that we inhabit at the moment – sports digital. Where do you think it is likely to seize upon maybe some new trends going forward, or is there anything significant that you think, and particularly maybe from an educational point of view, that we could be teaching our new sports managers of the future in terms of sports digital? Ann Pegararo: Well, I think the biggest trend that we’re seeing, definitely, is the rise of technology shifting the way business is conducted, whether it’s the broadcasting, whether it’s the way that we communicate with fans. That big shift is happening, will continue to happen. I do wish I had the crystal ball and could tell you where I think it’s going to end up, because then I would be able to quit my university job and do something else. I think one thing is for certain, and if I say this, I say this to my own students all the time. Digital literacy skills are vastly important. So, understanding how to live,

and communicate, and do business in the digital world is going to be vital. I don’t mean just get a Twitter account and hang out on Twitter. I mean understand how it shifted the way that people communicate to each other, and about topics, and understand how people spend their time. So, it goes back to the psychology things, where I started with consumer behaviour. What’s shifted? I mean, I’m addicted to my phone and can’t go anywhere without it. I usually start my conversations with, “I did my undergraduate on a typewriter, and now I carry the internet in my pocket with me everywhere I go.” Alan Seymour: Absolutely. Ann Pegararo: That is phenomenal to have happened in my lifetime. So, where is it going to happen in their lifetime? I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know what the end game is, but I do know it’s not going to disappear. You saw this when it first started, and I first started even doing research or talking about social media, “Oh, are we going to create courses or talk about fads, every fad that comes along?” It’s not a fad. It’s a complete shift. Alan Seymour: Oh, absolutely. Ann, it has been so fascinating. I’m going to almost run out of time, but let me just quickly try and give a summation of some of the topics here. Remember my students, remember my audience. You heard it via me and particularly my great guest today, Ann, who’s talked about making sure you embrace digital literacy. Get good skill sets in your sport management tool box. It couldn’t be better advice, and I think also as a closing thing on this, when you go out there, don’t be afraid. Open doors, ask questions, use your digital footprint via your phone and Twitter

handle. This is what anyone aspiring to a career in sport business should be doing the same. Finally, Ann, just before we leave, I’d like to give an opportunity first to say a massive, huge thank you. Delight to have the opportunity to talk to you on The Future of Sport show here on All In Sports Talk today. Tell us how we can contact you – how students, audience, anybody listening to my show can make contact with you in the future, Ann. Ann Pegararo: Sure. I think as we said, the easiest way to find me is on Twitter. So, my handle is not my name. It’s @SportMgmtProf. So, Sport Management Prof is my handle on Twitter. It’s probably the best way to find me. I’m always open to having conversations and answering questions, or debating topics. It gives me lots of things to think about for my research or my teaching. So, that’s probably the best way. I’m situated in Canada in a small town north of Toronto that’s hard to find, but we have a research institute called the Institute for Sport Marketing here at Laurentian University. That’s where I do my work with Damian and others, across the world. So, I’m always happy to reach out and be included in any conversations people want to have around digital space in sport. Alan Seymour: Ann, thank you so, so much. I mean, what better parting than almost to keep the door and window open? To extend. We’ve touched upon it already, used it a few times, our sports business, sport management community, and social media has given us a greater platform to enable us to do that. So, many thanks. You take care. Have a wonderful week and weekend, and I’ll speak to you again very soon, Ann. Many thanks.

Ann Pegararo: Thank you, Alan.

Conversation: reflections and activities “Cultural differences exist as a result of geographic factors as well as social ones. The traditions and heritage of sports participated in have a dramatic effect on sport business practice.” Consider how this impacts on the nature of the way you are involved as a sport marketing student in your course. In the conversation there is evidence of an international research project. Think of a similar project that could be the topic for a researchbased sport marketing project. Explain why this would be a good topic and outline some preliminary objectives. Ensure it has global factors. The ‘do’s and don’ts’ of social media rear their ugly heads within the conversation. Why is this happening? Suggest some differences that exist in digital and social media use by the global audiences of sport. Provide some examples of how this might invoke different strategies for digital sport marketing practice.

Conclusion The chapter is uniquely centred on emergent dimensions of bigger and more diverse participant groups in the sport business world. Sport is now not only ‘big’ business, but it is ‘better’ business because of the greater global reach. Social and cultural factors are to the fore when seeking out that global audience, so sports brands must be aware of their influence when reaching into new geographically dispersed markets. If you are not doing global in sports, you are not doing sports! And, if you are not doing digital in sports, you are not doing sports!

Chapter review questions 1 “The world is a global village.” Discuss this comment with reference to the changing dynamics of how digital sport marketing reaches out across to global audiences. 1 “A global need presents unique challenges to the sports managers of today and the future.” Why? Give your reasons and explain the rationale and evidence to support your viewpoint? 3 “If you are not doing business with the world, you are not doing business.” Does digital make this adage more or less important? Give some examples to justify your answer. 4 Appraise examples of good global sports practice both from the chapter and any personal examples that you have witnessed. 5 Does a global marketplace have a finite existence, or will it inevitably lead to saturation or maturity? Think of the Product Life Cycle model or Ansoff Matrix when considering your response.

Additional reading and digital resources https://bizfluent.com/info-8219768-multidomestic-vs-global-strategicplans.html https://digitalsport.co/englands-players-fall-well-behind-world-cup-rivalson-social-media https://idrottsforum.org/international-journal-of-sports-marketingsponsorship-vol-20-2019-no-2/ https://intelligence.globalsportsjobs.com/3-trends-in-digital-sport-for-2019 https://sportstarinfluencer.com/ www.asoif.com/sites/default/files/download/future_of_global_sport.pdf www.inderscience.com/jhome.php?jcode=ijsmm

www.nielsen.com/wpcontent/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/Nielsen_Top5_Commercial_Trends_2018. pdf www.statista.com/statistics/370560/worldwide-sports-market-revenue/ www.tandfonline.com/loi/rgsm20 www.topendsports.com/world/lists/popular-sport/fans.htm

References Baczek, L. (2019) https://twitter.com/Lu_Class_/status/1183394151984795649 Badenhausen, K. (2019) www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/03/05/worlds-richestsports-team-owners-2019/#3f0fd0cf635e Bayindir, N. & Kavanagh, D. (2018) ‘Sports around the world’, GlobalWebIndex. https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track? uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Ae25ae9e6-f0c8-402b-8e3b6b051a776d4f BBC (2018) ‘Premier League TV rights: Amazon to show 20 matches a season from 2019–2022’. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44396151 The Business Research Company (2019) ‘Sports – $614 billion global market opportunities & strategies to 2022’. www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190514005472/en/Sports-614Billion-Global-Market-Opportunities CNN (2018) ‘Video streaming services changing the way we watch football’. https://t.co/lbPJMWMtPi Maier, C. (2018) ‘Brands can tap sports growth in China’. www.warc.com/NewsAndOpinion/News/40459 McMullan, C. (2019) ‘Pro14 partners with SteamAMG to launch new OTT service to fans in international territories’. https://digitalsport.co/pro14partners-with-steamamg-to-launch-new-ott-service-to-fans-ininternational-territories#.XN7BhuPpIlM.twitter

Tibke, P. (2018) ‘LaLiga goes global with new Microsoft digital partnership’, Sport Business. https://sponsorship.sportbusiness.com/news/laliga-goesglobal-with-new-microsoft-digital-partnership/

11 Towards new thinking for sport marketers and practitioners

Chapter objectives After studying the concepts, cases, and conversations in this chapter, the reader should be able to: Comprehend the importance of strategic thinking, planning, and implementation of the new order in digital sport business. Appreciate and consider these new approaches in the context of sport marketing practice. Explain the applications of digital sport marketing thinking by way of practical examples. Consider the impacts of digital technology and innovations on the practice of sport marketing.

Introduction The classic mantra “failing to plan is planning to fail” can be updated to “failing to change is planning to fail” in the highly dynamic sports industry. The nature of sport marketing in the digital age, with the revolution of technology and the growth of consumer and fan engagement, means that everyone is both a player and potential influencer. As the sports industry has become increasingly commercialised and internationalised through the acceptance of an entrepreneurial mindset, brands and rights holders have morphed into progressive service sellers who compete with other leisure activities, and the broader trappings of societal change. The rapid growth of investment into professional sports has therefore been crucial to brands seeking to leverage the credibility and brand awareness that association in sports can transfer to consumers. New media fandom is one of the areas of future potential for digital sport marketers.

Fantasy football, eSports, etc., have value as yet untried and untapped. Digital sports have grasped the platform and are taking it to new levels. The obvious popularity of sport – half of the global population love football – appears linked to the evolution of technology, the diffusion of new communication forms, and the exponential growth of social media. The world is mobile!

CONCEPTS The consumption expectations of sports fans, both live and remote, necessitates a ‘cinematic’ experience. Second- and third-device usage to review, share, or comment is instant, and of course there is an app for everything – from ticket purchase to in-seat food delivery. Geo targeting – the delivery of content based upon location – can take advantage of highly emotional moments in sport through promoted tweets linked to keywords such as #tennis, Andy Murray, or Wimbledon. The collaboration between EE and Wembley Stadium has shown real innovation through involvement. The stadium has an integrated lighting system that responds to key action points in the game, plus a Live Arch Cam available on the app that allows the viewer to feel as if they are part of the game on the field. Furthermore, as the selfproclaimed ‘most connected stadium in the world’ with the ‘most technologically advanced stadium tour in the world’, each tour participant is given a bespoke connected device with 360 video and an augmented reality facility. With experience a key tenet for near future developments in sports, the challenge is to involve more fans, provide a better understanding of digital technologies, and consider entertainment trends to provide engaging content to be delivered within a disintermediated media landscape. Within this context, two specific mindset adaptations are occurring: (1) increasingly immersive experiences enabled via mixed reality, virtual reality, and augmented

reality – from wearable devices to virtual training environments; and (2) the requirement for every brand or rights holder to be a media company that creates content to serve the fans and strengthen the bond with them (Lalli, 2018). In 2018, Cricket Scotland launched the #muchmorethancricket campaign – an initiative to stimulate and encourage innovation and enterprise in cricket. It aimed to accelerate thinking around new ways to engage more people and broaden the appeal of the sport. In response to changes in people’s lifestyles, consumer habits and expectations, and the use of digital media, the campaign focused around: 1 Encouraging cricket clubs to develop better relationships with their communities and community partners. 2 Working with diverse groups across society to be even more inclusive, welcoming, and relevant to people’s lives. 3 Developing cricket clubs as community hubs. 4 Promoting better use of social and digital marketing tools for communication. The engagement campaign sought ideas, comments, and thoughts from across Scotland, and the best ideas were identified and incorporated into future plans (Cricket Scotland, 2018). New thinking in the sport of cricket! So one question to ask: is sport competing with Netflix, entertainment, brands, politics, music, etc., or should brands and rights holders see each other as partners to gain the attention of sports fans? Finding the ‘white spaces’ between live sport and the culture it creates serves to develop the narrative and tell stories. House of Highlights is a great example of sport at the intersection of youth culture, while Fantastec found a ‘white space’ between technology and sport with their focus on developing products, platforms, and experiences such as OTT VOD, AI, and the ‘blockchain’ to enable globally distanced fans to connect and engage more deeply with their sport. In a similar vein, the

English Football Association partnered with PayPal to overcome the need for cash exchanges to pay weekly subscriptions and referees’ fees. Clubs receive their lifeline income, and something this simple actually helps towards maintaining participation rates (McMullan, 2019). And there’s a new narrative in women’s sport as the sports industry shifts from talking about the value of women’s sports to realising its potential as a platform to connect with a mass-market audience. The collision between a large number of women’s sporting events – the 2019 football World Cup in particular – and the emerging post #MeToo of women’s empowerment has driven a new approach to marketing. For example, Lucazade reimagined the iconic football anthem to produce Three Lionesses; a statue of England player Lily Parr was erected in Manchester by Mars; and Nike’s Lioness Tributes told the story of how players got into playing football. In each case, previous stereotypes were swept aside to create new female sporting role models – Megan Rapinoe and Nikita Parris being two of the biggest around the Women’s World Cup in France. Brand relevance will likely be enhanced for those brands getting involved, and staying involved with women’s sport – although Guinness’s six-year investment in women’s rugby will be one long-term investment shift to keep an eye on! So, talented athletes with honest and unheard stories to tell are raising the profile of women’s sport. Brands that step in can amplify this voice and showcase the power of progressive branding (Ashton, 2019) – a new age for sport marketing! There is also a re-shuffling of investments as major sports brands move into community-based activity; the focus has moved from the stadium to the street. Adidas created Tango Squads, a community platform that uses Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to engage young players to develop brand advocacy habits. Adidas built a team of football influencers – young people playing in their communities (approximately 35 people per key city). A collaborative role shaping new ideas and products was adopted through the Tango Squad FC and a Tango app that enabled creators to show off their skills, compete with

friends, and unlock rewards. Adidas also used the dark social web – websites on an encrypted network not found by traditional search engines – but found it difficult to maintain one-to-one conversations. Adidas knows the importance of cultivating the next generation of customer and is allowing their advocates to amplify and multiply the message on their behalf (Vizard, 2018). Digital disruption is rife, pressured by the transformative effect of technology that disrupts the current market for products/services and their business model. Digital disruption is an unstoppable force, and to try to fight it is futile. It typically marks changes in consumer needs, so identifying and adapting to them will enable any organisation to fulfil these emerging needs, keep existing customers happy and open up opportunities for new customers to find what they need from a brand. Such disruption has changed athlete performance and fan activity, but it is the demand side of the sports industry that is changing now with technology around smart venues, next generation sponsorship, immersive media, and eSports. But crucially, fan interaction with sports has changed with fans no longer chained to their local team. Fantasy sports, gambling, or who drafted the fan when playing NBA 2K can change who fans support on a day-to-day basis. Fans can choose a way to watch and interact with friends, in VR or by betting. The fundamental business model – the sponsorship model, the rights model – has changed, as sports are now not competing with other sports; they are competing in the media economy. As new entries into the broadcasting industry force the traditional broadcast partners in sports to change, Amazon, for example, is buying rights and creating opportunities for ‘rich’ sports to do things fundamentally transformative. Amazon is leading the field, and showing ESPN and NBC Sports in the US what they have to do to keep pace with a new entrant changing the way fans expect to consume media. Companies that understand the fan the best are making the ‘game-changing’ moves, thus forcing the rest of the sports industry to do the same (Evans, 2019).

