Ann Pegoraro

Consumer Consumption and Advertising Through Sport

The sport industry benefits greatly from its various media partnerships. Sport as a corporate marketing tool provides increased flexibility, broad reach, and high levels of brand and corporate exposure. Many organizations have recognized this potential of sport as a vehicle for accomplishing many of their marketing-related objectives. In turn, this has resulted in significant growth in the sport industry, in particular in its media consumption both online and offline. The purpose of this research—using the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament as its sample—was to identify how advertisements contained within both the online and television broadcasts contribute to consumer culture and consumption. Content analysis was used to identify specific tactics related to materialism, maximization, regret, social comparison, and anti-materialism within 144 unique advertisements contained within the broadcasts. Findings include the high prevalence of maximization tactics, a significant correlation between length of ad and the use of materialism tactics (i.e., the longer the ad, the higher the frequency of materialism tactics), and a significant correlation between the use of regret and maximization tactics and fear appeals. It is notable that the use of a spokesperson in an advertisement showed no relationship with the five tactics and no difference was found for the use of the five tactics and medium (television or Internet).

Twitter as Disruptive Innovation in Sport Communication

This Twitter Research Forum essay by Ann Pegoraro, one of the leading sport management and marketing scholars on social media, focuses on the need to study Twitter as a disruptive innovation in sport communication. Making a case that Twitter has disrupted the one-to-many, single-medium framework of sport consumption traditionally offered by television to the many-to-many possibilities of Internet-enabled sport participatory consumption, Pegoraro poses that Twitter’s disruptiveness is distinctive in that it was up to the users to define how this platform would be used. Noting varied response to research on Twitter and sport, it is argued that the research process and the building of theory is necessarily not a neat and tidy direct line process. In observing that much research on Twitter and sport to date has ported many of the categories of research agendas and key theories that have driven earlier research on media and sport, the essay concludes that the research process that has been started portends hope for future comprehensive theoretical analysis.

Kissing in the Carnage: An Examination of Framing on Twitter During the Vancouver Riots

This study examines the frames found on Twitter during the Vancouver riots on June 15, 2011. A textual analysis was employed, and resulted in the identification of 5 frames: fandom, riot propagation, global perspectives, shame on Vancouver, and real fans vs. idiots. The identification of these frames illustrated Twitters role as a source of news and information, and also an outlet for shaping public opinion and cultural perception. Twitter provided the opportunity to counter public perceptions of Canadian hockey fans and the rioters through displays of dissociation, embarrassment, remorse, and comparisons to substantial global events of political unrest.

Toward an Understanding of Donor Loyalty: Demographics, Personality, Persuasion, and Revenue

Donor loyalty is linked to revenue generation in nonprofit organizations. This study utilized a consumer-based marketing approach to donors and their contributions via examining loyalty to nonprofit organizations. Through a detailed literature review that identified five specific hypotheses, tested using a secondary analysis of a large survey, and the design and implementation of a second (online) survey, this article empirically assesses donor loyalty and provides findings that develop the literature, support practice, and identify areas of future research. The results demonstrate the linkages between donor loyalty and revenue, and provide a deeper understanding of the relationship of demographic factors, preference for consistency, materialism, and maximization to donor loyalty. Notably, the results clearly illustrate that habitual switchers donate substantially less than loyal donors. A series of areas for future research are identified and a number of recommendations are provided to practitioners vis-à-vis understanding their donors and enhancing their revenues through donations.

Olympic Games host and bid city marketing: exploring issue management in the relationships among event stakeholder groups.

Based on the work of Parent (2008) on mega sports events, this paper explores the relationships among events stakeholders in Olympic Games host/bid city marketing. It outlines research questions, identifies a theoretical framework to better understand Olympic city marketing, presents four essays related to issues within this framework, and provides conclusions and suggestions for future research.

Strategic Use of Facebook to Build Brand Awareness: A Case Study of Two National Sport Organizations

Social media provides a strategic means for non-profit organizations to build and maintain strong relationships with consumers. The purpose of this study was to apply branding theory and frameworks to the use of Facebook by National Olympic Committees in two countries, Australia and Canada over specific time periods related to three Olympics Games. These Facebook pages were examined to determine the types of brand-related post content and communication style utilized as well as the consumer response to these posts. The two organizations generally used Facebook to broadcast product related brand attributes such as information about athletes and teams. There was also a significant difference in Facebook post use and focus by two organizations indicating some international differences in using Facebook for branding a sport organization. The results also provide practical implications for non-profit sport organizations using Facebook to build positive brand images, promote fan engagement and ultimately create brand ambassadors.

