Introducing branded communities in sport for building strong brand relations in social media

© 2015 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand. Brand communities have become an important aspect for brand management in social media. However, many brands have failed to establish a successful online brand community. In this study, we introduce branded communities as an alternative concept to brand communities. In contrast to brand communities, a branded community does not revolve around a specific (sport) brand, but around any interest or need. However, a specific brand makes use of the community for marketing purposes by sponsoring or operating the community. We emphasize the suitability of sport as an interest around which branded communities can be built as well as links of branded communities to sport sponsorship. We empirically studied the factors which influence the success of this phenomenon and the effects of operating or sponsoring such a community for a brand by using an online survey (N = 501) of members of a branded online community relating to football. The results demonstrate the relevance of topic interest (i.e., identification and involvement with football) and the quality of the community as determinants of interest in and loyalty towards a branded community. The brand owner benefits from an increase in brand loyalty for those community members who are aware of the brand as the operator of the community, whereby awareness of this sponsorship does not decrease loyalty towards the community. Our research contributes to previous knowledge by proving that branded communities are both an effective means for companies to deploy sponsorship and branding strategies in social media and provide a promising opportunity for sport managers to generate value

Brandright

Trademark law is guilty of overprotection. This overprotection pits both a company’s in-house attorneys against its own marketing professionals and the company itself against its most loyal customers. The result appears illogical, at best, to consumers witnessing the effects of this clash between a company’s marketing needs and perceived legal requirements

Towards an integrated framework of sports sponsorship life-cycle process and digitalization: a case study of Euroleague Basketball

El fenomen de la transformació digital està afectant la indústria de l'esport, incloses les pràctiques de màrqueting i específicament del patrocini. El procés del cicle de vida del patrocini és una pràctica ben establerta entre les organitzacions esportives que s'està transformant a causa del canviant panorama digital i les tecnologies emergents que obliguen les organitzacions esportives a digitalitzar els seus processos de gestió i innovar en les seves pràctiques de màrqueting. Per entendre millor com està afectant el canviant panorama digital en el procés del cicle de vida del patrocini esportiu, s'ha realitzat un estudi de cas longitudinal amb l'Euroleague Basketball seguint una lògica abductiva i utilitzant mètodes qualitatius. La recollida de dades es va dur a terme entre el 2018 i el 2022 amb tres rondes d'entrevistes semiestructurades amb directius, directors i directius de l'Euroleague Basketball. Primer el 2018, després el 2021 i, finalment, el 2022. Això es va complementar amb l'observació participant als esdeveniments Final Four 2018 i 2019 i la documentació secundària recopilada del 2018 al 2022 per aconseguir la triangulació de dades. El seguiment de l'Euroleague Basketball durant aquest període va permetre a la investigadora arribar a una comprensió profunda de l'evolució de l'organització pel que fa a l'adopció de tecnologies digitals per a activitats vinculades al patrocini i la digitalització dels processos dins del procés del cicle de vida del patrocini. L'estudi de cas mostra que hi ha una evolució en diferents conceptes de patrocini generats pel canviant panorama digital i es fan vuit propostes. La investigació va revelar que la digitalització del patrocini i les pràctiques de màrqueting més àmplies han afectat el viatge de transformació digital de l'Euroleague Basketball com a organització en el seu conjunt. Aquesta investigació contribueix al procés de teorització de l'impacte del fenomen de la transformació digital en les pràctiques de màrqueting esportiu proporcionant nous coneixements sobre l'impacte del panorama digital canviant en el procés del cicle de vida del patrocini.El fenómeno de la transformación digital está afectando a la industria del deporte, incluidas las prácticas de marketing y específicamente del patrocinio. El proceso del ciclo de vida del patrocinio es una práctica bien establecida entre las organizaciones deportivas que se está transformando debido al panorama digital cambiante y las tecnologías emergentes que obligan a las organizaciones deportivas a digitalizar sus procesos de gestión e innovar en sus prácticas de marketing. Para comprender mejor cómo el panorama digital cambiante está impactando en el proceso del ciclo de vida del patrocinio deportivo, se realizó un estudio de caso longitudinal con la Euroliga de Baloncesto siguiendo una lógica abductiva y utilizando métodos cualitativos. La recopilación de datos se llevó a cabo entre 2018 y 2022 e involucró tres rondas de entrevistas semiestructuradas con ejecutivos, directores y gerentes de Euroleague Basketball. Primero en 2018, luego en 2021 y por último en 2022. Esto se complementó con la observación participante en los eventos de la Final Four de 2018 y 2019 y documentación secundaria recopilada de 2018 a 2022 para lograr la triangulación de datos. El seguimiento de Euroleague Basketball durante este período permitió a la investigadora llegar a una comprensión profunda de la evolución de la organización con respecto a la adopción de tecnologías digitales para actividades vinculadas al patrocinio y la digitalización de procesos dentro del ciclo de vida del patrocinio. El caso de estudio muestra que hay una evolución en diferentes conceptos de patrocinio generados por el cambiante panorama digital y se hacen ocho proposiciones. La investigación reveló que la digitalización del patrocinio y las prácticas de marketing han afectado la transformación digital en Euroleague Basketball como organización en su conjunto. Esta investigación contribuye al proceso de teorización del impacto del fenómeno de la transformación digital en las prácticas de marketing deportivo al proporcionar nuevos conocimientos sobre el impacto del panorama digital cambiante en el proceso del ciclo de vida del patrocinio.The digital transformation phenomenon is affecting the sports industry including marketing practices and specifically sponsorship. The sponsorship life-cycle process is a well-established practice among sports organizations that is being transformed due to the changing digital landscape and emerging technologies forcing sports organizations to digitalize their management processes and innovate in their marketing practices. To better understand how the changing digital landscape is impacting on the sports sponsorship life-cycle process, a longitudinal case study has been conducted with the Euroleague Basketball following an abductive logic and using qualitative methods. Data collection took place between 2018 and 2022 involving three rounds of semi-structured interviews with Euroleague Basketball executives, directors, and managers. First in 2018, then 2021, and lastly 2022. This was complemented with participant observation at the 2018 and 2019 Final Four events and secondary documentation gathered from 2018 to 2022 to achieve data triangulation. Following Euroleague Basketball during this period enabled the researcher to arrive at an in-depth understanding of the organization's evolution regarding the adoption of digital technologies for sponsorship-linked activities and the digitalization of processes within the sponsorship life-cycle process. The case study show there is an evolution in different sponsorship concepts generated by the changing digital landscape and eight propositions are made. The research revealed that digitalization of sponsorship and wider marketing practices has affected wider the digital transformation journey in Euroleague Basketball as an organization as a whole. This research contributes to the theorizing process of the impact of the digital transformation phenomenon in sports marketing practices by providing new insights on the impact of the changing digital landscape in the sponsorship life-cycle process