Live sports are the ‘last fruits on the tree’ for traditional sports broadcasters, as they face the challenges in the era of mobile and live streaming. Sports consumers are moving to streaming platforms like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and Facebook to substitute or even replace their pay TV subscriptions. The quality of streaming live content in a reliable and affordable manner has only enlivened the live sports market for disruption. Digital giants have realised the value in offering exclusive and desirable content to their customer base in order to differentiate themselves. Facebook joined the rights-bidding war in 2019, securing a $265 million deal to broadcast English Premier League football games from 2019 to 2022 in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Amazon paid $50 million to stream NFL Thursday Night Football to Prime and Twitch members, at no extra cost, and Google’s YouTube TV launched a live sports streaming service with exclusive rights to stream games of three Major League Soccer teams. And it relays sports content onto its platform from several traditional broadcasting networks including ESPN, NBC, and Fox. A significant new entrant was video-streaming startup DAZN, who signed Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez to the most lucrative athlete contract in history. DAZN subscribers pay a $9.99 monthly subscription fee to watch all content. Offering exclusive content, conveniently online, at a fraction of the price is a proven strategy for disruption. With TV and cable networks’ audiences in sharp decline, the social media giants such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have amassed large communities of sports fans by allowing different sports organisations to post content on their platforms. Using the customer data made available for themselves, these organisations have the ability to better curate to the target audience. Some new startups have emerged to take advantage and pair communities of fans with curated content. One example of this form of disruptor is the rapidly growing football streaming company myCujoo which built a data-driven platform to enable any club or federation to broadcast games to a worldwide audience. The company streamed 20,000 live matches in

2018 alone. The ability to match content to customers provides a great advantage in this changing landscape. The NBA is a great example of identifying this match with the option to fans to purchase only the fourth quarter of a game – the exciting bit! And the NBA has facilitated a ‘snack versus meals’ menu; an exclusive partnership between Turner and the NBA allows the NBA to produce brandconsistent and exclusive content for social media channels, with the end goal of driving customer traffic back to their own channels and those of their partners. The ‘snacks’ are free, but basketball fans are still hungry enough to purchase the full ‘meal’ of the live game (Assir & Teracino, 2019). The concept of the sharing economy is also a disruptive influence in society: think Uber and Airbnb. The sharing economy is “ICT enabled platforms for exchanges of goods and services drawing upon nonmarket logics such as sharing, lending, gifting and swapping as well as market logics such as renting and selling” (Laurell & Sandstrom, 2017, p. 63). The sharing economy generates abundance through access to under-utilised assets and by lowering transaction costs, but which offers unprecedented scalability (Acquier et al., 2017). In sports, peerto-peer lending and gifting for charitable causes are examples of the sharing economy. But as living costs rise and sports become ever more expensive to participate in or spectate at, ideas such as the used gear marketplace (StokeShare), ridesharing marketplace (Zum), or even a coaching marketplace (Chevy Youth Baseball Clinics) could become increasingly popular (Todd, 2016). The Digital Communications Hype Cycle (Davies, 2019 www.stedavies.com/digital-communications-hype-cycle/) is a graphical representation of the maturity of digital communication technologies through five phases: 1 Technology Trigger – potential technology breakthrough and commercial viability is unproven, e.g. voice search, TikTok, WhatsApp.

2 Peak of Inflated Expectations – success stories, but may need to take action, e.g. Facebook groups, Chatbots, push notifications; YouTube. 3 Trough of Disillusionment – interest wanes as the technology fails to deliver. Investment may continue to improve the products, e.g. Facebook pages, Snapchat. 4 Slope of Enlightenment – the benefits of the technology start to crystallise and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear, e.g. email newsletters, podcasting. 5 Plateau of Productivity – mainstream adoption starts to take off, e.g. Blogging, LinkedIn. The model provides a snapshot of the evolution of digital technologies and their adoption by society to work as a means of communication. It is presented as a guide to digital sport marketers when making decisions about reaching sports audiences with direct messages. The University of Worcester, England, is rightly proud to champion itself as a truly inclusive university community. It has a clear moral compass, an outstanding teaching and learning pedigree leading to high rates of graduate employment, and fantastic facilities – especially sports. The MSc in International Sport Management is an exciting programme that puts the learner at the heart of the whole experience. Students challenge and critique current issues and debates of leadership, sponsorship, global events, and the governance of sport. They blend academic scholarship and applied practice through engagement with guest speakers and sports organisations with an international profile. This results in the development of new thinking for the future direction of sport as future leaders hone their critical assessment of the sports industry. The following example showcases a classroom task asking the MSc International Sport Management students to write a short 500-word blog post considering new thinking in international sport management

and marketing. Here is a great response that showcases clear thought, knowledge, and a keen eye to market opportunities.

Pedalling towards a new future of sport – Nathan Caesar, University of Worcester, England What does the future of sport look like? Will people even leave their homes to reach their exercise goals? Should you exercise from home and forget about the gym? These questions are looming, but by considering the mammoth rise of the world-renowned Peloton fitness company, this may allow for a predictor of future sporting trends and consumer expectations. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Peloton (where have you been?), this fitness-focused business provides everyone with the opportunity to get active via virtual live fitness sessions. By the term virtual, I don’t mean those clunky virtual reality headsets, but via a screen on an indoor bike, treadmill, or even your TV. It’s not only participation; the opportunity to compete against your friends, family, or even Mark Cavendish himself (good luck!) in cycling is a unique selling point. On first impressions, Peloton inherits a simple website that presents an even simpler idea. Within seconds, the consumer is familiar with the product and could even envision when they could fit a 30-minute cycle ride into their daily routine. The rise in social media has also seen a growth in fitness influencers, bloggers, and businesses, all with one thing in common; they each want a slice of the ludicrously rich fitness industry currently worth £4.9 billion (Kale, 2019). With such a hugely wealthy industry comes the need for innovative thinking and new marketing approaches to capitalise on the growing market. As a method to exchange to futuristic technological advances within sport, an increasing number of sporting teams, and their stadiums, are offering consumers the opportunity to be at the game from home (Lee, 2018).

But as useful as this may be to introverts or less able-bodied individuals, the consumer experience is diminished dramatically. However, what Peloton do is different as they provide the user with the opportunity to experience sporting competition and the ability to develop that community with other consumers. The term ‘community’ is used loosely, as virtual presence is different from physically interacting with other participants. To develop a richer community, should Peloton seek to provide meet-ups with instructors every month or so? Currently, probably not, as the focus is solely on developing a business that caters to a niche market. Perhaps when the ever-changing technology market shifts, they may wish to tap into this aspect of community. This link between virtual brand communities and sponsorship or marketing forces has been outlined as an area that may present greater understanding into these social engagements (Alonso-DosSantos et al., 2018). Allowing consumers access to such a range of sports media, experiences, and fitness opportunities from the comfort of your living room is a positive move. Don’t get me wrong; the wider benefits of decreased anxiety, general mood, and more regular participation received from participating in team sports is well documented (Pluhar et al., 2019), but could this new wave of individualised virtual sport competition with the opportunity to interact with others be just what sport and fitness needs?

References Alonso-Dos-Santos, M., Rejón Guardia, F., Pérez Campos, C., CalabuigMoreno, F., & Ko, Y. J. (2018) ‘Engagement in sports virtual brand communities’, Journal of Business Research, 89, pp. 273–279. Kale, S. (2019) ‘The rise of digital fitness: Can the new wave of high-intensity home workouts replace the gym?’ www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/aug/19/the-rise-of-digital-

fitness-can-the-new-wave-of-high-intensity-home-workouts-replacethe-gym (Accessed: 22 November 2019). Lee, N. (2018) ‘Oculus venues tries to cram the stadium experience into a VR headset’. https://engt.co/2Oaxmwi (Accessed: 22 November 2019). Pluhar, E., McCracken, C., Griffith, K., Christino, M., Sugimoto, D., & Meehan, W. (2019) ‘Team sport athletes may be less likely to suffer anxiety or depression than individual sport athletes’, Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 18(3), pp. 490–496. For more information about the MSc international Sport Management programme at the University of Worcester, England go to www.worcester.ac.uk/courses/international-sport-managementsport-msc The following case study has its own introduction included, so no additions are needed here. However, it is safe to say that you will need to think differently to take full advantage of the scenario offered.

Case study 11.1: Jacob Tingle and Allison Hawk, Trinity University, USA Jacob Tingle is Director, Sport Management Minor, at Trinity University, serves as chairperson of the Sport Management Faculty Advisory Committee, and oversees all aspects of the minor programme, including advising, course scheduling, budget management, and faculty evaluation. He has planned, managed, and taught a host of Sport Management courses and is a vastly experienced scholar. Allison Hawk is a highly accomplished Senior Executive, Entrepreneur, Consultant, and Board Member with over 25 years of success in healthcare, fitness, well-being, professional sports, higher education, government, nonprofit, and philanthropy. Leveraging extensive experience in public relations, communications, and marketing, she is a valuable asset for similar-sector companies and organisations looking for crisis communications and sports

philanthropy. As founder of her own St. Louis-based communications consultancy, she has provided strategic communications, planning, training, and facilitation services to a variety of clients – with special emphasis on social media strategy and execution.

The living textbook – case introduction The Sport Management program at Trinity University uses philanthropy and corporate social responsibility as vehicles to engage students in conversations they wouldn’t have during a typical sport business or studies course. The Introduction to Sport Philanthropy course is team taught by Allison Hawk, an expert in sports philanthropy, strategic communications, and a former NFL executive, and Jacob Tingle, the head of the Sports Management program and Office of Experiential Education at Trinity. In the course, Allison and Jacob build a bridge to the real world through the intentional use of a living textbook, digital engagement via active Twitter use, and a culminating capstone consulting project that is presented to an external organisation. Through the problem-based learning activity, students are required to work collaboratively as a means to learn and apply course knowledge and skills. Silver & Black Give Back, the charitable arm of Spurs Sports & Entertainment, shares three community relations-related challenges with our students during the second week of the class. The course, which meets once a week for an hour, is built around students selecting one of these real-world challenges and spending the semester with the living textbook – expert guest speakers from the sports world who provide their insights and resources each week. Each speaker provides a different perspective on sport business, specifically focused on how his or her functional area intersects with corporate social responsibility and/or philanthropy. From a sports law expert to team professionals and from those who represent world class athletes to those who operate global sport-for-development non-profits, the bench is deep and includes diverse and experienced sports professionals.

Teams of students are formed to develop a project to address the challenge they selected. Through the semester as students interact with the living textbook, they gain valuable insight, skills in team building, and specific career and life advice. In describing the project, we inform students they should consider each guest speaker to be a “chapter in a textbook” and that they should listen to the speakers in order to glean information about their specific project. Another important outcome of the class is to help students understand how Twitter (and social media more generally) can be an effective tool for networking and research. To that end, students are required to post a tweet, no less than 60 minutes after class, highlighting an important lesson from the day. They are also required to post an article or video related to sports philanthropy or corporate social responsibility before class the next week. Students often share content that is useful for other teams to complete their projects. Through guest speakers and other associated readings, articles, videos, and Twitter conversations using #TUSportsPhil, and their own research/benchmarking, student groups research and develop a project that is presented on site at the AT&T Center (home of the San Antonio Spurs). In some cases, the organisation has integrated the student projects into their operations. For example, one team was charged with determining best practices and creating a 50/50 raffle at Spurs NBA games, and it was implemented in the following season. In the process of completing the project, valuable career and life lessons are absorbed, including how sport has the power to create social change and how to: (1) work with diverse teammates, (2) manage project deadlines, and (3) utilise human capital as resources to improve project deliverables. Students describe the course as a game changer that has allowed them to emerge confidently with a project that they have created, a strong network of sports professionals, and ways to actively engage in research that other academic courses do not provide. The case follows one student who didn’t take full advantage of what the class offers by detailing key student learning outcomes. It can challenge

students to critically examine their own approach to learning and attitudes toward working in diverse teams.1

Suggested pre-case readings Jay, M. (2012)

The defining decade: Why your twenties matter and how you

can make the most of them now.

New York: Hachette Book Group. Kokotsaki, D., Menzies, V., & Wiggins, A. (2016) ‘Project-based learning: A review of the literature’, Improving Schools, 19, pp. 267–277. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480216659733 Lencioni, P. (2002) The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