Activating a global sport sponsorship with social media: an analysis of TOP sponsors, Twitter, and the 2014 Olympic Games.

This research explored the use of Twitter for sponsorship activation by the The Olympic Program (TOP) sponsors during the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. Using NCapture, a total of 7,519 tweets and retweets of all ten TOP sponsors around the Games were captured from the 1st of January (pre-Olympic) to the 3rd of April, 2014 (post-Olympic). The data were analysed with the aid of Leximancer analytics software. Results show that there is no regular pattern of Twitter use for activation that was identifiable amongst the TOP sponsors; all were found adopting different strategic approaches. Notably, the TOP sponsors differ in terms of the number and types of tweets they produced, retweets they broadcasted, hashtags they rerun, and the registered growth of their followers from pre-games to post-games. The results also show three possible sponsorship objectives communicated by TOP sponsors, namely promotion (of services, products, and companys image), customer appreciation, and athletes encouragement. Potential theoretical and practical implications will be discussed, including suggestions for future research. The work encourages continued investigation.

Prayers, punishment, and perception: an analysis of the response to the Tony Stewart – Kevin Ward Jr. incident on Facebook

Abstract The purpose of this study was to analyse the response to Tony Stewart’s first public statement following the Kevin Ward Jr. incident and determine how individuals were discussing the incident on Facebook utilizing the theoretical lens of framing. A total of 14,888 comments from 4594 users were analysed with the qualitative software Leximancer. Two frames emerged from the data analysis including judgement and knowledge. Within those frames were five themes including fault, accident, conviction, racing knowledge and evidence. These themes were bi-directional in nature, which allowed users to place blame, question other users’ knowledge, analyse the nature of the incident itself, express support or disdain and call for further examination of the incident. This study’s findings highlight how Facebook can be utilized as a platform for individuals to create an organic framework and attribute their own meaning to a controversial incident.

Echo or organic: framing the 2014 Sochi Games

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to perform a comparative analysis of how traditional media and social media framed the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. Design/methodology/approach The researchers examined newspaper articles pertaining to the Sochi Olympics and Tweets containing #SochiProblems to determine if differences or overlap existed in terms of themes and frames. A thematic analysis was conducted with the qualitative software Leximancer. Findings An analysis of 2,856 newspaper articles and 497,743 Tweets revealed three frames across the two media platforms including: the setting, the politics, and the games. There was both a divergence and convergence of content. While there was an echo chamber in terms of discussions regarding political controversies, organic content related to conditions and accommodations existed primarily on Twitter. Originality/value This study sought to investigate whether organic content on Twitter could withstand the transference of sentiments that emerge in traditional media. This study adds to the current body of the literature by examining whether there is a convergence or divergence of content across media platforms pertaining to an international sporting event.

Mass media narratives of women’s cardiovascular disease: a qualitative meta-synthesis

ABSTRACT Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and disability among women worldwide. Narratives circulated by the media regarding women’s identities and health constitute one source of meanings by which conceptualisations about risk, risk reduction, and disease prevention are formed and framed. An interpretive and integrative meta-synthesis of qualitative research was done to examine the representations of women’s cardiovascular disease in traditional and user-generated Canadian and US media narratives, and explore the implications of these for gendered identities and health promotion for women. After a literature search of electronic databases, 29 qualitative peer-reviewed journal articles published since 2000 met the eligibility criteria and were included for review. The findings revealed three overarching themes: (a) the construction of who is at risk for cardiovascular disease; (b) the portrayal of certain risk-reducing strategies and acute events; and (c) the delegation of responsibility for maintaining female cardiovascular health. These meta-synthesis findings contribute towards novel understandings about the culture of women’s cardiovascular disease risk and the feminisation of healthism/individual responsibility, which may limit awareness among marginalised female demographics (those from lower socio-economic and minority racial backgrounds).