BRAND FANS Lessons from the World’S Greatest Sporting Brands Brand Fans Aaron C.T

Home , Fan loyalty, Kia Tigers, Personal branding

AARON C.T. SMITH CONSTANTINO STAVROS KATE WESTBERG

BRAND FANS Lessons from the World’s Greatest Sporting Brands Brand Fans Aaron C.T. Smith • Constantino Stavros • Kate Westberg Brand Fans

Lessons from the World’s Greatest Sporting Brands Aaron C.T. Smith Kate Westberg RMIT University RMIT University Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Constantino Stavros RMIT University Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

ISBN 978-3-319-48853-0 ISBN 978-3-319-48854-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-48854-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017930175

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Cover illustration: Dmytro Aksyonov

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To James and Sophie—Kate Westberg With love to my best fans, my family—Constantino Stavros To Bob, who taught me that branding is the mind’s sport—Aaron Smith Contents

1 Introduction: Crowdsourcing Brand Equity 1 Introduction: Celebrate the Brand Fanatic 1 Sport Means Winning 4 Work in Symbols 7 Meet the Greats 11 Find the Lessons 15 Conclusion: Move from Emotion to Engagement 18 References 19

2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 25 Introduction: Move Closer 25 Step Up to the Plate 27 Clarify the Brand Image 32 Focus on Value Co-creation 34 Make the Customer Part of the Brand Team 40 Design Compelling Value Propositions 43 Extend Brand Reach 45 Facilitate Brand Fan Communities 48 Leverage the Value Network 51 Conclusion: Entangle Customers 53 References 54

vii viii Contents

3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 57 Introduction: Unleashing the Consumer 57 Encourage Customer Contributions to the Brand Experience 59 Recruit and Reward 63 Provide a Space 66 Create and Curate 71 Share Brand Stories 76 Entrust Brand Fans 79 Leverage the Fan Voice 82 Conclusion: Co-creation to Co-branding 84 References 85

4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 89 Introduction: Cradle to Grave 89 Build Resilient Brands 91 Use New Communities and Old Thinking (or Old Communities and New Thinking) 96 Turn Advocacy into Action 101 Cede Control 105 Untangle the Gridlock 108 Make Everyone a Winner 111 Create Tribal Teamwork 115 Make Tribes Louder 118 Conclusion: Find the New Disneyland 122 References 123

5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 125 Introduction: Get Ahead of the Curve 125 Make Passionate Partisans 129 Ride the Bumps with a Grin 133 Do Not Hide 137 Segment for Growth 139 Make Everyone a VIP 145 Multiply Media and Saturate Sponsors 148 Contents ix

Locate the Connection, Influence, and Persuasion Trinity 152 Conclusion: Give and You Shall Be Given 158 References 159

6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 161 Introduction: Start with a New Normal 161 Embrace the Digital Dynamic 163 Transform Consumers into Directors 165 Make Content Experiential 167 Use Superdata to Find the Digital Consumer 169 Measure and Escalate Relevance 171 Accept Real-Time Branding 173 Package the Virtual for Real (Branding) 177 Practice Failing Forward 179 Locate the Brand Fan 181 Work on Who They Think They Are 183 Make Old Fans Part of New Media 184 Conclusion: Make the Brand a Digital Destination 187 References 188

7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 191 Introduction: Engage and Enhance 191 Convert Loyalty into Fanaticism 194 Augment Experiences 195 Modularise Branding 197 Access the Mobile Mind 199 Pull, Do Not Push 202 Find a Platform 203 Create a Social Network 207 Make Strategic Social Choices 209 Leverage the Links 211 Find a Social Media Identity 214 Engage the Social Conscience 215 Conclusion: The Augmented Brand Fan 219 References 219 x Contents

8 Conclusion: Future Brand Fans 223 Introduction: The Sporting Touch 223 Virtual Brand Fans 226 Branding in a Cloudy Future: The Digital Mesh 228 Wearable and Comparable 229 Contingent Consumption Experiences 231 Advanced AI and Autonomous Behaviour 233 Lessons in Anticipating Sport’s Branding Future 234 Conclusion: A Brand Fan’s Future 238 References 239

Index 241 1

Introduction: Crowdsourcing Brand Equity

Introduction: Celebrate the Brand Fanatic

Upon the birth of Prince George, the son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and the third in line to the British throne, English Premier League (EPL) Club Aston Villa sent the parents a baby sized team shirt. The newborn future king would be a “Villa” fan, reasoned the club, on the basis that he would surely inherit his father’s fandom (telegraph.co.uk 2013). Just a few seasons later, the club was relegated to the Championship, one league level beneath the EPL. That disappointing turn of events did not, however, bend the Duke’s uncompromising allegiance or his desire for young George to follow in his father’s fan footsteps. The branding business is a high-stakes game. We use the term “game” purposefully and carefully in this competitive context. There are rules, competitors, and a carefully crafted game plan. And, there are winners and losers. Each and every organisation must kick goals to beat its competition, be it by a sale or in speed to market, to grab the glory and potential riches that come from forming a valued connection to a customer. When professional athletes and teams compete, the resulting contest has a dynamism that is unpredictable at its core. The exact way in which

© The Author(s) 2017 1 A.C.T. Smith et al., Brand Fans, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-48854-7_1 2 Brand Fans a contest unfolds (regardless of sport) is impossible to anticipate or control. Yet, from the chaos on the field emerge some of the most exhilarating moments of human experience. These passages of aesthetic wonder are fleeting glimpses of effortless perfection. They represent spontane- ous improvisations, founded upon countless hours of preparation, but realised in one string of critical activities that run together like a scripted performance. From the uncertainty of the contest arises a certain winner: the team or individual capable of converting complexity to innovation, chaos to control, choice to opportunity, and indecision to leadership. Great sporting brands have evolved to become great businesses by learning to navigate a highly charged and competitive world, where winning is all that matters. To succeed, they are driven both on and off the field by an insatiable desire to not only get ahead, but to stay ahead, despite the increased pace of modern competition. This race to the top is relentless; as seasons come and go, new challenges and challengers appear and rules change. Conducted publicly, with constant scrutiny and criticism, the race and chase have forged behaviours and strategies that can be distilled into elite practices with implications for all brands operating in a competitive environment. In this book, we reveal the cutting edge branding, value co-creation, and customer engagement techniques professional sport employs to cultivate insatiable fans and lifelong brand advocates. We explain how the greatest sport organisations have become champions of co-creation by building value through persistent and purposeful engagement. To do this, we consider a myriad of cases combined with the latest research to provide practical branding lessons. Our approach utilises elite, professional sport as a context for highlighting contemporary marketing methods, including the use of emerging technologies and communication channels. Our objective is to provide insight into how to turn passive consumers into passionate players, or as we have dubbed them in the title of this book, brand fans. While many brands from a range of product categories command impressive levels of consumer loyalty, we believe that some of the most potent examples are located in sport. In fact, the world’s best sport enterprises offer a unique lens for critically examining branding, value co-creation, and customer engagement. No other product in the world commands such fervent lifelong loyalty despite unpredictable quality 1 Introduction: Crowdsourcing Brand Equity 3 and variable success. Sport’s greatest organisations set the benchmark for “passion” branding because they ruthlessly pursue competitive advantage, incessantly drive value, and resolutely prioritise consumer engagement. Firms need to work hard to ensure that the brand experiences they create for their customers are superior to those of competitors or substitutable products. Technology is often seen as a panacea for engaging with customers, but it can also have the unfortunate potential to convert products or customer experiences into commodities. To fortify the consumption experience, firms must understand how customers bond with brands and become powerful advocates. Digital marketing and social media platforms demand a new kind of mind-set, where the conventional distance between properties, their marketing representatives, and consumers is blurred, and where success requires constant adaptation. No longer are digital and social media tools just “add-ons” to the standard marketing methods. Today, a digital world needs a carefully considered and crafted digital message. Consumers are inundated with marketing messages and brands must compete with a vast range of entertainment and communication technologies to gain traction in consumers’ minds. The human brain has adapted to become an effective marketing filter, expediently block- ing communication efforts that are not particularly salient as a defence mechanism against being inundated by “clutter”. An enormous volume of noise in the marketing environment has accompanied the explosion of new media channels. For many consumers, these new platforms have created a distracting, disconcerting, and sometimes overwhelming experience of unremitting “white noise”. Not only must brands cut through this clutter, but they must also rise above it to form enduring connections with their customers. Unfortunately, as marketers have realised, traditional attempts to combat clutter usually just create even more clutter, triggering the brain to be on high alert to the inevitable assault on the senses. In this new environment, conventional marketing strategies have become less effective. As a result, marketers need to be aware of the ways in which consumers’ lives are being transformed, and the corresponding new expectations they have of brand relationships. Contradiction and tension dominate the new space. Despite possess- ing more limited discretionary leisure time than ever before, consumers express a voracious appetite for more media from a greater variety 4 Brand Fans of outlets. Moreover, they belong to numerous social networks, and are increasingly fragmented as an audience, thus leading to the erosion of mass media effectiveness. Consumers also possess heightened expectations of personalised experiences, interactivity, choice, and control, and the opportunity to multi-task (Generation M). Most challenging, the stellar growth and adoption of user-generated content is set to eclipse more conventional brand communications. Brand Fans addresses these challenges by revealing the agile and cutting edge strategies that the world’s greatest sporting brands have embraced, not just to meet consumer expectations, but also to cultivate unprecedented brand value. The collision of the sport product’s fluid nature within a brutally competitive landscape creates a unique branding crucible, where an astonishing level of customer loyalty is tempered by a prodigious appetite for involvement and critical appraisal. Sporting enterprises harden or melt in this foundry. As a result, the best—the greatest sporting brands—have an unmatched capacity for brand dynamism, built upon an ability to deeply engage with the most fickle, discerning, and knowledgeable consumers in the world. Of all consumers, those interested in sport are paradoxically the most resilient as well as the most over-sensitive. We explain how the best sport brands—from the Dallas Cowboys and FC Barcelona to Nike and Usain Bolt—have co-created staggering economic, social, and symbolic value through intense partnerships with their consumers that go far beyond traditional approaches to marketing and communication. The insights from these brands and their experiences will be presented through three themes, the first focussing on the co- creation of value, the second on approaching brands as clubs of exclusive belonging, and the third on the powerful channels through which connections and identification can be canalised.

Sport Means Winning

We begin with the simple observation that sport brands elicit an unusu- ally high emotional intensity in many of their consumers. This force, ranging from heightened awareness to unbridled passion, augments loy- 1 Introduction: Crowdsourcing Brand Equity 5 alty to favourite sports, teams, athletes, and affiliated brands. From a marketing and branding viewpoint, the mechanism underpinning this surfeit of interest comes from the connections fans form with brands, leading to remarkably strong feelings of belonging and what is termed “identification”, or the emotional attachment inherent in these relationships. With cheerful alacrity, economists describe sport’s brand-consumer relationship as one of low cross elasticity of demand. This infers that one sporting brand cannot be readily replaced by another. As a result, sporting brands enjoy a low level of substitutability, even when they severely underperform. Few die-hard sporting fans switch their support to another team, no matter how badly things look on the field of play. Sport’s ability to arouse strong passionate attachment, unstinting loyalty, vicarious identification, and blind optimism markedly differentiates it from most other consumer-based products. That sporting brands provoke lifelong emotional energy—along with all the gratification and disappointment that goes with it—can be observed daily in the media and overheard anywhere from the coffee queue to the metaphorical workplace water-cooler. Evidence of sport’s brand reach extends well beyond just the anecdotal though. Research has demonstrated in multiple cultural contexts that sport brands wield a rare power to incite, arouse, and connect (Giulianotti 2002; Hardy 1999; Hornby 1995). In fact, some sport consumers may be better described as fanatics (the origin of the word fan), not just passionate, but thoroughly addicted (Rein et al. 2006; Stewart et al. 2003; Queenan 2003) to the inherent drama and consumptive rituals and practices of their obsession. At the same time, while less common, identification, belonging, and brand fanaticism are not exclusive to sport. Sport fan consumption undeniably fulfils a number of important psychological, social, and cultural needs ranging from escapism, stimulation, and entertainment, to national pride, cultural celebration, and a sense of community and personal identity (Armstrong 2002; Chen et al. 2008; Crawford 2004; Fink et al. 2002; Funk and James 2006; Hinch and Higham 2005; Milne and McDonald 1999; Zhang et al. 2001). However, other types of products can meet these and other important and powerful needs too. Our goal in this book is to show how sport makes the best use of its connections, so that other brands can achieve its heightened level of loyalty. 6 Brand Fans

Sport consumers use sport to meet their needs and extend their personal sense of self in the same way that other consumers use discretionary leisure and luxury products (Ahuvia 2005; Belk 1988; Timothy 2005). As a result, despite the excesses demonstrated by a small group of fanatics, most sport fans are no more irrational than any other consumer, and their exuberance, passion, and irrationality is similar to what has been noted in studies on the fashion industry, luxury products, cigarettes, alcohol, hospitality, and tourism (Belk et al. 2003; Ratneshwar and Mick 2005). Sport consumption is not so much the exception as the exemplar of contemporary consumer behaviour. The point is that sport’s lessons are transferrable. In addition, despite the advantages that sport holds, it is not all smooth sailing. Sport consumers are not all passionate and fanatical, nor do they all live vicariously through their favourite team or player in order to meet complex personal esteem needs. Their loyalty can be variable, their attendance irregular, and their interest erratic (Stewart et al. 2003). Sport consumers are also notoriously demanding and consider themselves to be experts given the vast knowledge they often acquire along with their fandom. As a result, they are quick to share their views far and wide, eagerly adopting these outspoken declarations as an entitlement of their patronage. Sport’s finest brands have, therefore, had to work out how to navigate the bad as well as harvest the good from their consumers. Perhaps, most strikingly, sport branding exemplifies the digital, integrated, engaged, and co-creative ambitions essential for success in the cutthroat contemporary global market. Consider the “smart stadium solution”, a joint venture engineered by technology fast-mover, Huawei, and IT consulting specialists, Infosys. The wireless technology in this project allows stadia and tenants to combine their physical presence with digital services, adding a significant layer of new experiential value for consumers. Using what Infosys calls an “Entertainment Experience Platform”, consumers are able to receive completely personalised material, packed into selected scenario-specific units of content. This tech-speak means that any “smart” venue offering the platform—whether stadia, racecourses, conference centres, or other major events settings—will be able to seamlessly deliver content to consumers, based on each individual’s unique contextual needs. For example, consumers will be able to access 1 Introduction: Crowdsourcing Brand Equity 7 smart maps for navigating their way around the venue, receive scenario- specific services like parking, access live and remote viewing and broadcasting, integrate with social media, benefit from loyalty offers, locate and pre-order food and beverages, organise transportation, and participate in gaming and other entertainment activities, from shopping to augmented reality. For the brands delivering the action, a suite of real-time dashboards, metrics, and alerts deliver data about consumers’ preferences, allowing for improved products and superior just-in-time supply.

Work in Symbols

In a colloquial sense, a brand is like contemporary art, we know it when we see it, and we know what we like, even if it is not always easy to explain or justify. From a more academic perspective, although branding as a marketing practice gained momentum in the buoyant 1950s, more refined notions of “brands” emerged around 20 years ago, concomitant with globalisation and the world’s most recent foray into a borderless marketplace. One enduring common definition holds that a brand represents a name and/or symbol, such as a logo, trademark, or design, designed to identify and differentiate the products of an organisation (Aaker 1991). For our purposes, this is far too simple and overlooks the complex intangible associations that consumers form with brands through image and identity. It is instructive to differentiate between two commonly employed terms: brand image and brand identity. Brand image reflects how a brand is perceived, whereas brand identity specifies the desired perception (Aaker 1996). The concept of image exists only in the minds of consumers, and the concept of identity is the basis for the marketing communications transmitted by an organisation (Randall 1997). Brand identity can be represented via four dimensions specified by Aaker (1996): brand as product, brand as organisation, brand as person, and brand as symbol. In practice, we use all of these metaphors interchangeably and fluidly. Looking back for a moment, the breakthrough work on branding was provided by Gardner and Levy (1955), the first to conceive of a brand and its name as more than just a rudimentary and representative label. 8 Brand Fans

Rather, these authors conceptualised a brand as a far more sophisticated mosaic, bound up in complex symbolic, emotional, and communicative associations that morph over time, as well as in the individual experiences of consumers. Part of this dynamism initially attributed to brands had to do with the seminal realisation that each brand constitutes a public object of sorts that changes consequentially with its environmental context. Brands subsequently became understood as living and breathing ecosystems not only subject to market forces but also capable of growing beyond their original conception into something with a life of its own. As a result, Gardner and Levy (1955) presciently anticipated the contemporary vision of branding (Aaker 1997), wherein a brand’s status or value is not necessarily a causal output of its functionality or usefulness. Levy (1959) went on to foreshadow what we now understand as the symbolic power of consumption. In a world where the major economic centres drive consumption less around the provision of survival needs and more around the evocative experience of use, branding has become the process for connecting consumption motivation with associative meanings. Just as Levy predicted, products operate not just as direct experiences, but also as mediators for meaning. Brands provide psychological architecture upon which consumers can scaffold representations of their needs, often in the form of symbolic meaning and personal identification. For branding it is as much, if not more, about the attitude it projects and the image we perceive, than the tangible product or intangible service it embodies. As we noted, branding evolved in the 1990s to encompass another level of sophistication. Under the revised model, brands started to be seen as synonymous with value systems delivered through a host of communication symbols, designs, and messages (de Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley 1998). Marketers began to understand the power of a brand, well beyond its serviceable role and importance (Farquhar 1989). At the heart of this renaissance was an acceptance that a brand’s essence could not be fully captured in its symbolic markers (Keller 1993, 2009). Although ephemeral, a brand’s true essence lies in the connected meanings con- cealed within consumers’ minds (de Chernatony 2001; King 1991; Stern 2006). And so, the era of the big brand began with the recognition that brands not only fulfil consumer’s utilitarian needs but also those desires 1 Introduction: Crowdsourcing Brand Equity 9 affiliated with a consumer’s self-identity, which turns out to be far more powerful when it comes to forging brand loyalties (Kempf 1999). Enter sport and its brands, since no other form of product consumption experience can rival its impact upon self-identification through belonging, vicarious success, or tribal allegiance. In fact, one of the significant developments from the seminal branding research conducted in the 1990s was a deep appreciation for how the symbolic equity of a brand can be augmented by highly emotive associations (Fournier 1998). The New Zealand Rugby All Blacks, Real Madrid, New York Yankees, Mumbai Indians (Indian Premier League Cricket), Scuderia Ferrari Formula One Racing Team, Corinthians Paulista (Brazilian football club), Manchester United, Yomiuri Giants (Japanese baseball team), Guangzhou Evergrande (Chinese football team), and the Dallas Cowboys, are all exemplars of brands oozing with symbolic equity. Research has unequivocally demonstrated a spectacular level of this equity imbued within sport brands (Gladden and Funk 2002; Frederick and Patil 2010). More broadly, other evidence reveals that brands endowed with symbolic equity can more easily mobilise consumers to engage with them as “relationship partners” (Fournier 1998) and participate in their brand communities (Muniz and O’Guinn 2001). In accordance with the theory, a brand signals to consumers that it is different from others, and anchors this marker to a unique combination of imagery that sticks in the mind. You might never have owned a Ferrari, or even been inside one, yet you know what the brand is about. Successful brands connect with consumers quickly and powerfully. As a consequence, they stimulate a suite of thoughts, emotional experiences, and behavioural outcomes. Brands help consumers to remember products by triggering images in their minds. But the best brands do not drive this experience directly; they simply use their awareness and image to empower consumers to make the necessary connections, in the knowledge that those self-identified bonds are the strongest persuaders (Keller 2003a). A strong brand is thus one that has both a high level of recognition in the market, and unique associated positive connections. Manchester United, Ferrari, Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Lakers, FC Barcelona, the IOC, FIFA and Nike are all examples of immensely powerful sport brands. 10 Brand Fans

As the beneficiary of high levels of brand loyalty, sport itself has a natural connection with the dynamics of branding (Bristow and Sebastian 2001; Stewart and Smith 1999; Underwood et al. 2001). For example, in sport, the contest comprises the core product (Gladden and Funk 2002), which can be consumed live on site or through media (Ferrand and Pages 1999). However, it is also unpredictable in both quality and outcome (Mullin et al. 2000). Outcome uncertainty underpins the most prominent sport brand names in the world, such as the Olympic Games, and its universally recognised five rings logo (Ferrand and Pages 1999; Duffy 2003). The whole process of cultivating a brand, its message, and its consumer responses resides at the core of contemporary business. No marketing commentator could possibly deny the impact of brand management— the process of branding—as a pivotal strategic factor in determining the fate of a company and its products (Shilbury et al. 2003). In short, branding governs the relationships between organisations and their customers (Calderón et al. 1997). In marketing parlance, when the relationship assumes a closer or deeper character, a product is said to enjoy “brand loyalty” (Aaker 1996). In fact, when customers keep coming back even when circumstances change and new competitors arrive, companies have transformed brand loyalty into “brand equity”, upon which the entire value of a company is founded (Guillaume 1993). It many ways, brand equity captures the ultimate measure of a brand’s assets and liabilities (Gladden et al. 1998; Gladden and Milne 1998). It is our claim that there is much to learn from the ways in which top sport brands build and mobilise their brand loyalty to shape brand equity. We begin with the premise that a brand constitutes an identifying badge; marked, reinforced, and magnified by a name and a logo or image that helps consumers recognise in the first instance, and then remember, a product. After a time, consumers’ opinions and perceptions about a product are shaped by the brand image portrayed, as well as by their own unique experiences with the brand. Brand strategy therefore seeks to reflect a product’s positioning in the marketplace, demarcating it from competitors in terms of function, quality, price, benefits, and a range of other factors, including emotional connections and reflective analyses. Product sales are affected by how easily a consumer can distinguish 1 Introduction: Crowdsourcing Brand Equity 11 between products. Branding helps products stand out from the crowd because the way a consumer thinks about a product becomes a powerful form of fortification. Branding augments a product by helping to create associated ideas that make it resonate with the consumer or a consumer segment. The added value that a product accumulates due to the perception of the brand is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Strong brand equity presents the best defence against any economic downturn and the best platform from which to launch any new endeavour. As we will demonstrate throughout this book, sport products yield a range of noteworthy brand-building strategies. In South Korea, corporate giants have used professional sport franchises as brand extensions, particularly in baseball (Walsh et al. 2015). For example, the Korea Baseball Organization comprises ten professional teams, including the Kia Tigers, the Samsung Lions, and the Lotte Giants. Of course, the use of brand extensions in sport takes its lead from cities and universities eager to create symbols around which branding can rally and easily identify. From the EPL’s Arsenal Gunners to the University of Iowa’s Hawkeyes, sporting brands are expert at fashioning connections to manufactured extensions of their identity.