The living textbook As she scrolled through Twitter viewing the #TUSportsPhil articles, videos, comments, and conversations, Susan realised what a complete failure the semester had been. She was parked in the AT&T Center parking lot and the more she read, the deeper she slouched in the seat of her car. Her team, the team she was supposed to lead, just presented its semester-long project to executives from Silver & Black Give Back; instead of riding a wave of euphoria, she knew she’d wiped out. Susan was running late but didn’t rush to get to class on time. The Friday afternoon timeslot was so difficult for her, and as a senior marketing major set to graduate in a few months, the thought of another group project and presentation didn’t hold the allure it did for some of the first-year and sophomore students. Last summer she had a marketing internship with a local sport organisation, and every upper-division marketing class required her to deliver an in-class group presentation. While she was initially excited about the Introduction to Sport Philanthropy class, after a few weeks in, Susan felt that content wasn’t teaching her much. She thought, “Without a textbook, how am I supposed to learn about the power of sports to create

social change, the intangible assets available to sports teams, and why taking an inclusive approach to community relations could impact marketing, sales, and public relations?” Dr Tingle and Ms Hawk kept emphasising the importance of the required Twitter assignment. After sharing the story of how they “met” and how the class was conceived of on the platform, both of them constantly mentioned how useful the platform was to aggregate information and network with sport professionals. She remembered something from the first week that they expected everyone to post one article or video related to class content using #TUSportsPhil. Being a good student, Susan posted something each week, but didn’t see value in reading what others posted and never scrolled through the feed at all. She was the only marketing major on her team; in fact the other three members of her team were only sophomores. None of them had completed an internship, and only one had ever taken the intro marketing class. Though there wasn’t a formal vote, Susan just assumed she was the group’s leader. Her two professors also kept using the term ‘living textbook’ to describe the value of the guest speakers, but week after week it seemed like presenters delivered the same message. “It’s important to use your intangible assets” and “Don’t forget to focus on what the community needs” and “You can’t leverage a relationship until you have a relationship.” Blah, blah, blah. To make matters worse, as a marketing major, she was completely disinterested in this week’s speaker, Yuri Cogburn, a partner with Pratt, Wallace, and Beamon LLC. While he’s also the Managing Director of the firm’s Professional Sports Alliance, all his sports experience was with the National Football League. Her team’s project was on creating a soccer league for girls from under-resourced neighbourhoods in San Antonio; Susan couldn’t imagine what her group could possibly learn from him. Three weeks later, about half-way through the semester, Dr Tingle began class by asking for a project status update. While the other two groups were speaking, Susan worked on the assignment for her Marketing Research class. When he asked for their report, Susan confidently looked at her teammates

and talked for a couple of minutes about the stakeholders they were planning to contact and the ideas they had for the league. When pushed, she indicated that the team had not actually done any benchmarking and were yet to meet with its contact from Silver & Black Give Back. She thought to herself, “They already told us the assignment, why do we need to meet with them again?” After the status reports were completed, she turned back to the project for her marketing class. With a few minutes left in class, she looked up from her computer to hear, “That’s a great question. Our program helps the young girls in the community reclaim their self-identity. Its aim is to give them agency to promote themselves as leaders in their own community.” She thought, “Wait? What? Who is this speaker?” As she looked at her young teammates wildly taking notes, Susan was happy that someone on the team had been paying attention. A week later the Girls’ Soccer League team meeting was set to begin. With about three weeks before the dress rehearsal presentation, whatever that was about, Susan thought it was about time the team meet for the first time. She had been the last to arrive and when she got to the Starbucks, at the appointed meeting time, the other three members of the team were excitedly sharing details about their families, hometowns, and favourite sports memories. As the team leader, Susan quickly shut down that pointless conversation and jumped right to business. With her knowledge of team projects and because she had other pressing deadlines, Susan spent ten minutes telling the team what tasks needed to be completed and assigning team members. When Luz explained that she wanted to reach out to Eitan to get information about Habilitación, Susan responded, “Don’t waste your time. He’s in Ecuador. His non-profit sounds interesting, but what could we learn from someone who works with rural girls in South America?” Luz, an International Business major and native of Peru, wasn’t sure whether to be offended or not. She shrugged it off and decided not to make waves. Frederick, an accounting major, wondered, “Why aren’t we thinking about a budget for field maintenance, paying referees, and transportation?”

But since Susan was so confident – and a graduating senior – he decided that his lack of experience and knowledge would show if he spoke up; so he didn’t offer his ideas. About a month earlier Justin, the only other senior in the class and also a marketing major, called Allison with a question. “Allison, we have an idea for our project. Would you be okay doing an e-introduction to your contact at the Orlando Magic? We really want to get the benchmarking started early and we know they have a phenomenal NBA Green program.” After speaking with the Orlando Magic executive, Justin was connected to a staff member from the Cleveland Cavaliers and, eventually the NBA staff members responsible for corporate social responsibility. Justin’s group had been meeting weekly since the first day of class, enjoyed banter about their favourite sports teams, and the mom of one of his group members even took them all to dinner when she was in town for the university’s family weekend. Academically, Justin wasn’t the best student, but after taking a leadership class he realised the importance of followership and how every interaction was an opportunity to learn. He loved the life lessons from Yuri Cogburn’s lecture: (a) seek out mentors, (b) study abroad (Justin was part of Dr Tingle’s Sport in London class), (c) be a problem solver, and (d) focus on becoming an excellent writer. After hearing that guest lecture, Justin scheduled a time for his entire team to have a conference call with Mr Cogburn. He also held the next team meeting at the University Writing Center. Justin was determined that his team would heed the advice from every chapter of the living textbook. On dress rehearsal day, Susan wasn’t concerned that the Rebranding group presented a tactical marketing plan which included a detailed SWOT analysis, a budget, significant market research, and recommendations based on both the data from the marketing survey, benchmarking results from every other NBA team and also from every NFL and MLB franchise. Susan told herself, “That group has four first-year students and they are clearly overly enthusiastic.” She knew her team had plenty of time to do the benchmarking and conduct research required for the project.

The dress rehearsal presentation was video recorded and required students to submit a two-page reflection on their presentation, both for content and for delivery style. Additionally, both professors and all the students from other groups gave them comments, and suggestions for improving their slide deck and their presentation style and its content. Susan was disappointed that her team members weren’t prepared for the dress rehearsal, but knew that with two weeks to go before the final exam she would get them into shape. The group met a couple of times to discuss progress, but Susan got so busy they never found the opportunity for another full practice presentation. Two weeks later it was time for the final presentations. Susan was so excited – a presentation at the AT&T Center! She was graduating in two weeks and Silver & Black Give Back had an opening for a full-time market researcher. She knew that all the work she’d done in her marketing classes and her two previous internships would make her a great candidate.

Case study questions 1 How can weak ties be utilised for this project and in other areas? 2 How could Susan’s group have avoided the five dysfunctions of a team? How should they have begun working on the project? 3 How might Susan’s group have made better use of the class’s living textbook? 4 After exploring the #TUSportsPhil feed, discuss how students in the class could have utilised the platform to research their projects. 5 Would you rather hire Justin or Susan? Provide specific examples from the case and readings to justify your decision. The following conversation with Jimmy Sanderson is an academic perspective on social media in practice. It highlights the importance of conceptual thinking applied practically and effectively.

Conversation 11.1 Professor Jimmy Sanderson, Visiting Professor in Social Media at Arizona State University, USA The conversation began with an acknowledgement that the impact(s) of social media on sport business is/are transparent and dynamic in their relevance to new market segments and different domains of sports practice. Alan Seymour:

Well, good afternoon. Good afternoon to you there in the USA, Jimmy. Hope all’s good with you. It’s my pleasure to be able, in the context of my sports sponsorship conference here, to now just bring together a very short connected piece with a couple of, or a few of my colleagues in sport business education in the USA. My first interview and guest this afternoon is Jimmy Sanderson who is the visiting professor at Arizona State University. I came to know Jimmy through social media. The impact of social media is unbelievably powerful these days. Really, perhaps that’s a good segue into my first question with Jimmy today. Jimmy, tell us, the audience, my friends, colleagues, and everyone associated with this conference, a little bit about yourself, and maybe a little bit about why social media, and social media in sport, is such a good themed conversation for you. Jimmy Sanderson: First of all, Alan, thanks for having me. It’s great to be with you and really excited to be part of your sport sponsorship conference. I’m really honoured. Just a little bit about me, I’ve been in higher education for about four years now. Prior to that, I

worked in human resources or personnel management for a non-profit organisation. I’ve been a lifelong sports fan. Just always, always loved sports. About 2007, 2008, that was when kind of HR folks in the United States started to use social media to check up on applicants. So that actually started to be part of my job and really just got fascinated by the whole technology and the whole capabilities of social media, and then started seeing that play out in sports. I was reading stories about athletes who were on Facebook and Twitter and causing controversy with things that they posted and that they were actually communicating with fans, and fans were engaging them. Just was really awestruck by that. That here’s a medium where athletes are kind of getting more and more removed from fans in the context of the game. It’s very difficult to approach an athlete at a game or practices are often closed. But through Twitter or Facebook, even blogging at the time, as a fan you could access them. So, got really interested and did my master’s thesis on a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox named Curt Schilling and just some of the ways he was using his blog. That kind of morphed into then looking at kind of organisational governance. Looking at things like here in the US, athletic programs at the collegiate level and the ways in which they were either restricting the athletes’ use of social media or monitoring the athletes’ use of social media. Just really got kind of fascinated by the implications of

surveillance there, and monitoring, and ethical questions. Then that kind of morphed into … well, then the organisations started to see social media as a marketing tool and a branding tool and they were launching all these fan initiatives and kind of customer service-type things. We were seeing these amazing graphics, and so on and so forth. So just continued to be fascinated by the ways in which social media continues to impact sport. Of course, we know now that Snapchat and Instagram and some of the visual platforms have become major players. As most of you probably know, the Olympics partnered with Snapchat this last summer to do stories through discovery. So we’re seeing a lot more fairly mobile consumption of sport, which is often filtered through social media. So I think that, right, there is one reason why it matters so much. People clearly still watch sports on television, but we’re seeing some shifts or changes in the ways in which we consume sports through mobile and through social media. Then I think it just continues to be … here in the United States, just this week, the National Labor Relations Board put out a ruling that Northwestern University could not restrict what their athletes say on social media. So they had to go in and revise a bunch of their policies and such. So we’ve just continued to see legal issues, organisational issues. Of course, we continue to see the marketing, and the branding, continue to expand. So for me, it’s just a research area that keeps on giving. I mean, it’s just amazing to me how much

things continue to develop and occur with it. Alan Seymour: Jimmy, I mean I sit back in awe here in many ways. One of the things is, me and you are having a conversation here, and sport is always a great medium, it’s always a great vehicle to have this opportunity to relate to people. I mean there are just so many aspects of what you said. But I think one of the first things that’s notable of many, many things that you’ve said in that short resume of where you are at the moment and what social media has meant to you, is that you’re speaking passionately as a fan, and the fact that you’ve used consumption, and funds need that kind of consumption of social media, is providing that. As I’m going to relay and talk, as we’ve done all day here at the conference or about to do at the conference, sponsorship and how sponsors want athletes and sponsors want brands and properties to relate to them. What do you think are some of the advantages and disadvantages? Some of the do’s and don’ts, if you like, in terms of the way in which maybe athletes or brands themselves, use social media, maybe, to make them more attractive or to prevent them from becoming a reputation issue, perhaps like Ryan Lochte has for the written relation to the Olympic movement and so on. So tell me a little bit what your thoughts are on some of those issues, Jimmy. Jimmy Sanderson: Sure. That’s a great question. I mean, I think for athletes, I think one of the big things, the benefits or the advantages, if you will, is that we see more of who athletes are as people. So through social media, they share things about what

kind of music they like, what kind of food they like, what kind of restaurants they go to, what kind of movies they go watch. In fact, there’s a football player here for the Cleveland Browns named Gary Barnidge that uses Twitter to have movie trivia with fans and takes ten people to see the movies with them. So it leads to this kind of connection because like me, I can’t relate to an athlete. I can’t hit a baseball 400 feet. I can’t run a 4.0 forty-yard dash. But you know what? If I find somebody that we have the same pop culture likes or we have some sort of connection personally, I think that’s really powerful. I think for fans, that increases liking. We even get into parasocial processes and things or identification. It increases the ways in which we feel connected to athletes. So I would say that’s probably the biggest advantage for athletes. Then, subsequently for the brand or the team, that if you have someone who’s very likable because of the way they portray themselves on social media, that just helps your brand kind of right along with it. Now the flip side of that is that, as we know, athletes will put things out on social media that teams and brands don’t want them to. So as much as we like the “Hey, I like this band,” or, “Hey, I like this food,” we have to be prepared for the other things too. So their political takes – we’re seeing a lot of athletes get very vocal about social justice issues. I clearly don’t want to frame that as a negative, because personally, I think that’s a good thing that they’re using platforms in that way.

But what it does is that it alienates people. So you see people who will respond to the teams, to the sponsors. In fact, there’s been several players here who have lost sponsorships because of things they’ve put on social media. So I think that that’s a risk, if you will, that comes with it. Athletes are unpredictable. LeBron James represented Samsung, and he tweeted out one day that his Samsung phone lost all his contacts. He probably just wasn’t thinking and just said that, but it didn’t reflect well on the brand. So there’s those kind of things too. Like, “Does the athlete really understand the nuances of the technology?” There was a case here with Oprah Winfrey tweeting out how great Microsoft or some other tablet was. But then if you looked at the bottom, it said, “Sent by iPad,” so she was using an Apple product to endorse a Microsoft product. So there’s those kind of things that come up to it as well that I think can cause some issues. I don’t know that a lot of athletes really get coached on the branding side of social media. I think that’s something where we could definitely do some work. On the team side, let me just add quickly that I think one thing that teams do that’s really helpful to kind of make them more attractive as a brand, is they share what we might call behind-the-scenes content, where they take fans places they can’t go, so they take fans into the locker room, they show them certain things. I think with Facebook Live and Periscope, we’re seeing some really interesting applications as well. Clearly, there’s some media rights issues and the

Alan Seymour:

broadcasting rights. That gets really interesting to talk about in terms of the use of the live streaming features. But I think teams … are giving fans the experience of the things they can’t normally see or can’t normally participate in. Then, as well as brands that are interactive, I’ve seen some sports teams use Twitter, for example, as a customer service type of mechanism to respond quickly to issues to get feedback. So I think using it as kind of a relationship tool is something that more teams, frankly, I think need to do. I think that would then see the sponsorship, also, and the marketing. Because if you look at a lot of just general social media research not related to sport, people respond more positively to non-promotional content. So I think it’s actually a little smarter to market through non-promotional content than overt sales-type content. So I think finding ways to get that mixed down or to make that happen are things that teams are still trying to figure out and work on. I think virtual reality and 360 video are going to be really great tools that we’re going to see integrated into social as well. So I’m excited to kind of just see what opportunities unfold as that technology gets a little more mainstream. Okay. So far, Jimmy, you’ve told us very succinctly and very animatedly the way in which social media has kind of permeated through into your interests and it’s now obviously, a major part of your professional life as a visiting professor and lecturer at Arizona State University. It’s almost as I’ve suggested as well, I think it’s ingrained in us all that once you’ve got a passion,

and sport is very emotive and fans and everybody else, to kind of try, but in some senses for good and bad, as you’ve suggested. Just maybe carving that down and making it a little bit softer. You now obviously use it in your research and in your teaching and in your association with the kind of higher education world. Here in the UK, I think sport business education is still very much in its infancy, serving its apprenticeship. We’ve got so much to learn from yourselves, Jimmy, from yourself, Jimmy and the USA, if you like, sport business seen in education. Tell us and the audience a little bit about the role you play and the role you think people in sport business education in the USA have. Tell us a little bit about sport business education over there. Jimmy Sanderson: Yeah, sure. I mean, I think it’s getting better, but kind of [to] speak to one of the things you said earlier, I mean, if we’re going to have kind of social media integrated into sports business education, then we’ve got to have faculty who are proficient and understanding the technology and the ways in which it can be deployed. That takes a lot of work. You have to spend time on the platforms, understanding the culture of them, the nuances of them. Let’s be honest – I mean that takes away, arguably, time from your research and your personal life and everything else. So it does require a time investment as a faculty member. So you are then competent to then integrate that into your curriculum, into your courses.

