Blose, Julia E, Dr.

Mack, Rhonda W

Pitts, Robert

Xie, Y.

English

Georgia Southern University: Digital Commons@Georgia Southern

Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2021 Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2021 Using FOMO to Promote Sports Events: Exploring Technology Usage and Involvement Effects Julia E. Blose Dr. blosej@cofc.edu Rhonda W. Mack College of Charletson, mackr@cofc.edu Robert Pitts pittsr@cofc.edu Y. Xie xiey@cofc.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/amtp-proceedings_2021  Part of the Marketing Commons Recommended Citation Blose, Julia E. Dr.; Mack, Rhonda W.; Pitts, Robert; and Xie, Y., "Using FOMO to Promote Sports Events: Exploring Technology Usage and Involvement Effects" (2021). Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2021. 17. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/amtp-proceedings_2021/17 This conference proceeding is brought to you for free and open access by the Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2021 by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu. Using FOMO to Promote Sports Events: Exploring Technology Usage and Involvement Effects  Julia E. Blose College of Charleston  Rhonda W. Mack College of Charleston  Robert E. Pitts College of Charleston  Henry Y. Xie College of Charleston  EXTENDED ABSTRACT Reports results of a multi-year FOMO study imbedded in a sports marketing effort at a university in the southeastern US to expand student attendance at the ESPN “Gildan Charleston Classic” Basketball tournament. The tournament is an ESPN Events annual, televised event hosted by a local university. Every four years the host university’s team competes in the tournament. Student attendance has remained poor. Cognitive involvement with the event (home team participation) and technology/social media usage were hypothesized to mediate FOMO effects in the promotion.   “Fear of Missing Out”, commonly referred to as FOMO, has proliferated as a sport marketing communications tool (Larkin and Fink 2016). FOMO, has been defined as “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent” (Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan and Gladwell 2013, p. 1841) with the belief that this fear of missing out is, in effect, a personality trait (Burak 2014). There are indications that “High FOMO” individuals exhibit higher usage of social media (Przybylski et al. 2013). Recent research suggests people who are heavy users of technology (social media/email) are prone to FOMO (Przybylski et al. 2013). Data was collected from students at the host university who responded to a questionnaire after reviewing one of two flyers promoting the ESPN Tournament with or without a FOMO statement (operationalized as “Don’t miss out!”). After viewing the promotional flyer respondents indicated their interest in learning more about the event, interest in attending the tournament and interest in inviting friends to the event on 7-point Likert scales.  Respondents also indicated the extent to which they use social media. Data was collected for three years of the tournament: one year with the host university’s basketball team playing and two without home team participation to provide an involvement surrogate variable.    It was hypothesized that all three interest measures would be higher among participants in the high-FOMO condition that included the “Don’t Miss Out” message. A MANOVA including the three dependent variables (interest in learning more about the event, interest in attending the event and interest in inviting friends to the event) results in a significant interaction between gender and involvement for interest in learning more about the event (with males substantially more interested) and a significant three-way interaction between gender, social media usage and ad format (“Don’t miss out” vs. “Join ESPN”) for interest in attending the event.  Among males, the format of the flyer does not appear to have substantially influenced interest in attending the basketball tournament. It should be noted, however, heavy social media user males that saw the low-FOMO appeal (i.e. "Join ESPN") were substantially more interested in attending than were light social media user males that saw this same appeal.  In contrast, the high-FOMO appeal flyer (i.e. with "Don't miss out") appears to have had a detrimental effect on interest in attending among some female participants.  In particular, examination of post-hoc means comparisons suggests that observed interest in attending was substantially lower among light social media user females who viewed the “Don't miss out” appeal than that of the light social media user females who viewed the appeal that just read "Join ESPN" as well as that of both groups of heavy social media user females.  Since social media usage in this study was conceptualized as a proxy for "connectedness" and as a correlate of one's own sensitivity to missing out, it would be interesting to see if these results hold in a study that more specifically measures FOMO as an individual personality trait.  It is possible in the context of a service product category of a sporting event such as a basketball tournament, for males at least, one's own propensity to be concerned about missing out is a better predictor of interest, and appeals designed to highlight what may be missed will have little bearing.  Further, future research should also include a specific measure of product category involvement.  Improved measures of both involvement and FOMO as a personality trait could help further tease out the conditions under which appeals that incorporate a “Don't miss out” appeal can be optimally applied or, as this study suggests, for some target audiences should probably not be utilized since the impact of the FOMO messaging strategy was in some cases the opposite of the intended direction. In addition, as reports suggest the pandemic has created a whole new segment of “hyper-connected” consumers with increased technology usage affecting their preferences and behaviors (Solis, 2020), a post-pandemic follow-up will likely produce helpful new insights as well.  In a research review, Filo, Lock, and Karg (2015) addressed the profound impact of social media on sport management across multiple perspectives citing its importance in cultivating relationships. One’s level of technology and social media usage as social behavior may indicate the need (or lack thereof) to be part of a group participating in or attending a sports event and effect promotional effectiveness. Social media use presents a multitude of opportunities as well as challenges to sports marketing.   REFERENCES Burak, J. (2014 May 28), “Can we break free from the fear of missing out?” Aeon. Retrieved from http://aeon.co/magazine/health/can-we-break-free-from-the-fear-of-missing-out/. Filo, K., D. Lock, and A. Karg (2015), “Sport and Social Media Research: A Review,” Sports Management Review, 18 (No. 2), 166-181. Larkin, B.A. and J.S. Fink (2016), “Fantasy Sport, FoMO, and Traditional Fandom: How Second-Screen Use of Social Media Allows Fans to Accommodate Multiple Identities,” Journal of Sport Management, 30, 643-655.  Przybylski, A.K., K. Murayama, C.R. Dehaan, and V. Gladwell (2013), “Motivational, Emotional, and Behavioral Correlates of Fear of Missing Out,” Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 1841-1848.  Solis, B. (2020 Sept 8), “How Covid-19 created a new kind of consumer in just 90 days”, Fast Company. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/90547627/how-covid-19-created-a-new-kind-of-consumer-in-just-90-days.  ABOUT THE AUTHORS Julia Blose Professor Blose is Associate Professor of Marketing, Department of Management and Marketing at the College of Charleston.  She teaches courses in Marketing Research and Analytics.  Her research interests include research methods, marketing communications and consumer behavior.  Her most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of International Consumer Marketing and Tourism Recreation Research. Rhonda Mack     Professor Mack is Emeritus Professor of Marketing, Department of Management and Marketing at the College of Charleston.  Her most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Business Research and the Journal of International Consumer Marketing. Robert Pitts Professor Pitts is Professor of Marketing, Department of Management and Marketing at the College of Charleston. At the College he teaches courses in Marketing Strategy and Marketing and Society.  His research explores consumer decision making and ad response with a focus on sustainability and travel related decisions. His most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Event Management and the International Journal of Hospitality and Event Management. Henry Xie Professor Xie is Professor of Marketing, Department of Management and Marketing in the School of Business at the College of Charleston. He teaches courses in Marketing Concepts and Marketing Management. His research interests include international marketing strategy and cross-cultural consumer behavior. His most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of International Consumer Marketing and Multinational Business Review.   

Using FOMO to Promote Sports Events:  Exploring Technology Usage and Involvement Effects

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Using FOMO to Promote Sports Events: Exploring Technology Usage and Involvement Effects

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