Meet the Greats

Throughout this book, we employ examples from the cutting edge of sport, drawing on what we consider to be the world’s greatest sporting brands. Exactly what constitutes a “world great” might be the subject of vigorous debate. Our approach is less about a definitive list of great brands and more about what can be learned from sport’s latest thinking. As a result, we do not provide a hard and fast set of rules as to which brands are the best. Nor do we limit our selection solely to the most valuable, most famous, or most successful brands. Rather, we think that all the lessons from sport branding can be highlighted using a wide range of illustrative cases, and we make no attempt to delimit our choices to some predetermined suite of attributes or conditions. Yet, through this kaleido- scope of examples, a handful of recurring themes features throughout this book including value co-creation, consumer engagement, and exclusive 12 Brand Fans communication channels. The greatest sporting enterprises in the world have at least these attributes in common when it comes to their branding activities. Some examples of the enterprises we draw upon might be instructive in introducing our approach to selecting branding lessons from sport. One of the most valuable and iconic sport franchises in the world, the New York Yankees, is worth more than US$3.4 billion (forbes.com 2016), and could be regarded as one of the most effective brands for leveraging a city, even one with the global presence of New York City. If another were to rival the Yankees, it would be Manchester United, worth around US$3.3 billion (forbes.com 2016), which sets the benchmark when it comes to generating support outside its once geographically constrained catchment in England’s north. Over in Spain, football heavyweight, Real Madrid, boasts a former Manchester United player, Cristiano Ronaldo, on its brand attributes list, whose individual marketing power rivals that of many elite sports teams. In the highly regarded National Football League (NFL), whose marketing prowess as a league is unsurpassed, the Dallas Cowboys top the value list, and adopt the branding position as “America’s Team”, guaranteed to stimulate a fervour that produces love or hate responses among football fans and little in-between. From the depths of these emotional reactions, the greatest sport brands generate lifelong loyalty. Consider what might be the non- sport brand equivalent of the Boston Red Sox’s astonishing record of more than 700 consecutively sold out games? Or the Green Bay Packers, housed in a town of little more than 100,000, where every game since 1960 has been a sell-out and where the waiting list for season tickets extends to over 80,000 names, and amounts to three decades for a new signatory to secure a seat (packers.com 2016). We also examine the way superstar athletes have established such immense and impassioned followings. Although his star has faded over recent years, Tiger Woods redefined not only the sport personality brand, but also achieved a new level of personal branding. Current champions have a firmly established brand position, like Roger Federer, Simone Biles, Usain Bolt, LeBron James, Katie Ledecky, Cristiano Ronaldo, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ronda Rousey, Serena Williams, Conor McGregor, Lewis Hamilton, and Tom Brady. 1 Introduction: Crowdsourcing Brand Equity 13

While sport for some is synonymous with famous teams and hallmark events, some of the most innovative branding has been pioneered by businesses in sport-related products and fashion. For example, Nike, the market leader in the branded footwear market, single-handedly transformed sportswear into fashion, despite always emphasising the performance function of its apparel over form. In fact, Nike’s branding methods have revolutionised marketing. The company made an art out of associations, collecting and leveraging the personal iconography of sport—including Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Lebron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, and Maria Sharapova—and absorbing it into their brand identity. One of their main competitors, adidas, positions itself as being an integral part of sport, having placed authenticity at the apex of its brand. As such, it proudly leverages its long-standing relationship with FIFA and has successfully exploited the investment in two of the most recognisable faces on the planet, David Beckham and Lionel Messi. Another sport fashion label won by narrowing its brand appeal: Reebok showed how athletic footwear could create lucrative new niches—by creating a fitness segment—all through clever brand strategies. Meanwhile, as a relative newcomer on the field, Under Armour is the world’s fastest growing athletic wear brand, with a remarkable capacity to assemble a range of powerful and diverse athletes in its sponsorship stable (e.g. basketballer Stephen Curry, American footballer Tom Brady, golfer Jordan Spieth, and skier Lindsey Vonn), and in-so-doing branding themselves as the underdog with a bite. Although we draw from an expansive cross-section of sport brands, two further examples exemplify the impact of sport branding at its finest. Nutritional supplements and sports drinks constitute an immense market sector, having grown at a remarkable rate over the last decade. The sports drink market leader Gatorade, is driven predominantly by a branding strategy that has made its products synonymous with recovery and performance. In a completely different but equally lucrative, fast-growth sector, EA Sports has demonstrated how to leverage vicarious experiences and identification in sport via gaming, the brand now inseparably identified with both FIFA and various other sporting competitions, including the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the National Hockey League. 14 Brand Fans

Lessons can be found not just in sport products, but also in sport content. ESPN, for instance, is the largest sports network in the United States and has a significant footprint across the world, achieved through innovation, valuable programming, and an astute revenue model. Taking a different approach, Sky Sports is Europe’s biggest sport broadcaster, and an exemplar of how technology channels can add immense value to a brand’s basic content. Our examples also include some the world’s most identifiable and valuable sporting events and competitions. For example, the NFL’s marquee event, the Super Bowl, is estimated to be worth US$425 million, attracts over 100 million viewers in the United States alone, and commands more than US$4 million for a 30-second television commercial (superbowlcommercials.tv 2016). The event’s gravitational pull on American business is so strong that it serves as an annual measure of the health and creativity of the advertising industry. Another mega-event, the Summer Olympic Games, enjoys a near universal brand awareness for its famous logo of five intersecting rings. At about half the value of its older summer sibling, the Winter Olympic Games has made a strong branding impact by effectively creating its own brand category, blending artistic endeavour with the modern thrills of snow and adventure sports. No other single sport event can compete with the global reach and brand impact of the FIFA World Cup. In terms of a league, the UEFA Champions League competition for the top 32 football clubs in Europe, manages to return well over a billion dollars to its participating clubs. The brand melds national identities with team loyalties. With the benefit of a whole series of games, rather than just a Super Bowl-like championship match, the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series boasts a prodigious brand profile. In a uniquely American lesson from branding, the MLB demonstrates how an event limited to teams in the United States and Canada can live up to a claim of being a “world series”. Only the NCAA, the collegiate body that governs university sports in the United States, has worked out how to brand sport with such fervour. Its men’s basketball Final Four competition can earn around three quarters of a billion dollars a year in television rights alone, while its annual “College Football Playoff” series, is one of the most anticipated and watched sporting events on the calendar. 1 Introduction: Crowdsourcing Brand Equity 15

An even more parochial example in the United States is NASCAR’s flagship motor race, the Daytona 500. NASCAR has reinvented itself, rewriting the brand rules, by creating a niche product that attracts multiple segments of highly passionate and engaged followers. Finally, some horse racing brands have managed to marry a unique combination of entertainment, aesthetic performance, gambling, and technical admiration. Examples include the Kentucky Derby, the Melbourne Cup, and the Grand National. Yet, each of these pales in comparison against the world’s richest purse, the Dubai World Cup with its US$10 million prize money (dubairacingclub.com 2016).

Find the Lessons

Seven chapters follow this introduction, six providing the key lessons and one presenting a future-oriented conclusion. Chapter 2, “Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators”, focuses on how great sport brands have managed to construct dynamic, agile offerings that have the effect of transforming consumers into lifelong fans. It explains that this remarkable impact emerges from a commitment to customer engagement and interaction, specifically where fans and brands co-create consumption experiences. As a consequence, great brands yield value for both their customers and their own brand equity. Both physical and digital platforms play important roles. Traditional channels stabilise the brand proposition through reliable, known, and conservative media. At the same time, new media delivers instant and constant connectivity, extending the brand’s reach across all spheres of geography and time. In combination, value co-creation occurs because consumers feel sufficiently connected with their team or sport, so that they strive to interact with the brand as well as with like-minded fans. Attachment and passion grows commensurate with the contributions made. As a result, consumers convert volitionally from casual supporters to engaged co-creators of the brand’s identity, and therefore its offerings. Augmenting the experiences are affiliated sport partners like sponsors, broadcasters, platforms, and media, which all help to amplify the brand experience. 16 Brand Fans

Chapter 3, Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content, begins with a revised perspective of both brand manager and consumer. In respect to the former, brands need “hosts”, not custodians. Sport shows us how high performing brands nurture consumers through a co-creation process culminating in strengthened personal identities and value. Effective brand managers are like a skilled dinner host in a social setting, ensuring that each guest leaves full of both satisfying content and bonhomie, not to mention a bond with the affable entertainer and other attendees. In respect to the latter, the new consumer is empowered, defined not just by his or her transaction, but also by a market effect. Bolstered by new media, the new consumer in sport has irrevocably shifted the nature of the fan experience by shaping it personally and in concert with fellow fans as part of a digital tribe. Sport foreshadows the undeniable trend rippling across all sectors. Brand fans seek interaction, involvement, and engagement with the brand, its products, and other fans. They contribute unique content and stimulate immense brand value. However, as the chapter cautions, only if brand managers let them. Chapter 3 reveals how sport has managed the tensions between control and collaboration, in the process providing a template for value co-creation in a world where user content shapes brand composition. It shows how sport brands became among the first to successfully crowdsource brand equity. Chapter 4, Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism, takes the engaged, co-creating brand fan a step further. It explains how individuals and brands become intertwined through communities built upon ritualistic, tribal practices. Fan communities endure because they merge the iconic identities of sport brands with the vicarious appetites of sport followers. Solidified in tribal symbolism and psychological meaning, fan communities reveal how value co-creation can assume an existential significance that goes far beyond a linear brand proposition. We show how the mature communication networks that have evolved around intersecting communities hold valuable lessons for all kinds of brands seeking improved identification. Chapter 5, Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty, transitions from identification to loyalty. The chapter examines how sport brands have nurtured new levels of consumer loyalty well beyond that observed for other kinds of products. In unpacking some of the psychological dimen- 1 Introduction: Crowdsourcing Brand Equity 17 sions of consumer loyalty, the chapter exposes sport’s unique methods for crafting a lifelong link between product and consumption. At the intersection, we find an unprecedented intensity of passion that extends further than conventional product loyalty, holding resilient in the face of product failure, and engendering uncompromising personal commitment. Here, we uncover how fans escalate to brand fans, and how loyal consumers become “passionate partisans”. Somewhere between social acceptance and exclusivity, sport brands create consumption experiences with brand fans that linger as immortal moments. Chapter 6, Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive, ventures into the vast world of dynamic data, and its potential for enhancing the consumer experience. Taking a lead from the earlier concept of value co- creation—a mainstay theme of this book—this chapter explores the paradox of accumulating brand power by giving it away. With consumer- generated content as a central mediator of brand intensity in a digital environment, we reveal how sport enterprises have taken a bold step further. Not only do they encourage their customers to generate content, they also give them the power to control that content. The strategy is made successful by the meticulous use of data analytics. Such “super data”, made available due to a proliferation of digital information, allows brands to address their consumers’ preferences with an unprecedented degree of surgical precision. In removing the data noise, sport enterprises have discovered an ability to make real-time branding decisions, often including those enabling consumers to fluidly control their own content. However, real-time responsiveness requires nerve, as it also involves constant and rapid product prototyping. Sport recognises that the best brands incorporate digital destinations as part of their value propositions. Chapter 7, Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic, delves deeper into the potential for augmenting consumers’ experiences in order to create more meaningful connections. It argues that where sporting brands have relentlessly augmented experiences, a trail of brand fans follow. A central lesson revolves around modularised branding, which employs the fluid mobility that digital delivery affords in order to meet the specialised nuances of consumer preferences. Mobile channels also bolster consumers’ experiences through personalised content. This chapter emphasises the importance of selecting the right branding tool for the job, where 18 Brand Fans content is aligned to channel. To that end, a brand must manage its social hub as a whole entity in a process of social curation, mindful of the consumer “conscience”. The final chapter, Conclusion: Future Brand Fans, peers enthusiastically at the future trajectory of branding, both in sport as well as for other sectors and products. In the presence of an imminent and exponential technological convergence, we predict a transition from passive consumption to active, dynamic engagement. With the arrival of the “postmobile consumer”, every “thing” has a sensor connection, and everything is online. The concept of mobility will become redundant; an unnecessary description in a world where there is nothing but the constantly connected. One outcome we anticipate is the emergence of a new category of consumer, the “brand epicurean”, characterised by neither functional requirements nor the need for identity. As loyalty softens, the epicureans will change their affiliations upon a whim. Brands will face the prospect that there will be no single way of structuring value as it will shift sinuously, matching an individual’s temporal and contextual needs. As consumers become further overwhelmed with options, marketers will have to invent smarter ways to become central to not just consumers’ purchasing habits, but their lives more broadly. In an environment that may even punish loyalty as synonymous to being taken-for-granted, survival will depend upon vigilant and continuous reinvention.

Conclusion: Move from Emotion to Engagement

In the prologue to his seminal book on strategic brand management, renowned branding expert, Kevin Lane Keller (2003b: xv), proclaims that “branding is not rocket science”. Keller’s instructional insight comes from his father, who was an actual rocket scientist. We agree in this book that branding is indeed not rocket science. However, we think it is something far more challenging! In building brands, marketers do not have the certainty of scientific laws proven through countless, replicable experiments to rely upon. The standards of physics, chemistry, and thermodynamics provide precise guidance that would allow each of us, theoretically at 1 Introduction: Crowdsourcing Brand Equity 19 least, to build a rocket with a certainty of success. Branding strategy, of course, comes with no such finite parameters. As Keller notes, all we can do is try and improve the odds of success, blending science with art to shape strategies that will hopefully build the loyalty and equity that accumulates through consumer experiences. The certainty about branding in the contemporary global marketplace is that it is complex, turbulent, and powerfully affected by inescapable and unpredictable variables like the whimsical preferences and needs of fickle consumers, the evolution of the organisation and its goals, as well as a suite of regulatory idiosyncrasies trying to keep up with constant technological change. To put it another way, branding is a lot like sport. There can be little doubt that sport arouses an emotional intensity that has few parallels in the world of business. The symbolism of sport seems to transcend the rational borders of the mind, generating a deep psychological bond that few brands could ever dream of acquiring. Even some of the most prominent brand names in the world, which already enjoy tremendous loyalty, like McDonald’s, Apple, Google, Sony, Visa, Toyota, Microsoft and Coca-Cola, will often align themselves with sport to enhance their image. Sport entangles relationships, both business and consumer, enhancing experiences with an array of networks, including other potential consumers. As a result, one of the more powerful lessons from sport can be found in the way it operates as a stimulator of emotional attachment, which permeates and moulds commercial benefits.

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Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators

Introduction: Move Closer

As a first premise, we observe a seismic shift in thinking about how consumers engage with brands. The contemporary consumer is no longer regarded as a passive recipient of brand messages and brand-initiated interactions, but plays a more central and interactive role in shaping brand relationships. Accordingly, viewing customers as brand partners and inviting them to actively engage has escalated in importance. Creating customer engagement with a brand means achieving what has been described as a “psychological state that occurs by virtue of an interactive, co-creative customer experience” (Brodie et al. 2011, p. 260). That is, the consumer’s interaction with a brand results in a co-created experience, stimulating engagement and delivering experiential value. Consumers are mobile, connected, and informed. And they are demanding higher levels of personalisation, customisation, and value than ever before. The world’s most valuable sport brands—including teams such as the phenomenally successful Manchester United Football Club, iconic cultural events like Wimbledon, and formidable sports equipment brands like Nike—have risen to the challenge by inventing multi-channel engagement models.

As a result, sport spectators have been transformed into passionate brand fanatics who maintain a fervent long-term loyalty. A fiercely competitive climate impels businesses to develop customer- centric strategies stimulating emotional, cognitive, and behavioural responses; brands must engage the hearts, minds, and actions of consumers. In order to do so, brand managers must understand the types of interactions and experiences that will prove valuable to consumers. Value is not something created by an organisation and mysteriously embedded in its products. Rather, value emerges collaboratively, co-created through interactions between the customer and the brand, and potentially between the customer and other key stakeholders. In the context of a sport experience, the process of value co-creation occurs when a fan congregates with other fans, his or her sport team, the opposition team and their fans, sponsors, umpires, media commentators, event staff, and other entertainment providers; all pivotal players in co- creating the sport experience. The sport “product” does not remain con- fined to the excitement and uncertain outcomes of the action on field. It encompasses the emotional cheering, chanting, merchandise-wearing, face-painted crowd interacting with other fans, live or virtually connected, while perhaps even wielding a second screen to access commentary, replays, and statistics. Multiple interactions collectively forge the value that a fan receives from each experience. A co-creation perspective highlights the importance of the collaboration, which can occur beyond the fan/team dyad to include a broader group of stakeholders that form the sport value network (Woratschek et al. 2014). Sport, like many products, operates within a type of ecosystem, where various parties work together to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes through interactions and the sharing of knowledge and other cultural resources. Successful brands create opportunities to leverage valuable partners in this system, but keep the customer front and centre, mindful that the final determination of value resides with a customer’s individual consumption experience (Gummurus 2013). Given their vital role in co-creating the brand experience, brand fans are not just customers but also a precious resource. Consequently, co- creation has gained traction in business practice, becoming instrumental to the way sport organisations operate and facilitate mutually benefi- 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 27 cial relationships, not only with fans, but also with other stakeholders within the sport network. Great sport brands recognise that co-creation is collaborative, with engagement at its heart. Co-creation empowers the consumer. It provides a more holistic approach to understanding value because it blurs the boundary between brand and consumer. However, adopting this approach to brand management and customer relationships requires a customer-centric view, starting with a deep understanding of behavioural motivations and the brand’s relevance and meaning to each customer. A co-creative approach also requires firms to relinquish some control over their brands to allow the customer to create unique experiences with personal meanings. Facilitating co-creation requires constant communication in order to develop common ground and invite collaboration, relational efforts to form social bonds, and sufficient information sharing to allow each party to achieve their goals (Neghina et al. 2015). This chapter explores how sport brands have developed dynamic and interactive strategies designed to transform spectators into fans and facilitate the co-creation of brand experiences, leading to value for not only the customer, but also the organisation. These interactions and experiences embrace both physical and digital platforms. A proliferation of new media provides constant connectivity, allowing fans to engage through multiple platforms, while extending the brand’s reach beyond game day. For these fans, value co-creation takes place through team interaction. But value also arises as a result of interactions with other fans, connected by their common passion and attachment to the sport brand. Key sport partners, such as sponsors and media organisations, leverage the effect by providing unique experiences that amplify the sport brand even further. Examining the strategies used by powerful sport brands provides lessons that can be applied to all brands seeking to develop meaningful engagement strategies and value propositions to transform customers into brand fans.

Step Up to the Plate

Influential sport brands have the ability to ignite passion and stimulate intense emotion. Fans can be transported to the dizzying heights of immense joy, pride, and even ecstasy, but they also can be plunged 28 Brand Fans into the depths of frustration, anger, and despair. This brand-inspired intensity was communicated by one young fan of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Boston Celtics, who professed on the team’s fan blog (in an article he felt compelled to write during the fourth quarter of a playoff game!) that he loved the team, but was also frustrated by them. Watching his team play was like a rollercoaster of emotion, but no matter what, his support would not waver. Successful sport brands purposefully develop strategies to stimulate a deep emotional engagement and ownership of the brand. However, understanding the customer’s motivation is paramount before an organisation can embark upon a value co-creation strategy. We, therefore, consider the crucial question of what turns a passive spectator into a passionate fan. Sport delivers a unique form of experiential consumption characterised by its outcome uncertainty, as well as the level of emotion or affiliation that the participating sporting teams and athletes engender. True fans identify themselves as sustained supporters of their team or favourite athlete through thick and thin, for better or worse. Indeed, this identification can form a part of a fan’s self-concept. The notion of team identification comes from social identity theory. It describes a fan’s psychological connection to a team and their perception that the performance of that team is self-relevant (Wann et al. 2001). Highly identified fans display a deep solidarity with their team resulting from a suite of influences, most commonly including geographic proximity and perceived pressure through family and close peer groups. Of course, sport teams rely on the power of generational loyalty and strive to engage families and attract new fans, whether through children inspiring their parents, or as is more common, parents imposing their fandom upon their offspring. Successful team performance or the presence of a star player also attracts heightened awareness and interest, as does exposure through media channels. However, initial awareness and interest do not always translate to fandom. Despite the strong effects of familial indoctrination, brand fans are not simply born, they are coaxed and cultivated. A generous volume of sport marketing research has agreed that the sport consumer progresses through various stages before becoming a committed fan. For example, the 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 29

Psychological Continuum Model proposed by Funk and James (2001), identifies four hierarchical stages of fandom. The first stage reflects an awareness of a team’s existence, which can then escalate into an attraction based on an acquired knowledge of the team. Next, an attachment resulting from a psychological connection can emerge, and might culminate in a fully-formed allegiance, the strongest form of attachment expressed in an almost blind devotion to the team. Naturally, all brands aspire to such attachment, as allegiant consumers represent powerful brand advocates. Similar models have been proposed for understanding the progression of consumer attachment and loyalty in other consumption settings, and they all wield a similar hierarchy. Transforming customers into brand fans requires carefully considered strategies in order to progress the customer to the next level and to prioritise and retain those fans that most strongly identify with the brand throughout this progression. Customers will also have different motives for engaging with a chosen brand. Consumption often carries with it a symbolic personal meaning. When given a choice, customers will select brands that consciously or unconsciously have meaning for them, either personally or through group identification (Belk 1988). For sport fans, engagement tends to be motivated by factors such as entertainment, excitement, or “eustress” (a positive form of stress), escape, aesthetic appeal, self-esteem, companionship, and group affiliation (Wann 1995). Many of these motives also inspire other consumption choices. All firms must possess a deep understanding of the influences on consumer behaviour for each customer segment they service. A key challenge for brand managers lies in identifying and then catering to various consumer motivations. Each motivation may even require a different consumption experience in order to meet a single customer’s needs. For example, sport teams target fans motivated by entertainment through enhancements to the core experience of the game, such as half time shows, mascots, cheerleaders, music, and theme days. For fans motivated by group affiliation, merchandise encourages a fan’s display of team identification, while pre-game events in fan zones or fan caves provide socialisation and the sharing of rituals and tradition with the fan community. For those interested in the aesthetic appeal or athleticism of the sport, replays of dramatic events are shown, both in stadium and media 30 Brand Fans broadcasts, not to mention the plethora of statistics available to record and admire the athletic performance. Sport fans engage in value co-creation organically, by creating their own unique experiences of the game through personal activities and rituals. Examples include deciding who to watch the game with and where; interacting face-to-face or virtually with other fans by posting or responding to comments; checking statistics or listening to commentary; wearing team apparel; participating in chants or cheering; taking photos or “selfies” to post on social media; consuming food and drink; and purchasing merchandise. Opportunities abound for an individual fan to shape the brand experience and the consequent value that they receive. These activities all add to the excitement and ambient environment of the event, and contribute to the perception of value, for both the fan as well as for others who share that event experience. As will be discussed in the following sections, all organisations can facilitate the value co-creation process for their customers, by developing a range of resources and engagement opportunities specific to each segment. Customer value can be quite idiosyncratic. Different customer types may derive value from different aspects of the experience. In addition, brand managers need to consider how to facilitate consumer brand identification. Sport brands do this in several ways, such as by selling team merchandise for fans to signal their belonging to a larger group, and by bringing emotionally connected fans together to share a common brand lust. Creating brand fans requires putting customers at the centre of the experience, allowing them to shape it according to their own personal meanings. While this sounds simple, it can prove complex for many firms, and they must undertake research to determine how customers both view and evaluate their experiences. While most firms have various mecha- nisms for collecting customer feedback, deriving insights from research and integrating it into meaningful action remains challenging. Adopting a co-creative approach to developing valuable brand experiences begins by engaging customers. Rich and textured dialogue opens the door to leveraging the customer voice as a source of innovation and creativity. Successful sport brands capitalise on the passion of highly identified fans by inviting them to share valuable experiential insights. For example, 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 31 after years of successful growth, NASCAR (the US National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) faced a decline in both attendance and television ratings. Recognising the importance of their most enthusiastic supporters to the continued success of auto-racing, the organisation developed the “Official NASCAR Fan Council” for the express purpose of giving fans a voice. This initiative resulted in the creation of an “insight community” comprising their most passionate fans. The Council is regularly consulted on issues ranging from the on-track experience to business decisions, as exemplified by the Council’s proud web page declaration: “Your Sport. Your Voice. Your NASCAR” (nascarfancouncil.com 2016). Although the Council members receive no remuneration, they respond as active participants in shaping the sport they love. Each month, NASCAR recognises one of these members, posting a profile and interview on its website. When one “member of the month” was asked why she joined the Fan Council, she effusively declared her love of the sport and her unequiv- ocal willingness to do whatever she could to support NASCAR. Since the Council’s inception, NASCAR has collected more feedback from their most important and influential fans at a lower cost than all their previous research efforts combined (visioncritical.com 2016). And, after a worry- ing few years, the organisation was able to reverse the declining trend in viewership and reclaim a powerful entertainment position in the highly competitive North American marketplace. While there are a myriad reasons that might explain why different customers engage with a brand, an effective brand strategy needs a focus, underpinned by targeted customer segments. While it might seem that sport has a ubiquitous appeal and targets all and sundry, successful sporting brands design strategies with specific audiences in mind. For example, “millennial” sport fans (generally those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s) are more interested in technology-facilitated engagement, such as fan-created content shared on social media, than non-millennials. But they can also be open to traditional forms of advertising when presented in the stadium. Many sport brands have increased their use of digital and mobile technologies in order to cater for this evolving fan segment. Even sporting events steeped in tradition, such as the Wimbledon tennis championships, have embraced the modern sport fan by allowing the use of smart phones and tablets during the matches, thus catering for 32 Brand Fans the constant connectivity and second screen enhanced experience of the event. In the next section, we discuss how brands need to be consistent in communicating their image and values through visual cues and accessible information. This constellation of imagery and text allows consumers to assess whether the brand is congruent with their personal and social identity or the identity to which they aspire. Successful sport brands provide a sense of history. They connect their brand to other meaningful social, cultural, or geographic markers; an approach just as relevant to brands occupying other sectors.