But with that being said, I think it’s an investment that’s well worth it. I found that actually, in a way, I mean clearly, you want to have a knowledge base, but I think for students it’s good to kind-of-learn along with them. I learn things from students. I mean, many of them are millennials, they’re digital natives, and so they actually cue me on to things that I may not have seen, being someone from a different generation. So I think it can really open up some great collaboration. But just some things I know are done here are that social media is used in classes. For instance, I’ve had classes where each class period, a student was responsible for live tweeting class. The rationale behind that was it taught them a way of using Twitter kind of strategically, and then also it provided opportunities for people outside the class to weigh in. There’s a lot of sports industry professionals and people interested in social media who are active on Twitter. So through live tweeting class, we would actually have people from industry then get in on the hashtag, which provided great interaction opportunities for students with people from industry. I’m just a believer that the more perspectives or the more insights we can get, the better. I don’t want to be nor claim to be the sole source of knowledge. I don’t work for a sports organisation, I don’t work for a brand. So there’s things that I don’t know that somebody from the outside, who by joining in on a hashtag, can help the students understand.

I’ve also found that Twitter, personally, is a great way for me just to flag content for students. So if I see a story, I’ll just use the class hashtag, “Check this out.” It’s a great way to kind of keep communication going outside the time that we’re in class together. I know another thing that’s being done is we’re actually integrating social media as part of curriculum assignments and content. Personally, I’ve had students do work for a sports organisation where they analyse social media data, they present their findings back to the organisation. I know of other colleagues who have had students use social media to prepare campaigns, branded advertisements, written social media policies, and have presented those to people from sports organisations. I think there’s clearly room to improve and do better, but I think we are doing a pretty good job of giving students the skills and giving them the opportunity. Because, and this is just me personally, kind of a goal for me is that when a student walks out of a class, they have something that can go into a portfolio that will help them be competitive for an internship or a job or graduate school. That kind of suggests more application of things. And then, frankly, that they want to work in sports. I mean, whether that’s in ticketing or venue or operations or HR or community relations, you name it, social media cuts across all those different layers of organisation. And even if they don’t go work for a sports organisation, maybe they want to work for an advertising company, or a Verizon, that does a lot of work with sports organisations.

Alan Seymour:

So I think just giving them the hands-on experience is only going to benefit them and make them stronger, and, I would argue, more competitive for the types of positions they’re seeking once they graduate. Jimmy, I just think that some of those final, kind of almost summative comments that you make, in terms about what social media means and what it can do for students, I mean just segueing almost on to some final questions here in our little interview, Jimmy. We have lots of students here. The range of the students’ levels, I have some first year, second year, level four, five, starting off sports marketing or sport business management students. I’ve also got a number of postgraduate students and a couple of students who are doing PhDs in various aspects of the broad theme topic, if you like, of sport management, sport development, and so on. If you were their prof, if you were their supervisor, just kind of a little, almost a thumbnail sketch of what you would advise them. Because very interestingly, I think … I come from a variety of backgrounds. I mean, I could almost use the marketing mix approach here, an integrative marketing communications, bring them all together. And part of the conference theme is sports PR. And kind of public relations is kind of much more into reputation management these days. It’s very much part of the communications toolbox, if you like, now where it sits with everything else. But I’m kind of thinking more, as I’m writing and researching and getting involved in some of the

projects I’m involved in at the moment, that social media is kind of the umbrella which holds everything together. Under that social media, it will affect everything that you do. If you recognise that and you utilise it very well, then what a great opportunity it provides to all the students. So in a kind of roundabout-way question, Jimmy, the students, what do they need to have in that kind of tool box and their approach to things, probably using social media, how would you advise them? Jimmy Sanderson: Yeah. Well, I mean, you mentioned reputation management, which I think is wise counsel and clearly, just being mindful of the public nature of it even. And I don’t want to get into the whole, “Is it private or public?” Because even if it’s private and you give someone access, it becomes public. So I mean, just being mindful and just having common sense about things they’re putting out there. At the same time, I would also tell them, don’t be afraid to have a position on things. I mean, don’t be afraid to articulate something in a way that’s going to show someone that you know how to think about an issue. Right? Then I would say, and this is a big one for me, I mean, use it as a networking tool and a professional development tool. I mean, I’ve had so many students connect with people who work in sports through Twitter because they reached out to them and said, “Hey.” So what I would say is, think about positions or jobs that you would like to have in sports, go find people that have those jobs, and reach out to them. I mean, I’ve had students that are just, “Hey, I’m a student. I’d love to learn. Could I take ten minutes

Alan Seymour:

of your time and a phone call and talk about what it’s like working in sports marketing or sports public relations?” I would say probably 80, 85 percent of the people respond and are more than willing to give them their time to do that. There’s a lot of sport chats on Twitter as well too, that people participate in. So if you start participating in those, that’s a great way to connect with people. But I mean, to me, and you and I actually connected through Twitter, I mean to me, social media, one of the best things about it is the ability to network with people and meet people and converse with people that you … I mean, you and I would probably never have met if it wasn’t through Twitter or had a chance to communicate. So I think just capitalising on that capability, that you can reach out to people all across the globe and find ways of connecting with them. So I would emphasise those other things, but I would really emphasise to use it as a networking tool with people, because it’s so valuable for that. Yeah. I mean, I would love my audience to see the smiles that we’re engaging with here and the echoes and the kind of nodding agreements with that. I think it’s a wonderful point for me just to make some closing responses. Maybe just to ask you that million-dollar question, or that fastball, curveball, whatever we want to call it, kind of final summation there. I’m just absolutely echoing what you’ve said. Reach out. Don’t be afraid to ask. I couldn’t agree more that I think sometimes, Twitter particularly, social

media sometimes has kind of this negative, “I don’t want to touch social media because it’s all about… . You’ll get into trouble or people are trolling people. Sometimes you only get the negative.” I think it’s permeating in other areas today. Criticism is good. Having a viewpoint is excellent. Don’t agree with everything that you hear. But even you, Jimmy. I’ve met great mentors, I’m sure in our lives, and we’ve not been in awe of them, but occasionally, we’ve challenged them. We’ve questioned them. We’ve wanted to learn more. It’s the way teaching and learning is. I think if you use Twitter that way, if you use particularly any aspects of social media, you’ve got a voice, use that voice. Sometimes I think the shyness almost, or the reticence, now it can be a very positive tool. I met Bill Sutton. I pressed a button and said, “Hey Bill, come to my inaugural sports marketing conference at the University of Northampton in 2011.” Hey, you know what? Bill said yes and we’ve been continuing to say yes ever since. My philosophy almost in sales, in many ways, is make it easy or easier for them to say yes and make it difficult or impossible for them to say no. I think once you’ve kind of got that approach to social media, it gives you that opportunity, ask for the interview, ask for the advice, retweet it, revisit it, all of those things. So I think it’s a wonderful kind of point for us to relate to. Certainly, this is going out to all of the audience at my conference. It will also be going out to many of the people… . On a little plug here, I

suppose. I have a brand new sports business radio chat show on the future of sport. That’s the title of this show. I think that again, echoes some of those closing comments that you’ve made. This is a portent and a way forward. I’ll be using Jimmy and other distinguished guests of mine on this show to put those things into the framework of our discussion. The question is, where next? What do you see as the key big next generation, next stages of the future of sport or maybe the way sports, social media, and its effectiveness and its usage will come into play in the next coming, almost because the business is that dynamic, months, certainly the next few years and maybe beyond there? How do you see it developing, Jimmy? Jimmy Sanderson: Yeah, that’s a great question. So I think one thing is we’re going to continue to see more emphasis on visual platforms and visual media. So I think for sports organisations, it’s, how do we deliver the visual content that the audiences are seeking? I think another thing for me is big data and analytics, so how do we use the data from our brands and what they’re providing to us? How do we use that to then more precisely market and target? How do we use that to essentially generate our ROI on social media? So I think, just big data and analytics. Kind of conversely with that, I think it’s going to be interesting to see what happens to broadcast. So I think we’re getting into a really interesting place where so much is going to be consumed by mobile and transmitted via mobile. What does that do to

the traditional viewing experience? What does that do to the in-game experience? When I go to games, most people are sitting there on their phones. They’ll occasionally look up and watch the game. Alan Seymour: Likewise here in the UK. Yeah. Jimmy Sanderson: Yeah. So how do you kind of … because I think it’s foolish of us to think that people are just going to not be on their phones. So probably, then, trying to manage that to blend the in-game with what they’re doing on mobile and make that a win-win type of situation. Then I think, just lastly, just what happens with kind of organisational, kind of legal-type issues. So if more athletes start speaking out on social issues, if they start doing more activism on social media, what kind of steps can teams take, what kind of steps do they take, what kind of legal obstacles come up because of that? So I think just as players get more expressive and more empowered, that’s going to be interesting to watch. The reaction from the fans plus the team and the pressure from sponsors, how that kind of all integrates and works together to figure out what teams direct athletes to do or not do on social media. Alan Seymour: Jimmy, I think I could talk to you all night, all afternoon, all evening, every sense, because again, sport is so emotive, but it’s a language that brings people closer together. That’s what I’m endeavouring to do with this interview with you today. I thank you hugely and enormously. I know my audiences both on the radio, both in my social

media life, as it were, in projects I’m involved in. Certainly, we’ll be back again to continue. Because I think one of the interesting… . This conference, the Future of Sport, we’re using very much as a theme, subject, topic area sponsorship. It’s intriguing in a way. Here in the UK … I go back, I remember in my radio days, that sponsorship was just in association with, and the weather is brought to you, and this game is sponsored by, and everybody kind of sat back, waited for the business to flow to their product or their objectives. It’s not the end. It’s only the beginning. I think one of the great things about social media, I said, I can now connect all over the world by just pressing a button. But the conversation and the experience and the opportunities, the dialogue evolves out of that. It’s what you do afterwards. So in sponsorship terms, put your name to something, be involved, but that’s the beginning. Activation, making it happen, getting the whole experience and the engagement. So lots of things have been learned in our interview today. Are there any just final comments you’d like to say to my audience, Jimmy, and to some of the things that we may be able to do in the future? Jimmy Sanderson: Yeah. Really just appreciate the opportunity and if anybody needs to get ahold of me, I’m more than willing to talk to anybody. So you can find me on Twitter at @Jimmy_Sanderson. Just enjoyed it, Alan. Alan Seymour: Thank you very much indeed, Jimmy. You take care. I’ll be back in touch with you very soon. Thanks very much indeed.

Jimmy Sanderson: Okay, thanks.

Conversation: reflections and activities What aspects of the conversation can you apply in your module and course? How important is this lesson for your career prospects in sport marketing? Do you agree that social media is a force for good in sport business? If so, why, and if not, explain your thinking with examples of both good and bad? “Using real examples from sport business practitioners is an important aspect of sport business education?” Do you agree, and if so, explain your thinking with practical examples and incidents? Using the conversation themes, what new sports digital trends in the next decade do you see influencing digital sport marketing? “Social media is a fading force in sports digital practice.” Truth or fiction?

Conclusion A chapter that considers new thinking is never complete. Emergent audiences, new consumers, internet usage, apps, and digital platforms represent the ‘playing field’ of digital sport marketing. This chapter reached out to these touchpoints. The paradigm shift in this thinking within the context of sport marketing has been more evident in a move towards wider corporate considerations as the world changes. This is evermore reflected in responsibility to all stakeholders in sport marketing.

Chapter review questions 1 “The 2019 football (soccer) Women’s World Cup had greater impact in terms of reach and viewership than the 2018 Men’s World Cup finals.” Explain and evaluate why. What impact will this have on future new thinking in digital sport marketing? 2 Research and comment on any developing new thinking that you have come across in your own experiences of digital sports campaigns. How much are you influenced by them in respect of your decision to buy or be persuaded to consider their propositions or objectives? 3 What’s next for sport marketers? Consider some of the opportunities that exist in the practice of digital sport.

Additional reading and digital resources https://cms.law/de/deu/publication/the-development-of-digital-sportsmedia-companies https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jsm/jsm-overview.xml https://medium.com/@fabiolalli/a-new-vision-for-the-strategies-of-thesports-industry-sportthinking-60d41483f29 www.edelman.co.uk/insights/sports-millennial-bug-race-younger-audience www.researchgate.net/publication/318764714_Sports_Marketing_Plan_An_ Alternative_Framework_for_Sports_Club www.shots.net/news/view/the-new-narrative-of-womens-sport www.sportindustry.biz/features/thinking-global-global-sports-week https://www.sportsilab.com/ www.sportsthinktank.com/blog/2018/11/pioneers-in-sport-preparing-thenext-generation-of-leaders-in-the-sports-industry www.thesportjournal.org

Note 1 Note: All names in the case are fictitious. Any similarity to real people is purely coincidental.

References Acquier, A., Pinkse, J., & Daudigeos, T. (2017) ‘Promises and paradoxes of the sharing economy: An organizing framework’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2017.07.006 Ashton, I. (2019) www.shots.net/news/view/the-new-narrative-of-womenssport Assir, R. & Teracino, E. (2019) https://disruptionhub.com/disruption-livesports-broadcasting-remy-assir-elizabeth-teracino/ Cricket Scotland (2018) ‘Cricket Scotland conference – #muchmorethancricket’. www.cricketscotland.com/cricket-scotland-clubconference-muchmorethancricket/ Davies, S. (2019) ‘The digital communications Hype Cycle 2019’. www.stedavies.com/digital-communications-hype-cycle/ Evans, P. (2019) https://frntofficesport.com/pressure-forcing-newtechnology/ Lalli, F. (2018) https://medium.com/@fabiolalli/a-new-vision-for-thestrategies-of-the-sports-industry-sportthinking-60d41483f29 Laurell, C. & Sandstrom, C. (2017) ‘The sharing economy in social media: Analyzing tensions between market and non-market logics’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 125, pp. 68–75. McMullan, C. (2019) https://digitalsport.co/key-takeaways-from-digitalsport-london-what-now-for-sports-marketing Todd, C. J. (2016) www.platformos.com/blog/post/blog/youth-sports-needthe-sharing-economy Vizard, S. (2018) www.marketingweek.com/adidas-football-marketingstrategy/

12 The future of sport

Chapter objectives After studying the concepts, cases, and conversations in this chapter, the reader should be able to: Appreciate that sports is now more than just sports. It is as much about entertainment as it is about the game. Identify that audience changes are the dynamic for much of future sports campaigns. Understand the evolving dynamics of media rights distribution.

