Supporter engagement through social media: a case study of Liverpool Football Club

Supporter engagement through social media: a case study of Liverpool Football Clu

Exploring the domestic relationship between mega-events and destination image: The image impact of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games for the city of London

Contemporarily, the hosting of mega-sport-events (MSEs) is one of several strategies used by cities and governments to bring about improvements in a place’s image and recognition. With that in mind, the overall aim of this study, underpinned by theoretical-methodological social representation theory, was to evaluate the domestic image impact of hosting the 2012 Summer Olympic Games for the city of London, and in doing so, whether any image-transfer (or co-branding) processes occurred between the place and event. In addition to adding to the emergent body of work aimed at using social representation theory to measure place image, the authors are among the first to employ a matched-sample research approach to measuring the impact of an MSE on the domestic perceptions of the host. Employing an abductive research strategy, a survey was carried out among the domestic English population (n=156) to identify cognitive and affective image components, in the form of social representations, of London as a city (or its place brand), the Olympics as a MSE, and the 2012 Games as a one-off event. The content and the structure of the pre-and post-event social representations were established (using image elements cited by at least 15% of the respondents), analysed (using hierarchical cluster analysis) and then compared (within- and between items) to determine whether any changes or image transfer occurred. The findings of this research reveal that the pre-event concerns regarding the hosting of the London 2012 Olympics and the potential of the event to negatively impact the city’s pre-established image, were, to a degree, fulfilled. Conversely, from an event perspective, respondents perceived the Olympics as a somewhat successful enterprise

Olympic sport and physical activity promotion: the rise and fall of the London 2012 pre-event mass participation ‘legacy’

The legacies of Sport Mega Events (SMEs) such as the Olympic Games are increasingly regarded as significant opportunities to increase sport and physical activity (PA) participation. Major sport/PA legacy objectives may even be pursued before the event takes place. This article examines a specific pre-event sport/PA policy target of the London 2012 Olympic Games: the aim of increasing overall participation by two million between June 2008 and the Games in 2012 (a target that was abandoned in 2011). Within a governmentality analytical framework, this research examined how London 2012’s pre-event sport/PA participation legacy targets were constructed by organisations responsible for their delivery. Three specific themes are discussed: the inconsistency between how sport/PA participation was constructed in terms of both ‘risk’ and ‘reward’ by different organisations; the reliance upon intangible concepts such as ‘inspiration’ and the status of the Olympic Games to increase participation; and the rationales given for the subsequent abandonment of the pre-event PA participation targets in 2011. The abandonment of the pre-Games participation targets holds two overarching policy implications for future SME host governments and organisers. First, host governments cannot rely on the unique status or ‘inspiration’ of the Games alone to increase participation and must pursue this more proactively. Second, the ultimate failure of these policies should not be attributed exclusively to their intrinsic limitations, but also to a range of external environmental factors. Pre-event SME legacies must therefore be planned with sufficient awareness of the social and political contexts in which the event takes place

The image impact of second-order mega-events: a case study of the 2014 Commonwealth Games

The overall aim of this research, located within the critical realist research paradigm, and underpinned by social representation theory, is to evaluate the domestic image impact of hosting the 2014 CG for the city of Glasgow, and in doing so, determine the extent to which hosting this event represents an appropriate strategy to improve the city’s domestic image

Appetite for or resistance to consumption relationships? A trans-European perspective on the marketization of football fan relationships

Although most sport organisations are encouraged to better manage the relationships they maintain with fans, little is still known about the types of relationships that fans want to establish with sport organisations. Also, as most suggested management and marketing practices come from professional sport organisations and European contexts, it is questionable whether they can apply to all sports organisations, and whether they are received in the same way by diverse fans from various socio-cultural contexts. Thus, the study aimed to explore football fans’ relational expectations towards their national football association across Europe and attitudes towards this marketization. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with several casual and die-hard fans from three European countries chosen for their heterogeneity: Armenia, Lithuania and England. Overall, and possibly in contradiction with numerous publications dealing with club football, the fans from the three countries did not express clear opposition or resistance towards the marketization of their relationships towards their national teams and associations. English fans seemed quite neutral or indifferent although Armenian and Lithuanian fans presented many characteristics of brandom demonstrating an appetite for this marketization

L’engagement des supporters au travers des médias sociaux: le cas du Liverpool Football Club

L’engagement des supporters au travers des médias sociaux: le cas du Liverpool Football Clu

Football fan relationships with their national associations: a trans-European perspective

Football fan relationships with their national associations: a trans-European perspectiv

An evaluation of the domestic pre-event social representations of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games

An evaluation of the domestic pre-event social representations of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Game

Marketization of football fan relationships in Europe: appetence, indifference or resistance?

Marketization of football fan relationships in Europe: appetence, indifference or resistance

Brand consistency and coherency at the London 2012 Olympic Games

As brand management and brand perceptions attract more attention in both academia and in practice, examining the link or lack thereof between brand identity and image is becoming increasingly important. The existence of brand consistency and coherency is examined in this research, which aimed to evaluate whether the pre- or post-event brand image of the Olympic Games or the London 2012 Games, in the domestic UK population and media, were aligned with the brand identities of these objects. Online surveys and media content analysis revealed that both brands have yet to achieve consistency or coherency within these two key stakeholder groups, even though the brand image of the 2012 Games improved following the event. What this study suggests is that unless the brand owner takes key stakeholders’ perceptions into consideration, a coherent and consistent brand identity does not necessarily equate to these being a feature of the brand image, with the connection between perceptions requiring additional attention