Clarify the Brand Image

Transforming customers into brand fans requires a well-defined and consistent positioning of the brand and its values. In sport, the unpredictability of the product—in terms of player action, team performance, and game outcome—combined with increasing competition for the consumer’s shrinking leisure time, means that a brand’s image must maintain stability and relevance. A defined and favourable brand image affects consumers’ perceptions, differentiating a brand from its competitors and engendering a sense of loyalty and commitment. A sport team’s brand image, therefore, plays a significant role in cultivating loyal fans (Bauer et al. 2008). For sport teams, fan loyalty not only has competitive benefits, but also helps insulate against the unpredictability of the competition, which notoriously, can turn avid fans into more occasional “fair weather” fans. Popular sport brands are propelled by on-field success. However, even the best athletes and teams go through performance slumps. Yet the brand, and associated loyalty, can nevertheless remain unshakable. A powerful brand, both in and beyond sport, captures the imagination of its fans and achieves an emotional bond, difficult to break given the psycho- social attachment it entails. Numerous factors contribute to a brand’s image as well as the functional, symbolic, and experiential benefits fans derive from the brand. In sport, these factors obviously include the players—particularly the stars—the coach and other key staff, and the team’s 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 33 performance. It can also encompass elements such as the brand’s logo and imagery, the stadium, the uniforms, the team’s history and values, sponsors, fans, and geographic connections. The sport experience itself tends to confer primarily symbolic benefits such as identification, belonging, and pride, as well as experiential benefits such as socialising and companionship, entertainment and escape. When the brand’s image corresponds with the benefits a fan perceives and receives, it achieves an intangible but powerful sense of authenticity. Brand authenticity represents a subjective assessment of what consumers perceive to be real or genuine. Although not necessarily a conscious evaluation, authenticity relies on a consumer’s personal interactions with a brand, usually within the context of the consumer’s sense of identification. A consumer’s assessment of authenticity relates to a brand’s commitment to quality, heritage, and sincerity (Beverland 2009). Effective brand management means providing imagery and experiences that lead to a positive assessment of the brand’s authenticity, and consequently its relevance to the consumer. The New York Yankees are one of the most valuable sporting franchises in the world and the most successful Major League Baseball (MLB) team of all time with an astounding record of 27 championships from 40 appearances in the “World Series” since 1903. Its focus on recruiting star players and phenomenal success in the ballpark, not to mention its location in one of the most captivating cities in the world, has obviously attracted a considerable and dedicated fan following. The Yankees were frequently referenced in the hit television series “Seinfeld”, parlaying the club’s pursuit of success and notable characters into popular mediated entertainment. In addition, the club’s rich history has contributed in no small part to the brand’s aura, from the signature pinstripe home uniform with its interlocking NY logo, to the team’s 100-year-old rivalry with the Boston Red Sox. Since the early days of the now immortalised Babe Ruth, who initially played for the Red Sox before being controversially traded to New York, the Yankees have occupied a special place in the hearts and minds of their fans, who not only want to share in the team’s achievements, but also want to be a part of its rich and compelling history. For hard-core fans, the connection to the team is almost spiritual. It should come as 34 Brand Fans no surprise that the original Yankee Stadium was also known as the Cathedral of Baseball (as well as “the house that Ruth built”, in recognition of the drawing power of that legendary player). The Yankees leverage their heritage and the allied sense of nostalgia by reinforcing connections to past iconic players as well as history-making moments that provide valuable cues from which fans can assess the brand’s authenticity. Strong brand values and a sense of place can also play a role in attracting fans and forging deep bonds. For example, the wildly successful FC Barcelona not only attracts millions of followers worldwide, but also stays firmly connected to its roots. The club has become a bastion for Catalan culture in Spain, as reflected in its motto Més que un club (more than a club). Founded in 1899, the club views itself as an ambassador for the Catalan region and never fails to depict a clear sense of its core values—respect, effort, ambition, teamwork, and humility—articu- lated on its website and embedded in the club’s approach to the game. Sport enterprises, such as the Yankees and FC Barcelona, have created an authentic aura around their brands. They consequently attract a community of followers seeking to share the same values and identity. Facilitated by extensive global media coverage, brand identity extends well beyond an organisation’s geographic home, connecting with fans united in their passion and sense of belonging. All brands must covet such an ingrained cultural connection, fostered over successive generations, and propagated by both success and an unwavering deviation from set expectations.

Focus on Value Co-creation

The way we think about value transformed with Vargo and Lusch’s (2004) introduction of “service-dominant logic”. Accordingly, value is derived from “service”, whether through the use of a physical product or from a more intangible service or experience. It shifts the perspective on value from something provided by the brand to something determined by the customer. From a branding viewpoint, flipping the value idea on its head in this way means moving away from a mind-set of “delivering products to purchasers” and towards “creating experiences with customers”. 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 35

By implication, value co-creation constitutes a collaborative process that comes from interaction; a brand offers a value proposition and the customer derives value through product interaction. Yet, each consumer reaches a value judgement based on an idiosyncratic and subjective assessment. Such a paradigm shift discards conventional boundaries between producer and consumer. Especially when enabled by social and technological changes, these blurred boundaries result in the emergence of what has been termed the “prosumer”, acknowledging the customer’s active role in both producing and consuming the product experience (Ritzer and Jurgenson 2010). In value co-creation, the consumer acts as both an active contributor as well as a beneficiary. Engagement resides at the core of co-creation success. Increased brand engagement leads to more sales and profit, typically through improved efficiency, brand referrals, and heightened loyalty, not to mention the opportunity to incorporate consumer contributions into product development and brand communications. When brands interact with customers, they accumulate what has been termed “strategic capital”, a forerunner to competitive advantage (Ramaswamy 2008). Given that interaction with consumers drives value co-creation, it follows that brands should make available multiple touch point platforms along the customer journey. For example, the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers are committed to providing fans with a world class experience that goes beyond the game itself, including opportunities to engage in pre- and post-game events. Consumers’ 24/7 connectivity raises expectations for brand interactions that extend beyond “game day” or the core service encounter. Successful sport brands get to the heart of what is most meaningful to fans, embracing both physical and digital platforms, for interaction and value co-creation. Digital technologies facilitate new ways of interacting with customers, while simultaneously empowering them to take control of the consumption experience. Social media, in particular, provides a potent means for engaging with brands and co-creating the sport experience. Sport fans are sophisticated digital consumers who have enthusiastically adopted the second screen experience. Research suggests that 83 % of fans access social media while watching sport, and more than 70 % of fans use their mobile devices while in the stadium (Antoniacci 2015). Great sport brands have developed multi-faceted social media 36 Brand Fans strategies, extending their engagements with fans beyond just game day as a means of creating energy and excitement throughout the season, and often throughout the off-season too. Two of the most successful and valuable global sport brands, Real Madrid and Barcelona Football Clubs, dominate not only on the pitch, but also on the virtual playing field that is social media. Each team attracts more than 100 million followers across Facebook and Twitter. With an estimated 450 million fans worldwide, the overwhelming majority of whom will never see the team play live, Real Madrid turns to social platforms to offer an alternative way in which to interact with the brand. For example, the team has partnered with Snapchat to invite fans to become part of an official Real Madrid live story. Fans submit their own snaps to be curated by Snapchat, which are included in a brief video broadcast, accessible to over 100 million users. As will be discussed later in this chapter, powerful partnerships with various stakeholders in the sport network, such as media companies, have boosted the reach of sporting brands, at the same time as adding to the value proposition for their fans. In the United States, the NBA’s social media team epitomises the effective use of this fast growing medium to not only engage fans, but also to personalise content to provide an “insider’s” experience. The NBA quickly transitioned from using social media as an easy way of updating fans to a more purposeful use as an engagement channel (Fiefer 2011). The strategy included polling fans to identify their interests and to determine appropriate timing of content. Further information was gathered by extensive monitoring of social media platforms to see what topics were trending in relation to the NBA, and which then should be incorporated into relevant and topical content. In some cases, separate news feeds, such as game statistics or historical information, were aimed at the specific interests of different fan segments. The NBA’s approach to using social media also combines the interests of fans with any important news that the NBA wants to communicate during key points in the season. For example, during the play-offs, photographers were deployed to collect dramatic footage of the on-court and associated crowd action. Communications differed on a game day from a non-game day, and again during the play-offs. In addition, both the content and frequency 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 37 of posts and tweets received careful scrutiny. The outcome was an engagement with fans the world over in a “digital conversation”. Social media elevates brand communications from one-way mono- logues to dynamic real time conversations. For example, the NFL’s Miami Dolphins adopted a social approach in 2016 to announce its new head coach, Adam Gase, the 12th in the franchise’s history and the young- est ever. Instead of issuing a media release or hosting a traditional press conference, the Dolphins transformed the event into a multi-platform social media extravaganza using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Meerkat, Periscope, and Snapchat, in order to facilitate a live Q&A event designed to compel fan participation. Escalating consumer expectations for up-to-the minute information demands new communication approaches. For example, the NBA’s Detroit Pistons set up an innovative real time email system to engage with fans, both pre-game and during the game, irrespective of how they consumed the live game. Before the game, the email offers fans access to the team line-up and other pertinent game information, usually before it is released to the general media. Once the game commences, the email continually updates to include live scores and statistics, every time the email is re-opened. This dynamic technology capitalises on the “second screen” experience so many sport fans rely upon. Also, in response to more pragmatic concerns, the email provides live traffic updates and rec- ommended routes to get to the game in time for the tip off. Compared to their previous static emails, the response to the real time emails has delivered higher click-throughs, greater engagement times, and more extensive mobile engagements (Chant 2016). The Pistons’ aim was to delight their fans by improving the relevance and timing of their communications. Email still has a role in cutting edge branding, as long as it has meaning at the time of opening, and not just when first sent. By catering for the technologically enhanced shift in consumption habits through smart phones and tablets, sport brands ensure that consumers have the opportunity to be actively involved in shaping their own experiences. Wimbledon for example, the oldest and most iconic tennis tournament in the world, has been described as a cultural event that transcends sport. Despite the conservative “strawberries and cream” image associated with the event, the tournament’s marketers have embraced social 38 Brand Fans media as a platform for engaging with fans. The All England Lawn Tennis Club, the organisation presiding over the tournament, recognises that fans want to be part of history-in-the-making, and to share that experience with family and friends. The tournament’s digital strategy now seeks to enhance the Wimbledon experience for fans at the event and to extend the fan experience across the world. For example, Live@Wimbledon, the event’s online video and radio channel, as well as SlamTracker, a performance analytics tool designed by IBM, stimulate fan interaction to transform the viewing experience. Fan access to comprehensive data that were previously only held by broadcasters adds another layer to the experience. The decision to allow the use of mobile phones and tablets at the grounds challenged tradition, but rewarded fans. Great sport brands aim to shape and customise brands to meet the idiosyncratic interests of the individual consumer. They are turning the tables on the traditional demarcation between producer and consumer. For example, Nike, identified by Forbes as one of the most valuable sports brands globally (forbes.com 2016), continually seeks new ways to engage consumers and customise its product offerings. Nike is one of the most followed brands on the photo and video sharing social media platform, Instagram. For example, their “NIKEPHOTOiD” campaign invited followers to engage in a social and sharable brand experience. Instagram users were directed to Nike’s Photo iD microsite, where they could select their favourite Instagram photo and have it instantly transformed into a customised design for a pair of trainers, based on the photo’s colour scheme. Once created, the design could be shared on social media or purchased by clicking through to Nike’s online store. In just the first week of the campaign, 100,000 pairs of shoes were designed and 8 % of customers clicked through to purchase their personalised footwear (digitaltrainingacademy.com 2016). While many professional sport teams have embraced technology with gusto, they have also maintained a focus on the physical world, in terms of face-to-face interaction, as a platform for value co-creation. For example, while the MLB has leveraged social media to create unique opportunities to interact with baseball fans, in particular, younger, digitally savvy consumers, they have not lost sight of the need for a capacity crowd to contribute to the theatre and drama of the spectator experience. 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 39

In 2013, the MLB launched the concept of “social media clubhouses” for each of its teams. These virtual hangouts provide user-friendly access to all of the team’s social media accounts, in some cases providing a roster of accounts for individual players. To cater for their sizable online communities and to facilitate opportunities for face-to-face interaction, many MLB teams host social media nights, providing special offers and promotions aimed at enticing their virtual fans to the ballpark. Offers include conventional giveaways, such as discounted tickets and merchandise, or unique experiences, such as a pre-game stadium tour or an opportunity to throw the coveted first pitch. Many sport brands host special events known as “fan fests” to interact with their fans. For example, the NFL’s Washington Redskins’ free “Draft Day” party offered a plethora of activities and experiences to cater to the varying interests of their fans. In addition to watching the NFL draft on high definition video screens, fans could also tour the Redskins’ locker room, test their football skills, dress up like a player, take photos of the Super Bowl trophies, and meet some of the players. Fans were also invited to taste test and vote for the new signature hot dog for the 2016 season. Keeping up-to-date with the Redskins draft was facilitated by the team’s mobile app, which also helped fans participate in a scavenger hunt at the team’s stadium. Opportunities for value co-creation arise by augmenting the core consumption experience; in the case of sport team brands, the game itself. In the National Hockey League (NHL), the Los Angeles Kings joined forces with global electronics brand, Toshiba, AEG (a sport entertainment business), and the Staples Center venue to launch “LA Interactive”, a destination for fans to come together before, during, or after the game to interact with each other or with exclusive content provided by the team including photos, game statistics, and highlights. Toshiba launched an augmented reality app that allows fans at the Staples Center to take memorable and realistic photos of themselves with a virtual image of their favourite player. These photos can be displayed on the high definition screens in LA Interactive, as well as being immediately uploaded to social media. Successful sport brands understand their fans’ motivations and relentlessly deliver an array of innovative opportunities to interact with the 40 Brand Fans brand in a way that delivers value not only to the fan, but to the organisation as well.

Make the Customer Part of the Brand Team

Powerful sport brands do not just seek to engage their fans. Rather, fans comprise a critical resource and are an essential part of the brand team. From this perspective, brands must first work to recognise the importance of their customers, and then second, to develop innovative experiences that address the needs of the more highly identified brand fan who wants to engage on an even deeper level. As with NASCAR’s Fan Council, passionate fans are a brand’s most precious resource, not only as loyal, paying customers, but also as active contributors to products, services, and experiences. The NFL’s Seattle Seahawks epitomise the “fan in the brand team” perspective. The Seahawks acknowledge their fans as the “12th man”, adding to the 11 team players on the field at any one time. Widely known as the “12s”, the Seahawks fans have assumed a critical role in the team’s collective identity. One tradition involves raising the “12 flag” at every home game, with past players, local celebrities, season ticketholders, and passionate fans given the hoisting honours. The notion of the “12s” is well-entrenched in Seahawks culture, with the number 12 jersey “retired” in 1984 by Seahawks President, Mike McCormack, in homage to the dedicated fan group. Such an honour is normally reserved for star players who make a sustained and outstanding contribution. Seahawks fans consider themselves the loudest fans in the world, demonstrating their enthusiasm for the team with their overwhelmingly boisterous cheering and vocal support. In December 2013, at a home game against the New Orleans Saints, the crowd noise was registered at a decibel reading of 137.6, the second loudest recording ever (seahawks.com 2016). Opponents, concerned by the potential impact of the deafening crowd, prepare for Seahawks’ home games by conducting training drills to music cranked up to full volume to simulate the crowd noise. Coaching staff have credited team success to the fans, with the team website featuring a quote from head coach, Pete Carroll, stating that, “The 12s have 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 41 unparalleled impact on game days” (seahawks.com 2016). The rituals and theatrics undertaken by avid Seahawks fans contributes to the unique ambience of the live game experience. These vocal sport consumers have become an integral part of a co-created sport consumption experience. Other sport teams have ventured a step further in developing innovative personal opportunities for fans to immerse themselves in the team and the game experience. Prior to their astounding 2016 win in 2016, the Chicago Cubs suffered through the longest World Series drought in MLB history, lasting almost 100 years. Not surprisingly, the Cubs have been one of many sport teams to welcome fan participation in the game itself. Lucky Cubs fans have been given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to step onto the hallowed and historic Wrigley Field, the second-oldest MLB stadium in the United States, to throw the first ceremonial pitch of the game. Meanwhile, across town, the Chicago White Sox gives its fans the opportunity to change the bases during the fourth inning, deliver the line-up card to the umpires prior to the game, and use the stadium’s PA system for one inning to announce the players coming up to bat. Similarly, in the NHL, the Montreal Canadiens, who hold the record for winning the most Stanley Cup championships, explicitly invite fans to “be part of the team”. Select fans can participate as flag bearers in the team’s opening ceremony at home games or as announcers for the starting line-up. These distinctive opportunities transcend the commercial or transactional bond between firm and customer. As a result, the relationship connection escalates to reflect a stronger emotional bond. Sport brands understand the insatiable need of highly identified fans to be recognised and to interact in a way that personalises their experiences. Great brands, therefore, focus on innovative ways to engage in value co-creation. However, such interactions must be designed with a specific segment of the target audience in mind to maximise the likelihood that the offer will resonate with the fan and activate them to respond. For example, while airlines can no longer, due to safety concerns, invite premium passengers and their children into the cockpit, they offer customers elegant lounges and branded merchandise. Similarly, fashion brands allow key clients a chance to sample designs before others and retailers have adopted terms, such as “VIP” and “exclusive”, to offer privileged experiences to audiences they feel instigate or reflect desirable trends. 42 Brand Fans

Successful sport brands aspire to get closer to their fans, and to get their fans closer to the brand. Several MLB teams proffer innovative examples, demonstrating the creativity and dexterity required of brand strategists. In one case, MLB’s Cleveland Indians introduced a “social media suite” at home games to engage (in the real world) with their most active, virtual social media fans. Fans had to compete to gain entry into the Wi-Fi-enabled suite by providing links to their social media accounts and then convincing club executives of their intense and passionate support. The suite allowed like-minded fans to socialise with each other as well as with team executives and former players, no doubt providing an opportunity for these fans to transmit their experience to their many followers in glowing terms. However, these initiatives are about more than just promotions and giveaways. They provide the clubs with an opportunity to have a conversation with fans and to gain insight into what is important to them. For example, during a fan event, the MLB’s San Diego Padres’ team president was asked why there were no chargers for electric vehicles located near the ballpark. By the following season, five chargers were installed in one of the parking structures. MLB’s Seattle Mariners employ social media to offer fans an insider’s view of what it is like to be a player. Using Facebook Live to broadcast from the dugout as the players were being introduced on opening day of the season resulted in 134,000 views. In addition to the digital approach, the team also strives to connect personally with fans through events such as scavenger hunts, promotions at the ballpark, and community activities. Other forms of technology have also been a boon for sport brands in creating new opportunities for their most avid fans to get closer to the game. European football clubs such as FC Porto, a leading team in Portugal, have used technology such as GoPro extreme action video cameras during open training sessions, to deliver a “player’s eye view” of practice. “Getting closer” initiatives reveal the shift in how sport brands regard their fans and, more broadly, how all brands should view their customer relationships. Brand fans constitute an integral part of the sport entertainment experience, not only as customers, but also as active contributors or co-creators of the sport product. 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 43

Design Compelling Value Propositions

A revolution has transpired in how the concept of value is now understood and practiced. Brand thinking has evolved from the perspective that the company provides value through its products, to an understanding that it is the customer who determines value. Further, most businesses recognise that some customers are more valuable to the organisation than others, given that those exhibiting the greatest loyalty yield a higher value in terms of sales, profits, and positive advocacy. Considering the importance of intensely loyal and passionate brand fans, they represent a key focus in brand strategy. To that end, brand managers must design experiences to leverage the fierce tribal belonging of engaged fans. Powerful sport brands continually seek ways to enhance the fan experience and to provide unique opportunities that grant the most passionate and loyal fan an “insider’s” view. The English Premier League’s (EPL) Manchester City Football Club, one of the world’s most valuable sporting organisations, sought to do just that when they introduced their “Cityzens” membership programme. Cityzens was designed to provide more opportunities for fans to benefit from their association with the club and to interact with the team. In addition to the advantages that traditional programmes offer, such as collecting points, receiving discounts and exclusive offers, members were invited to contribute to team decisions, including where the charity fund should invest, and what to name the streets around their new City Football Academy. Members also have opportunities to win “money can’t buy” experiences, like asking the manager a question at the end of the game, accompanying the team to Champions League away games, watching the team train, meeting players, or appearing in the official team photo. Cityzens receive “City Points” as rewards for their interaction, not only for game attendance and merchandise purchases, but also for social media contributions. Members do not have to be from the Manchester region; fans all over the world are invited to join. The club also offers memberships specially designed to cater to the next generation of fans: Junior Cityzens from the ages of two to 12, and even Baby Cityzens for the under twos. 44 Brand Fans

From successful sport teams, we gain an insight into how best to deliver an immersive entertainment experience as part of the product. While it can be tempting to dazzle customers with theatrics, an authentic core value proposition demands that the fan remains central to any experience. For example, in Australia, the National Rugby League (NRL) had become known for its extravagant season launches, using high profile celebrities such as Jon Bon Jovi, Tina Turner, and Tom Jones. However, for the 2016 season, the NRL decided to take a different approach, specifically aimed at generating greater fan engagement and cultivating a stronger sense of belonging. The campaign opened with a dramatic shot of the winning field goal from the previous season’s premiership deciding match (called a Grand Final), and then cut to shots of the same goal compiled from footage captured by fans with their mobile phones and shared on social media. The key message of the campaign was “Be there when history happens”. It was aimed at attracting fans to the stadium; to share in the raw emotion and excitement of the live game. In order to leverage the history-making significance of the 2015 Grand Final— the first time both teams were from the same state, the first time the North Queensland Cowboys had won, and the first Grand Final to go to a “golden point” (where play continued in the second period of extra time until one team scored)—the NRL invited fans to be part of “magic moments” as they occurred throughout the season. Fans were prompted to contribute to on-going content and to capture new “magic moments” for sharing on social media, using the hashtag #HistoryHappens. The NRL wanted fans to be part of the storyline and a two-way conversation for the entire season. Such conversations illustrate the key lesson for all brands, which must facilitate a genuine and on-going relationship with customers geared towards co-creating the product experience together. Some sport brands design new initiatives to cater to fans who value a more customised or unique experience and are prepared to pay for it. The NBA’s Chicago Bulls deliver a range of enhanced fan experience packages, available for purchase, with all proceeds going towards the Bulls’ charities and community programmes. For example, fans can organise a score- board message to be posted at half time, or pose in a half court group photo. Alternatively, the most ardent supporters may covet a “6th man experience”. This innovative product includes courtside seats to the pre- 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 45 game shoot out, gift bags, parking and meal vouchers, on-court group photos, and a personal Bulls host. Similarly, the Chicago White Sox offers options for baseball fans who want to indulge in a VIP experience during the game, including the opportunity to sit in the media booth or the dugout for a couple of innings. Fans can elect to participate in novel experiences outside the game, like spending two hours in the visitor’s batting cage with a pitcher from the White Sox training academy. The Yankees, with a rich legacy of baseball greats beyond just Babe Ruth, such as Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio, take another approach. The Yankees’ “inside experience” includes, in addition to attending the game itself, an opportunity to meet and take photos with current star players, access to pre-game batting practice, a photo opportunity with the 2009 World Series trophy, and a personally guided tour of Yankee Stadium. Testimonials on the team website from avid fans are peppered with comments such as “once in a lifetime experience”, “dream come true”, and “greatest day of my life”, signalling not only their intense team identification and the value attributed to these insider experiences, but also that the magic moments will be forever embedded in each fan’s psyche. For brands, unique, bespoke engagement-driven customer experiences convert consumers to brand fans, and then assist in maintaining the passion of those fans. However, augmenting the core product to create experiences and interactions that facilitate value co-creation remains challenging. Successful sport brands respond by creating a suite of experiences to offer their fans, fostering a strong sense of belonging and personalised attachment to the team.