Introduction It’s time to pause, it’s time to reflect, to move the conversation forward… . The goal, ultimately, is to ensure the ongoing survival of sport in a rapidly changing global environment. Sport governing bodies and national sporting organisations as key custodians of elite-level professional sport in competitions and participation ensure that sport remains healthy. Participants are the lifeblood of sport, as they become the next generation of champions and spectators. Therefore, the sport product must remain attractive The expansion of social media has helped create two shifts in how people can and do experience sports. First, there is the globalisation of fandom where people no longer need to live in a specific region to follow and support teams, players and events. Secondly, social media platforms have increasingly made it possible for athletes to build one-to-one relationships with fans and supporters, which is always fascinating to watch during major sporting events. So, what lies ahead? Some predictions:

1 The culture of sport business is now just that – cultural, through the perspectives of a new social, political and global lens. 2 Sport will be conducted in new arenas of revolutionary technological capabilities. 3 Audience engagement with fans and sports converts will provide both opportunities and challenges for the sport marketing professionals of the future.

CONCEPTS Some five years ago sport tended to be both front- and back-page news. Now sport is news … big news … and always in the news! The UK often looks across the ‘pond’ to the US to take on board its most recent initiatives [adapted to the local market]; this is the case inside and outside of the sports industry. So, from a social media perspective, what can the UK learn from the US? With all of the content created by the social teams of the NBA and the PGA Tour, an important question is raised. If some of this content is made available for the American sports fan to see on TV, why put it on social media? The social team of the EPL don’t curate real-time videos, and fans of the league don’t have the opportunity to watch matches on local BBC channels. The answer is twofold: (1) the EPL wants fans to subscribe to Sky Sports or BT, and if you don’t want to spend the money to see the best players in the world, you are granted a nice GIF created by the social team of the specific club; and (2) US sport social accounts have accepted that some people just don’t have the desire to pay the additional money and so would rather just see their fans show their love through engaging with their social content. This method still gives the team/league an opportunity to present their players as the best, and make the ‘cheap’ fans happy. This has been stretched further with the

NFL broadcasting Thursday Night Football on Twitter, usually shown on the subscription-based NFL Network. The strategy that the PGA Tour and NBA use on their social accounts is effective because if you are constantly pushing out videos that force fans to watch several times, the message is out there. These real-time videos let the players create content without the need for Photoshop or Premiere to create a GIF. Highlight videos perform well in terms of likes/retweets which in turn can increase followers. The video of LeBron James’s no-look pass had 23,000 likes and 12,000 retweets. The GIF that the Manchester United social team created when Marcus Rashford scored against Liverpool in 2018, and was not posted in real-time, had just over 9,500 likes and 6,500 retweets. The 23,000 likes is just over 8 percent of the NBA’s total followers, and the 9,500 likes is about 5 percent of Manchester United’s followers; a small difference, but significant when considering the bigger picture (Meister, 2018). The following extract is entitled ‘Addressing the Football Rights Plateau’ by Phil Carling of Sportcal (2019). It appears that the ceiling has been reached for EPL broadcast rights. With the exception of two significant deals secured in the USA (NBC) and China (PP-Sports), there would have been cycle-on-cycle decline despite the overall value sitting at £9.2 billion. Stagnation was seen in both the domestic market and the international market. The latter trend is concerning for all elite sports rights holders, as the growth of international media markets has been the source of growth for two decades. This plateau is affected by the rise of digital advertising platforms, erosion from piracy which appears to continue unabated, and, obviously, digital platforms which are easing the decline of the linear media business model. Forty years ago sponsorship was the main income stream to sports. For the 1978 World Cup, FIFA unveiled its first modern sponsorship programme. The model was one in which the ratio of sponsorship revenue to media

revenue was close to 90:10. In the EPL today, revenues are 98:2 in favour of media rights. This reversal in the importance of income streams may hold a clue to the future of elite sports where consumers are losing the will to pay for content, traditional broadcasters are losing the war for advertising budgets to the digital giants, and audiences are increasingly global. The historical arrangement of major advertisers and their agencies have planned and bought media via conventional channels such as newspapers, print, outdoor, television, and radio is now under attack from media fragmentation and consumer cynicism with profound consequences for advertisers, the media, and agencies. Brand strategy has changed towards building advertising around engagement and platforms which deliver contextualised eyeballs. Brands are focusing both on buying and creating audiences which have a passion for the content and the context in which the message appears. They are also developing fully integrated sponsorship strategies that work on the broadcast platform, and at the event and experiential level. Building complex portfolios of rights and assets across multiple geographies provides a far deeper and engaged relationship with consumers than was ever possible via a 30-second advert. It is these developments that will shape the broadcast landscape for sports over the coming years. In a world where content is king, sport is the king of content, and king of kings is elite football. Moreover, the core axiom in elite sport is that talent follows money, eyeballs follow talent, and money follows eyeballs. So, there is a world where conventional media has matured, and its business model is under siege from piracy and the digital platforms. In addition, the digital platforms are eating an ever-greater share of the advertising cake. Meanwhile the advertisers themselves are questioning the benefits of pure audience reach and frequency and seeking ways to reach their consumers via more engaging and integrated platforms with a range of creative and assets. The major brands are transitioning to ‘engagement marketing’, and the media platforms will have to adapt, especially the FANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) who will inherit the media-buying world. The

increasing concentration of wealth and talent into few competitions is set to continue. It is for this reason that rights for elite sports in particular, if properly packaged, can become the new cash cow. Public broadcasters as platforms for elite live sports rights would disappear, a trend already well advanced in anything other than highlights. The gradual elimination of mixed schedule commercial broadcasters would also seem inevitable (except where protected by legislation, as with the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championships). The final phase will see those specialist broadcast platforms reliant on subscription revenues similarly removed because they could no longer compete with piracy and competition for advertising revenue. The giants that will inherit this world will be those platforms that can offer global connection to a ubiquitous audience, unhindered by the constraints of geography. The model will take sport full circle back to the early days of commercial television. Advertisers will fund the acquisition of rights on behalf of the platforms, and in return, they will receive what current media buying cannot deliver, namely a targeted consumer via a passion platform with fully integrated rights beyond the broadcast platform. In that world, it will become necessary for the rights owners to act smartly by integrating their own rights with the media platforms. From a commercial perspective, elite sports rights owners should redefine themselves as media and content businesses and hire and structure themselves accordingly. This redefinition and focus should happen now. It is probable that in order to fund this development, rights owners themselves will take a share of advertising revenues. It may even be that with certain sports some premium rights will be held back and kept behind a paywall for premium services. Again, rights owners will decide how to balance revenue needs against the benefits of mass exposure and advertising revenue. There is every possibility that the impetus will come from markets like China, where powerful imitations of Amazon, Google, and Facebook have flourished and are now set to storm global markets backed by huge wells of capital. Elite sports also sit well with the country’s social and economic priorities as well as offering a proven model for extending soft power.

It must not be forgotten that the fans are at the core of all value and must be treated accordingly. Fans are the lifeblood for professional sport and the media that follows sport. Rights owners have a duty to maintain and grow the fans’ passion and allegiance with every asset in their armoury. This is true at federation, competition, and club levels. Failure to understand that ownership in sport is merely custodial is a crime, and those that transgress are always punished in the long term. The following extract is entitled ‘Is pay-TV killing off niche sports?’ by Alistair Taylor (2019). As the ICC Cricket World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup approached their climaxes, the stark difference in audience engagement raised the question, is pay TV killing off niche sports? Deciding the medium through which to distribute live sports has never been more crucial. Sport is the latest content genre to feel the disruption of not only streaming insurgents, but a demographic cliff for its addressable audience, due to its connection with pay-TV operators, who are experiencing a decline in subscribers. As more services come to market and acquire minor sports rights for their platforms, pay TV’s value proposition weakens as its portfolio of rights becomes diluted. With subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) services offering premium scripted drama, it’s harder to justify subscribing to pay TV (namely Sky in the UK). The upshot of this cord-cutting phenomenon is reflected in UK pay-TV subscriptions declining. With Amazon Prime Video acquiring one rights package for two sets of EPL fixtures in 2019, consumers would need to pay over £860 per year to subscribe to three services to watch all 184 EPL matches from the 2019–2020 season onwards. At a time of peaking attention, with consumers limited in both expendable income and time to engage with content, adding more niche services is increasingly untenable. With the seemingly exponential rise in the value for sporting rights, the Cricket World Cup clearly illustrated to rights holders that opting for revenue over reach is no longer optimal for the health of niche sports.

Women’s soccer is finally getting the attention and appreciation it deserves, having been neglected and overlooked for many years by broadcasters. Awareness and fandom stems from distribution and marketing, something FIFA has correctly addressed for this year’s iteration of the World Cup. Viewing records were broken for women’s soccer, with BBC One’s viewing figures for the Lionesses loss to the USA peaking at 11.7 million, making it the most-watched TV programme of 2019. The BBC’s audience reach for the FIFA Women’s World Cup grew by over 79 percent from 12.4 million during the 2014 Women’s World Cup to 22.2 million for this competition. At the same stage, 19.9 million viewers watched the England men’s team beat Sweden at last years’ FIFA World Cup quarter-finals on BBC One, reaching 26.5 million who witnessed England lose to Croatia in the semifinal on ITV, illustrating just how far the women’s game has developed. Moving to the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC), Sky’s viewing audience offered a harrowing contrast. Outside of its record-breaking numbers in India, viewership in the UK has been alarmingly low, with a reported average audience of 641,000. Although viewership would increase during the latter stages of the competition, the CWC’s average audience was roughly ten times less than the Lionesses’ group game versus Scotland. In hindsight, the ECB awarding exclusive cricket rights to Sky in 2005 was short-sighted, not discerning the secular decline of pay-TV subscribers and digital adoption from younger audiences for consuming video content that followed. Keeping cricket behind a variable monthly paywall is doing irreparable damage for fans of the future. The fact that aspiring cricket players have no idea that the ICC Cricket World Cup is even taking place, purely due to not having a Sky subscription, is a fundamental failing of pay TV’s legacy model, and the ECB’s eagerness to drive revenues rather than serve its addressable audience, let alone grow it. Rights holders need to understand better the evolving digital landscape and, more importantly, the evolution of audience consumption habits. Other sports have learnt from cricket’s mistakes, such as rugby union, which has

utilised free-to-air coverage to broaden its appeal; meanwhile, cricket is at risk of falling into the shadows having once had national (UK) appeal second only to soccer. However, whilst free-to-air opens up sports to a wider audience than paywalled services, understanding the audience and consumer behaviours are fundamental in securing long-term fandom for less mainstream sports. Of the 40 percent of UK consumers who watch live sports on TV (Midia Research), only 7 percent are aged between 16 and 24. 38 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds watch gaming-related video content, illustrating a larger concern for rights holders than just through which medium to distribute. The younger demographic is more likely to engage with gaming or digital video consumption than watching live sports, meaning sport has a fight ahead to penetrate the demographic of consumers preferring to binge scripted drama, and play video games than engage with sports. None of this even addresses the length of cricket matches, which are a tough sell to the digital-savvy younger demographic. Couple this with keeping the fixtures behind a paywall, and it could mean a slow suicide for one of England’s most cherished sports. To summarise, digital innovation is the biggest factor, and impetus for more commoditisation in the continued commercialisation of sport. Consumption of sport will be different. A TV will still be a prime focus for the viewer, but it will be a shared experience via mobile, and other technologies. Predictions are notoriously difficult, but trends suggest that increased traction through engagement with fans, followers and partners has become very centric as well as obsessional. Much of the debate and action for the future of sport will be measured against a continuum of centricity. As well as technological innovation, there becomes greater emphasis placed on distinctiveness and personalisation towards the target audiences. Many more specialty media and personal channels are emerging as set against the traditional mass-marketed public and commercial broadcasts mega outlets. The case chosen for our final chapter is an exciting digital application of the principles and practices of sport management and marketing. The

simulation tool points the way to a helpful teaching and learning mechanism for future sport business professionals.

Case study 12.1: Mike Cooper: Football Club CEO The business simulation for sport management professionals An online pedagogical tool that can be adapted to any blended-learning approach.

Produced in conjunction with Mike Cooper Sport Management Solutions @micoops See the details of the task below. It is necessary to access the website at the following address: www.footballclubceo.com/Game/PHP/

Task Manage a professional football club in a dynamic, competitive, socially, and financially responsible context. Combine business fundamentals with sectorial specialisation in order to develop and innovate on an international sports marketplace. This dynamic simulation allows students or professionals of the sports industry to apply their general management, marketing, and strategic decision-making skills to a specific sports situation. Through this experiential learning tool participants have to demonstrate sectorial know-how and managerial agility to succeed. Industry-specific competences and knowledge have been fully integrated into the game to provide participants with opportunities to test new strategies and practices (for example, financial fair-play, social responsibility, grassroots training, brand management, digital marketing, internationalisation).

How does Football Club CEO work? Participants take part in small groups or alone. The game can be played intensively over several days or over a longer period (as part of the class or training session). Participants can work uniquely online or work in groups with a facilitator. The game can be used as a stand-alone pedagogical tool or integrated into a class/module on sport management. It can be used as a general management simulation in a sports context or as a club/sporting organisation management specialisation. Adapt the game to any level of specialisation.

What do participants do? Create a brand identity. Assess financial performance in order to build management strategy. Make financial, marketing, sport academy, and human resource decisions over a period of 6–8 sporting seasons. Develop stadium facilities and commercial potential. Adapt decisions and strategy according to performance and market behaviour. Work in groups to optimise on group skills and dynamics. Apply project-based methodology to a dynamic and evolving case scenario. Incorporate an international dimension into the club development strategy. Contact: [email protected]

Reflections on case study

Digital learning scenarios are being developed all the time to provide experiential settings for classroom activities. Having set up the play as a group in the classroom, how would you appraise the task, and its sense of realism? What lessons for the future of sport can be drawn?

