This paper details the development of a mobile research platform to better understand the relative effectiveness of media channels, and gives case study examples of the impact of this method in the US and Australia. View Summary

This paper details the development of a mobile research platform to better understand the relative effectiveness of media channels, and gives case study examples of the impact of this method in the US and Australia. Businesses are facing new challenges with a range of advertising channels and a shortening consumer attention span. These challenges are not met by traditional research methods that require large budgets or take a long time to conduct. Mobile data collection can address these challenges by providing faster, cheaper and higher quality information from consumers. Examples are given from a rugby league survey in Australia, where it was found that 'in the moment' surveys are possible with even the most avid fans and can generate high levels of engagement; and the US Super Bowl, where it was found that mobile generated a quicker response and identified the most popular ads.

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World Cup: Is it a good idea? Exploring the degree of Brazilians' optimism

This paper discusses changing attitudes towards Brazil's hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, examining how these have changed from positive to more negative and how this may impact on sponsoring brands. View Summary

This paper discusses changing attitudes towards Brazil's hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, examining how these have changed from positive to more negative and how this may impact on sponsoring brands. When the event was first announced, reaction was positive: Brazil was considered successful and a country of the future. The event would be important not only for the economy, but an opportunity for companies and their brands to showcase themselves. However, as time has gone on there have seen a series of situations which have not only saddened and disappointed the Brazilian people, but have also weakened global confidence in the country's ability to host such a large scale global event. The negativity around the World Cup presents challenges for brands, but there are a number of approaches that could be taken to sponsorship, including: avoiding direct associations with FIFA or the World Cup, focussing on the Brazilian team and its players, and focussing on positive features of the population such as its pride, hope and diversity.

This experimental study examined what is the optimal decision for a company whose brand is endorsed by a celebrity immersed in a scandal (revoking versus continuing the endorsement) as a function of brand/endorser fit (congruence versus incongruence) and of the veracity of the negative event created by the celebrity’s reaction (denying versus admitting the facts). View Summary

This experimental study examined what is the optimal decision for a company whose brand is endorsed by a celebrity immersed in a scandal (revoking versus continuing the endorsement) as a function of brand/endorser fit (congruence versus incongruence) and of the veracity of the negative event created by the celebrity’s reaction (denying versus admitting the facts). In the case of congruence, revoking the endorsement is suboptimal with respect to brand attitude and purchase intention. Furthermore, denying lowered the endorser’s trustworthiness which, in turn, hampered attitude and intention. Managerial and theoretical implications, as well as directions for further research, were also considered.

The 2010 NCAA Men's Division 1 Basketball Tournament was aired as a joint venture between CBS Television and Turner Broadcasting. View Summary

The 2010 NCAA Men's Division 1 Basketball Tournament was aired as a joint venture between CBS Television and Turner Broadcasting. The networks used a strategy from the Nielsen Company in order to measure the size and behaviour of the event's audience on in-home television, out-of-home television, online and mobile. The insights include that 176 million fans engaged with the tournament over the two-and-a-half-week period, making it the biggest sporting event of 2010, and over 73 million watched it away from home, a larger number than anticipated. The paper also highlights the effectiveness of Coca-Cola's Coke Zero advertisements which ran during the event, including the fact that the brand's ads achieved a 49% brand recall score with adults 18-49 - some 36% higher than it scored in other televised sporting events.

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Warning Flags on the Race Track: The Global Markets' Verdict on Formula One Sponsorship

The globalization of media content has encouraged the growth of cross-cultural promotional channels. Yet, empirical evaluations of advertising strategies at an international level are sparse. View Summary

The globalization of media content has encouraged the growth of cross-cultural promotional channels. Yet, empirical evaluations of advertising strategies at an international level are sparse. This study advances research in this emerging area by analyzing the global financial markets’ valuation of commercial sponsorships in Formula One (F1) motor racing. Although previous research indicated that US markets have approved of similar promotional investments, the results of this international event study demonstrated that the market value of firms entering into F1 sponsorships decline upon announcement. The level of investment and nationality congruence of the sponsorship appear to enhance the probability for negative returns in shareholder value.

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The determinants of the sports team sponsor’s brand equity: a cross-country comparison in Asia

This research attempts to investigate the determinants of a sports team sponsor's brand equity and whether the proposed structural relationships vary across countries. View Summary

This research attempts to investigate the determinants of a sports team sponsor's brand equity and whether the proposed structural relationships vary across countries. Field data are collected from sports team fans in two Asian economies/countries, i.e. Taiwan and Indonesia. According to the findings, in general, team identification and perceived congruence between the sponsor and the sponsored sports team affect the sponsor's credibility, which in turn has an impact on the sponsor's brand equity. 'Country' moderates the above structural relationships. However, the effects of team identification and perceived congruence on the sponsor's credibility do not receive supportive evidence in Taiwan and Indonesia respectively.

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The Ethics of Celebrity-Athlete Endorsement: What Happens When a Star Steps Out of Bounds?