Extend Brand Reach

While nothing may be able to eclipse the value that ardent fans derive from the spectacle and theatre of attending a live sport event, an intimate brand-to-fan connection cannot always be achieved. Sport organisations, like firms in many industries, need to foster interaction and value creation beyond the core service encounter. For sport brands, this includes maintaining relationships with geographically distant fans—or satellite 46 Brand Fans fans—as well as local fans, who may be unable to attend games. Adding to the complexity, the seasonality or intermittent scheduling of sport events means that the intense interaction generated during the season or during the event itself may easily wane, particularly in markets where widespread entertainment options abound. Proactive sport organisations try to mitigate the product proximity and frequency problem by extending the brand’s reach. Despite their local geographical origins, the world’s most successful sport brands, such as Manchester United, FC Barcelona, and the Los Angeles Lakers, command sizeable global followings. So how do these brands facilitate opportunities to connect and interact with their disparate followers? Manchester United, for example, hosts fan engagement events in a range of cities around the world, such as the “I love United India” gathering held in Mumbai. One event included a live screening of a Manchester United versus Arsenal match, as well as other entertainment and competitions, with one of the prizes featuring VIP tickets to the club’s home ground, Old Trafford, known parochially as the “Theatre of Dreams”. Hosted by club brand ambassadors, the event included a Q&A session along with the pre- and post-game analysis. Manchester United also relies on social media platforms to bring distant fans together as a proxy for the live game experience. For example, the club ran a “Front Row” campaign using Google+ to invite supporters to cheer the team on during a home match against Liverpool, their traditional rival. Limited places were made available to fans from around the world who could demonstrate their passion for the club. Using Google+ Hangout, fans could join the 75,000 ticket holders at Old Trafford and fellow Front Row participants around the world. Each participant received professional photographs of their appearance. Catering for geographically diverse fans is essential for any brand with global aspirations. At the same time, however, most brands enjoy a lively local market surrounding their place of origin. In sport, brands remain mindful that even their home-based fans may not be able to enjoy the live game experience, certainly in the case of away games, but also due to sell outs or unaffordable ticket prices. Capacity issues represent a major challenge to fan engagement. 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 47

By way of response, teams such as the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, located in Oakland, California, turned to entertainment technology as a way for fans missing out on the live action to still partake in a thrilling experience of the game. In 2016, the Warriors broke a 20-year old record for the most wins in a regular season (previously held by the Chicago Bulls), when they ended the season with 73 wins. Understandably, tickets were scarce, having been described as “sold out for the rest of eternity”. Of course, other options exist for viewing the game in “real time”, such as a sports channel or streaming service, either of which may be enjoyed at home or in a public venue, such as a bar. However, teaming up with American Express—an NBA and Warriors sponsor—resulted in an innovative way for fans to experience the game. With support from various entertainment companies, including IMAX, fans who were American Express cardholders were given the first ever opportunity to see a live streamed sporting event in an IMAX theatre. Watching the Warriors play the San Antonio Spurs on a vast, high quality screen and sound system would have been exhilarating for die-hard fans. The free event quickly “sold out”. Guests were treated to complimentary hot dogs and pop- corn as well as a surprise visit from former Warriors swingman, Jason Richardson, who was on hand to greet fans at half time. Successful sport brands seek out ways to collaborate with their fans. In meeting the differing needs of each fan segment, sport brands have invented novel ways to involve fans in the stadium experience, even if physically distant. For example, FC Barcelona added a “social button” to their mobile app to facilitate the sharing of experiences while watching the game, creating the camaraderie of the stadium experience for absent fans. The feature allows fans to simulate a social experience with friends by posting selfies with dynamic backgrounds, chat with up to three friends simultaneously to cheer on the team, and select chants and stadium sounds to send to friends. In terms of maintaining an on-going connection with sport consumers, one of the biggest challenges for sport teams comes with its sea- sonal cycle. On the surface, it would seem implausible that sport brands could maintain intense fan experiences in the off-season to rival those experienced during the dramatic cycles of the playing season. However, top sport brands give fans a reason to connect and strive to keep the 48 Brand Fans brand relevant year round. The MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers use holidays and other special occasions as a stimulus to interact with their fans. For Valentine’s Day, fans were offered e-cards to send to loved ones, featuring lines, like “this may be completely out of left field, but will you be my valentine?”, emblazoned with a picture of the Brewers’ left fielder in the background. Similarly, at Halloween, fans were invited to share their Brewers’ pumpkin designs on social media. In the middle of winter, the team invited fans to join a virtual snowball fight featuring some of the team’s pitchers throwing snowballs at a transparent screen, capturing the action using GoPro cameras. Fans were encouraged to share and tag their friends.

Facilitate Brand Fan Communities

As we have already highlighted, transforming customers into brand fans requires a genuine invitation to be part of the team. To participate in collaborative and co-creative activities that generate value, consumers need to feel a sense of community and membership. Many fans seek to engage with a wider community around the brand as a way of demonstrating and reinforcing their personal sense of identification. Belonging to a wider group forms part of a fan’s social identity. As a consequence, they develop an emotional connection to the group, based on a common passion. Opportunities to interact and form relationships within the brand community reinforce this belonging. Further, it encourages fans to adopt rituals, traditions, and behaviours that display their allegiance. While much of our discussion on value co-creation has focused on interactions between the customer and the organisation, there are other stakeholders in the value network that play a critical role in facilitating value for fans. These stakeholders can include sponsors and business partners, as will be discussed in the next section, as well as other brand fans and the larger fan community. Value co-creation does not just occur between the customer and the firm, but is also derived from interacting with other customers within a wider brand community. A brand community is a “specialized, non-geographically bound community based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 49 brand” (Muniz and O’Guinn 2001, p. 412). Brand communities display a shared consciousness, rituals, and traditions along with a common sense of moral responsibility. Brand communities enhance commitment and strengthen identification with the brand and other community members. Brand communities serve as a resource for information and knowledge about the brand. They tend to make extensive use of communal storytelling, which in turn bolsters group loyalty. Sport, by its nature, forms a collaborative consumption community, wherein a number of participants, including athletes, coaches, stadium staff, the media, and of course, fans, come together to co-create the sport experience. Consumption communities inform, connect, and empower consumers. Customer-to-customer interactions contribute to a fan’s value perceptions in a way that pushes beyond those created through conventional associations between a brand and its customers (Schau et al. 2009). Specifically, these interactions provide “linking value” based on “peer-to-peer bonds and socially embedded consumption” (Libai et al. 2010, p. 271). Moreover, interactions can take place prior to, during, or after the primary service consumption experience. In the context of the sport experience, fans can interact both physically and digitally while watching the game, either live, at home, or in a bar. However, many sport brands facilitate this form of value co-creation by providing both face-to-face and online forums for fans to connect around their common passions. By way of example, EPL club Arsenal has its home in London. However, the team has attracted over 120 official supporter clubs in 62 countries around the world, all endorsed by Arsenal and permitted to use the team’s famous “Gunners” crest in their communications. Supporter clubs are promoted and profiled on the Arsenal website and have access to a plethora of other benefits, including team forums. The clubs produce a limited range of personalised merchandise subject to Arsenal’s approval. Whether in Brazil or Belarus, supporter clubs organise gatherings of Arsenal fans, or “gooners”, at local pubs or sports bars on match days to share in the camaraderie, goodwill, and excitement of the game. Although supporter club fans may never attend a live game, they play a critical role in building brand equity for Arsenal by stimulating media demand, purchasing merchandise, and attracting new fans through word of mouth, and mouse. 50 Brand Fans

Closer to the stadium, sport teams mobilise fans’ natural inclination to gather together and socialise prior to a game. So-called “tailgate” parties began in the United States and involve a social gathering around the open tailgates of vehicles parked at expansive stadium or venue parking lots. Tailgate parties focus on food, drink, and social bonding, providing an outlet for enthusiastic fans to channel their anticipation and energy before the event. For many NFL fans, tailgate gatherings are as important as the game itself. Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers, for example, have elevated the tailgate concept to a full blown extravaganza commencing in the stadium car park, or in nearby locations, several hours before the game. Fans and their vehicles alike are adorned in team colours and each fan group’s tailgate features its own signature barbecue foods. Another option for brands to co-create social experiences involves hosting pre- and post-game events, sometimes amplified through the use of “fan zones”. For example, the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) EURO 2016 football tournament set up fan zones in multiple cities in the host country, France, during the month-long championships. The event organisers teamed up with the city of Paris to create a fan zone to accommodate 90,000 people in the shadow of the city’s most famous monument, the Eiffel Tower. Activities included the live screening of games as well as concerts and other entertainment showcasing the city’s heralded culture and cuisine. In addition to these various forms of face-to-face fan communities, online communities have exploded, not only focused on sport, but also extending to an array of other entertainment and consumer products. Online communities can either be initiated or controlled by the brand or the fan, and provide 24/7 access to fans who want to connect around their passion, interest, and dedication to the brand. Most sport brand websites feature online “fan zones”, which serve as a repository for the various platforms, events, and tools that help fans stay connected to the brand. Fans contribute content in the form of photos or stories in relation to the team. The importance and impact of online fan communities will be discussed further in following chapters. We note, however, that value co-creation occurs in these communities as a result of social interaction, whereby fans 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 51 can be contributors, beneficiaries, or both. Research suggests that fans derive value from participating in communal social groups. Individual goals, such as accessing information or social interaction, may be met, in addition to communal goals, such as experiencing a sense of community and contributing to the group’s collective resources (Pongsakornrungsilp and Schroeder 2011).

Leverage the Value Network

Top sport brands recognise the power of leveraging partnerships to develop unique experiences and value propositions for their fans. Key stakeholders, such as sponsors and media companies, offer valuable alliances in co-creating personalised and engaging customer experiences. However, stakeholders expect value too. A brand’s co-creative strategy needs to consider the interests of all stakeholder groups in improving productivity and creativity, while reducing risks and costs (Ramaswamy and Gouillart 2010). The whole value network, which encompasses the brand and customer, should be seen as a system of reciprocal and enabling value creation. All links in the network represent partnership opportunities for innovation (Lusch et al. 2010). At the same time, these partnerships can be tricky to negotiate as they run the risk of succumbing to commercial opportunism, instead of providing a genuine value proposition to the customer. However, as we observed earlier, partnerships such as the ones between the Golden State Warriors and American Express, or between the Los Angeles Kings, Staples Center, and Toshiba, can yield innovative value propositions for the customers of each stakeholder. While the digital world has brought about what Belk (2013) describes as the “dematerialisation” of many of our possessions, such as books, photos, and music, it has also reinvigorated physical products, creating new opportunities to deliver value to customers. Take the humble baseball card, for example, which can be traced back to 1868 when it was produced by confectionery and tobacco companies as a marketing tool. Baseball cards feature a classically posed action photo or headshot of a player, accompanied by his name, team affiliation, key playing statistics, and biographical details. From their position as a mere promotional 52 Brand Fans tool, baseball cards gradually became valuable, prompting a burgeoning collecting and trading culture. Fast forward to the present day and a unique concept resulting from a partnership between the MLB, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and TOPPS, a company that sells sport entertainment products including memorabilia and collect- ibles. Together, the concept of “TOPPS now” was launched, offering fans an on-demand daily baseball card service that featured dramatic images capturing memorable plays and moments, such as the first “homer” by Colorado Rockies’ Trevor Story, and Chicago Cubs’ Jake Arrieta’s “no hitter”. In the past, fans potentially had to wait for years to collect certain rare cards, but now they are produced in 24 hours and can be enjoyed while the momentous events still feature in social conversations. The partnership represents another example of how new technologies have enabled consumer demand for instant access to all kinds of products. In this case, the innovation arrived in response to fan demand for more immediate access to physical mementos commemorating baseball events and achievements. And, of course, fans play the decisive role in declaring which players and moments merit immortality, by posting social media suggestions using the hashtag #Toppsnow. Sport brands have joined with media and technology firms to increase the accessibility of the sport experience and deliver greater content to insatiable fans. For example, a partnership between the Tour de France organisers and a specialist IT firm resulted in fans receiving real time information on the exact speed and position of riders through the use of a GPS transponder attached to each competitor. More recently, the NFL has teamed up with Twitter to provide live streaming of ten of its Thursday night football games during the 2016 season, providing free access to an estimated 800 million Twitter users around the world. Fans get an immersive experience including in-game highlights and pre-game broadcasts. In the process, the partnership extends the reach of both brands, while furthering the NFL’s aim of engaging younger, “second screen” viewers, as well as those who do not subscribe to cable networks. In short, brands need to go to the customer. These elusive fans will now be able to use Twitter to both watch the game and interact with other fans at the same time, on the one screen. 2 Pitch Partners: Customers as Players and Collaborators 53

Carefully selected partners have the potential to extend the value co- creation activities and interactions of the firm to reach larger audiences as well as to deliver innovative products or experiences. The most successful partnerships are able to deliver value for all stakeholders concerned: the brand, the partner brand, and the brand fan.

Conclusion: Entangle Customers

While few products can compete with the excitement and theatre of the sport entertainment experience, or generate the emotional intensity and dogged loyalty of its fans, the engagement lessons from sport remain undeniable. Understanding customer motivation and communicating an authentic brand image to resonate accordingly are a good start, but will not be enough in the contemporary competitive environment. To elevate customers to the status of brand fans requires a more sophisticated understanding of the customer in co-creating the brand experience. As we have seen with the world’s most valuable sport brands, all companies need to embrace the customer as part of the brand team and, therefore, as a fundamental part of the product itself. Successful sport brands construct unique value propositions. At their core, we find customer-centric strategies designed to stimulate emotional engagement and powerful brand advocacy. Globally impactful sport brands work hard to identify opportunities to extend their reach, whether by attracting new customers or by interacting with existing customers in new ways. Further, these brands recognise the importance of external stakeholders in the sport value network, including the broader fan community, or powerful partnerships with other organisations that can also engage in the value co-creation process and contribute to the ultimate value derived by the fan. In this chapter, we emphasised the need to reimagine value co-creation as a blurring of the boundaries between brand and consumer. It represents a paradigm shift in the core business of the firm, moving away from the mind-set of providing products to customers and towards creating experiences with customers. Successful sport brands have made the transition 54 Brand Fans tangible, providing both a blueprint for others to follow and copious examples of how co-creation leads to rewarding customer engagement.

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Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content

Introduction: Unleashing the Consumer

In the previous chapter, we discussed the growing focus on the customer as an active collaborator in the brand experience and in the co-creation of value. As a result, the role of the brand manager has undergone a significant metamorphosis. Gone are the days of the brand as a firm-controlled asset that can be built in the mind of the consumer through a firm-directed marketing strategy. Today’s brand manager is less of a custodian of the brand and more of a brand host (Christodoulides 2009). In fact, consumer culture theorists suggest that consumers actively co-create brand meaning and brands contribute to the construction of consumers’ identities. The historical asymmetry in the relationship between consumer and firm has now reversed with technology empowering consumers. In fact, the term “consumer” is perhaps no longer an accurate descriptor. From the perspective of service‑dominant logic, the idea of a “consumer” has been superseded by that of “market actor”, in recognition of the customer’s more active position in the commercial relationship (Vargo and Lusch 2008). This momentous shift in the landscape of customer relationship management has ushered in a whole new ball game.

Branding strategy has been transformed; an outcome of accelerated technological change coupled with more mobile lifestyles and an explosion of media platforms. According to an Economist Intelligence Unit survey in 2016, Chief Marketing Officers foresee mobile devices and personalisation technologies as the main “tech” trend impacting upon marketing by 2020. Accordingly, personalised customer experiences will be essential, requiring brands to deliver relevant content, products, and experiences based on a deep understanding of each individual’s needs, wants, or interests. Digital media has revolutionised communication and engagement from both company and customer perspectives. For sport brands, new media platforms and technologies have dramatically altered the way in which fans experience sport; media convergence has encouraged content conventionally dispersed across multiple channels to coalesce through one-touch platforms. The 2016 NBA finals series was an exhilarating contest that smashed records both on the court and in the digital sphere. A dramatic game seven (the last game of the finals series) win clinched the championship for the Cleveland Cavaliers over the Golden State Warriors, signalling the end of a 52-year championship drought for Cleveland. The finals series garnered unprecedented viewing records across all digital platforms such as NBA TV, NBA.com, and the NBA App. Interaction on the NBA’s social media sites exploded with a phenomenal 5.2 billion social media impressions recorded. On Facebook alone, 43 million people posted, liked, shared, or commented more than 269 million times. Industry observers have rated the finals series as the most watched and “interacted with” series of all time. As we have argued, committed consumers actively seek a higher level of involvement and interaction with the brand, which in turn enhances the brand’s equity. At the same time, brand fans also seek interaction with each other. As a result, the firm has been somewhat displaced as the primary source of brand control, authority, and influence (Halliday 2016). Information about brands now arrives from an array of multi-directional, interconnected, and unpredictable sources (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2010). While conservative firms steadfastly resist deep consumer engagement, worried that it amounts to a hijacking of their brand, more innovative companies encourage the contributions offered by highly passionate brand fans. This chapter will further elaborate on cutting edge strategies 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 59 for consumer engagement from sport, including the benefit of customer collaboration in co-creating brand experiences, the power of consumer or fan-generated content, and the value of fan-driven brand communities. One of the most powerful “new” weapons in a marketer’s arsenal is the customer. User- or consumer-generated content—the latter referring specifically to brand-related content—has emerged as one of the most potent forms of brand communication available. Consumer-generated content (CGC) comprises content made freely available outside of commercial communications, featuring some degree of creativity, and distributed through publicly accessible media (Christodoulides et al. 2012). User-generated content, more broadly, concerns media content created by the general public. It includes online content created, circulated, and consumed by users, such as blogs, wikis, discussion forums, posts, chats, tweets, podcasts, and pins, delivered in text, image, video, or audio modes. The CGC movement defies and redefines traditional consumer-brand relationships. Brand-related CGC delivers significant benefits to firms because it usually emanates from trusted information sources like those in an individual’s personal network. Successful sporting brands thrive on such third-party endorsements. Research suggests that over 90 % of consumers trust recommendations from family and friends, while more than 70 % trust online reviews more than traditional advertising. There can be no escaping brand fans as formidable brand advocates. Many successful sport brands have not only recognised the power of co-creation but also enthusiastically seized opportunities to leverage engagement and content creation by highly engaged fans. This chapter highlights how these visionary sport brands harness the power of consumer content, and offers lessons for brand managers in all industries.

Encourage Customer Contributions to the Brand Experience

We begin by adopting a liberal view of CGC. While the concept generally refers to media content most commonly created in the online context, we think it remains critical to place customers—particularly brand fans—at the centre of the brand experience. That is, in addition 60 Brand Fans to media content, brand fans provide personalised content instrumental in shaping all customers’ brand experiences. In the context of sport, fan rituals and behaviours such as cheering, chanting, creating banners, wearing merchandise, painting faces, adorning cars with streamers in team colours, and participating in tailgate parties, all add to the ambi- ance and enjoyment of the sporting event. Not only do fans benefit through self-expression and identity reinforcement, which creates individual value, they also co-create value for other spectators by enhancing the event’s theatrical experience. As we have previously highlighted, the customer is both a contributor and beneficiary of value co-creation. Content may occur organically like the Seattle Seahawks “12th man” phenomena and the active role the franchise’s fans play in the ritualised atmosphere of game day. However, while the passion and vocal support of the Seahawks fan base developed over time, it was also recognised and magnified by the football brand. The National Hockey League’s (NHL) New Jersey Devils had similar bold aspirations for fan contribution to the game experience when they formed an active supporter group at the commencement of the 2011/12 season. The team’s management felt that both the team and their fan base would benefit from an energised official supporter’s section in the arena, so they announced an open invitation for interested fans to meet. At that meeting, captains were selected and a name was chosen for the group: the “Diablos”. The Diablos’ code of conduct required that members must stand and cheer while the puck is in play, must wear Devil’s attire, and should never leave the game early. Members were also required to attend group meetings to ensure that everyone had a voice. Although the main focus aimed to capture the enthusiasm of die-hard fans and create a vibrant and exciting atmosphere at home games, some of the Diablos also took their “loud and proud” support on the road. The active participation of stalwart fans has been recognised by many sport teams as pivotal to the brand experience. Initiatives stimulating vocal fan zones have become a staple of the home game experience. For example, the Green Bay Packers, one of the oldest teams in the National Football League (NFL), is also one of the most successful teams in the league with four Super Bowl trophies, despite being located in the small- 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 61 est NFL market. The Green Bay fans, or “cheese heads” as they are called (Wisconsin is known for its bountiful cheese production!), are some of the most passionate and dedicated fans in the world, with the waiting list for season tickets around 30 years long. Building from a strong base, the Packers do not rest on their laurels. In 2015, the club launched a fan engagement campaign around the theme “Get Loud Lambeau” (Lambeau Field is the team’s home stadium, named in honour of Earl “Curly” Lambeau, one of the co-founders of the team and first team captain, who died the year the stadium was built). The campaign sought to maximise the home field advantage and add to the electricity and excitement of the stadium experience by revving up the fans. As a prompt, the Packers had messages and videos displayed at key points during the game to urge fans to “get loud”. Prizes and giveaways further encouraged enthusiastic responses from the crowd. Fans also can make significant contributions to the rituals and traditions enveloping a sport. For example, Australian football, affectionately known as “Aussie rules”, commands the country’s largest sport audiences via the Australian Football League (AFL). The sport attracts avid fans whose loyalty extends across generations and who take pride in their visible team support, donning apparel including scarves, beanies (knitted hats), and shirts, and “barracking” boisterously for their side. Effusive “footy” fans play a key role in the rituals of the game, particularly around the match’s commencement ceremony. Traditionally, a game starts with each team running through a giant crepe paper banner created each week by the team’s cheer squad. The banners, or “run-throughs”, feature the team’s colours and some form of encouraging or celebratory message. Various traditions and superstitions surround the banner. Although the team captain usually breaks through first, some players want to be the first to touch the banner while others prefer to avoid coming into contact with it at all. To the outside observer, these rituals might seem odd and mysterious, yet have come about from a fan group’s weekly creative endeavours. The run-through exemplifies how fans can contribute “content” that becomes embedded in the ritual and culture of the sport brand experience. While fans can instigate key aspects of the sport experience, sometimes team-initiated strategies can capture the imagination of support- 62 Brand Fans ers, propelling them to epic proportions. Such is the case of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers’ “Terrible Towel”. While the motivation for the concept appears somewhat murky, the official version claims that Steelers’ radio announcer Myron Cope introduced the towel. According to some, Cope announced the scheme at the behest of the Steelers’ branding team, who were looking for a marketing gimmick to attract sponsors. Emblazoned with the slogan, “The Terrible Towel”, and featuring Pittsburgh’s famous black and gold team colours, the unique merchandise was launched during the play-offs in 1975 and received credit as the magic ingredient securing a Super Bowl victory over the Dallas Cowboys that year. While it has been through a number of iterations, the towel still exists today. According to the team’s website, the towel provides a unifying symbol for fans; they are even passed down through generations or purchased when a new Steelers fan is born. Avid fans enjoy a powerful attachment to the Terrible Towel, as evidenced by their presence at both home games as well as in opposition stadiums. However, beyond game day, these towels have been wrapped around newborn babies, waved at weddings, been taken on holidays, and photographed in almost every conceivable destination. It has even been waved from the International Space Station! For Steelers fans, the Towel offers a tangible emblem of their passion and identity. Towel waving has become an iconic part of the game experience. However, the Towel also represents a stellar example of how firm-initiated content or resources can be commandeered by the brand fan, imbued with meaning beyond its original intent, and subsequently embedded into the “life projects” of the customer (Halliday 2016). Firms need to find comfort in allowing consumers to take control of the brand and creating meaning that is personally relevant to them. Consumers use brands in different ways to construct their identity or sense of self. Allowing the customer to commandeer the brand, and uncovering their motivation in doing so, gives managers a resonant understanding of their customers, what the brand means to them, and how that meaning may differ by customer segment. This knowledge can then be translated into relevant marketing actions that forge a stronger and more enduring brand-consumer connection. 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 63