Case study 12.2: Ben Warren, Somerset County Cricket Club Ben Warren, a newly successful sport marketing graduate, was at the heart of new thinking and a fresh innovative approach to social media. Read the following commentary from 2 May 2019 on a social media success story that points the way to the future of digital sport marketing. www.wisden.com/stories/archive/news/somerset-uk-social-mediasports Somerset have been named the United Kingdom’s best sports club on social media, following a study of more than 80 teams from cricket, football, rugby union and league, basketball and hockey. Somerset trumped Premier League football clubs Manchester United and Liverpool to the top. The study, undertaken by marketing agency Red Hot Penny, gave each club a score based on the number of their followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and their post-engagement on these platforms, with the maximum rating being 100. The idea was to figure out how teams were using social media as a marketing tool. The report showed that only ten sports clubs posted shopping and retail-related information, while 20 percent of the teams had no mention of merchandise or a link to their web store at all. Somerset, who are top of the County Championship with four wins out of five in the One-Day Cup, were ranked No. 1 with a score of 82. Essex were the only other county side to make the top 25, coming in at No. 12 with a score of 69.75, one place behind EPL football club Chelsea.

Yorkshire were deemed the next most-effective on social media among county teams, with a score of 60.625, and of the nine cricket clubs chosen for the study, Warwickshire came in lowest, with a score of 30.875. Sarah Trunks, strategy director at Somerset, was delighted with the findings. “These results are a true testament to the hard work of our marketing team and the engagement statistics are particularly pleasing,” she said. “As with most things, the way cricket is being consumed is changing and social media provides the perfect outlet for content, allowing fans from both near and far to stay connected to the Club.”

Case study reflections Seminar activity Using the social media success format from this case study, identify how minority sports may profit and benefit from a similar approach. Detail an outline proposal that you could present to a local sports brand/property/organisation of your choice, to enable them to undertake a new social media campaign. Explain and justify the nature of the digital platforms that you would involve in the campaign to accomplish your objectives. The chapter conversation is with a sports practitioner working in social media. This is a fantastic insight into how to get into the sports industry.

Conversation 12.1 Ged Tarpey, Head of US Media and Entertainment Sales at Twitter Here is an interview with former PFA member Ged Tarpey whose incredible journey has taken him from Maine Road with Manchester

City to California working for Twitter. Alan Seymour: Well, good afternoon to you all here. It’s a Happy New Year from me, your host, on the Future of Sport. Alan Seymour here on All in Sport Talk Radio. My first guest today, Ged Tarpey. Now to many, many people, myself included until I did a minimum amount of research, I’m so delighted to be able to welcome Jed on the show. We have loads and loads of connections. We’re old boys of the same school in Manchester, but more of that maybe in the interview with Ged. In many cases, I give an introduction to my guests. I’m going to pass on that and let Ged do all the introductions, with the slight caveat that Ged, tell me, how does an ex-Manchester City professional footballer get to the stage recently where he’s an Emmy award winner and has interviewed no less than Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg? Tell us more, Ged. Ged Tarpey: Thanks, Alan. Yeah, it’s been quite a journey from going to the same school back in the day to where I’m at this stage in my career. I started off being like most kids back in Manchester, I was just football mad, grew up right next to Old Trafford, and all I cared about, all I thought about was that red shirt. And so the moment I could get to kicking a ball and joining a team, I was straight on it with the phenomenal strength in Victoria, and from them, like I said, I was just crazy about football. Like I said, we went to the same school. It was an excellent school in Manchester, and my career path was very much stay in school, go to get my A levels, go to university, and so on and so forth. But at 13–14, I started training with Man City. So that was also a culture shock for me, being a United fan.

Putting on a blue shirt, it was a bone of contention in the family, that’s for sure. I like to say it did turn me purple for a few years while I was at Man City, though. Yes, so I got the opportunity to go play at Man City and as a YTS at 16 which was an incredible opportunity, and I was very much on the fence of whether I should actually do it, because like I said, my plan was to go through academia and a more traditional route. But I remember a teacher at St Beads gave me the advice. He’s like, “You know what? You can always go back to education. This is your one chance to become a professional footballer. You should take it with both hands,” and I did. And so that’s what I did. I took it and I ended up being at City for four years, two years as an apprentice, two years as a professional. Ultimately had to retire at grand old age of 20 because I had a couple of knee surgeries. Yeah, not the first and not the last budding career that was ended by injury. But what I like to think, it put me at a point in my life, my career, where I had to really think about what’s next. And so my plan was to go to university in Manchester, but I got an opportunity to come and play and be in the States. So there was a team in Cleveland that I thought, “You know what? I’m going to go do it for just one season.” It was four months, so why not? Let’s give it a go. So I did. Loved it and then I ended up finding my cousin who was at college in the States. I went to visit him. And long story short, the college there offered me a full ride to play soccer. So I ended up coming to the States to university, did my four-year degree in Ohio.

And then the day after I graduated, I moved to LA, and I’ve been in LA for the last, gosh, 15–16 years now. Alan Seymour: Wow. Ged, do you mind if I just make it kind of, it’s a really good stopping point here, that some of the touchpoints that you’ve mentioned there, the connection with school. School frames and fashions us all, and I always think that sport is such a great vehicle at the educational phase. But the other thing, and I think that teacher, whoever he was, perhaps he remains nameless for the moment. Like myself when I’ve talked to students over the years, never be afraid. If an opportunity presents itself, then seize that moment and take that. And I think people who’ve been involved in sport all through are probably very good at making those decisions. So whilst you are at university in America, what influences, or what kind of education, what kind of route did you see yourself going in? Ged Tarpey: Yeah. So I was lucky. Kind of my hero growing up was my older brother who got a degree in marketing. He was actually an old boy who was from the same school. And he was my hero. So I always wanted to follow that path into the marketing realm. And so very much along the lines of seizing the opportunity and not being afraid to take risks, I did that. I went there and did my degree in marketing, and straight after graduation I went to work at an ad agency. And I kind of stumbled upon a role at a TV network. So on the complete opposite side, more on the sales side. And I seized it with both hands and it became a great opportunity for me to then enter myself into the business world in the US. And so I’ve been obviously working over here now for 12, 13, 14 years,

something like that. But it was very much a case of once those opportunities arise, I think the fact that I played football back home, and I apologise to the Brits, I call it soccer now. So I apologise for any American … Alan Seymour: You’ve used it twice already. It has been noted, but we’ll pass and let you off. Ged Tarpey: I catch myself all the time, but it’s okay. It’s soccer, it’s football, it’s whatever flavour you like. But I definitely look back on that time in my life at playing at Man City and of understanding how to work with teams and how to lead people and being a captain of a youth team or the reserves, or whatever team I was on. The opportunity to be that leader for that group of people is just an invaluable piece of experience for me to take into the business world. And so now I’m leading a team of 19 people, and every single day I look back on those types of things I learned back playing football. The best manager I tell people I had when I was playing at Man City was a guy, Neil McNab, who was one of the most incredibly passionate, hardworking, X-rated tacklers in training you’ll ever meet. But his incredible skill was his ability to manage people one on one. He was an incredible man manager. And that’s something that’s stuck with me ever since and throughout my career, especially as I’m leading more and more people directly. Understanding how people are motivated, what gets them going in the morning, what’s going to get them to do that extra 10 percent, and it’s going to bring in those results. And I think all these different things, working in a team, being able to manage and lead people in the correct manner, all these different things I learned throughout

my career playing football have without a doubt helped in my business career. Alan Seymour: Ged, do you mind if I ask you, well, I’m sure you won’t mind because you’re used to this kind of thing. And it’s not meant to be a controversial or a kind of hard question in many senses. But you’ve definitely made the comment, which I totally agree with, that the synergies between what you learn in your early fledgling and apprenticeship and all those early years in sport, and particularly in football or soccer, the lessons that you’ve learned and then translate them into business. I want people to do that in sport. I want my students to do that. I want all the partners in the things I’m doing at the moment to learn those lessons. Sadly, I’m not so sure that everybody, and particularly here maybe in the UK football scene, necessarily gets that as much as maybe the natural connections that I think American sports people, American sports teams, and then ultimately the American sports coaches, managers, etc. Do you have a perspective or a view on that, Jed? Ged Tarpey: You know, it’s interesting. I think one of the big things I noticed over here when I came over was how much passion and energy is put into college sports, for example. And I think that’s a massive difference from the way things are in the UK. There are obviously lots of sports teams below the professional level, but I think in the US you get so many more people who get the opportunity to go to play what’s essentially like a professional organisation in college. And I think those types of things, they’re just invaluable for people to be able to take into the business world.

And I think one of the things I’ve noticed, and it’s a huge generalisation of course, but one of the things I’ve noticed in the US is people are very, very ambitious, whether that’s on the sports field or whether that’s in the business world. And I think like all those things I’ve noticed in the US all translate into each other and it’s created a population of people who are just incredibly passionate and driven and want to take things to the very next level whenever they can. It’s a little bit different in England. I think it’s when you get into a high level of sports, it’s extremely professional, and it’s extremely business-like, and it’s cut-throat. Whereas I think here, sports is something that’s just generally revered, whatever sport it may be, and I think everybody’s given the opportunity. Boys, girls, whatever age you are, to really push that passion and seek to exceed all your own goals. Alan Seymour: Yeah, Ged, I mean, do you think that, and I mean I think you’ve raised some absolutely great points and they are very important, and I agree in essence with a large part of what you’re saying. Maybe there is this differential or the perception of what competitiveness means, and being competitive. And I quite honestly do share that because I’ve done a lot of work with American universities, American students. I’ve taken my students over to US universities, and they are amazed to see this difference of how driven they are and how competitive they are. I think we perhaps offer tokenism to it or that we kind of suggest that we are competitive. But when, if you like, it comes to the ‘tough get going’ as it were, we

may not do it as well here. Do you kind of share that, or have your lessons been something similar to that? Ged Tarpey: Yeah, I 100 percent agree with that. The first thing I noticed when I came here is of course things like the training. People, they’re so focused on being in great shape and being able to exceed their physical limitations that I noticed that immediately, whether it was when I was playing professional here or when I was playing in college. The same thing, everybody’s just so driven to better themselves at everything. And that was a massive shock for me. Certainly even from a professional side where 20 years ago it wasn’t like it is now. But 20 years ago coming out to the college scene in the US it certainly was like that. So I would heartily agree with you that the drive of the young athletes in the US is on a completely different level to anything I experienced back in the UK 20 years ago. Alan Seymour: So what was your first job or your first real management role then? Did you go straight to Twitter, or have you done other things along the way Ged? Ged Tarpey: Yeah, so as I mentioned earlier, when I graduated from university, I went to a sports ad agency, working at a company called Scripps Networks. They have like Food Network, HGTV. So I worked there for a couple of years and then I had the fortunate opportunity to go work at Microsoft. So I worked at Microsoft for six years, again in the advertising realm. So working with big advertisers here, primarily on the West Coast of the US, but then my role expanded into focus more on the entertainment world. So working with major movie studios on how to open and market a movie across

everything that Microsoft had to offer and be that Windows, Xbox, Windows phone, MSN, Messenger, whatever it may be. And I spent six years there, and then from there I came to Twitter, and I’ve been at Twitter for almost five years now. And so my role now is focused 100 percent on the entertainment industry. I work with all the movie studios and TV networks here in LA. And so I lead the team who works across all of those different partners. Again, trying to help them understand how to use Twitter, how to read insights into the data and how to ultimately open a movie or a TV show. So that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s always focused on the advertising world. And the last, I’d say like seven, eight years has been 100 percent focused on the entertainment industry, which I am absolutely thrilled about. Alan Seymour: Okay, lovely. I mean if you sat here with me, or you were having a drink or a coffee, or we were just having a leisurely piece of our time somewhere here in the UK, Manchester, Liverpool, wherever it might be – Cambridge, where I am now. If I was introducing myself to others or people were talking with me, they’d say, “That guy is totally besotted, obsessed, whatever the word is with Twitter.” So I’m holding my hands up here to you, Ged. So anything that has to be good to say about Twitter, I’ve run conferences on the back of it, I’ve made so many friends through it, and it has been absolutely my domain, but it’s only the starting point. I use it as a stepping stone to make that introduction, and then we can do all the other things alongside it.

But always people say to me, “Well, Twitter is bad,” or, “Twitter has faults,” or “All it is on Twitter is people having arguments and rants with each other.” I’m not going to ask you the definitive question here, but maybe you can just give us some ideas of what Twitter means to you and how you would perhaps advocate and really do the promo as it were for Twitter. And my real, I suppose belief or reasoning in that question is, my show is about the future of sport. It is sport business or I’m using social media in a massive way. So maybe kind of steer in the context of some of those themes, Ged. Ged Tarpey: Yeah. Well, obviously I’m extremely passionate about Twitter, and one of the things which initially drew me to Twitter was the ability to give people freedom of speech. And I think that’s a really, really powerful tool. Alan Seymour: Fantastic. Ged Tarpey: That I think we take for granted in the US and the UK because we’re afforded that right to have freedom of speech, but you travel to many countries around the world, certainly where social media is blocked, that freedom of speech is taken away from people. Now of course there are issues with every social network. Any place that you can post content yourself, if it’s going to be negative comments, there’s going to be positive comments. That’s going to happen regardless. I think that’s kind of one of the by-products of affording people freedom of speech. But if you look at some of the things that Twitter’s been able to accomplish and help throughout its brief 10-year history, I think it’s a really, really powerful medium. And if I look at the future of Twitter, I think what we’ve done in the US here, we just finished our portion

of the NFL live stream, and we know that when people are watching TV or sports, Twitter is an essential second screen, or in many cases now, first screen to be able to enjoy and consume content. So by marrying those two together, which we did with the NFL, where essentially we were live-streaming ten Thursday night football games directly into the Twitter app, whether you had an account or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s free for people to be able to consume. And we give people the ability to consume the conversation while they’re watching that content as well. It’s an incredibly powerful tool. It’s an incredibly powerful vehicle for one sports organisation, like the NFL or the PGA, which we just announced last week, which we’re going to be live-streaming some PGA tour matches. The ability for people to follow along with the conversation, be it from the athletes themselves or be it from influential people within that industry, or be it the raw conversation. I think the ability for Twitter to be that live, public, unfiltered broadcast mechanism for the entire world, I think is such a special thing that’s made Twitter what it is. And there’s really nothing else like it. So I love the company. I’m so passionate about it. I’m so excited about the future. I see what’s coming, and I couldn’t be more bullish about the future of what Twitter can bring to the average person, and the celebrity, the athletes, whoever they may be. Alan Seymour: I mean, Ged, I mean that point you make there is so, so definitive to me. And I think you’ve articulated it obviously, but I think you’ve also hit where it needs to