Artists, debt, and global activism

This article examines how artists, activism, and works of art may contribute to a more textured understanding of debt in contemporary society and culture. The diversity of aesthetic practices and range of strategic interventions in which artists are organizers and activists are manifest in the Global Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.), advocacy initiatives by Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.), and alternative, trans-local projects such as the Arts Collaboratory. These activist interventions provide the context for an examination of how artists have seized upon discourses related to debt and finance to produce works that offer a critical reappraisal of the global economy. Artists’ projects by Martha Rosler, Cassie Thornton, Zachary Formwalt, and Michael Najjar challenge audiences to rethink the invisible networks of debt and exchange by creating new visual vocabularies for ‘seeing’ debt. The emergence of activist groups, such as Liberate Tate, has also signaled renewed interest in the ethics of corporate sponsorships, museums, and environmental issues. A heightened awareness of the ethical dimensions of debt and global support for activist movements may contribute to new notions of citizenship and performative democracy that can incite individual and collective renegotiations of how we might critically rethink debt

Defining Event Marketing as Engagement-Driven Marketing Communication

Event marketing has been one of the popular corporate marketing strategies for decades. The method is experiential and aims to transform not only attendees' perceptions but also their behavior. Despite this, several events have failed to build loyalty or the purchase intention beyond the entertainment value. In addition, event marketing now focuses on gaining purchase and visit intentions. When a company focuses on engagement, it causes an increased usage desire and longer customer lifetime value. However, as a consequence of such communications, research into the engagement effect of an event has been lacking. This study clarifies the literature review to better understand it. This study reviews 40 relevant scholarly publications from the Scopus database to build a novel concept of engagement-driven event marketing. This article narrows the search using event marketing characteristics. Previous research has found six event types: sports, festivals, concerts, special events, trade shows, and meetings. Five factors influence the attendees: purchase intention, visit intentions, word-of-mouth, brand loyalty, and brand equity . This paper presents a new event marketing model based on Nufer (2015) and Żyminkowska (2019). Attendee engagement is defined by the relationship among the event’s content, the event’s involvement, the event-brand image congruency, and the attendee’s experience of the event’s content. There are also suggested theoretical and managerial considerations

Making the Commercial Non-Commercial: Traditional Ad Effects on TV Billboards

Using a 2x2 experimental design, this study evaluated the effectiveness of two ad factors on TV billboards. Four experimental conditions were created around a previously aired Olympic hockey game to measure how contextual fit and cross-promotion affect audience evaluations of a brand presented on a TV billboard. The hypotheses predicted measurable effects based on past advertisement and sponsorship literature. A total of 150 usable respondents returned significant main effect results, as well as supporting interaction effect results. Particularly, contextual fit encouraged participant purchase intention and the presence of cross-promotion encouraged more positive attitudes toward a brand. Limitations and future research are discussed

The Role of Culture in Sports Sponsorship: an Update

Nowadays Sponsorship is an important part of sports events. Sports sponsorship offers more benefits, more variety and also it’s a more powerful form of marketing. In general, sponsorship holds a unique position in the marketing mix because it is effective in building brand awareness, provides different marketing platforms and valuable networking and hospitality opportunities. Sponsorship marketing efforts can be influenced by culture. Especially when global sponsorship in sports which refers to sports events in different countries with different cultures, is under consideration. In such situations, sponsorship aspects can be affected by cultural obligations which are discussed in this article

Exploring brand associations: an innovative methodological approach

Purpose The objective of this exploratory study is to propose a new methodological approach to investigate brand associations. More specifically, the study aims to show how brand associations can be identified and analysed in an online community of international consumers of fashion in order to determine the degree of matching with company-defined brand associations. Design/methodology/approach The methodology is two-pronged, integrating qualitative market research techniques with quantitative text mining. It was applied to determine types and perceptions of brand associations among fashion bloggers with reference to three leading Italian fashion houses. These were then compared to brand associations found in company-generated texts to measure the degree of matching. Findings The results showed consistent brand associations across the three brands, as well as substantial matching with company-defined brand associations. In addition, the analysis revealed the presence of distinctive brand association themes that shed further light on how brand attributes were perceived by blog participants. Practical implications The methods described can be used by managers to identify and reinforce favourable brand associations among consumers. This knowledge can then be applied towards developing and implementing effective brand strategies. Originality/Value The authors propose an interdisciplinary approach to investigate brand associations in online communities. It incorporates text mining and computer-assisted textual analysis as techniques borrowed from the field of linguistics which have thus far seen little application in marketing studies, but can nonetheless provide important insights for strategic brand management