Recruit and Reward

Brand fans zealously proclaim and signal their brand adoration. While many fans may quite naturally display high levels of identification and fanaticism towards their team, successful sport brands do not take this involvement for granted; they adopt a proactive stance in stimulating engagement and collaboration around the brand. Moreover, where passion exists, brands aim to amplify it. Not only that, brands work hard to recruit these fans as advocates. For example, as we briefly mentioned in the previous chapter, the MLB’s Cleveland Indians were pioneers in creating a designated wireless-enabled space in their ballpark, where selected members of their fan base, the “Tribe”, could interact both online and offline. To facilitate—and participate—in brand conversations, the Indians carefully manage access, which is by invitation only, and allocated on a game-by-game basis. Passionate Indians fans can apply online for a coveted spot as one of the #TribeLive featured tweeters representing the voice of the fans. Selected applicants who can demonstrate an active online presence receive a ticket to the game, food and drink specials, and seating in an exclusive area in the “Right Field District”. Fan tweets are featured from @Indians and broadcast to almost 400,000 Indians followers. These authentic two-way conversations strengthen the brand through fan connections. In concert with this commitment to social media conversations, several Indians executives, including the President, signed up for their own Twitter accounts to enable a more personal role in the robust dialogue. As we have argued throughout this book, brand fans relish the opportunity to act as brand advocates. Social media, as the vehicle of choice, has emerged as a powerful platform to articulate customers’ voices. In fact, it has already proven to be an undeniable game changer because it operates at the confluence of authenticity and engagement. In fact, CGC is presently the fastest growing form of brand communication. Part of CGC’s influence stems from the way in which consumers use it to guide their purchasing decisions. Consumers, particularly millennials, trust the opinions of their fellow users more than any other form of information or communication. The thoughts, opinions, and insights of consumers 64 Brand Fans combined with brand-generated content increase customer engagement and build confidence in the brand. To capture the brand-building potential of CGC, brand managers must inspire users to contribute value-adding content about the brand. From customer ratings and reviews, to tips on product usage, or simply sharing a love of the brand, CGC attracts consumers in droves. While sport’s highly engaging context naturally drives fans to engage on social media, flourishing sport brands seek to build relationships with fans, already active on these platforms, in an effort to cultivate CGC. In 2011—relatively early days for social media adoption—the New Jersey Devils created the “Mission Control Digital Command Center” in the team’s Prudential Center home, as the focal point for managing, monitoring, and measuring their online engagement activities. With a fan base known as the “Devil’s Army”, enlisting 25 fans as “Army Generals” seemed natural. Their task was to engage with other fans, thereby bolstering the team’s social media efforts. Mission Control, staffed by both the Generals and members of the team’s marketing department, featured several large screen TVs, computers, and tablets. The Generals took shifts in monitoring social media activity, both pre-game and during the game, and posted to the team’s fan-focused @DevilsGenerals Twitter account. A combination of the Devils’ commitment to a social presence and the voice of the fan resulted in a strong increase in followers. It also delivered additional revenue opportunities through ticket promotions and unique fan offers in conjunction with sponsors. Teams such as the New Jersey Devils and the Cleveland Indians cede control to brand fans to encourage more authentic brand-consumer interaction. Many other proactive sport brands have followed suit by recruiting their most loyal fans to share, tweet, and post content about the brand. For example, the 2016 Australian Open Tennis Tournament featured a Social Suite. In order to win a VIP experience, fans were asked to take a photo of themselves at the Open and upload to Twitter or Instagram using the #AOSocialSuite hashtag. Similarly, the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning used their party suites to host special social media theme nights to encourage groups of connected fans to interact both online and offline. And, the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks have brought members of their online communities offline with official “tweetups” to bring fans together to watch 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 65 away games (and tweet about it of course!). These events feature trivia, with game tickets as prizes, and even a guest appearance by “Fin”, the team’s mascot. A brand fan’s passion can be a valuable resource for attracting other consumers. Astute brand managers understand that this advocacy should be recognised and rewarded. Research suggests that marketers can encourage positive content about the brand by providing a combination of economic and social incentives (Poch and Martin 2015), ranging from free tickets to positive feedback from other users. Progressive brands regard CGC as a form of social currency and are prepared to reward consumers for their contributions. Many powerful sport brands show their appreciation of fan-generated content in the form of merchandise, tickets, or unique experiences. For example, the NBA’s Phoenix Suns launched “Club Orange”; the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings have “Royal Rewards”; the MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers use “Dodgers’ Rewards”; and the English Premier League’s (EPL) Manchester City has “City Points”. These rewards programmes, and similar initiatives, allow fans to accrue points and receive rewards for their participation on social media, and in some cases, even for game attendance. Successful brands avoid simply dabbling in social media, but rather seek to embed it into the DNA of their brand strategy. To fully capitalise on the brand-building potential of brand fans and social media, firms also need to invest in monitoring the social media landscape. This imperative has led to the establishment of social media “command centres”; dedicated areas where a company’s social media or marketing team can monitor and engage in social conversations around their brand and market. An early adopter of this strategy was Gatorade, a “sports fuel company”, best known as a leading manufacturer of sports drinks. Gatorade’s flagship product was originally invented by three University of Florida researchers, tasked by one of their university’s football coaches to find out why so many players were hampered by heat and heat-related stresses. The researchers soon identified that the problem was connected to the loss of fluids, electrolytes, and muscle glycogen as a result of heavy activity and perspiration. Subsequently, Gatorade was born in the form of a scientifically balanced electrolyte-carbohydrate beverage developed for consumption during the game, and named in honour of the university’s 66 Brand Fans football team, the ‘Gators’. Now used by athletes and players across the world, the company has become a major sport sponsor and the official sports drink of many professional competitions, including the NFL. Gatorade was an early leader in the strategic use of social media when it established a social media command centre in its Chicago head office in 2010. “Gatorade Mission Control”, buzzing with people, monitors, and custom analytic software, was conceived as a “listening room” to monitor consumer conversations about the brand. However, it soon emerged as a critical resource for connecting with customers and athletes, shaping the brand’s efforts in transforming from sports drink producer to sports performance innovator. In addition to examining campaign and web analytics, the brand’s digital hub monitored real-time online conversations and mentions of the brand, as well as broader topics relevant to the sport performance landscape. Over time, Gatorade has been able to shift brand conversations from flavours and hangover cures, to sports performance and recovery. Confident brand managers delegate significant brand-building responsibility to the consumer. And, while companies may not be able to control CGC or electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), they still attempt to shape the dialogue, as Gatorade demonstrates. Brands such as the New Jersey Devils and Cleveland Indians exemplify how the most active and vocal brand enthusiasts and influencers—generally small groups—foster mutually beneficial relationships (Kohli et al. 2015). Fortunately, social media now makes it easier to identify and track such valuable cohorts.

Provide a Space

In addition to recruiting avid fans as brand conversationalists and advocates, organisations need to provide online and offline environments to inspire fan content. Brand fans need a place to congregate and interact where they can share ideas and experiences (Muniz and Schau 2011). Great sport brands accommodate sociable fans on their websites through dedicated interactive spaces, often with established social presences across multiple platforms. Digitally active sport brands provide a range of touch-points to ensure that their fans can interact any time and from 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 67 any location that suits them. As noted in the previous chapter, the MLB introduced a social media clubhouse for each of its teams. The clubhouse aimed to deliver a social media dashboard with easy access to each team’s social media accounts in one spot, as well as the official Twitter accounts of the individual players. As the MLB platform showed, CGC can be seamlessly incorporated into a brand’s web content. For example, a product page may include a feed from an online consumer forum and customer ratings. Reviews can even be embedded in multiple pages while hashtag content from Twitter and Instagram can be incorporated into a campaign microsite. Brand communities provide a vehicle for numerous value creating activities (Schau et al. 2009), which can lead to increased sales and stronger customer brand relationships (Kim and Johnson 2016). In addition to fostering communities on social media, brands can create a space for interaction and content creation through online member forums hosted by the brand. While online brand communities can be consumer initiated and spring up organically, brands can also take an active role in hosting a platform for discussion and debate. For sport brands, creating and developing fan consumption communities leads to increased game attendance, more merchandise sales, and advocacy to others (Hedlund 2014). The Detroit Pistons’ website, for instance, hosts a number of forums to facilitate conversations about the team, the NBA, and even topics that do not relate to basketball at all. Organisations need to engender a sense of community around the brand, facilitating connections not only between the brand and consumers but also amongst consumers (Christodoulides et al. 2012). Using social media as a mechanism to engage and convert customers into brand fans requires a sophisticated understanding of each platform, the capabilities they deliver, and the ways that fans interact with them. And of course, brands need to keep up with the new platforms that are constantly emerging. According to Hootsuite, a company providing one of the most widely used tools for managing multiple social media accounts simultaneously, each platform has its own unique combination of strengths and weaknesses. For example, Facebook’s appeal transcends generations. It maintains its position as the most popular social networking site in the world with one billion active daily users. Also, nearly 68 Brand Fans one-third of these users interact with brands regularly via the platform, explaining why a Facebook presence has become almost mandatory. Twitter followers are even more likely to follow brands than Facebook users. About 40 % of users learn about brands through Twitter, subsequently offering their opinions on the products and services on offer. Up-and-comers like Instagram and Snapchat have experienced exponential growth, but tend to be favoured more by younger users, particularly for accessing and sharing images. Seventy per cent of Instagram users regularly engage with brands, making it a brand manager’s delight. Pinterest enjoys a primarily female user base, although more male users join daily, particularly those planning holidays, weddings, or renovations. Finally, of course, YouTube dominates video content platforms, although Twitter and Instagram are steadily acquiring more “share of mouse” in that domain. Ambitious brands become dexterous in moving across multiple platforms, experimenting with content, but designing a purposeful strategy for each, like the MLB’s Chicago White Sox which has clear objectives for each of their social networking sites. Other leading sport brands focus on creative ways to leverage different platforms. For example, while male fans tend to dominate the sport audience, the NHL wanted to reach more females, so they established a series of Pinterest boards, featuring “Hockey Treats” in the food and drink category while “Fanicures and Hockey Style” let fans display manicures in their team’s colours. There is even an entry in the “Wedding” section, where seriously devoted hockey fans can find creative ideas for displaying team loyalty on their big day. Leading sport brands continually innovate, always looking for new ways to engage fans through different platforms and novel content. From the NFL’s live streaming of games on Twitter to the MLB’s foray into publishing user videos on Snapchat, state-of-the-art sport branding creates an immersive and interactive digital experience for fans. Not only do innovative sport brands promote social media interaction online, they give it prominence at the game itself. Examples range from social media walls to social media cafes, as well as other forms of social media centres that aggregate content, amplifying the impact of fan contributions and increasing brand presence. Teams like the MLB’s San Francisco Giants display fan tweets and Instagram photos during 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 69 the game. The Giants “social media café”, located behind the centre field bleachers, features video screens that project fan content. Similarly, the US Open Grand Slam tennis tournament uses “social walls” to connect with event attendees as well as a global fan base. The physical walls occupy a conspicuous position at the tournament, but also appear virtually on the event’s website. An added benefit of these new social displays comes through additional revenue from sponsorship. Digital engagement continues to gravitate from desktop to mobile. In response, brands must continually invent new ways to generate interaction. Smart phones have paved the way for 24/7 branding; mobile apps now constitute a staple in a marketplace demanding umbilical-like, instant connectivity. While it may be tempting to bombard consumers with constant content, mobile apps are best employed tactically to deliver meaningful content at the right moment. The NBA’s app, for instance, alerts users every time something noteworthy happens with their favourite team or player, accompanied by live stats and video highlights. In the NHL, a Pittsburgh Penguins app allows fans to receive timely team updates during the regular season as well as in the off-season. A layer of social integration within the app enables fans to easily spread Penguins news through the social platform of their choosing. One key challenge for sport brands involves finding an online space to effectively engage geographically dispersed fans. Language differences as well as local preferences in social media platforms makes global reach more complex than the concept of a ubiquitous online presence would suggest. However, it can be achieved. The highly successful football club, FC Barcelona, has credited its global appeal to a carefully curated social media presence. In 2014, the club was the first in the world to reach 100 million fans on social media, at that time attracting 100,000 new followers a day across 30 different social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, Sina Weibo, and Tencent Weibo. According to Barcelona’s website, the secret to their social media success is that “Barça doesn’t wait for its fans to come to it; Barça goes out and actively searches for them”. Since the inception of its online marketing department, the club’s digital strategy has focused on creating content adaptable for its international websites, using social media to distribute content and facilitating engagement with the global fan community. To 70 Brand Fans accommodate a fan base that transcends borders and to demonstrate the club’s commitment to these fans, websites and social media sites have been established in multiple languages including Chinese, Arabic, and Indonesian. Barcelona also caters for an increasingly mobile/cellular phone-centric fan base with their bespoke FCB apps program. Meanwhile, in real life (IRL), modern technology-enabled stadiums ensure that fans do not miss a moment of action. With access to Wi-Fi, fans can easily capture and share the emotion and vibrancy of the live experience in real time through social media. Mobile technology and smart phones have undeniably transformed the sport experience. Dramatic action coupled with the crowd’s roar no longer defines the sport spectacle for contemporary fans; they also want to access engrossing content that provides a sense of belonging, activates different modes of experience, and allows the experience to be shared with family and friends in real time. Sport brands make connectivity a priority by building or upgrad- ing stadia and venues to feature super-fast, secure, high-density Wi-Fi networks, as well as multiple high definition screens to guarantee that fans do not miss a moment of the action, no matter whether they were distracted by a great tweet or waiting at the hot dog stand. New “smart stadiums”, such as the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium, seek to leverage technology for enhanced fan experiences. Levi’s Stadium has its own app that allows fans to have food delivered to their seats, check scores, and watch replays, as well as monitor waiting times for the restrooms. More importantly, however, is the capacity for network connectivity giving fans fast and flawless access to not only download brand-generated content but also upload CGC. Levi’s Stadium allows for 70,000 passionate fans to connect to Wi-Fi and 4G networks. Other home stadia of the NFL’s New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, and Tennessee Titans, offer better wireless broadband than can be found in many developed countries. In Australia, the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground—known locally as “the G”—is slated for a multi-million dol- lar facelift. As the largest stadium in the southern hemisphere, the G plays host to a range of sporting events, including cricket and Australian Rules football (and featured as the central stadium for the 1956 summer Olympics). In addition to adding more Internet-enabled screens, upgrad- ing scoreboards, and installing atmospheric lighting, the planned refur- 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 71 bishment will incorporate a high-density Wi-Fi network. Sport brands not only connect to fans, but also keep fans connected by merging the live and digital sport experience. Great sporting brands connect to and through their fans. They stimulate authentic brand conversations through CGC, and wield a multi- faceted offline and online presence. Brand fans need a voice and brands need to listen to that voice. CGC provides unfiltered, natural insight into the value consumers derive through their interactions with brands. It also promotes the brand to other consumers, leading to further brand advocacy, loyalty, and equity.

Create and Curate

Cultivating and maintaining brand fans requires a content strategy designed to entice customers to engage, collaborate, create, and then share with other fans. As we discussed in the previous section, companies need to provide physical and virtual spaces where fans can interact not only with the brand, but with each other as well. But these spaces cannot be a “field of dreams” where brand managers adopt an “if you build it, they will come” attitude. Rather, this environment demands proactivity with regular new content that initiates continual dialogue (Smith et al. 2012). Brands must deliver creative and unique material to stimulate brand buzz and sharing. Sport fans exhibit an insatiable hunger for content. Moreover, statistics, interviews, scores, highlights, player profiles, and insider information become all the more compelling when exclusive. Like many teams, the NBA’s Detroit Pistons offer “behind the scenes” images and information to their fans. Yet, they also keep some special content in reserve to allow their “super fans” to be the first ones to post it. Using an app called “SocialToaster”, these super fans can earn points for their posts and tweets, in the process earning merchandise, tickets, and other rewards. While interesting or entertaining content always has a place, the best content allows a consumer to express his or her brand identification. The New York Yankees’ website features banner images celebrating key milestones, such as Derek Jeter’s “200 Postseason Hits”, and the Yankees’ 72 Brand Fans

“27 World Series Championships” that fans can add to their Facebook or Twitter timeline to demonstrate their “Yankee pride”. Savvy Yankee brand managers even provide a series of “Yankee-mojis” that can be downloaded and used in social media and text messages. Of course, the sport industry may have a unique advantage over other industries in that some of its employees—players—constitute powerful representatives of both a team’s brand and their own personal brands (and, of course, their sponsors’ brands too). Superstar players such as Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James, and Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant, have become social media superstars as well, attracting a sizeable and global fan base. These high profile sport personalities give a powerful human face to team brands. While most professional teams have social media policies to oversee the nature and timing of posts, athletes represent an engaging source of material for content-hungry fans. The personal social media sites of some athletes even eclipse their teams in terms of popularity. In addition to developing captivating brand-generated content, brand managers seek out content from brand fans likely to interest their customer base and embed that content into their online and offline communication platforms. For example, FC Barcelona attracts a global following by excelling not only in football, but also in connecting with their fan base. Barça encourages fan-generated content by, for instance, asking for photos from fans around the world (#FCBWorld) and then featuring selected images on their social hub. Successful sport brands have shifted their focus from brand-controlled content creation to content curation. That is, aggregating brand-related images, video, and text from a range of sources to engage and excite specific consumer segments. Sport brands recognise the appeal of image-rich and dynamic content. As teams such as the Tampa Bay Lightning have discovered, fans respond best to emotionally charged images and videos. Brands need to become masters of visual storytelling as consumers think in pictures more so than words (Megehee and Woodside 2010). The explosive growth of online social networks has propelled customers to the forefront of brand building. Online consumer brand-related activities can be classified into three types: consuming, contributing, and 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 73 creating (Muntinga et al. 2011). Consuming relates to brand-related content that is contextually relevant to the individual and either educates or entertains. Contributing and creating activities reflect a more active role played by the consumer. Contributions can include participating in competitions or posting comments on brand social media sites or online forums. More creative content might involve brand-related blogs or uploading photos or videos. CGC acts as a powerful form of eWOM, particularly when used for advocating and promoting brands (Kim and Johnson 2016), keeping in mind the prodigious circulation speeds and exponential distribution indigenous to the digital world. Consumers supply brand-related content for a number of reasons: social interaction, entertainment, to access or distribute information, or as an expression of identity (Muntinga et al. 2011). In return, consumers receive social benefits such as status and self-esteem, personal benefits such as fun and excitement, or psychological benefits such as satisfaction through self-expression. Sport fans participate on social media to express their emotional connection and passion for their team, to articulate their hopes and ambition for the season, to satisfy esteem needs, and to engage in camaraderie with the fan community (Stavros et al. 2014). Whatever the motivation, CGC provides a range of brand-related benefits for organisations, which lead to positive brand attitude and escalating purchases. CGC augments the content provided by the brand, offering another perspective and fostering connections between consumers and the brand community. Smart organisations solicit CGC by letting fans know what type of content will be prioritised through providing hashtags to rally around. For example, when the Tampa Bay Lightning launched their “Be the Thunder” (behind the Lightning) campaign, they promoted #bethethunder as a place for fans to voice their support. Employing a similar tactic, the NFL’s Denver Broncos reached out to fans in real time during a particularly dramatic climax of a game against the New England Patriots. By rallying fans around the hashtags #BeatThePatriots and #BroncosCountry, the team united its fans in a common passion, whether they were watching the action in the stadium or elsewhere. It worked. The Broncos generated 30 % more tweets than their opponents. Sport’s many unpredictable moments mean that their digital teams need to be at the ready to connect with fans when a dramatic topic arises. 74 Brand Fans

Smart brands validate CGC by acknowledging or responding in some way (Smith et al. 2012). Brands should strive to converse with their fans directly, or comment on fan posts and photos. In the digital world, consumer communication inviting feedback or interaction, such as blogging, represents a form of affirmation seeking; it co-constructs or reinforces the individual’s sense of self (Belk 2013). Of course, consumer content does not always reflect a positive brand sentiment. In those instances, brand managers need to remain poised to engage with the customer to swiftly address any problems or issues (Smith et al. 2012). Sport brands tend to be spoilt for choice when it comes to creating branded content that both entertains and educates fans. Great products naturally stimulate consumers to share with their social networks, as well as to interact with the brand itself. Consider the example of the NBA, heralded as an innovator and social media pioneer in finding new ways to create resonant content. While some of the other major sport leagues seem concerned by unauthorised content, such as fan posts of game footage, the NBA has taken a far more liberal approach. In an effort to support the quality of CGC that uses game footage, the NBA teamed up with a technology partner to develop the “go90” mobile app. With seamless technical precision, the app allows fans to stream live games and post high quality game moments to their social media accounts. Recently, the NBA has again partnered with a digital media company to provide socially connected fans with an innovative way of capturing their favourite moments. “NBA Playmakers” comprises an online video network featuring footage of games, interviews, and other content. Fan influencers—like those with a strong YouTube following—are given access to content and video management tools, in order to cut and edit their own video creations. Selected videos are shown on the NBA’s social media accounts and fans receive tickets, merchandise, and potentially a share of any advertising revenue the videos attract. While initially available only to US supporters, the initiative could be extended to international audiences. The NBA’s aggressive foray into social media has been particularly beneficial for its smaller teams in strengthening their brand reach. New media has levelled the playing field and removed geographical barriers 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 75 for sport teams, as it has done for many products and services in other industries. The NBA’s constant content assault on social media keeps fans inspired with updates on teams, players, and other NBA news. Sharing insider information, particularly around the League’s operations, conveys transparency and establishes intimacy with fans. Individual teams in the NBA have also been relentless in their pursuit of innovative content to bolster fan participation. For example, the Cleveland Cavaliers partnered with Budweiser to deliver virtual reality content, accessible through a mobile app. To launch this new immersive experience, the team distributed specially designed Budweiser cardboard headsets to lucky fans at the game. The headsets, which also double as beer holders, work when a user inserts a smart phone into the front of the headset and then peers through a special lens. By delivering a unique experience to fans both in the arena and at home, the Cavs create a hot topic of conversation around the brand. Developing contextually relevant brand content that invites interaction requires a carefully considered strategy. Given the real-time nature of many online channels, this can require the timing and coordination of a military operation. In one case, event managers at the All England Lawn Tennis Club worked with IBM to develop technology for enhancing the Wimbledon spectator experience. The resulting “alerting system” identifies when something newsworthy occurs, such as Roger Federer hitting his 1000th career ace. This news is then instantly pushed out to eager fans on social media. From a redesigned website that immerses users in the Wimbledon experience, to the use of drones to capture breathtaking images, the event managers strive to deliver valuable content to fans, particularly given that the majority are not part of the live experience. Technology firms have become critical brand partners in helping sport to stay ahead of the content creation curve. Consider, for example, how Manchester City teamed up with Snaptivity, a mobile video app, to trial a tool providing fans with the ultimate event “selfie”. With multiple in- stadium cameras trained on the cheering crowds, the app allows fans to access images of themselves revelling during key moments of the match. By entering their seat number into the app, personal images are sent straight to the fan’s phone and can then be downloaded, tagged, and shared through social media. 76 Brand Fans

While some brands fear the loss of control over the brand, as well as the potential risk of negative word of mouth that can ricochet through the ether at a dizzying speed, others have bravely and successfully faced the new frontier that CGC represents. And while some have just put a toe in the social media water with one-off campaigns or promotions, other brands have taken advantage of a range of new media platforms to seek out and connect with brand fans, sharing brand stories, and engaging on a deeper level. As we discuss in the next section, these brand stories help co-create brand meaning by engendering strong emotional bonds. Research suggests that CGC can act as a prompt for consumers to consider how the brand contributes to their life meanings (Malthouse et al. 2016).