Ged Tarpey:

be hit in terms of connections with Joe Public, the fans, and any other engagements it can make. But I think it also offers great opportunities as you’ve just said, with NFL and now PGA golf in the business sense. I mean, if I used a sporting metaphor, maybe the golfing metaphor, it will enable the average golfer or many, many golfers to get inside the ropes alongside the players, and get that into an interaction that goes with it. And alongside that, of course, the fact that you’ve already made the comment that really bringing entertainment home through Twitter. If you were giving some advice to maybe some of my aspiring sports students or the people I’ve been involved with starting in a career, what advice would you give to those? In particular, if they wanted to work in social media or to work in entertainment, or maybe to work alongside some of the people in the introduction that you’ve made to your team there at Twitter, Ged? Yeah. The advice I give to people anytime is, whenever you’re interviewing anywhere, to come in and show incredible passion to that company, that organisation that you’re talking to. Whether that’s Twitter or whether it’s a mom-and-pop shop on the corner, you need to go into that interview, that first discussion with those people, almost knowing their company better than they do. It’s interesting when people come to interview here at Twitter, I don’t necessarily care if they’re a huge tweeter. We hire people who haven’t tweeted, so it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that that person comes in and knows and understands what we do and the value of the platform, and is able to articulate that

well to me. Is able to ask challenging questions within an interview situation that then show to me that this person really cares. This person’s done their homework and this person is somebody who’s going to excel in the business world. So I just went back to my alma mater about six weeks ago, the 50th anniversary of the business luncheon, and I gave several talks while I was there. And one of the things I really talked about was exactly that. I mean, you have to go in and if you look at that generation of people who are coming out now, they’ve got so much information at their fingertips. There’s absolutely no reason whatsoever why you cannot walk into an interview or a discussion or even if it’s a five-minute chat with somebody that you know there’s no way you can’t walk into that meeting not knowing more than that person does, or at least being able to articulate a lot of the important things in that company you’re talking to. So whether it’s social media, whether it’s, like I said, any company at all, the information is at your fingertips, and it’s a really powerful opportunity for you to go in and wow somebody. Alan Seymour: Do you think that Twitter … I’d almost go back to a classic business marketing, the product life cycle for want of a better expression here, Ged; forgive me. But does it have a natural peak? Will it go into decline? How will it rise out? The future for Twitter? I think you’ve touched upon two areas, streaming, maybe getting involved in live events, one or two other things. Are there any other things, without giving away too many secrets, where you think maybe Twitter or things like Twitter, the social media vocabulary almost of the

social media platforms, where will they be in the next 5, 10, 15 years or in the future? Ged Tarpey: Well, I mean that’s such a loaded question to think about. Alan Seymour: Sorry. Ged Tarpey: That’s okay. Just over ten years ago, Twitter didn’t even exist. Five years ago there was no Instagram or Snapchat. So I think it’s almost impossible really to forecast what the future brings. But one of the things that I do love quite frankly is that I think competition really, really does drive creativity. And I think you see that from certainly all our peer set in the industry. Somewhat to copy others, others like to truly innovate, and everyone is looking what each other is doing. And I think it’s driving the creativity in this industry. Look, I mean if there was just Facebook there, then it would just be Facebook and there’d be nothing else. And I think life would be dull. But I think, the beauty of having Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, whatever it is, I think all of these different networks, all these different platforms are giving people the ability to be able to do different things at different stages at different times in their day. And I think that’s a really powerful thing. And honestly, having been here for almost half of Twitter’s life and seeing how the company has evolved in that time, and to know where we’re starting to reaccelerate growth again, like I said, I’m so excited about the future. I do know some of the things that we’re working on. They’re spectacular and hopefully will be coming out pretty soon. So the future I think is very bright for us, and I think it’s very bright for our peer set as well.

Alan Seymour: Absolutely. Ged. I mean, suddenly if I can kind of use the analogy here, I remember when I first went on Twitter, probably 2009-ish, and I almost feel as though it’s 24/7 for me as some people often remark to me. But you’ve got to give yourself to something and I think the passion and the commitment that you’ve shown and articulated in this sadly very short interview today, it’s almost as if my 140 characters, Ged, have been totally consumed. But as we know, expansion here and DM and moments and lots of other things that you’re doing with Twitter, the story can continue. So I want to firstly say a huge thank-you to you, Ged, and for all my audience and people involved here on All in Sport Talk radio. I would like in the future to revisit our interview today. I’m in the States a few times this coming year at universities and doing conferences. We’re going to be doing a few big ones here in the UK later in the year, and if time permits, or if your timetable and schedule can be worked around it, Ged, I’d love to invite you to some or all of those things that we’re involved in. So Ged, a massive, massive thanks. You take care, and you have a great week. Ged Tarpey: Thanks, Alan. Take care. Alan Seymour: Cheers, Ged. Many, many thanks. Bye bye.

Conversation: reflections and activities Discuss the potential conflicts for business and celebrity endorsements using social media platforms.

Does Twitter, especially, have more problems in this area? To tweet or not to tweet? What arguments explain the case for and against in the context of digital sport marketing? Consider the way you would integrate a specific Twitter campaign to launch a brand-new sports and entertainment venue using some of the commentary from the interview as an exemplar. Do you agree with the statement that sports today must be entertainment as well as the sports event for sports sake?

Conclusion As predictions go for the future of sport business, here are five: 1 Further exploitation of sponsorship to a value of £48 billion by 2024. 2 Digital revenue to continue to grow. 3 The number of influencers using #ad, and the use of Instagram stories, will continue to grow. 4 Data and analytics, and technology platforms, are the main areas of investment to aid the drive for personalisation in communication. 5 A continued drive towards sustainable consumer behaviour (Lyons, 2019).

Chapter review questions 1 The recent FIFA Women’s World Cup had more impact in terms of reach and viewership than the 2018 Men’s World Cup final. 1 Why was this? 2 What impact will this have on future new thinking in digital sport marketing? 2 Research and comment on any developing new thinking that you have come across in your own experiences of digital sports campaigns. How much are you influenced by them in respect of your decision to buy or be persuaded to consider their propositions? 3 What’s next for sport marketers? Consider some of the opportunities that exist in practice as well as conceptual thinking. 4 Highlight some trends (three to five) and predictions for the future of sports. Justify your choices. 5 If you could make just one new change for the better and just one choice for reversing something in sport marketing, what would be the two choices? Explain your thinking on both. 6 Compare and contrast the way in which you use digital to enjoy, participate, and be entertained as an end user of all things digital and ‘tech’. Is it a good experience? Perhaps suggest some things that are good and bad in this experience through the lens of the aspirant sports practitioner of the future.

Additional reading and digital resources https://digitalsport.co/key-takeaways-from-digital-sport-london-what-nowfor-sports-marketing

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/2016/01/26/future-of-sports-athletestadium-broadcasting-e-sports-fans/79325114/ https://sens-international.org/digital-marketing-changing-the-sportsindustry/ https://sevenleague.co.uk/2018/12/11/7-digital-trends-in-sport-for-2019 https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/technology-media-andtelecommunications/articles/sports-business-trends-disruption.html https://youtu.be/K5mAU_J_EqU www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/sports-society/future-sports-thinkingbiggest-ideas www.cityam.com/seven-trends-digital-sport-world-look-out-2019/ www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/five-trends-shaping-future-sports www.mediacom.com/en/think/blog/2019/sporting-glory-five-trends-for-2019 www.sportbusiness.com/ www.sportindustry.biz/ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0965254X.2018.1389492 https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/12/06/we-ask-the-marketing-expertswhat-can-sports-learn-other-industries

References Carling, P. (2019) ‘Addressing the football rights plateau’. www.sportcal.com/Insight/Opinion/126697?&key=rights%20plateau Lyons, E. (2019) ‘Sport sponsorship, personalisation, sustainability: 5 killer stats to start your week’, Marketing Week, 7 May. www.marketingweek.com/sport-sponsorship-personalisationsustainability-5-killer-stats-to-start-your-week/ Meister, J. (2018) ‘What the Premier League…’. https://digitalsport.co/whatthe-premier-leagues-social-media-game-can-learn-from-the-nba-andpga-tour

Taylor, A. (2019) ‘Is pay-TV killing off niche sports?’ www.linkedin.com/pulse/pay-tv-killing-off-niche-sports-alistair-taylor/

INDEX

Note: page numbers in italics indicate a figure and page numbers in bold indicate a table on the corresponding page. 3 S approach 170–171 4 C’s model 166 AB InBev company 183 accessibility 87, 169 acquired knowledge 147 ‘activating’ strategy 87 activation, sponsorship leverage vs. 108–110 activism 62 Adderley, N. 46 Addressing the Football Rights Plateau

(Carling) 223–225

Adidas 5, 22, 183, 201 adjacent innovation 129 advertising: budgets 224; digital ad spending 21, 23; promotions and 87; revenues 224–225; social 22 advocates, and influencers 62 AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) model 85, 167 Airbnb 203 Air Jordan 5 Alibaba 21 Ali Sports 130 All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) 24, 26

allinsportstalk.com 20 Amazon 112, 138, 183, 202, 225 Amazon Prime 131, 183, 225 Ancient Olympics 3 Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) 2 artificial intelligence 92 attachment 86 attention economy 169 attraction 106; and awareness 86 audiences 1, 5, 20, 24, 45, 61, 107, 111–112; engagement 111, 222, 225; eSports 43; getting closer to emerging 127–142; reputation 64; social media 25–26; target 22, 89, 168, 227; see also fans authenticity 169 awareness 65, 70, 86, 107, 130, 166, 225 AZ Alkmaar club (case study) 132–135 Ballmer, S. 182 Barcelona 90, 92, 183 Barrand, D. 66 Bartsch, A. 130 Bauman, Z. 42 Bayern Munich 89, 90, 184 ‘Be a Hero’ campaign 168 Beckham, David 43, 132 BeIn Sports 41 ‘Be Part of It’ campaign 110 Best, S. 42 big data 165 Billings, A. 22 Bishop, C. 152–163 blame culture 64 Bohemer, J. 48–56 Bourke, S. 93–103 Bowers, Ed 67–81

brands/branding 3, 5, 6, 22, 41–42, 44, 64, 66, 85, 131, 142, 184, 199–201, 224 brand strategy 183–184, 224 Brook, P. 26 BT Sport 41 Budweiser 183 Bullard, W. 38 Burkhart, J. 46, 169–172 business analytics 2 business simulation, for sport management professionals 227–228 Caesar, N. 204–205 Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) 189 Canterbury 110 Carabao Energy Drink 108 Carling, P. 223–225 case study: AZ Alkmaar club 132–135; Burkhart, J. (TBC Global) 169–172; change to win 111–115; EKS consultancy 149–151; fan engagement model 88; Football Club CEO 227–228; Ford and EFL 66–67; Ford and Team Sky Cycling 65–66; Introduction to Sport Philanthropy course 206–209; Liverpool FC 184–185; Nike 7–9; SD Eibar 185; Somerset County Cricket Club 228–229; Sport Management programme 205–209; sport marketing conference 46–47; Wimbledon and IBM 24–26 centrality 86 Chaffey, D. 19 Championships, The 24, 25 changes, in viewing behaviours 111–112 Chatbots 91, 203 Chelsea FC club 89 China 130, 184, 225 chip, under skin 92 Choi, Y. S. 109 cloud, the 20 Coca-Cola 5 Cogburn, Y. 208, 209 commodification 131

Commonwealth Games 149 communication: with customers 127; digital technologies 203; integrated marketing 166–169; methods 166–167; within PR function 62; process, elements in 166,

167;

social media 41; with stakeholders

20, 61; strategies 86, 165–179; talk-to-talk 128; technology in 45; two-/multi-way 61, 166 communities, digital 42–43 competitive advantage, achieving in sports industry 111–115 conference, for digital sport marketing 46–47 connect fans 89–90 consumers 2, 110; attention 128, 169; behaviour 6, 14, 142; communications 167; content creation 18; fans as 21, 42; interactions 41; social media and 64, 86; of sports 19–22, 45, 85; in streaming platforms 202; subjectification 131; watching live sports 226 consumption via digital 131 content: behind-the-scenes 90, 91; and communication 109; consumption 112; creation 18, 169, 223; delivery of 168, 200; developing 90; digital 114, 182; displaying 24; purpose and value of 114; and sport 224; strategy, for social media networks 44; typology, for social media-based sponsorship activation 108, 109; user-generated 166, 167–168 conversations 169, 172; with Bishop (athletes experience) 152–163; with Bohemer (social media sport marketing) 48–56; with Bourke (fan engagement) 93–104; with Bowers (career perspectives) 67–82; with Green (CRM) 135–142; with Massaro (digital approaches) 116–124; with O’Toole (sports communication) 172–179; with Pegoraro (sport business) 186–196; with Sanderson (social media on sport business) 210–220; with Stoller (digital social media) 27–38; with Sutton (sport marketing) 9–14; with Tarpey (social media) 229–238 core innovation 128 Cornwell, B. 64 corporate and consumer citizenship 131 Crawford, G. 42 Cricket Scotland 200 Cricket World Cup 225–226 Cruise, Tom 15 Cuban, M. 23 culture: and knowledge management 145–163; of sports 21–24 customer relationship management (CRM) 88, 91, 92, 111, 132, 135–142, 185 customer retention 6

Da Da Ding campaign, Nike’s 86 dark social web 201 data 135, 146; analytics 23, 115; big 165; capture 92; digital sports media 21 datafication 114 DAZN 202 ‘Defend Eibar’ campaign 185 Deloitte’s Growth Portfolio Model 129 Dialogic Theory 61–62 digital: ad spending 21, 23; approaches 116–124; communication 166, 203; communities 42–43; consumption via 131; content 114, 182; disruption 201; fan experiences 113–115; media 166; plays 89; social media 27–38; sports PR 62–63; transformation 93–103; see also sport marketing Digital Communications Hype Cycle 203 digital sport marketing 18–20; consumers attention in 169; CRM in 135–142; social media in 40–57 digital sports media data 21 disruption 20, 23, 111, 115, 116, 124, 170, 201–202, 225 Dodds, M. 6 Donlan, L. 46 Dos Santos, M. A. 108, 109 Draft Kings 90 Dreisbach, J. 109 earned media 19–20 eBay 64 eCommerce market growth rate 21 EE and Wembley Stadium 200 EKS consultancy (case study) 149–151 elite sports 224–225 Ellis-Chadwick, F. 19 embodiment 169 emergent SOEP model 19–20 emerging market 130 emotion 171 empathy 130

endorsement deal, in sports history 4 engagement 84, 87; activation and 110; with audiences 111, 222, 225; campaign 200; direct 142; of fans 6, 23, 42, 59, 84–85, 87, 88–93,