Celebrity athletes are a mainstay of popular culture and an increasingly important part of the marketing ecosystem. View Summary

Celebrity athletes are a mainstay of popular culture and an increasingly important part of the marketing ecosystem. As product endorsers, they can influence brand attitudes and sales but also have broader societal implications for the firm. The recent string of bad behavior by celebrity athletes raises important ethical questions about firms that use the famous and infamous to endorse branded products. The conceptual framework presented in the current study provides a theoretical approach-based on virtue ethics-for evaluating the retention of tainted celebrity affiliates. This framework is applied to three well-known situations to examine the ethical implications of what initially were good choices for firms, their brands, and their consumers. The overarching goal of this article is to stimulate managers to think more deeply about the interconnections between their core company values, the athlete endorsers they select, and the ultimate effect of those decisions on their brands in the marketplace if things go wrong.

This study investigates brand loyalty and other brand performance metrics in the UK sportswear market. It utilises consumer purchase data kindly provided by Taylor Nelson Sofres. The study finds that empirical regularities discovered by Andrew Ehrenberg and colleagues apply to sportswear brands – including iconic brands such as Nike and Adidas. The main findings are that: (1) sportswear brands enjoy polygamous loyalty from their buyers; (2) the market exhibits the classic double jeopardy pattern whereby smaller brands have slightly lower loyalty; (3) consumers switch between sports brands approximately in line with their market share; and (4) a brand’s performance with respect to any demographic based consumer sub-group is approximately the same as it is in the population generally – that is, sportswear brands tend not to have markedly different appeal to particular demographic segments. Therefore, even iconic brands and self expressive, emblematic product categories show predictable patterns in brand performance. These well-documented empirical patterns should be used by research providers and brand managers to contextualise brand performance.

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Using global online panels: a comparative study on the Beijing 2008 Olympics

This paper assesses the wider considerations that should be taken into account when using international online access panels. View Summary

This paper assesses the wider considerations that should be taken into account when using international online access panels. In doing so, examines the learnings from a survey on the Olympic Games - The Olympic Interest Survey - which examined how consumers plan to use the internet both up to and during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. It argues that even when conducting a survey on a topic with global awareness and interest, it is important to vary the survey methodology in recognition of the fact that how people respond will vary by country. Key considerations include understanding what people are likely to have in common, as well as differentiating factors such as levels of online penetration, the use of rewards, screening and localisation. Much like the Olympics themselves, the Olympic Interest Survey demonstrated unity in opinion across nations as well as differences between them: for example, there are greater levels of interest in table tennis in China than elsewhere, and Brazilians' have a particular enthusiasm for volleyball, but almost everywhere the majority of people agreed that television would be the primary means of watching the event, with other media supplementing this coverage.

Teenagers currently spend an estimated $153 billion a year on everything from computers to cars to clothes (Brand, 2000). View Summary

Teenagers currently spend an estimated $153 billion a year on everything from computers to cars to clothes (Brand, 2000). Trend conscious teens are very active in utilizing the media and advertising in seeking out the latest products, services, and fashions (Zollo, 1995). A greater understanding of teens’ role model influences can help organizations and their advertising agencies more effectively target and communicate to this growing market. In this study, we examine the effect of athlete role models on teenagers’ purchase intentions and behaviors. Results from a survey of 218 adolescents are discussed with implications and future research directions for advertising and sports marketing researchers.

This paper compares the intense loyalty achieved by football clubs with brand loyalty. To marketers, football can be regarded as a product sector and football clubs as brands. View Summary

This paper compares the intense loyalty achieved by football clubs with brand loyalty. To marketers, football can be regarded as a product sector and football clubs as brands. However in this context the clubs are unique. They engender phenomenal brand loyalty despite their strengths and weaknesses. This is totally different from almost all other product sectors where brand switching occurs which reflect them. The paper examines whether brands in other sectors can benefit from this traditional loyalty to football brands, debating the reasons for football brand choice, looking at causes for brand loyalty and differences in other sectors. It is shown that certain brands seem to have encompassed attributes which are associated with football and other sectors could benefit from understanding the contributory factors which engender similar responses.

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The Use of Two-Stage Survey Design in Collecting Data From Those Who Have Attended Periodic or Special Events

Discusses the problems of obtaining satisfactory survey samples of people attending special events, away from their homes. View Summary

Discusses the problems of obtaining satisfactory survey samples of people attending special events, away from their homes. Exit surveys and other attempts to interview on the spot are difficult for several reasons, unless the interviews are very short: the interview environment is too distracting, and the representativeness of the sample cannot be ensured. A good solution is two-stage interviewing, in which basic details such as telephone numbers are obtained on the spot, from which a sample can be selected for interviewing later, e.g. by telephone. The method is illustrated by two examples: a sporting event in a U.S. city, and the annual `Shakespeare on the Green' event in Omaha, Nebraska. The sampling methods used and response rates are described in both cases. Co-operation at Stage 1 proved higher than expected, and by changing the interview environment much better data were collected. Although more expensive than a one-stage method, the cost differential is not as great as might be expected, since pre-recruitment makes the follow-up calls more productive, and extra cost may well be justified by the much higher quality of the data.