Share Brand Stories

Like great movies, books, or sporting events, brand stories develop narratives that contain plots, characters, and outcomes. These elements collectively augment the emotional connection between brand and consumer, which in turn intensifies feelings of trust (Woodside 2010). Brand stories can be consumer or company led, and can aid in building awareness and understanding, as well as in shaping brand meaning for the consumer (Singh and Sonnenburg 2012). Company generated brand stories aim to connect with customers, by providing a theme or focus for engaging in conversation (Gensler et al. 2013) and inviting consumers to contribute their own experiences to the brand story. Consumers, meanwhile, use narratives to help process and interpret their brand experiences (Escalas 2004). Colourful characters, a theatrical setting, and the promise of dramatic and uncertain outcomes provide all the key ingredients for sport brands to become enthralling raconteurs. Iconic teams like the New York Yankees have developed stirring emotional narratives around their brand’s heritage, complete with almost mythical characters in a magical setting. Other brands, like the EPL’s 2016 Champions, Leicester City, possess a compelling narrative in their “rags to riches” fairy tale ascension. In another example, the New Zealand All Blacks rugby union team 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 77 celebrate their longstanding cultural traditions before each match by performing a “Haka”, which honours the “passion, vigour and identity” of the indigenous Maori culture. The ritual has been synonymous with New Zealand rugby since 1888 and remains a defining feature of the All Blacks brand. While great sport brands are accomplished storytellers, they are also eager audiences for supporters’ stories and embrace the opportunity to serve as a conduit for their distribution. Authenticity seems to be the key. The more evangelical the better (Muniz and Schau 2011). Manchester United invites fervent fans to “join the conversation” and share their favourite memories from a past FA Cup using the hashtag #WeAreUnited and re-tweeting the best stories. Similarly, cross town rivals Manchester City feature “City Stories” in the fan section of their website. As the Club states, “ #citystories is all about your memories and stories about us… we want you to tell us everything that you know about us…everything you’ve experienced and love about our history. That could be years ago, last month or yesterday”. Requests for stories from brand fans can be linked to, or triggered by, timely events. While the NHL has endured its share of branding challenges—most notably the lockouts in 2004/05 and 2012/13, which no doubt tested the loyalty of even its most committed fans—the league has worked hard to maintain fan engagement, particularly at the season’s end as the drama builds towards crowning the champion. The NHL’s marketing campaign for the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs extended the theme it first introduced in 2012, “Because It’s the Cup”. Based on the excitement and tradition of the play-offs, where the Stanley Cup is awarded to the winning team, the campaign sought to unite both die-hard fans as well as more casual spectators. By 2014, the multi-channel play-offs campaign included a suite of brand-authored stories. For example, emotive television advertisements showcasing dramatic moments of the season opened with the tag line, “but there is only one goal”, and closed with a powerful image of the iconic Stanley Cup trophy. Fans were further exhorted to share their passion for hockey and victory celebrations by submitting photos and videos via #CelebrateStanley and #StanleyCup, with tweets displayed throughout the play-off games. A mobile app enabled fans to 78 Brand Fans create edited “movies” with a lucky few premiering during the televised coverage and rewarded with prizes. A similar tactic was deployed with the MLB’s “This is Baseball” campaign. It utilised a documentary style to provide an insider’s look at real moments with players, managers, and fans, including footage of players interacting with fans, and behind the scenes training footage. New creative content appeared on a weekly basis during the season across various media platforms, including traditional television spots as well as Vines, GIFs, and Instagram posts. Fans shared their stories using the simple hashtag #THIS, as part of a unifying ode to all things that make baseball great. Fan stories can extend beyond brand-related conversations and capture bigger themes that concern consumers on a deeper level. Given the emotional connection between fans and sport brands, some of the most influential brand stories are co-authored. For example, the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks have been feted by Forbes as the “greatest sport-business turnaround ever” as a result of an extensive revitalisation in 2007, which saw the team shift its poor performance and languishing attendance figures to arrive at the top of the league in both areas. Revenues associated with merchandise and sponsorship increased dramatically too. As part of their overall strategy, the Blackhawks established one of the strongest social media presences in the NHL. Using this vehicle, the team sought to engender deeper levels of engagement with their fan base and the community more broadly. The #whatsyourgoal campaign asked fans to share their personal goals—where they intersected with the team—through Facebook and Twitter. Some goals were relatively straightforward for the organisation to help realise. One fan’s goal was to get Blackhawk tickets to take his four-year-old daughter to her first game. In another case, a fan wanted a team jersey signed by her favourite player. Other goals proved more elaborate. Emilie wanted to enlist the help of a favourite Blackhawks player in babysitting a disabled young boy. Jenny hoped to bring a group of senior citizens to a Blackhawks game, but instead the Blackhawks brought the game to the seniors’ activity centre where Jenny worked. The lucky seniors participated in a lively game overseen by the Blackhawks coach, complete with mascot and opening national anthem. Over 20,000 submissions were received in response to the ini- 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 79 tial campaign, which was swiftly extended. During the campaign, the Blackhawks brand shared some of the more quirky and moving stories online, creating compelling and emotional videos of how the goals of fans like Emilie and Jenny were achieved. Research suggests that consumers are most attracted to stories about a brand’s heritage, its commitment to giving back to the community, and how it differs from other brands (Granitz and Foreman 2015). It is therefore no surprise that the Blackhawks campaign was such a success. Consumers will naturally attribute their own idiosyncratic meanings to brands, shaped by their brand experiences and stories. These stories are potentially amplified through digital media, which provides an expansive platform for the consumer narrative. Again, the diminished role of the firm as the main author of brand stories creates both challenges and opportunities (after all, the story the consumer tells may not always be the story that the firm wants to hear). However, integrating positive and authentic consumer-brand stories into a company’s branding strategy conveys a compelling brand endorsement. Contemporary brand building is a co-creative and collaborative process. Multiple authors beyond the firm, including consumers, brand communities, and cultural inter- mediaries such as the media, can craft the most striking brand stories. Dynamic and evolving, the process is inevitably complicated. However, experiences connecting the brand to a consumer’s personal goals or values will provoke higher levels of engagement (Malthouse et al. 2016). Ideally, brand managers should leverage the potential of social media to entice consumers into the brand-building process by creating “cultural artifacts, social rituals, and cultural icons for consumers to appropriate and work on behalf of the brand” (Gensler et al. 2013, p. 253).

Entrust Brand Fans

Passionate fans act as commanding brand advocates but can also contribute to a sense of community solidarity. We introduced the concept of brand communities in the previous chapter, describing them as specialised, non-geographically bound groups that coalesce around a common brand connection. However, as highlighted, brand communities seem 80 Brand Fans to be shifting; relocating from the physical to the digital space. Another way to look at brand communities is to see them as “co-consuming” and socially interactive collectives for value co-creation. While all consumers receive the benefits of this value co-creation, some individuals adopt more significant roles as contributors of cultural capital in the form of knowledge, information, and experiential resources (Pongsakornrungsilp and Schroeder 2011). Members of these brand communities can engage in a range of practices that co-create value for both individuals and for the brand (Schau et al. 2009). For example, social networking practices cultivate ties within the community by welcoming and including new members, empathising with its member’s concerns, and moderat- ing the community’s behavioural expectations. Members also participate in impression management, given their desire to create favourable impressions of both the brand and community. Hopefully, these include evangelising or justifying behaviours. Community engagement practices reinforce members’ attachments to the community and can include sharing key milestones or experiences associated with the brand, or personal stories that relate to brand experiences. When members share information, they encourage other members to do the same. Brand communities may be consumer-initiated and consumer-driven. However, that does not mean that brand managers can rest easy on the sidelines. Rather, brand managers should provide resources and support to facilitate the formation and functioning of communities. Visionary brands both interact with and empower consumers. In turn, empowered customers develop positive attitudes and behaviours towards the brand (Acar and Puntoni 2016). As a result, leading sport brands have extended their marketing emphases from individual consumers to fan consumption communities (Hedlund 2014). As noted earlier, Arsenal claims more than 120 recognised supporters’ clubs around the world; in essence, brand communities. While fans manage each community independently, Arsenal provides valued supports’, such as a personalised club crest, access to the Supporters’ Clubs Extranet, stadium tours, an opportunity to feature in the “Club Culture” page of the Matchday Programme, and the chance to nominate a “player of the year”. Supporters’ clubs and communities connect the brand to a geographically disparate fan base. 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 81

Research exploring an online fan community for the Liverpool Football Club found, unsurprisingly, that highly identified and engaged fans can build brand equity (Pongsakornrungsilp and Schroeder 2011). Established in 1892, Liverpool is a formidable presence in the EPL, attracting a significant and partisan fan base from all over the world. “This is Anfield” (TIA), the independent supporters’ community (named after the Club’s home stadium), has been online since 2001. TIA distrib- utes news, player profiles, regular columns, quizzes, and other exclusive content to its members, both local and global. The site hosts numerous forums where members can discuss various aspects of the club, or football more generally. Research investigating this community discovered that experienced members—who often held official positions within the community—acted as “providers”, contributing information, data, statistics, or analysis to the site. Providers helped educate new members, typically disseminating the history and traditions of the club and the community, thus building solidarity. They further shielded the community from external threats (e.g. media or rival clubs) or internal threats (e.g. dis- passionate or fair weather fans). Through the forum, the TIA community strengthens Liverpool’s brand. Social interaction between members also extends offline as fans organise to meet up before games or attend football-related social functions. Other research demonstrates that communities fortify brand loyalty and customer retention (Algesheimer et al. 2005). In fact, the idea of becoming part of a community may both attract consumers to the brand, as well as act as a form of exit barrier. That is, the consumer may be dis- suaded from defecting to another brand if it means the loss of valued relationships (McAlexander et al. 2002). In the sport context, avid fans identify with teams, individual players, and fan communities. Studies show that fan community identification positively influences team brand equity (Yoshida et al. 2015). The implication is clear: actively fostering brand communities, as Arsenal and many other sport brands have done, builds and leverages brand fans. “Blogging the Boys” is an example of the increasing sophistication of fan forums. This online fan community for the Dallas Cowboys was launched in 2005 by a self-described “obsessive” Cowboys fan. Currently hosted under the umbrella of SB Nation (an online media brand), the 82 Brand Fans community, also supported by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, was established as “a meeting place” for committed Cowboys fans “who wanted to seriously discuss football and have some fun along the way”. Participants must adhere to guidelines governing contributions including etiquette, profanity, “hot button” issues, personal attacks, and plagiarism. The blog encourages two main forms of contribution: fan posts and fan shots. Fan posts are timely, considered pieces of about 100 words in relation to the Cowboys, whereas fan shots are shorter comments, links, videos, or other football-related content of interest to the community. Fan posts generate commentary or conversation whereas fan shots deliver shorter, fun news. Some of the members have even participated on ESPN radio and television shows. As the previously described communities demonstrate, digital tools and technologies have prompted a kind of “distributed memory” (Belk 2013). As illustrated by the “Blogging the Boys” example, online communities share and archive artefacts and stories along with the development of collective memories around them, which keeps brand traditions alive. While sport may naturally bring people together, numerous examples can be found of strong brand communities in other industries. Brands such as Harley-Davidson, Lego, Nutella, Apple, and Ducati, have all spawned passionate communities both online and offline. Whether firm-created or consumer-initiated, brand fans make the communities tick.

Leverage the Fan Voice

As we have discussed throughout this chapter, brand fans act as authentic brand advocates. They contribute invaluable brand-building content, share brand stories, cement brand relationships through communities, and co-create aspects of the brand experience for other consumers. CGC delivers unfettered insight into the consumer-brand experience, which can be employed to inform branding strategy. Great sport brands not only welcome but also actively seek the fan voice. We pointed out how social media listening posts help access consumer-brand sentiments, as demonstrated by Gatorade. The San 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 83

Francisco Giants offer another exemplar, having transformed a casual comment in a fan community into an opportunity to amplify fan enthusiasm through a quirky promotional campaign. It all started in the final minutes of a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, where victory would mean advancing to the 2012 World Series. As tensions were mounting, the heavens opened drenching the field with rain. Giant’s second base- man, Marco Scutaro, raised his arms, looked to the skies, and took in the moment. For whatever reason (no doubt aided by the Giants ultimately winning the game), this image resonated with fans, reverberating through social media and inspiring the hashtag ‘#scutaroing’. One blog- ger on the “McCovey Chronicles” (a Giants fan community) suggested a “rain globe” (like a snow globe) to capture the memorable moment. Thanks to social media and the momentum of the fan community, the Giants decided to bring the idea to fruition. Rain globes were subsequently given away to fans as part of a special event game package at the team’s social media night, and swiftly became an iconic and novel piece of memorabilia. Customer feedback can contribute to more weighty issues too, that may not necessarily emerge spontaneously in brand communities or via social media. Many sport brands often consult their fans about sport product features that impact upon the consumption experience. NASCAR’s Fan Council, as we highlighted, provides access to the fan voice to track consumer experiences and inform operational decisions. Similarly, the Australian Football League created “AFL Fan Focus”, an insight community of over 11,000 fans who provide feedback on league issues, including the rules of the game, marketing campaigns, and even the entertainment at the Grand Final (the ultimate game of the season). Both Australia’s National Rugby League and the International Rugby League have also sought fan input regarding proposed rule changes via surveys or social media. Shrewd sport brands employ multiple methods to ensure that the fan voice echoes loudly in key decisions. Whether to give direction to a marketing strategy, rule changes, new uniforms, or even what music should be played during breaks in play, fan “content” is regarded as pivotal to both the sport experience and the ultimate success of the team. 84 Brand Fans

Conclusion: Co-creation to Co-branding

While sport, compared to other products, may seem to have an unfair advantage in its natural ability to interact with consumers and cultivate brand fans, it also faces significant challenges like any other industry. Skyrocketing competition from other sport and leisure activities, escalating ticket prices, and attractive at-home viewing options makes live sport more difficult to sell than ever. However, the great sport brands have adapted by maintaining an unwavering focus on the fan. They have evolved to be at the cutting edge of branding, moving from a transactional paradigm to one of relationship building and co-creation. Under the new paradigm, consumer content, consumer networks, and consumer communities have arrived at the forefront of brand building (Kozinets et al. 2010). New media and mobile technology has fuelled this maelstrom of change that has rendered traditional brand-driven business models obsolete. Social media has proven to be a revolution- ary force in branding. However, because new digital platforms increase brand transparency, those brands found lacking in either authenticity or quality face the potential for a catastrophic backlash (Kohli et al. 2015). To add to the branding complexity, social media has amplified the impact of social connections to brands. While consumer purchase decisions have always been influenced by word of mouth from friends and family, technology, particularly online social networks, has extended the reach and visibility of these networks as well as the lightning speed at which communication takes place. The line between brand and consumer social networks is fuzzy. The new reality means overlapping conversations between brands and consumers, as well as conversations between consumers about brands (Gensler et al. 2013). In one colourful description, Singh and Sonnenburg (2012) suggest that brand management, instead of being like directing a tightly scripted play, has become akin to improvisational theatre. In “improv”, the moderator introduces the story, but then asks the audience to participate in conceiving the ending. Hennig-Thurau et al. (2010) propose that today’s brand management is analogous to a game of pinball, whereby 3 Unlimited Users: The Rise of Consumer-Generated Content 85 the firm can manipulate the ball (i.e. the brand), but cannot necessarily control the trajectory. As we have emphasised throughout this chapter, examining the many ways in which visionary sport brands have adapted to a technologically and socially empowered consumer provides valuable lessons to all organisations. In particular, savvy brand managers, like those found within the elite of sport, must acknowledge the tectonic shift in the branding landscape and embrace fast feedback, co-created content, and the unbounded user.

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Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism

Introduction: Cradle to Grave

The Melbourne Football Club, which plays at the elite level of Australian football, can trace its origins back to 1858, while Notts County, an English professional football team, goes back to 1862. Such longevity, mirrored in numerous sporting endeavours from Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States (formed in 1869) to State-based cricket in Australia (1892), presents a robust platform for establishing on-going communities, understanding the relational processes necessary to nurture new generations, and determining how multiple customer segments can intersect to form enduring bonds. This chapter further develops the concepts of connected individuals and brand communities discussed in the preceding chapters. It demonstrates the processes sport brands use to foster connections to their audiences and illuminates the ritualistic and tribal practices engendered in sport consumers that can be transferred across to other industries. Loyalty in sport is sometimes ascribed to inertia. However, the reality reflects a far more psychologically nuanced phenomenon. Attachment to a sport brand features an array of internal and external influences that

© The Author(s) 2017 89 A.C.T. Smith et al., Brand Fans, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-48854-7_4 90 Brand Fans produce the symbolic constructions connecting fans to clubs and teams. Sophisticated communication networks have evolved from these linkages, creating intersecting communities with an identity and attachment that hold valuable lessons for all sorts of brands. Undoubtedly, sporting organisations receive immense benefits from the “cradle to grave” mentality that exists within the industry. Few die- hard fans would ever contemplate switching their allegiance to another team, even if that team were to move 1000 kilometres away, as demonstrated when South Melbourne of the Australian Football League (AFL) headed north to Sydney. While the AFL was desperate to have a team in the nation’s most populous city, the decision was also driven by a pragma- tism emanating from a saturated Melbourne (with 10 other teams at the time) marketplace. South Melbourne’s transformation into the Sydney Swans did not proceed, however, without considerable angst. The community and membership model inherent in Australian sport made the decision intensely emotional, rather than just strictly economic. Despite the trauma of upheaval, thousands of fans who had cheered the “red and white” of South Melbourne maintained their allegiance and formed a variety of local supporter groups, from “Ladies on the Lake” to “Blood Brothers”. These self-organised collectives welcomed the Sydney team on their frequent trips to Melbourne, and rapidly generated a passionate community that organised functions and maintained a close affiliation. In 2013, around three decades after the team’s relocation, the Melbourne-based membership (season-ticket holders) of the club exceeded 10,000 for the first time; representing more than a quarter of the team’s entire membership that year and three times larger than the team had attracted in its final season in Melbourne. In 2005, when the Swans won the championship game (known locally as the “Grand Final”) for the first time since 1933, the team’s giant run-through entry banner featured the poignant message: “Two cities, one team, together, living the dream”. Success with the disparate Swan’s supporter community has not just been a result of attachment or sharing a common brand bond. The Sydney Swans have nurtured the club’s inherited history and culture, maintaining its Melbourne office, which boasts several employees and a merchandise shop, as a significant satellite responsible for a range of 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 91 activities including supporter liaison. Still wearing the same uniform, the Swans have retained the original reverence for the “blood’s culture”, which has been emblematic of the club’s heritage dating back to its formation in 1874. For Sydney, the future challenge will revolve around nurturing a new generation of geographically dispersed fans, particularly in the Melbourne market where nine teams currently flex considerable local marketing muscle. No longer will the club be able to rely on simple familial ties, a long-time stalwart of sporting generations. In fact, the evidence suggests that newer generations of fans are less influenced by family tradition, instead preferring to make independent brand choices. Aghast though sporting parents in Liverpool may feel when their child requests a Chelsea strip for her birthday, sport marketers see the opportunity in the globalised sporting world for taking their offering into new geographical markets. A desire to venture beyond local support is underpinned by an assumption that sport delivers entertainment value. We argue throughout this book that great sport brands exemplify brand action. Undeniably, absur- dity abounds in sport, whether skating on ice chasing an elusive piece of black rubber, throwing a ball into a net ten feet off the ground, or seeking to synchronise ballet moves in water. What makes sporting experiences special is the value it yields for consumers as an outlet for pure, unadul- terated enjoyment that goes beyond the athletic performance and extends to a sense of belongingness to a community. In this chapter, we discuss sport’s connected communities whose tribal behaviours, iconic nature, and enduring group identity provide valuable insight for brands seeking to deliver more than functional benefits for their customers.

Build Resilient Brands

Many elite sport brands successfully combine sporting excellence with a business imperative. Management books that once drew upon the military strategies of Prussian and Chinese generals now borrow from the sporting vernacular to label with allegories, compare with similes, and inspire with metaphors. While war once offered the entrée to discussions on business strategy, the competitive confrontations inherent in sport— 92 Brand Fans not to mention its ruthless commercial foundations—now firmly command the preferred nomenclature. As Stavros et al. (2008) highlight, sporting organisations tend to encourage the perception of a crisis or battle in order to sharpen the focus on immediate, critical problems. Sporting brands operate in a perpetually perilous world of pending disaster; a stark reminder that they are only as good as the last victory. Such is the natural response to a marketplace where fierce competition simultaneously means good business and heavy pressure to secure even the most trivial advantage. Such pressure may lead to over-reaction at times, but it also propels swift prototyping, relentless innovation, and calculated risk-taking. Real Madrid, the Spanish football team of world renown, has employed eight different managers (head coaches) between mid-2006 and mid-2016, despite winning their domestic competition, “La Liga”, three times during the period. Yet, this level of success does not cut it for the most decorated team in Spain, as it falls behind the fortunes of intense rivals FC Barcelona (six Liga titles during the same period), who leveraged their own form of crisis at the turn of the century to internationalise and thrust their brand to the upper echelons of global sport. Sport consumers around the world are now acutely aware of this regional rivalry, the nuances of the league, and a plethora of other details that were once relegated to the depths of local trivia. In chasing domestic glory, both Barcelona and Real Madrid understand the ramifications for their brand mobility and value at the intersection of global sport and business. In 2016, Forbes ranked Real Madrid as the most valuable football (soccer) team in the world at US$3.65 billion, with Barcelona just a whisker behind at US$3.55 billion (forbes. com 2016). While these figures do not (yet) rival some vast consumer brands, the ability to attract sizable sponsorships, where flagship brands use sporting synergies to propel favourable associations, amplifies sport’s branding power whether as a strategic alliance or as an innovation leader. It has not always been this way in sport. When Theodore Levitt wrote his seminal article on “marketing myopia” over half a century ago, rail- roads provided the key example given their historical significance and resonance with a transformational culture where faster, stronger, and longer were the marketing buzzwords of a new generation seeking tangible improvements in the goods and services they were consuming. Levitt 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 93

(1960) argued for a revolution that required managers to think beyond a functional product orientation. Instead, they were to focus on the benefits their customers received from their products, and what other competing products might meet the same needs. Sport, however, initially resisted the marketing revolution. Many organisations refused to accept that sport could be a product or a business, instead stumbling from one reactionary change to another. They showed little interest beyond preserving the contest’s purity at the expense of understanding what that contest was really offering its audience. As a consequence, many sporting brands turned up late to the party. For example, the Olympic Games remained an almost purely amateur event for competitors until almost the end of the last century. Similarly, although the English Premier League (EPL) now symbolises elite sporting success, it only began in 1992, replacing the conservative and stoic English First Division. At the same time, Manchester United, the standout team throughout the Premier League’s global progress, had merchandise sales of just £1 million in 1993 (Finance Week 1998). Their most recent apparel deal—a partnership with global sportswear giant adidas—is estimated to be worth £750 million over a ten-year period, an astonishing amount, given the previous contract with Nike returned less than half that figure (BBC.com 2014). In signing the adidas deal in mid-2014, Manchester United had come off a relatively disappointing 2013–14 season where they had finished seventh, and therefore failed to qualify for any lucrative European continental competition for the first time since 1990. United’s league fortunes remained relatively stagnant in the following two years, finishing fourth in 2014–15, and an equally disappointing fifth in 2015–16, despite securing the FA Cup. These results often accompanied relatively dour on- field displays focused on defensive football. While the business side of the club was excellent, adidas CEO Herbert Hainer bemoaned to a German newspaper, “the current playing style of Man United is not exactly what we want to see” (Busse and Ritzer 2016). The inference caused minimal consternation at the club, given that the scope of its business is understood to go well beyond kicking and chasing a ball. Sport’s late bloom quickly transformed into impatience for change, the resultant sprint to maturity having driven hasty innovation and a 94 Brand Fans grand arrival onto the global stage. Some sport brands have even defied imminent catastrophe to turn their fortunes around. For example, following a horrendous series of financial and social crises in the 1970s, the Olympic Games bordered on extinction. However, Peter Ueberroth and his Los Angeles Organizing Committee of 1984 showed that the event could be reimagined as high-level entertainment, at the same time as making it a robust business product with corporate sponsorship elevated to never before seen levels. In other now famous examples, media mogul Kerry Packer reset world cricket in 1977 by setting up a rival league when his attempts to secure broadcasting rights in Australia were rebuffed. Likewise, Vince McMahon took professional wrestling’s fractured sport- styled entertainment to stratospheric heights with his stewardship of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). All three innovators reshaped a core product to ensure that the consumer became each brand’s cen- trepiece. As a result, they focused on developing high drama through sto- ried narratives peppered with achievement, innovation, and community bonding. In addition, each of the three leaders were prescient visionaries, employing media platforms and manipulating the product offerings in order to bring viewers a little closer to the action, and hence the brand. Ueberroth melded Hollywood pizazz and personality to athletic endeavour, Packer tripled the number of cameras used at a cricket ground in his first game, and McMahon took a whole suite of media platforms into the lives of his enigmatic larger-than-life stars. In other instances, from sheer tragedy and necessity, crisis blossomed into opportunity. Manchester United presents the prototypical example in the form of the 1958 Munich air disaster. The story has become legendary for its impact on the fabric of a community so endeared to the young, exciting team built by the enigmatic manager at the time, Matt Busby. Those “Busby Babes”, as they were affectionately known, were First Division Champions of England in both 1956 and 1957. Twenty- three of the 44 souls on board British European Airways flight 609 died when it crashed on its third attempt to take off from a snowy airport runway in Munich. Three United coaches and eight players were among the fatalities, with two other players so badly injured that they would never play again. Busby, himself severely hurt, only just managed to pull through and contemplated leaving the sport altogether as he recuperated 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 95 in Switzerland. It was only at the strong urging of his wife that Busby agreed to return to Manchester and rebuild the team (Morrin 2007). Ten years later, United, with a new generation of Busby Babes, tri- umphed in the 1967–68 European Cup, having reclaimed the First Division crown in England the previous year. Despite the worldwide acclaim for the achievement, it was far from smooth sailing from there. It would take the club 30 years to return to another European Cup final, and they would never win the English First Division championship again, watching instead as bitter rivals Liverpool built its famous dynasty. United’s situation became so dire that in the 1970s they suffered the ultimate footballing ignominy of being relegated to the Second Division for one year. However, the club had built an astonishing resilience and after the events of 1958 nothing could shake its foundations. United’s ultimate recovery, acceptance of inevitable backward steps along the way, and an unshakable focus on the spirit of its brand, comprise important lessons in how to create brand resilience and rally consumer support. Despite the lack of league title success in the 1970s and 1980s, the club developed a reputation for being entertaining; a trait that was to become a mantra for the world’s first genuinely global sporting club. Charismatic key players, such as George Best and Bryan Robson, stimulated interest in a team committed to an appealing and attacking style. These facets helped to build the club’s global brand on the back of the admiration and empathy it received as a result of a tragic history. A succession of coaching changes sought to leverage the amassed goodwill, as did a run of close finishes and some FA Cup silverware. Like many great brands, Manchester United was not an overnight success. Eventually, of course, the club came to dominate the EPL, amassing 13 titles in 21 years, and entrenching itself as one of the world’s elite sporting brands. Above all, the brand story was compelling, having successfully married a riveting off-field narrative to on-field success. Manchester United’s gripping journey proved critical to its success in capturing the imagination of football fans the world over, most of whom had never even visited the city. As a salutary lesson for any brand seeking to build for the future, managers need to connect a brand’s philosophy to its consumption. Brands need to think of not “what if (it happens)” when thinking of the future, but on “when it (happens)”. Many first time 96 Brand Fans customers of Apple identify quickly with the brand’s values, despite their lack of hands-on knowledge. Indeed, how many of us value the leading German automobile marques even if we do not actually drive one? As with all aspects of branding, continual monitoring and adjust- ment remain necessary as the potential for crisis hovers close in such a competitive environment. In the 1970s and 1980s, an underperforming Manchester United was a romantic underdog, admired for its resilience and tenacity. When eventually achieving remarkable success, the club grew in size and corporate focus at the expense of some local character. By the early 2010s, some of United’s fans and many of its detractors felt that the club had lost touch with the needs of a modern fan community. A crisis was looming. In other words, it was just another day in the world of a sport brand living life under a microscope.