88,

113–114, 222; interaction and 6, 29, 44, 106, 113–114; marketing

224 English Football Association 201 English Football League (EFL) 66–67 English Premier League (EPL) 89, 131, 202, 223, 224, 225 entertainment 108, 109 Erlich, M. 64 ESPN 18, 18, 131 eSports 13, 43, 89, 111, 132 Etsy 42 eudaimonic gratification factors 130 Eurosport 18 Evil Geniuses 132 explicit knowledge 147 F1 90, 112 Facebook 21, 23, 26, 41, 44, 44, 87, 202, 225 Facebook Market 42 Facebook Messenger 21, 91 “failing to change is planning to fail” mantra 199 familiarity marketing 128 Fan Activation Checklist 107 Fan Duel 90 FANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) 224 fans 22–23, 84; acquisition of new 134; activation 106–108; attention 170; benefits 109, 110; brands and 131; bringing closer to live action 90; changes, in viewing behaviours 111–112; communities 42–43; competencies 131; “connect” 89–90; creation of digital experiences 113–115; engagement 6, 23, 42, 59, 84–85, 87, 88–93,

88,

113–114, 222; enhancing live experience 90–91, 114–115; expectations of

199; fulfilment of sponsorship activation (FSA) 108, 109; “host” 89; interaction 6, 21, 22, 40, 42, 64, 108, 112, 114, 182, 202; loyalty 85, 86; media consumption habits 111; new groups 43; preferences, to

watching a game 131; rewarding 113–114; social media and 40; sponsors and 112; strategies for online engagement with 87; as tribes 87; ultimate 106; value 225; women sport 132 fantasy games 90 Fantasy Sports Trade Association 90 Fast, J. 46, 47 Favorito, J. 6, 62 FIFA Women’s World Cup 225–226 findability 169 Flickr 42 Football Club CEO (case study) 227–228 Ford: and EFL 66–67; and Team Sky Cycling 65–66 Fortnite 43 Fowler, D. 89 Fox Sports 41 free‑to‑air channels 112 fulfilment of sponsorship activation (FSA) 108, 109 Future of Sport: conferences 46–47; logo 47 gamification 131 Generations Y and Z 86, 183 geo targeting 200 Gerrard, Steven 43 Gillooly, L. 108, 109 Glasgow 2014 151 globalisation 222 global sport business 181 ‘Global Sport Business Education’ conference theme 47 Godin, S. 163 Google 21, 108, 202, 225 GoPro 168 governmentality 131 GPS player tracking technology 91 Greene, J. 5

Green, F. 46, 135–141 Gross, S. 165 Groupon 42 Grunig, J. E. 61 Gum Gum 45 Hackathons 89 Hall, T. 26 Hardin, M. 22 Hawk, A. 205 Heineken 65 hierarchy-of-effects model 167 Hislop, D. 146 Hooper, L. 46 Hopwood, M. 59 host fans 89 Hulu TV 129 IBM 23–26, 110, 113, 185 ICC Cricket World Cup 225–226 immediacy 22, 44, 169 Inaugural Sports Marketing Conference 46 Indian Premier League 43 Indian Super League (ISL) 185 influencers, advocates and 62 information 87, 90, 108, 109, 131, 146–148, 167 ‘in-game’ events 43 innovation, types of 128–129 Instagram 21, 23, 26, 44, 44, 202 intangibles 169 Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) 166–169 interactions: and collaboration 41; consumers 41; customer-to-customer 167–168; and engagements 6, 29, 44, 106, 113–114; fans 6, 21, 22, 40, 42, 64, 108, 112, 114, 182, 202; organisation’s 62; peer-to-peer

31; through social media 41, 62, 107, 109; with stakeholder audiences 166 International Management Group (IMG) 3 internet users 19, 21, 183 interpretation 169 intimacy 85 Introduction to Sport Philanthropy course 206–209 involvement 86 IOC, Olympic Games Knowledge Management (OGKS) programme 147–148 Is pay-TV killing off niche sports?

(Taylor) 225–227

James, LeBron 223 Jarvie, G. 145 Jordan, M. 23 Kelly, K. 169 Kemp, N. 85 Kirkham, J. 19 knowledge 146–147; exchanging 148; management 146, 148, 149 Kotler, P. 127 Krossover (Hudl) 23 LaLiga 182, 185 LaLiga SportsTV 90 League of Legends

6

Levi’s Stadium 91 LFCTVGo 184 LinkedIn 44, 44, 203 liquid modernity 42 live experience enhancement 90–91, 114–115 Liverpool FC 91, 129, 184–185 live sports 3, 21, 38, 90, 131, 183, 200, 202, 224, 226 Local Heart, Global Pulse (LHGP) philosophy 184 London Olympics (2012) 45

London Paralympics (2012) 129 Lucazade 201 Lyberger, M. R. 2 Maffesoli, M. 42 mainstream media (MSM) 59 Malaysian Games 149 Manchester City club 89, 90, 91 Manchester United 110, 132, 223 Marcotti, G. 46 marketing 87; conference 46–47; engagement 224; familiarity 128; social media 23, 40; sport 6; viral 86; youth 130–131; see also digital sport marketing marketing public relations (MPR) 128 Marriott Bonvoy 110 Massaro, L. 116–124 mass media 166–167 Mateschitz, D. 182 MavTV 129 McCarthy, M. 131 McCormack, M. 3 McLuhan, M. 181 media rights 224 memorability 128 Meng, M. D. 87 #MeToo 64, 201 Miami Dolphins 90 Microsoft 182 Mildronate (Meldonium) 8 Minnesota Vikings 89 monetisation 4, 5, 40, 45, 111 Montez de Oca, J. 130–131 MOOCs (massive open online courses) 36 Morgan, M. J. 7

Morris, S. 47 MSc in International Sport Management 204 #muchmorethancricket campaign 200 Mukesh Ambani 182 multiculturalism 131 museum tours 89 MVPaudience 106–107 myCujoo (streaming company) 202 MyOutdoorTV 129 Myspace 49 Nagij, B. 129 Namath, J. 5 National Sport Federation Enhancement Program 189 NBA 42, 45, 91, 183, 203, 223 neo-tribes 42 Netflix 183, 200 Newsjacking: The Urgent Genius of Real-time Advertising

(Burkhart) 169

Newzoo 132 NFL 43, 89, 130–131; Rush Zone (NRZ) broadcasts 130; Thursday Night Football 202, 223 niche services 225 Nielsen survey 130 Nike 5, 183; case study 7–9; Da Da Ding campaign 86; Lioness Tributes 201 Nissan 45 Nonaka, I. 147 non-game days 89 O2 108 Olympic Games Knowledge Management (OGKS) programme 147–148 Olympic Games, Los Angeles (1984) 4 online environment, fan engagement in 84–104 Online Relationship Cultivation strategies 62 Oracle 185

organisational knowledge 147 Organisation-Public Relationship 62 Orlando City SC 90 O’Toole, J. 172–179 Outside TV Features 129 over the top (OTT) services 41, 90, 111, 112, 129, 182 Owens, J. 5 paid media 19 Palmer, A. 3 Paralympics 130 Parris, N. 201 Parr, L. 201 partnership/sponsorship 5, 65, 106, 108–110, 129 passion 43, 115 passive fans 38, 85 patriotism 108–109 patronage 169 PayPal 201 pay TV 225–226 Peak of Inflated Expectations 203 Pegoraro, A. 186–196 Peloton 204 Penske 23 personalisation 87, 169, 171 PESO model 19–20 PGA Tour 223 Pickering, D. 3 Pinterest 44, 44 Plateau of Productivity 203 platforms: digital 19, 88, 182, 223–225; fan engagement 91; on fan engagement activities 91; OTT 41, 90, 111, 112, 129, 182; social media 44, 44, 222 pleasure 86

predictive modelling 135 Pro14 182 promotions 87, 167 Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) 85, 86, 87 public relations (PR): case study 65–67; defined 60–62; executive, dealing with crisis 7; and reputation management 63–64; role 61; and social media 64; in sports 59–60; sports digital PR 62–63; theoretical perspectives 61–62 Puma 5, 22 RACE (Reach, Act, Convert, Engage) strategy 20, 85, 107 Rapinoe, M. 201 Rashford, M. 223 Real Sociedad 92 reciprocity 64 Red Bull 6, 182 Red Hot Penny

228

reputation management 63–64 retention 133, 134 revenues 45, 85, 107, 112–113, 131, 182–183, 224–225 ‘rewarding’ 108, 109, 110, 113–114 rights holders 19, 22, 43, 44, 62, 63, 66–67, 135, 142, 199, 200, 223, 225, 226 Rolodex 137 Rooney, Wayne 43 Rugby World Cup 149 Ruth, Babe 4 Ryder Cup 2018 21 Sales Funnel 85–86 Salford City FC 132 Samsung Slider 110 Sanderson, J. 9, 210–220 Sarazen, G. 4 Saunders, V. 46

Schaefer, M. 171 Schnater, B. 132–135 Schultz, D. E. 166 Seddon, S. 25, 110, 111 self-image 86 Seven Bro7hers 132 Shank, M. D. 2 Sharapova, Maria 8 shared media 20 sharing economy 203 Shopcade 42 sign 86 Silver & Black Give Back 206 single view of customer (SVC) 92 Skildum-Reid, K. 108 Sky 226; see also Sky Sports Sky Sports 18, 41 Sling TV 129 Slope of Enlightenment 203 Snapchat 23, 44, 44, 45, 86, 203 Soccer X 69 social commerce zone 42 social community zone 41 social entertainment zone 42 Socialisation, Externalisation, Combination, Internalisation (SECI) model 147 social media 21, 22, 220; as agents for consumers 86; Championships on 24–26; content typology for sponsorship activation 108, 109; demographics 44; in digital sport marketing 40–57; examples in sport 45; expansion of 222; fan engagement through 87; feedback channel in 167–168; marketing 23, 40; platforms 44, 222; and PR 64; receiving cultural change 44–45; on sport business 210; zones of 41–42 social publishing zone 42 #socialsportsfan.info 22 Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (SD Eibar) 129, 185

Solomon, M. R. 41 Somerset County Cricket Club 228–229 SOR (Stimulus Organism Response) Model 109 Spoelstra, E. 6 sponsorship 5, 65–67, 85, 106, 108–110, 112, 129, 224 sport business: culture of 222; in global marketplace 181–197 Sport England (#thisgirlcan) campaign 5 Sport Management programme 205–209 sport marketers, towards new thinking for 199–220 sport marketing: in 2017–18 19; case study 7–9; chronological timeline 3, 4; community 2; conference 46–47; conversations with digital leader 9–14; defined 2–3; development in digital setting 2; in digital age 18–38; history of 3–7; mediums for 1, 3; re-definition 14–15; stakeholders in 6; transitions to digital 7, 14–15; visual impact and 6 Sport Marketing Public Relations (SMPR) 59 Sportradar 23 sport(s) 181; apparel 184; changing dynamic and landscape of 6; commercialisation of 3–6, 226; in cultural and knowledge management 145–163; culture of 21–24; digital checklist for clubs and organisations 93; digital communities in 42–43; digital PR 62–63; emerging audiences 127–142; evolution 6; examples of social media in 45; fan activation and involvement with business 106–125; future of 222–239; global market for 21; importance of communication strategies 165–179; industry 3, 6, 14, 20, 223; live 3, 21, 38, 90, 131, 183, 200, 202, 224, 226; marketer role 6, 22; marketing of 6; media and 7; new future of 204–205; personal branding in 43; public relations (PR) 59–62,

60,

63;

thought leaders in 63, 112; see also fans Sports CRM and Business Intelligence group 135 stadium tours 89 stakeholders: communication with 20, 61; consumers and 45; in digital sports PR 63; in sport marketing 6 Sterling, R. 85 Stoller, E. 27–38 Storm Sports 130 subjectification 131 subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) services 225 Summers, J. 7

Sunday Night Football

131

Sutton, B. 9, 46, 47 Sveinson, K. 132 Swayne, L. 6 Szymanski, S. 46 tacit knowledge 147 Takeuchi, H. 147 talk-to-talk communication 128 target audiences 22, 89, 168, 227 Tarpey, G. 229–238 Taylor, A. 225–227 TBC Global 169 team clothing 132 Team Liquid 132 Team OG 132 Team Sky Cycling 65–66 Technology Trigger 203 Tencent 130 “think globally, act locally” mantra 183 ‘This Fan Girl’ 108 Ticketmaster 102 TikTok 203 Tingle, J. 205 Tottenham Hotspur club 89 transformational innovation 129 Trinity University 206 Tripadvisor 42 Trough of Disillusionment 203 Trunks, S. 229 trust and reputation 63 Tuff, G. 129 #TUSportsPhil 206, 207

Tuten, T. 41 Twitch 42, 43, 132 Twitter 26, 41, 44, 85, 86, 202, 206 Twitter Olympics 45 Two Circles 133 Uber 203 UEFA Champions League 65 UEFA Women’s Champions League 45 Ulster Grand Prix (UGP) 47, 86 #UNFutureofsport 46 University of Worcester, England 203 user-generated content (UGC) 166, 167–168 Uses and Gratification (U&G) theory 108 USP 171 Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 148 Vasseur, G. 130 “Vikings Voyage” 89 Vimto 132 viral marketing 86 Vodafone 85 voice-activated commands, impact of 92 Wanda Plaza Chinese Super League (CSL) 130 Warren, B. 228–229 #WeAreFemaleFans campaign 108 #WearTheRose 108 web 166 Weikel, C. 5 Wembley Stadium 200 WePlay 116 Westlake, A. 47

WhatsApp 21, 86, 111, 203 Wi-Fi access port, in stadium 91 Willis, A. 23–26 Wilson, G. 47, 88 Wilson Sporting Goods 4 Wimbledon 23–26 women: soccer 225–226; sport 44–45, 132, 201 Woods, T. 7 World Wide Web 23 Wowcher 42 X-Games 6 Yoh, T. 109 youth marketing, NFL 130–131 YouTube 21, 26, 41, 42, 43, 44, 44, 86, 202, 203 YouTube TV 129 Zhang, J. S. 42 Zlatan 43