FiT Publishing

This research addresses how positive and negative publicity about athlete endorsers influences motivational mechanisms (appetitive and aversive) underlying cognitive and affective processing and evaluation to ads. Participants viewed an ad for a soft drink brand that featured an athlete endorser while psychophysiological measures of cognition, emotion, and arousal were collected. Each ad was preceded by a news story that contained either positive or negative information about the athlete’s off -fi eld behavior. Results indicate that cognition and arousal were enhanced in response to ads...Read more

Work in relationship marketing (RM) has implied that most large sport properties fail to enact sport relationship marketing (SRM) tactics that establish meaningful connections with consumers. Work in entrepreneurial marketing (EM) suggests that small businesses must innovate to implement elements of EM due to inherent resource constraints. Therefore, exploring SRM in an entrepreneurial, innovation-dependent context like small sport businesses (SSBs) may help explain why large sport fi rms struggle with SRM. Therefore, we examined whether SSBs’ marketing activities are generative of RM-...Read more

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) sent shock waves through the Olympic advertising and sponsorship community when it announced in February 2015 that it was relaxing Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter to allow generic (non-Olympic themed) advertising featuring athletes during the Rio 2016 Games (Mackay, 2015). According to the IOC, the purpose of the Rule is to preserve the unique nature of the Games by preventing over-commercialization and to keep the focus on the athletes’ performance (International Olympic Committee, n.d.). Notably, while the IOC does not expressly reference ambush...Read more

In this paper, we derive, based on a simple microeconomic model, under what conditions free-TV can more profitable than pay-TV in sports broadcasting. The most important factors here are the level, not the elasticity, of the demand for televised sports, as well as the advertisers’ willingness to pay. Also the spectators’ aversion to interruptions for advertising can play a role.Read more

Drawing from signaling theory and creative capital theory, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of advertising inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals on consumers’ intentions to join a fitness club. The authors also considered the moderating effects of consumer gender and social dominance orientation. Participants (N = 203) took part in an experiment where they reviewed fitness club advertisements and then responded to a questionnaire. Persons who viewed LGBT inclusive advertisements were more likely to believe the club was diverse and...Read more

Advertising, sponsorships, and other marketing communications are commonplace in the contemporary world of sports. Are sports fans irritated and annoyed by this commercial bombardment or are they accepting of the role of sports advertising? This study investigates consumers’ perceptions of commercial messages during televised sporting events. The results indicate that fans of two of the most popular US sports (NFL and NASCAR) generally have high levels of sport commercial acceptance (SCA) in televised broadcasts. NASCAR fans—particularly those highly identified with the sport—are the most...Read more

The use of sport celebrities in advertising campaigns is an important aspect in marketing to a target market of sport fans. With many star athletes becoming increasingly involved in negative off-field issues, it is questioned whether ads featuring athletes have decreased over time. This study replicates, extends, and breaks new ground on the topic of sport celebrities in advertising. Using a content analysis, the study replicates the work of Stone, Joseph, and Jones (2003). By replicating the Stone et al. content analysis, we provide validation for the earlier work, as generally called for...Read more

This study’s primary purpose was to examine the opinions of consumers toward the appropriateness of food and non-alcoholic beverage sponsorships of sporting events in relation to other products. Research of this nature is particularly timely in light of the current obesity issue because many food and beverage products contribute to the obesity problem. Phase one involved a written survey (N = 253) whereas phase two involved two focus groups (N = 12). Attitudes toward food and non-alcoholic beverage sponsorships of sporting events were more favorable than alcohol sponsorships, followed by...Read more

This study presents a perspective on advertisements featuring female drivers that appeared in the official Indianapolis 500 programs from 1977 to 2006. Specifically, content analysis was used to track the succession of female drivers’ depictions in the programs over the 29-year period from Janet Guthrie’s rookie year to Danica Patrick’s second race appearance. Ads were analyzed for pose, connotation, role portrayal, and camera angle. Descriptive statistics indicated that prior to 2003, the drivers’ (Guthrie, Lyn St. James, Sarah Fisher, and Patrick) ad depictions were most often strong and...Read more

The purpose of this exploratory research was to gain a greater understanding of the importance consumers assign to the product attributes of one of the most visible relationship marketing programs: affinity credit cards. Drawing on relationship marketing, symbolic consumption, and social identity, the authors explore the importance of attributes when choosing an affinity credit card. Three studies at different universities determined the ranked importance to student consumers of the background logo, the beneficiary, attributes such as annual fees and interest rates, and the financial...Read more