Use New Communities and Old Thinking (or Old Communities and New Thinking)

Newton Heath LYR football club was formed in 1878 by carriage and wagon workers from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway who secured funding from their employers to lease a ground and play competi- tively against other railway-based teams. In 1902, amidst considerable debt, the club made a fresh start with new investors and rebranded as Manchester United. As Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski highlight in their excellent book, Soccernomics, the working class ethic and limited entertainment options of industrial regions made the club a powerhouse of football at the beginning of the last century (Kuper and Szymanski 2009). Large mining and manufacturing centres, from Milan to Manchester, featured communities that invested their scarce leisure time into the proud and passionate support of local football teams. As generations passed, these clubs became intractably entrenched in the communities of their origins. Blue-collar, demographically homogenous populations—typical of the industrialised parts of Europe at the time—make for tight-knit sport brand communities. Brands perceived as “one of us” reflect the values of their customers, carrying with them high levels of trust and acceptance. 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 97

In contemporary branding terms, such connections are considered “authentic” and amongst the most desirable characteristics a brand can possess. Ironically, however, brands lacking authenticity can risk further diminishing their status should they attempt to manufacture it through transparent marketing efforts. Sport organisations, of course, possess a natural connection to many of their supporters by virtue of a relatively immobile and concentrated geographical catchment. As sporting brands expand in scope, they can activate linkages with nostalgia, often through powerful associations with the past like “throwback” playing apparel, commemorative ceremonies, and by lionising past heroes and events within dedicated museums. Consider, for example, the President Nuñez Museum at FC Barcelona, which ranks as one of the most visited museums in Europe, attracting more than a million visitors per year. Links to a brand’s history can be enduring and powerful, offering a sense of stability and value reaching across generations. Non-sport brands can also exploit nostalgic associations. Victorinox, for example, still makes its world-famous Swiss Army knives in the small town of Schwyz (population 15,000) in Central Switzerland, amplifying its familial heritage as well as the perception of Swiss quality and technical design. Brands in every sector need to be strategic in leveraging their historic linkages, especially when it comes to the values they claim to epitomise. For example, the Denver Broncos in the National Football League (NFL) maintained their famous “Mile High” stadium name, even after con- structing a new field. The preservation of a similar inherent nostalgic value was a consideration when the English Football Association completely rebuilt its Wembley heartland. The world’s two leading sporting apparel brands are great exponents of the “act local, think global” approach. Both Nike and adidas employ their founding regions as economic and physical bonds. Nike consistently espouses its connections to Oregon through both sponsorship of local events and institutions and through its own promotional positioning. Similarly, adidas’ hometown connection to Herzogenaurach, Bavaria (population, 25,000), reflects a broader German approach to geographically diversified industry, but allows the brand to stay grounded in the local community and demonstrate its local authenticity. 98 Brand Fans

Sporting organisations tend to be well placed to demonstrate community connections given that they usually have a physical home base in the form of a playing field or territory treated like a fortressed stronghold. Teams across the globe revere these spaces as critical meeting points for their constituents to gather. Increasingly, stadiums serve as important community buildings, housing an array of service-oriented businesses. Major facilities can also help regenerate entire urban areas as in the case of Detroit, the 18th largest city in the United States (Trendafilova et al. 2012). The famous home of the automobile industry has been in considerable distress for some time, its downtown area emblematic of a severe manufacturing slump that has led to economic and social decay. While sporting infrastructure cannot on its own solve such a deep crisis, it can catalyse economic redevelopment. In this instance, Detroit accommodates three of its four professional sporting franchises in its embattled downtown area. As a result, the city promotes year-round sporting entertainment as a feature, with almost 42,000-seats at Comerica Park (home to the Detroit Tigers MLB team), 65,000-seats at Ford Field (home to the Detroit Lions, NFL team), and 20,000-seats at the Joe Louis Arena (the soon-to-be-replaced home to the Detroit Red Wings, National Hockey League [NHL] team). Redevelopment and investment in sporting infrastructure allowed Detroit to host the 2006 Super Bowl, something of a rarity in cold weather cities. Other mega-events have been hosted by the city as well, such as Wrestlemania 23 which attracted over 80,000 fans to Ford Field a year later. Detroit sporting teams remain consciously connected to the city through their facilities, with Ford Field, for example, constructed with a deliberate warehouse and factory design to reflect and display the city’s blue collar personality. Detroit’s sport-driven community regeneration continues unabated. A new US$650 million, 60,000m2 sports and entertainment district known as the Detroit Events Centre is scheduled to open in 2018 as the new home of the Red Wings. The facility will be closer to the other two existing major stadia, giving the city a remarkably strong and attractive sporting footprint upon which to develop retail and neighbourhood growth. Detroit’s investment signifies an impressive commitment and scale. However, sport-driven community investments can get even bigger. 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 99

Qatar, the oil and gas-rich state in the Middle East, is planning for its post-energy future by investing heavily in a variety of industries and infrastructure including sport. Qatar Sport Investments (QSI) was launched in 2005 with a charter to assist the Qatari community become socially enriched through sport. QSI has taken a controlling interest in Paris Saint-Germain, one of the leading French football and handball teams, and has also inked a lucrative sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona. In addition, Qatar will host the FIFA World Cup in 2022 after an auda- cious bid to capture the world’s biggest sporting event was successful in 2010. The wealthy state has also made no secret about its desire to host a round of the Formula One championship. Some media reports have even suggested that Qatar is considering buying a share in the elite motorsport organisation (Sylt 2015). While the QSI strategy sits within a broader portfolio approach to diversify future opportunity, the investment approach has ruffled some feathers across the sporting globe. Fans in such communities may welcome the injection of cash, but can also fear that the pursuit of profit can undermine the essential authenticity of sporting competition. When supporters perceive that a sport brand has become too profit- focused and seemingly detached, they tend to lament the loss of the “good old days”. Tension and risk accompany the transition from local product to global brand. Manchester United’s 2005 privatisation (sold to an American consortium led by the Glazer family) created considerable angst, for example. Public listing and foreign ownership of EPL teams is no longer unusual (around half of the 20 teams in the EPL have transferred into foreign ownership in recent years). However, Manchester United’s fan base became agitated at the complex financial leveraging associated with the changed ownership, which left the brand in considerable debt. While some fans became so disenchanted they formed a new team (FC United of Manchester), which currently competes with considerable success and support at a semi-professional level, many others remained conflicted. The infamous stadium chant of “love United, hate Glazers” embodies this tension. One visible reaction from those disgruntled fans unwilling to walk away came about through an online discussion forum. A fan suggested that supporters should shun the team’s renowned red colour and revert 100 Brand Fans to the club’s origins, brandishing the traditional green and gold colours of Newton Heath as a sign of protest. Within weeks, over 30,000 green and gold scarves had been sold. The protest gained momentum and international attention in March 2010 when former United hero David Beckham, returning to the ground as an opposition player for AC Milan, picked up a green and gold scarf and wrapped it around his neck as he left the playing field. The message of returning the club to its 1878 community roots was clear. While the Glazers remain in control of what appears to be a strongly appreciating asset, community action played a strong role in righting the fractured relationship. The symbolism of rejecting the team’s colours gave fans a voice and a visible point to rally around. United’s local management, acutely aware of the embarrassing display, became much more con- ciliatory in opening a dialogue with supporter groups. Escalating ticket prices (a source of considerable supporter frustration) were frozen and typical corporate strategies, such as selling stadium naming rights, were dismissed. While the Glazer family persist firmly at the helm, they largely keep out of the spotlight. Most importantly of all, they ensure that key representatives of the club carefully explain the position of the club’s finances in order to demonstrate the ability to buy players of the highest calibre and to pursue the kind of success that the global fan base has become accustomed to. For all brands, the lessons are writ large through sport’s experience. A physical presence goes a long way in signalling to the community that a brand maintains empathy towards customer concerns. As most brands do not have a stadium to rally their customers around, other tangible elements need to be located as symbolic connections to the community of users. We may live in an increasingly digital world and communities may now be forming online, but a physical presence can send a positive signal. For example, travellers have reported reassurance in having a large Singapore Airlines office on Orchard Road in downtown Singapore to handle walk-in customer enquiries. Customer-focussed retail banks still have human tellers, and the appeal of a call-centre located in the local community delivers a considerable marketing advantage. Strong, connected communities can be formed irrespective of whether they came together in a railyard in 1878 or on Facebook in 2017. The 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 101 reasons for belonging stay the same. While the term “brand community” may be bandied about with increasing frequency, it is not a new concept. As we have noted, a brand community comprises a self-selected culture built around shared values, traditions, and admiration for a particular brand. They go well beyond an intersection of passion and information. Research by Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) indicates that strong communities provide an enhanced sense of satisfaction for consumers who can relate at a range of levels. Furthermore, Scarpi (2010) notes that one of these critical levels is the size of the community, with smaller groups being more socially orientated, and larger groups more commercially orientated. Sport brands inherently foster rich communities given that fans adopt a close connection to fellow supporters through a tribal association. They also allow for groups to form at a range of levels, allowing brand marketers to capitalise on both social and commercial connections. Fans may feel part of a worldwide community that follows the Los Angeles Lakers and purchase merchandise or display other consumptive behaviours in line with this association. These fans can also connect at a local level, perhaps by tapping into a geographic community of basketball fans, or by attending games as a small group. Socialising elements help maintain a passion and connection. Other brands can benefit from thinking in this “big and small” way. Consumers may value being part of a broader community, but manifest their allegiance through much smaller groups that confer more personal meaning and experiences. Achieving the combination requires brands to engage with their consumers at several levels and with different modes of activity, as we shall explore next.

Turn Advocacy into Action

More than ever before, consumers are ignoring traditional marketing messages, instead seeking first-hand information from like-minded individuals upon whom they place considerable trust. Brands need to foster the appropriate connections with their customers in order to cultivate advocacy that not only assists retention, but also drives word of mouth, 102 Brand Fans stimulates curiosity, and engenders solidarity. In essence, this captures the very spirit of sport consumers, whose passion, partisanship, and persua- siveness set a benchmark for all brands to covet. Sporting brands have never been shy when it comes to welcoming supporters of all types. Teams, associations, events, and leagues all across the world attract veritable armies of invaluable volunteers. They not only provide much needed labour, but also bring an extraordinary sense of community and support that creates a spirit of shared determination. Government statistics, where available, bear out the importance of sport volunteers to the industry. In Australia, each year around 10 % of the adult population engage in some form of sport volunteerism. Their contributions amount to billions of dollars in economic impact, surpassing the level of volunteering for religious organisations, community, and wel- fare groups. While the image of the volunteer coaching a junior basketball team might spring to mind, sport volunteering happens right through to the very highest levels. The Olympic Games, for example, brings together many thousands of community volunteers in structured commitments from the social to the technical. The Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games featured 70,000 volunteers in nine different categories, including health services, transport, technology, and language. Such was the demand to participate that the Games organisers had to form a waiting list for those eager to be part of the event’s brand power and legacy. An eagerness to contribute stretches across the entire sporting spectrum. At the top of the list, tennis tournaments have become famous for the arduous trials prospective “ball-kids” must undergo in order to select the most proficient. For ball boys and girls, the opportunity to be just a few feet away from their heroes is likely to be a strong motivator, despite the hours of practice and dedication required. Moreover, research has established that volunteers of all types are more likely to continue volunteering, having been touched by the social or altruistic nature of their experiences. While not-for-profit and sporting brands may easily call for volunteers with confidence, brands in other industries can also create similar positive experiences. Any brand can sponsor an event that unites the community and engenders a shared connection beyond a sales transaction. In 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 103 addition, bold brands can devise community programmes that provide participants with unique training and internship skills. Strong levels of attachment to a brand come about incrementally. Sport’s experience offers some guidance as it shows that allowing attachment to mature organically remains the most productive approach. Nevertheless, brands should work to encourage connections wherever possible. Sporting brands may appear to naturally engender strong levels of attachment, but we should not overlook the lengthy historical efforts underpinning this attachment by the most successful sport organisations. An American football fan might well anoint him or herself as a follower of the Green Bay Packers, for example, but it takes more time and consideration before that fan attempts to travel to Lambeau Field in Wisconsin to watch a game, let alone adorn their head with a giant plastic cheese slice, as some fans appear to enjoy! Along the journey, a fan will receive a considerable volume of news about their team, and form connections to other fans through online forums and social media. Technologically facilitated communities provide a virtual space for like-minded fans to congregate and share their passion in true viral form. While the study of what motivates sport fans has been established for some time, it is only in recent years that the impact of social networks has been considered. Stavros et al. (2014) identified the role of passion, hope, self-esteem, and camaraderie as key motives allowing fans to draw value from social media enabled connections to their team. We will talk more about passion, hope, esteem, and other psycho- social motivators in the next chapter, but for now we will focus upon camaraderie. As a form of group behaviour, community-directed actions and comments reflect a desire for interaction and identification, or what we might call camaraderie. Such behaviours are highly prevalent in sporting contexts both online and offline. Sport fans—through a common sense of meaning—exhibit impressive levels of implicit trust in fellow fans. Trust develops quickly given the shared passion underlying each fan interaction. It commonly extends to conversation, as well as friendship beyond the purview of sport. In many cases, sport fans end up discussing unrelated brands, both sporting and otherwise. A visit to any sporting forum quickly reveals that while sport topics dominate, discussions of allied sports, events, lifestyle, and popular culture will also be present. 104 Brand Fans

A leading sport discussion site in Australia is “bigfooty.com”, a site dedicated to Australian Rules football. It features 59 different forums related to the sport, the most popular being a general discussion that has over seven million posts in almost 130,000 discussion topics. At the same time, the site features a plethora of other dedicated topics of discussion, including soccer (over one million posts), basketball (over half a million posts), computers, and technology (almost 100,000 posts), and society, religion, and politics (over one million posts). Camaraderie operates at a number of levels that provide an important opportunity for brands to extend their core offerings, not to mention collect data about the interests and preferences of consumers. While sport fans have a variety of places to congregate and socialise, they have quickly grasped the online opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals. For non-sporting brands that lack physical spaces to gather together engaged consumers, online platforms become even more important. Aside from the socialisation and belonging that camaraderie brings, brands can employ communities to help them solve product problems. Situations arise where access to cohesive communities prove essential to resolving customer dissatisfaction. The lessons from sport stand out boldly given that fans rarely hold back in voicing their concerns when it comes to sustained on-field failure. Service industries constantly deal with issues where a supportive community can be helpful in providing not only an outlet for news and action but also an important feedback loop. Brands willing to join an open community such as Reddit tend to respond to failures more swiftly, and with greater precision, than those reliant upon traditional feedback channels. Reddit, which publicises itself as the “front-page of the Internet”, provides a social news and networking site. Many major sports, leagues, and clubs feature on it prominently. User content appears in a bulletin-board format, moving up and down according to a system of popularity judged by reader votes. Content is further arranged by “subreddits”, which can be started by any registered user. Various mainstream brands, such as leading US retailer Nordstrom, have tried to develop their own community on Reddit, explicitly demonstrating a willingness to engage their consumers in a non-traditional forum. By the very nature of Reddit’s “almost anything goes” approach, the brand elected to place control of discussions 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 105 in the hands of their consumers. Although a challenging departure for brands, the sporting experience suggests that the tactic pays off.

Cede Control

Sport marketers have long recognised that the sporting experience can never be fully controlled. Transport, weather, athlete performance, offi- ciating decisions, coaching tactics, crowd behaviour, and the level of the contest all illustrate the vagaries of sport’s essential nature, and extend beyond the reach of even the most fastidious strategic planner. The sporting context, nevertheless, contains a salient lesson: accepting the limited control over the core product helps sport brand managers to also cede control elsewhere as well, such as to customers. Terms such as “people’s game” and “national pastime” are frequently used to signal the community attachment consumers ascribe to the sporting experience. For example, the State of Victoria in Australia declares an official public holiday for a horse race, the Melbourne Cup, which has been run on the first Tuesday of November since 1869. Billed as the “race that stops the nation”, given its deep cultural impact, the event attracts starters from across the globe. All the (typically 24) entrants enjoy a fair chance of winning, as the event imposes handicaps in the form of differing weights carried by runners based on their form. Egalitarian handicap- ping, coupled with the event’s history and its festive atmosphere, opens the race up to the broader community. From a curious child to an elderly retiree, tradition encourages that each adopt a favourite horse chosen on the basis of a variety of idiosyncratic factors including quirky names, attractive colours, longstanding superstitions, or a once-a-year self-pro- claimed expertise. Long after the race winner is forgotten, memories of the day stoke anticipation of the next, for a community to whom the event and its broader role in the Spring Racing Carnival (SRC) represent a festive, social celebration. The SRC carnival’s success exemplifies how groups of consumers relate to brands. While the SRC features multiple events at a variety of metropolitan and regional racecourses, a seven-day period involving four major race-days forms the season’s highlight. Collectively, the four days 106 Brand Fans

(a Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) attract around three quarters of a million “punters”. Many will barely see a horse. For attendees, motivations encompass a mix of glamorous fashion, fine food, liberal drinking, and “being seen”. The latter applies especially to the corporate clients, some of whom spend millions of dollars on extravagant marquees and hospitality facilities that clearly stretch the bounds of any feasible sponsorship return-on-investment ratio. From a branding perspective, the actual horse races—out of the control of any manager—merely serve as a backdrop to an unapologetic social event. SRC events provide the fulcrum to leverage and activate the ancillary benefits sought by consumers and which constitute the real source of attachment to the event. Festival-like atmospheres feature in many sports including motor racing and extreme sports competitions. For example, the best-known extreme sport event, the X-Games, emerged as the brainchild of global media brand ESPN, commencing in 1995. While both the winter and summer versions have been held internationally from time-to-time, the heart of the concept remains largely US-centric; an expression of the youthful exuberance, risk appetite, and personal freedom that permeates the country’s national identity. While medals are awarded, the X-Games express a broader celebration of skill, daring, and comrade- ship, with competitors typically cheering each other on. Attendees, who tend to both participate and spectate, do so while incurring little direct cost. Rather, they are metaphorically charged by the organisers to simply have fun and contribute to both the live and online atmospheres that transform the experience into a marketable product. Turning an event reliant upon a demographically transient market into a mainstream success marks an impressive branding achievement, especially considering the need to continue innovating, invigorating, and energising events to keep them relevant. This is a powerful showcase where brand managers have mobilised and empowered their community to co-create the event experience in order to derive personal value. The important lesson here pertains to brands that view audience engagement as a simple means to achieve corporate outcomes. In the case of sport, a genuine co-creation dynamic can be infused in the very construction of the experience, elevating the relationship beyond the transactional. As we have seen in previous chapters, co-creation requires a leap 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 107 of faith for a brand manager who must be willing to do more than pay lip service to collaboration. Consumers must be given the opportunity to collaborate on aspects of the nature, extent, and context of marketing exchanges, not just be subject to them. Ceding some control to forge a trusting relationship is essential to effective consumer-brand communication. Firms can struggle to gain resonance with their consumers without first relinquishing some control of the relationship (Fournier and Avery 2011). Failing to do so will greatly restrict the potential of these relationships, particularly on social media and digital platforms where transparency and openness have proven critical. Considerable research into online brand communities in recent years has highlighted the power of the medium to develop a genuine two- way relationship, not only between the brand and consumer but also between consumers themselves. Healthy relationships positively affect satisfaction, loyalty, and brand advocacy, ultimately leading to increased brand commitment and purchase intention. Nurturing these relationships, however, is complex, particularly when navigating newer online platforms. What has worked offline may not work online. Consumer personalities can be quite different in a digital context. Brands must carefully segment their audiences to accommodate the need to turn the volume down from time-to-time, or at least apply a better filter to some groups. As sport brands have long understood, online platforms attract hyper-critical fans during rough on-field periods who want an outlet to share frustration. Further, group members can urge each other on, leading to irrational blaming and proclamations tantamount to exuberant divorce from the brand. Sport brands generally allow their communities to self-moderate, allowing the group to find its own equilibrium without perceptions of manipulation. They understand that there will be highs and lows in the relationship and that these undulations simply have to be accepted. Sport managers have accepted the challenges of ceding control, including both brand communications and brand relationships. However, the value that accompanies more engaged and active fans appears to be worth the risk. 108 Brand Fans

Untangle the Gridlock

Sporting brands specialise in selling hope, but in so doing must also cap- tivate more than just their existing fans and supporters. The sporting world comprises an astonishing connection of vested interests revolving around the sport product. How sport brands navigate this perplexing labyrinth to locate untapped niches presents a critical lesson in identification and community management. Take FIFA, for example. The vast bureaucratic juggernaut governs world football but loosely oversees a layer of subordinate and semi-autonomous confederations that work independently. These bodies, which represent the globe’s major continental regions, may agitate against FIFA, sign con- flicting sponsors, organise their own tournaments, and coordinate voting to force change if necessary. At the same time, the regional bodies are beholden to national organising bodies, which each possess a different composition and structure. FIFA exercises limited control over the sub- domains orchestrating football. While the powerful global body appears capable of dictating terms, its powers can bring about only a modest influence in the lower levels of the sport’s governance. Ironically, the closer you get to an actual ball, the weaker FIFA becomes. In the other direction, towards purely policy and governance, however, FIFA can sus- pend a national federation, prohibiting them from entering the sport’s golden goose event, the World Cup. Prohibitions usually occur when FIFA thinks that a national government has influenced a federation. FIFA requires, through its statutes, that all member federations manage their affairs completely independently. Of course, FIFA’s view may seem somewhat incongruous given their dependence on national governments to provide the infrastructure and investment to make football possible. Governments of all levels, and politicians in particular, wear sporting success like a glove; the positive narratives entwining victory, health, activity, and national pride supply enormous community goodwill. In recent times, however, sport’s passionate reception has been tempered by an awareness of its expense. For example, while some cities may seem eager to host the Olympic Games, the trend depicts a far more sober reality. When the United States sought to present a candidate city for the 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 109

