A colleague and I wrote a piece in the China Policy Institute’s online journal on how FIFA may be targeting China’s online streaming services to attract younger consumers to watch the FIFA world cup.
You can read the entire article in full here.
Tag: Football
Footy finals fever
Recently, my workplace put out a media release on its experts interested in a variety of areas around the footy finals (AFL/NRL) that are starting up this week in Australia. I was luckily enough to be included in a note on how sport teams use social media to bring their fans closer together during the pointy end of the season.
The paragraph read: “Social media has altered the relationship between teams and their fans, bringing them closer together and fostering a more personal connection. Online engagement at the business end of the season is crucial to a team’s success. Whether it’s messages of support from the fans to the players or a club’s rallying cry to its supporters, social media has an important role to play. Dr Olan Scott, whose research focuses on fan engagement in social media, can explain just how valuable a tool Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn can be.”
The media release can be read here
LESSONS OF PERSONAL ATHLETE BRANDING VIA SOCIAL MEDIA
Since 2015, I’ve been involved with some work in athlete branding, media management, and crisis communication with my colleague Thilo Kunkel of Temple University. The first of our publications was published in late 2016 about the work we have done with Michael Lahoud, who is a professional currently playing for Miami FC in the North American Soccer League (NASL). He was born in Sierra Leone, where he escaped civil war when he was six years old. As a refugee, soccer helped him to integrate in the United States of America, where he was drafted as the ninth overall pick in the 2009 Major League Soccer (MLS) Superdraft. He is a community advocate who uses his sport to support charitable efforts, such as The Wall Las Memorias project, the NoH8 campaign, and Schools for Salone. He was the Major League Soccer Humanitarian of the Year in 2010, and together with Kei Kamara, he is the recipient of the 2015 FIFPro World Players’ Union Merit Award (a prize worth $25,000), which recognized their involvement in the Schools for Salone project that builds schools in their home country of Sierra Leone. His brand is Soccer can make a difference. This interview consists of two parts, with the first part being conducted in December 2015 when he was a player of the MLS team Philadelphia Union, and the second part being conducted in July 2016 after two transfers within 4 months. The interviews provide an overview of his approach to athlete branding via social media, and its impact on his career.
You can read and download the full article here: publisher, academia.edu, or researchgate.
October 8 Live Tweet topics starting at 2:45PM Perth time
Topic 1:
At the beginning of August, A-League club Sydney FC announced its new major sponsor: Webjet (See: http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/sydneyfc/news-display/Sydney-FC-and-Webjet-Agree-Major-Partnership/48392 andhttp://sportsbusinessinsider.com.au/news/category/sponsorship-and-marketing/sydney-fc-ceo-pignata-secures-webjet-as-main-sponsor-for-two-years/and http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/1115100/sydney-fc-announces-webjet-deal)
Topic 2:
As discussed and defined in class, a brand is “a name, symbol or design, or a combination of these, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors”
Recently, NRL player Greg Inglis has announced that he will create his own personal branded clothing line (in the line of Michael Jordan and/or Greg Norman).
We will discuss how the Inglis brand can help to position Inglis in the marketplace and which positioning tactics will be employed.
Topic 3:
In week 7, we discussed the proliferation of mainstream media and the hours that sport is on TV. Further, there was a short discussion on netcasting, which was characterised by: a potential to compete with television’s dominance in sport broadcasting and providing netcasts of past games can be another service to strengthen the interaction of customers with sport website.
Recently, the NBL announced that the league would retain their online rights and have made most (if not all) game available online through the NBL.TV service. See www.nbl.com.au
We will discuss how the retention of Internet broadcasting rights by the NBL enables the league to increase advertising revenue streams through online broadcasts and enable fans to watch their favourite (or any) team via the Internet; thus increase fan engagement with the NBL.
Topic 4:
In week 8, we discussed the many reasons why organisations sponsor teams/events/athletes and it was found that “sponsorship is usually undertaken to encourage more favourable attitudes towards the sponsoring company or its products within a relevant target audience”
In recent event, A. Del Piero was signed by Sydney FC and then Destination NSW sponsored the team. We’ll talk about why Destination NSW would sponsor the team and how it relates to the Del Piero signing.
Live Tweet topics for 27 August 2012
Live Tweet topics for 27 August 2012 that starts at 1430 (2:30 PM) Perth time.
On 28 March 2012, I conducted a full lecture online using Twitter. It forms part of an assessment item for my first year unit Sport Marketing (unit code #SPM2122) in the Bachelor of Sport, Recreation, and Leisure. #SPM2122 is doing it again in semester two.
The topics will all be listed below with relevant links, but the questions will remain undisclosed until the live chat.
Topic 1:
The 2012 London Summer Olympic Games were touted to be the “social games.” However, the IOC enforced Rule 40 (see: http://www.london2012.com/mm/Document/Publications/General/01/25/29/32/rule-40-guidelines_Neutral.pdf), which prevented athletes, teams, coaches, and others from using social media to discuss non-Olympic sponsors and/or advertisers. See here for another perspective on social media and the Olympics http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/173610/the-social-olympics-the-effect-on-london-2012.html)
Topic 2:
On 14 August 2012, the AFL announced that Gilette became the league’s official sponsor of the trade week. Gilette currently sponsors the Grand Final sprint and has a history of sponsorship of the AFL (See: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/144503/default.aspx)
Further, Carlton Draught currently sponsors the substitute player, who is called the Carlton Draught Sub (See: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/13962098/afls-alcohol-own-goal/ and http://www.afl.com.au/tabid/208/default.aspx?newsid=138681)
Topic 3:
At the beginning of August, A-League club Sydney FC announced its new major sponsor: Webjet (See: http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/sydneyfc/news-display/Sydney-FC-and-Webjet-Agree-Major-Partnership/48392 and http://sportsbusinessinsider.com.au/news/category/sponsorship-and-marketing/sydney-fc-ceo-pignata-secures-webjet-as-main-sponsor-for-two-years/ and http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/1115100/sydney-fc-announces-webjet-deal)
Topic 4:
Nike has undergone considerable change in the way it markets itself and how it spends marketing dollars. Nike Digital Sport was lauched at the Nike headquarters in 2010, where devices and technologies are created that allow users to track their sporting prowess. Further, Nike Digital also aims to collect as much personal data on Nike users as it can (See: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/13/nike-digital-marketing/)
In August 2012, adidas announced the creation of a social media shoe (See: http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2012/08/13/adidas-social-media-shoe-ready-for-tweeps/ and http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/08/adidas-unveils-social-media-shoe-for-tweeps/), which the company plans to mass produce in 2016.
Topic 5:
Nike has recently started to sponsor UFC fighters: Anderson Silva is sponsored by Nike Brasil (other fighters have national Nike sponsorships) and USA fighter Jon Jones has a global Nike deal, which is the first for Nike and UFC sponsorship. (See: http://www.mmamania.com/2011/8/3/2341775/just-did-it-ufc-middleweight-champion-anderson-silva-lands-nike and http://mmajunkie.com/news/30111/malki-kawa-deal-with-nike-for-ufc-champ-jon-jones-opens-door-for-every-other-fighter.mma and http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/8/8/3228539/nike-ufc-jon-jones-global-sponsorship-deal-mma-news).
Olan Scott 