Norm O'Reilly

Profiling Major Sport Event Visitors: The 2002 Commonwealth Games

It has become common practice for governments and municipalities around the world to bid for the right to host a major sporting event. Prior to embarking on the bidding process, politicians attempt to determine whether such an event will be of value to their municipality; and often focus on the estimated economic consequences of hosting such an event. Frequently, studies are commissioned to predict the events economic value. However, these studies often miscalculate the potential impact of sport event visitors as consumers. We argue that enhanced profiling of these visitors will enable a more accurate assessment of economic impact. The current research surveys 1,196 spectators of the 2002 Commonwealth Games to demonstrate four important aspects of visitor profiles related to economic impact: (i) visitor typology, (ii) sport tourist behaviors, (iii) consumption patterns determined by interest, and (iv) consumption patterns determined by distance traveled. Overall, the work makes three important contributions to the literature by: (i) empirically supporting that different sports attract different market demographics, (ii) underlining the need for segmentation in economic impact studies, and (iii) identifying the need to develop metrics of economic impact analysis that consider segmentation effects.

Internationalising ambush marketing: a comparative study

A large-sample survey of general public consumers in Canada, France and the United States during the 2000 Olympic Games supports previous research on ambush marketing, provides evidence that purchase decisions are affected by ambush marketing reducing the value of sponsorship partnerships, and purports that the International Olympic Committee and its partners need to develop specific strategies to combat ambush marketing country by country

Social Media Scholarship in Sport Management Research: A Critical Review

This work critically assesses the history and current state of social media scholarship in sport management research. Methodologically, the study is based on a comprehensive census review of the current body of literature in the area of social media. The review identifies 123 social media articles in sport management research that were mined from a cross-disciplinary examination of 29 scholarly journals from January 2008 (earliest found) to June 2014. The work identifies the topic areas, the platforms, the theories, and the research methods that have received the (most/least) attention of the social media research community, and provides suggestions for future research.

In-stadium sponsorship evaluation of a mega-sponsee: the 2004 Grey Cup

This research highlights the need for sophisticated measurement tools to allow sponsors and sponsees to evaluate sponsorship achievement against specific goals and its performance relative to other promotional tactics. Two high-profile in-stadium sponsorships of a mega-sponsee, the Grey Cup, are evaluated. Some evidence appears to supports and the effectiveness of the sponsorships; other observations raise questions about the accuracy of the evaluation process. The paper provides direction for practice and future research in sponsorship evaluation.

Understanding adolescent sport participation through online social media

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the potential role and use of online social media to influence sport participation in youth aged 12 to 17 years by responding to two specific research questions: what is the nature of the online “marketplace” among youth?; and what is the nature of adolescent sport behavior as revealed through activities on online social media?Design/methodology/approach – The paper outlines and then implements the research methodology of netnography to achieve its purpose. Netnography involves a researcher joining an online forum, e‐tribe or other open‐source social media to observe and record the discussions for analysis.Findings – The overarching finding is that online discourse related to sport participation among youth is very limited. When discussion does take place, five themes emerge: benefits, advice‐seeking, finding common interests, learning new sports, and challenges.Research limitations/implications – This research provides impetus for future work in the cont...

Risk management in sports sponsorship: application to human mortality risk

This paper seeks to build understanding of the evaluation of sponsorships involving high human mortality risk. Examples of risky sponsees are presented, with two assessed as in-depth case studies. Based on this research, a sponsorship evaluation framework for sponsors is presented that includes: sponsee selection, risk management, strategic tactics, contingency planning, contract elements and post-contract tactics.

Corporate support: a corporate social responsibility alternative to traditional event sponsorship

This study investigates an emerging alternative to event sponsorship based on corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate support of major sporting events. The outcome of the 2005 FINA World Aquatic Championships presented a unique case of sponsorship and the purpose of this paper is to identify the factors which led to the development of corporate support as a viable alternative to sponsorship. Factors included the organising committees leadership, the positioning of the event (including the event/sport as a social cause, the benefits of hosting the event, CSR, and contextual limitations), and accessing corporate presidents directly. The cost of not getting involved and corporate peer pressure were found to moderate the event presidents decision to offer corporate support to the events organising committee. A model showing the interrelationship between the various factors is also proposed.

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.

Financing Social Marketing Programs Through Sponsorship: Implications for Evaluation

Increasing social needs, accompanied by reduced government funding and increased competition amongst not for profit organizations (NFPs), are driving NFPs to seek innovative approaches for financing. This paper reports on research designed to assess the impact of sponsorship financing of a social marketing initiative on the evaluation of those programs.

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.