2024 Summer Olympic Games, 35 cities raised a hand, with first time applicant Boston ultimately selected. Unfortunately, Boston’s bid was not widely embraced by the local community and was subsequently withdrawn and replaced by Los Angeles. Boston’s failure reflected a growing public distrust in the way governments manage major projects. Two well-resourced and articulate groups in Boston orchestrated the anti-Olympics message, and succeeded in convincing the public that the cost and disruption of hosting the event far outweighed any benefit. Action groups like the ones so potent in Boston appear regularly as a result of the passions associated with sport. Most groups emerge organically, as informal collections of disgruntled fans or anti-sport lobbies. Far more powerful and damaging, unhappy sponsors can wield considerable influence upon a sporting brand’s prosperity. As Sepp Blatter’s FIFA presidency teetered, commentators called on the major sponsors to topple the regime. Media rights holders and broadcasters were also called into action, given the astounding influence they have in sport, thanks to their vast and escalating investments. After an extended period of worsening allegations, FIFA’s brand appeared somewhat battered. Yet, astonishingly, it has emerged with at least some lustre and goodwill intact when a presidential change finally installed another Swiss, Gianni Infantino, as leader. Curiously, perhaps long ago, FIFA’s brand custodians realised that they would often be unfairly stereotyped as cartoon villains but that this did not ultimately matter given the gigantic halo hovering over their premier event, the World Cup. As much as many football fans expressed dissatisfaction with FIFA (such distaste is not unusual for any major sporting body), they remained in love with the sport and the ultimate global competition it directs. Similarly, some fans may disagree with the organisers of motorsport events who change their rules frequently to encourage competition, but love the pure thrill of racing nonetheless. Meanwhile, cricket tradi- tionalists can criticise the International Cricket Council for its moderni- sation of the sport, but still glorify test matches, the sport’s traditional game structure. A lesson here concerns the importance of maintaining a careful distance between sport brand and sport product (or corporate brand and product brand, more generally). Detachment allows a com- 110 Brand Fans plex suite of sub-brands to exist under the cocoon of a principle offering. While FIFA may evoke the ire of some world football fans, their star event is both coveted and admired. As long as the World Cup continues, so too will FIFA’s position on top of the sport branding world. The FIFA brand does have one sub-brand licensee that will likely further help its image, thanks to an unorthodox marketing decision made in 1992. During a time of enormous growth in the video game category, industry heavyweight Electronic Arts, now known as EA, signed a rights deal for a football game with FIFA, which was released as FIFA International Soccer to distinguish it from a variety of other football games on the market. The game, which became a huge best seller, is now universally known as “FIFA”. It reappears annually in an updated form, inexorably linking the brand to the sport, and more importantly, to a vital new generation of fans. When incapable of untangling the gridlock in the right places, many sporting brands have failed to respond when rivals have inevitably appeared. Numerous major leagues and events have been challenged over the years, but tend to rely on the likelihood of failure by a rival; a safe bet given the diverse networks that must be assembled. American football’s enormously successful NFL was threatened by the United States Football League (USFL) between 1983 and 1985, but survived thanks to its strong grip on television and stadium deals, despite a complex anti- trust lawsuit challenge issued by the USFL. The USFL eventually folded, their high-risk strategy of forcing a merger with the NFL failing to mate- rialise. Mergers have occurred in other sports, however. For example, in the mid-1990s, a media conglomerate driven “Super League” challenged the establishment-based Australian Rugby League, forcing the eventual formation of the National Rugby League following a bitter court case. Some years after the USFL folded, the NFL was again challenged by the XFL, a joint venture between media giant NBC Universal and the highly successful World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). A partnership between a major network and an entertainment visionary in the form of Vince McMahon, founder of the WWE, seemed like a perfect match. It would allow the sport to tap into the fanatically engaged pro-wrestling community by giving them access to an edgier version of the most popular sport in America. It also allowed them to target disenchanted fans of the NFL, who had dubbed it the “No-Fun-League” 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 111 given its strict protocols and policies on a range of matters including player safety and scoring celebrations. Promoting itself as a tougher, rougher, more entertaining variety of a familiar sport, the XFL, featuring eight teams, lasted just one season. XFL’s biggest failing, aside from relatively boring, low-scoring games, was the lack of broader media coverage outside of NBC. Other major networks, bound to the NFL, were disinclined to report on the XFL except to ridicule it. As a result, the viewing public became disinterested and clearly confused by an unfamiliar hybrid option. Fans moved quickly in judging the XFL brand as an inferior product. Sport brands remain resilient by staying connected to their communities and by empowering those segments with an opportunity to shape product offerings. The NFL has thrived despite efforts to label them as “no-fun”. As a contact game, the NFL has sought to minimise brutality and focus on skill. Vast swathes of Americans (and global audiences) are drawn to the game and its brand values, at least according to constant NFL brand surveys targeted at the game’s multiple communities and 32 team franchisees. A model sport brand in many respects, the NFL never stands still. It constantly makes micro-adjustments to its rules and processes to present a product that constantly appeals. These adjustments keep the sport nimble and flexible preventing it from being trapped by the complexities of modern sport and business.

Make Everyone a Winner

While the XFL failed to make inroads into the NFL’s well-defended turf, the short-lived brand, nevertheless, did many things well. For example, it was innovative in making fans feel close to the action, as well as taking the unconventional step of placing the initial eight teams under league control. A centralised approach allowed the XFL to operate a strict brand portfolio, with league management’s collective decisions ensuring team balance and marketing unity. An alternate approach using independently franchised teams would have led to imbalance, as new owners rushed to eke out the most advantageous position for their respective team. 112 Brand Fans

Sport brands face tensions associated with the clash of individual- ism versus collectivism; a collision felt at all levels including between player and team, team and league, and even league and governing body. Unsurprisingly, the NFL has learned a valuable lesson from the XFL. As a result, it has worked tirelessly with its 32 team owners towards a unified strategic outlook. NFL team owners meet numerous times a year to debate league positioning, recognising that the league’s decisions must be sovereign if all the team brands are to prosper. Even with hundreds of millions invested in each franchise, the owners seem to agree that the league is only as strong as its weakest brand, and that competitive balance, both on- and off-field, remains critical to fan satisfaction. NFL owners share— perhaps reluctantly in private—lucrative media rights and other commercial revenues including merchandise, even though some teams seem more open than others. Underperforming teams face peer pressure to lift their game (both on and off the field), while benchmarks demanding standards for the augmented product, like stadium quality, receive rigorous scrutiny. In addition, playing policies undergo review and modification every season to ensure a balance of offensive and defensive activity. Equalisation measures relating to player recruitment and payments may also be refined to excise loopholes that might endanger competitive balance. In short, the NFL masterfully balances competition and cooperation. Both must exist for the league to maintain its brand dominance. Strategists sometimes refer to the portmanteau of competition and cooperation as “coopetition”, a neologism popularised by Brandenburger and Nalebuff (1997) whose book employed game theory to question whether business competition involves a grey area as well as black and white. While the high tension approach was relatively new to business practitioners who had been educated on competition driven analyses, such as Porter’s “five forces”, the concept of cooperative competition was already well- entrenched in the sporting world. Ironically in sport, commercial sensi- bilities often protect weaker brands from the cutthroat community-driven desire to obliterate sporting foes. Cooperative thinking allowed the NHL to expand to warm weather states in the United States. This move allowed for a more diverse and valuable market, which in turn ensured the brand’s long-term prosperity. A similar strategy allowed Major League Soccer (MLS) to launch its league in 1993 (although games only started in 1996) 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 113 with sufficient balance to consolidate its future survival and avoid the lop- sided arrangements that had harmed the North American Soccer League a decade earlier. A coopetition perspective can also give brands confidence to avoid certain short-term strategies that seem commercially alluring but may be risky in the long-term. For example, the NFL ignored the potentially lucrative Los Angeles market for two decades before finally deciding in 2016 to return. How the NFL could operate for so long without a team in Los Angeles puzzled sport commentators for nearly 20 years. After all, the city houses the second largest media market in the United States, not to mention a global centre of entertainment. In fact, the NFL’s in-house cable and satellite division, NFL Network, operates from Los Angeles. Patience won out, however, as the NFL’s careful evaluation of its brand’s overarching needs suggested that the league’s composition would be adversely affected by a new but underdeveloped Los Angeles franchise. Los Angeles had previously fielded two NFL teams. However, in 1995, both the Raiders (heading to Oakland) and the Rams (heading to St Louis) left town. Speculation abounded about a return from almost the moment the Raiders and Rams defected. However, the absence of a suitable stadium, a fundamental requirement for modern sports viewing and revenue models, presented a decisive limitation. Somewhat strangely, despite the NFL’s franchised team ownership model, owners expect cities and their communities to provide modern stadiums for the team’s exclusive use. Owners argue that the team is good for the local economy and delivers a powerful form of city branding. Conversely, local taxpayers counter that the teams should fund their own facilities given they keep all the associated revenues. Los Angeles’ rich entertainment tapestry and clement weather meant that the need for an NFL team was a relatively low priority for a local community already saturated with sporting and leisure options. Other sports were in ample supply. The city and its surrounding regions feature two National Basketball Association (NBA) teams (Clippers and Lakers), two MLB teams (Dodgers and Angels), two NHL teams (Ducks and Kings), a high profile Major League Soccer team (Galaxy), and a Women’s NBA team (Sparks). While a Los Angeles NFL team proved ultimately irresistible, it did provide other NFL owners with enormous leverage in their own com- 114 Brand Fans munities. Almost any time a team needed a new stadium, the credible threat of moving to Los Angeles appeared in the media, forcing cities beholden to their team to build or renovate generously. John Vrooman, a sport economist at Vanderbilt University, was quoted in 2014 by the New York Times noting the possibility that “the L.A. football market has been more valuable to the NFL empty than if it had been occupied since 1995” (Witz 2014). Indeed, since 1995, over half of the competition’s teams successfully used Los Angeles as a bargaining chip in their negotia- tions for a better local facilities deal (Fenno and Farmer 2015). In another shrewd branding move, the NFL allowed the Rams to leave St Louis and return to Los Angeles for the start of the 2016–17 season. The Rams will play three seasons in the Los Angeles Coliseum, before moving to a brand new facility in the suburb of Inglewood. The NFL has kept open the option for another team to potentially join the Rams at that location, keeping the pressure on other cities to secure their own team with sweetheart deals. The Rams move foregrounds an important branding lesson. As part of the deal, the franchise will feature in the NFL International Series, which involves playing several regular season games overseas. In existence since 2007, the series has thus far taken place in England, although potential destinations include Mexico and China. Securing the Rams to play overseas while waiting for their stadium to be completed will bring consistency to the series’ sub-brand, allowing the NFL to bolster its media- driven global expansion. Forays into new territories are just as common in sports as they are in other industries. The AFL, dominant in the southern parts of Australia, has long sought to expand into other geographically desirable areas and become a genuinely national enterprise. Earlier this decade, the league and its constituent clubs made an enormous leap of faith by establishing entirely new franchises in two of the most important markets in Australia: Queensland’s Gold Coast and Sydney’s Western Suburbs. Ignoring the usual sport-related rhetoric that expansion is intrinsically worthwhile, many brand commentators considered the move risky given that AFL football held little traction in the regions. Rugby league and soccer were far more dominant. In both cases, the AFL injected considerable resources. They set about forging local foundations including 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 115 managerial support, large marketing budgets, and priority player recruitment. While neither team has yet attracted enough community support to claim unqualified success, the AFL and its member clubs will patiently invest for the long-term, conscious that without a presence in both markets any claim to being a national game is worthless. In most sports, the “coopetition” model remains ever present, despite the challenges of an elusive execution. For example, motor racing seeks parity amongst teams by limiting technology, while elite tennis amplifies player rivalry through “seeding”, stratifying the best players across the draw to give them the greatest chance of progressing to the final rounds. In the case of European football, an interesting multiple-tier approach to branding emerged at the turn of the century. An elite core of teams across the major national competitions broke away in order to command a larger share of revenue. Dubbed the “G-14” after the initial number of teams (the number increased to 18 in 2002), the cartel was disbanded in 2008 and replaced by a wider structure known as the European Club Association (ECA). The ECA now includes over 200 members and has received official recognition from the governing body of European football (UEFA). Here, we find another example of a network that boasts competitor cooperation in order to maximise brand value both collectively in the elite leagues, and individually in the participating clubs. In the end, however, coopetition goes further than just ensuring that all sporting brands and their actors have equal footing. Fans of all levels must feel the same way too. The ultimate aim must be to deliver an enhanced sport entertainment experience that continues to evolve in a manner that excites and engages fans.

Create Tribal Teamwork

Sport fandom is tribal in nature. This means being part of a group and participating in a relatively identifiable range of community-defined actions. In sport, connection and bonding behaviours signal commitment. Examples include wearing identifiable colours and designs, adopting common terminology, and seeking to defend and promote the group wherever possible. We will address behavioural tendencies at a consumer 116 Brand Fans and group level in the following chapter. First, however, we venture inside the sporting organisation to explore its internal machinations and the branding lessons they expose. Examining the sporting “unit” allows us to reflect on the processes leading to consumer attachment to the brand and the subsequent coalescence into a genuine “team” philosophy extending well beyond the boundaries of the playing arena. Sporting organisations make for somewhat unusual employers. The myopic practices mentioned earlier have held sway in sport for generations, the lesson not so much about the recent changes, but about the swiftness of the transformation from kitchen table and community hall to network television and global tweets. Nevertheless, management of many sport brands remains precariously perched between emotion and rationality, making typical organisational functions beholden to a range of outside actors, including the performance of athletes. Having your working week dictated by the result of the weekend’s game wears thin quickly when losses (inevitably) accumulate even for the best performers. Sporting organisations must therefore manage both sporting performance and financial performance, despite commonly operating as not-for-profit enterprises (at least from a tax viewpoint). Not-for-profit sports, often community based in theory, tend to rely on substantial donations from wealthy benefactors who seek a form of community or political capital through prominent executive roles. Similarly, in the case of commercial teams, success and profit do not necessarily correspond. In leagues with revenue sharing, finishing mid-table can prove better financially than finishing first. Making matters more complex, no shortage of European football clubs spend more than their entire organisational revenue on player salaries alone. Few banks would dare foreclose on an iconic brand. Yet, we see in sport an emblematic behavioural value that a brand of any persuasion would covet, from identifying a common purpose and developing flexible strategies, to blending disparate skills. Most importantly, sporting brands are astonishingly adept at connecting fans to their vision and actively engaging them in a collaborative brand experience. In the opening chapters, we identified this process as co-creation. The term expresses the unification between brand and consumer towards shared content. Sport, by its nature, takes co-creation to a new level of shared emotions, ranging from exultation to despair. 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 117

Even in individual sports, the surrounding network of coaches and advisers exemplifies a team philosophy. Both sport brand managers and coaches aim to fuel the hype leading to an adversarial spirit. For example, athletes must “rise to the challenge” and “go in to battle”, taking events “one game at a time”, “leave everything on the field”, “fight back”, “grind it out”, and “give their all”. Combat and war similes depend upon the fierce commitments reinforced through tribalism. Sporting brands typically elevate key players, coaches or managers to symbolic military-styled roles. As generals, they motivate, strategise, and most importantly, infuse their own brand personalities into that of the organisation. Paradoxically, coaches tend to avoid promoting individual- ism. A reliance on one or two stars is not sustainable, no matter how the media narratives might portray a player’s accomplishments. Coaches must think short-term for success and long-term for sustainability. Marketers tend to view corporate brands as stepping-stones to bigger and better positions elsewhere. Those working in sport also succumb to the stepping stone mentality at its lower levels, with coaches, athletes, officials, and increasingly administrators, seeking to move to elite levels. Sport’s transparent benchmarks ameliorate the damage to some extent, using structured seasons, rankings, and results to clearly define starting lines and a definitive end, at which point everything resets. Seasonality applies less readily to other brands, with airlines, banks, soft drink brands, and computer manufacturers sprinting faster and faster on an ever-accelerating treadmill. Sporting brands benefit from the life cycles of their athletes who progress to new levels or retirement, providing natural cycles for respite and replenishment that can be explained to fans in hope-filled narratives. Sport manages these cycles well, making sure that supporters understand the limitations of competition. Contrast this to other brands, which sometimes do little to explain their actions to customers for fear of losing them to a competitor. A telecommunications provider is unlikely to talk about the limited capacity of its infrastructure, whereas a sporting team will openly discuss the weaknesses of its current roster. Sport brands engender trust and inclusiveness with their consumers, but only when they are prepared to offer authentic content. A shared vision with fans means openly inviting them to actively engage and collaborate. 118 Brand Fans

Employees at sporting organisations, from the clichéd bootstudder to the enigmatic star player, reflect a unified tribal ideal as default “internal marketers”. Internal marketing, a concept that emerged in the 1980s, focuses on developing, motivating, and retaining employees who believe strongly in the brand. In 1991, Gummesson (1991, p. 60) coined the term “part-time marketer”, to reinforce that all customer contact per- sonnel, irrespective of their job title, are marketers. Not only are sport employees marketers, they also act as gatekeeping brand ambassadors whose action, enthusiasm, and spirit convert tribal allegiances into brand loyalty. Sport offers countless examples of the tribal spirit, such as when athletes kiss the team emblem on their playing shirt, applaud fans at the stadium, and travel widely to engage with far-flung fans at exhibi- tion events. Most sporting brands encourage their employees to use social media as a mechanism to promote fan contact and personalise their identity. Rare is the victory speech that does not feature a thankful procla- mation to “the greatest fans in the world”, irrespective of which team actually won.

Make Tribes Louder

A visit to a Poznan in West-Central Poland might lead you to conclude that its fans are the most vociferous in the world. Lech Poznan is one of two teams from the town playing in the highest level of Polish football, known as the Ekstraklasa. Their exuberant fans started one of the most popular cultural expressions in sport; an achievement considering the volume of such displays. Simply called “The Poznan”, upon scoring, fans turn their backs on the game, link arms, and jump up and down on the spot. A sight to behold, the Poznan has been adopted with slight variations across the world as a form of ritualised camaraderie. While the gesture originated in 1961 as a form of protest, similar to Manchester United fans waving green and gold scarves, it now symbolises fan unity. In Australia, the Western Sydney Wanderers fans, known as the “The Red and Black Bloc”, perform the dance in the 80th minute of matches in honour of the first football match played in their region in 1880. It too is a sight to behold, with not one of the many thousands of fans facing 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 119 the pitch at that point, all content to look away in unison, irrespective of what action might be unfolding at that critical juncture just ten minutes from full-time. Human beings clearly like to belong. Researchers for nearly 60 years have observed that individuals derive “strength and a sense of identity” through links to social groups (Kelman 1961, p. 64). In the sporting context, the formation of these groups occurs naturally. Group membership delivers a powerful sense of social solidarity expressed through the consumptive patterns and ritualistic processes that fans practice. Occasionally, over-zealous theorists draw comparisons between sporting consumers and cults when referencing the behaviours impelled by sport brand fanaticism (Dionísio et al. 2008). Other researchers suggest that the public and private practices of sporting fandom, coupled with a sacred place of worship (the stadium) and symbolic language, prove that sport looks a lot like a religion (Novak 1995). Zeal and fervour are hardly exclusive to sport. Tribal consumer practices seem almost commonplace, including a passion for fashionable shoes, vinyl records, and online gaming. A need to engage in mutually shared exultation appears to be the central variable. Although the psychological antecedents of tribal consumption receive more detailed attention in the following chapter, studies across a range of group behaviours have honed in on the desire for companionship. In life’s inexorable search for meaning, people seek out the company of the like-minded in order to attenuate their sense of loneliness. While our life journeys can infamously revolve around a rock band during adolescence, or motor- cycle brand around mid-life, sport offers a unique context appealing to all generations. Sport pits combatants together in a way analogous to commercial brand competition. It provides a season or event structure that in some (albeit limited) ways replicates facets of business cycles. Choosing one team instantly sets an individual against others, a valuable psycho-social motivator for action. Psychology researchers use the theory of “social identity” to explain how individuals form connections to groups, with particular reference to the way the bond strengthens self-esteem. Posited by Tajfel and Turner (1979), the theory relates to a sense of belonging, and by association the pride that accompanies joining a community. 120 Brand Fans

The theory identifies “in-group(s)” to which a person belongs, and “out- group(s)” to which they do not. As the theory illuminates perceptions about “us” versus “them”, the leap to sport intuitively comes to mind, especially around the language used by fans to differentiate their team’s adversaries. Social identity theory infers that “in-groups” seek to enhance their collective self-image through negative attributions to “out-groups”, a theory easily seen in practice within sport. Tajfel and Turner (1979) describe stereotyping as a normal cognitive process that exaggerates both the differences between groups, and the similarities within groups. However, although commonplace, stereotyping can be dangerous to brands, which can quickly end up as one of “them”. That’s how, even if not true, banks can become labelled as greedy, ticket distribution agencies as inefficient, and insurance companies as frustrating. Stereotypes, whilst unfair, can be difficult to shake, no matter what the objective evidence demonstrates. As a result, brands may desperately battle to establish an “underdog” or non-traditionalist position, hoping this appeal helps to ameliorate negative stereotypes. Apple was anti-conformist, Nike was anti-establishment, and Lego remain a dominant toy-brand, despite their power, by refusing—at least in public marketing—to take themselves too seriously. Consumers simply love taking sides; a lesson that sport embodies and that brand managers must heed. The Star Wars franchise, which has spawned a community collective of immense global power, divides its characters into Jedi and Sith, light and dark forces that are instantly recognisable and easily distinguished. So too does Vince McMahon with his caricature-fuelled WWE, a so-called sport entertainment product that relies heavily on the collision of “us and them”, of heroes and villains. In the more general sporting world, few could rail against the improb- able but spectacular triumph of Leicester City in the 2015/6 EPL. The relegation-favoured “Foxes” somehow secured the EPL title, leading to the usual hyperbole where the achievement was described as the greatest of our generation. Journalists and experts seemingly lined up to find ways to compare the tiny budget and scale of Leicester to their bigger, richer rivals to the north and south. A sports writer on The Guardian’s website summed it up perfectly. In reference to goal-scoring hero James Vardy’s ascension, he claimed with the classic rhythm of Ciceronian style, that 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 121 this, “simply doesn’t happen, can’t happen, has happened” (Ronay 2016). Sport brands package remarkable and often fantastic dreams in a narrative emphasising redemption, faith, and determination. Connections to religion are easy to see, where hero and anti-hero become archetypal social and cultural norms. Some sport brands thrive as anti-heroes. Being disliked, or even hated, can be par for the course in the entertainment world. The NFL’s Oakland Raiders carefully crafted a rough and ready demeanour giving its fans the role of vindicated outcasts. Not a bad position for a brand with a pirate motif. Some individual athletes gravitate to the branding dark side as well, aware that a “bad boy or girl” persona can be marketing gold. Even in the relatively genteel sport of tennis, John McEnroe seemingly revelled in his controversial on-court image. And, it did not hurt his sponsorship value either. Naturally, brands aim to position themselves in the minds of target consumers and their groupings in a way that differentiates them from the competition. For example, bravado might suit a brand wanting to connect with those looking to exercise independence. Marlboro, the world’s strongest tobacco brand promotes a “Don’t be a Maybe” message in an attempt to challenge a potential consumer’s way of thinking. In essence, the brand asks consumers to step away from the group mentality. Brands too can take heed from sport’s tapestry of experience-driven rituals. For some fans, the walk from car park to stadium is one of great significance, allowing them to soak in the atmosphere, interact with fellow (and rival) fans, and prepare for the entertainment ahead. Sport psychol- ogists point to what they call eustress, the positive stress of anticipation and anxiety that makes events such an emotional release. Research indicates that eustress amplifies when shared with others, especially in the stadium’s cauldron, or around a shared screen. Even for sole spectators at home, successful sport brands try to enhance a sense of camaraderie through panoramic spectator imagery and simulated crowd noise to create an illusion of belonging. Sport, by its very nature, fosters group behaviours. Spectators at stadiums will hug, high-five, and generally exhort the positive behaviour of those around them, even if they are strangers. Non-sporting brands can create their own powerful rituals too. Tribal practices are easier in the entertainment industries, expressed through 122 Brand Fans common dress and language. However, telecommunications companies create the excitement of a “new phone feeling” by offering simple annual handset upgrades, while the fast-fashion industry ritualise twice-weekly stock drops of the kind that Zara and other brands use to create a carousel of revolving collections for eagerly awaiting customers.

Conclusion: Find the New Disneyland

Sporting brands can create powerful communities where individuals share tribal connections, camaraderie, and self-esteem. Participating in, and sharing group behaviours, provides a powerful bond that for most fans will stretch to a lifelong experience. Like the world’s greatest sporting brands, other enterprises bounded by the tension of competition and entertainment, capture rich, almost spiritual levels of engagement that engender consumer connections worthy of admiration, fascination, and replication. These great brands have also learnt to harness the power of cooperation and to adroitly navigate the networks of affiliations and associations that add both complexity and opportunity. Many sport brands prosper, despite operating both on and off the field on the fine-edge of success. However, the tension drives the passion and eustress that makes sport a powerful attractant. No wonder that the world’s wealthiest companies line up to share a piece of the sporting pie, committing US$40 billion a year to sport sponsorship just to get close enough for a little “magic” to rub off. All of this putative power exudes from sport brands and their communities who value authenticity and belonging. These organisations understand that ceding control to consumers requires more than just a carefully orchestrated marketing campaign. Great sporting brands also build leaders who engage and enthuse not only their employees but also their fans. It was once common for business executives to visit Disneyland in search of inspiration for outstanding customer experiences. We suggest that a visit to any elite sport brand constitutes the modern-day equivalent. Executives at sporting events both in and outside stadiums will wit- ness bonding over barbeques, sophisticated discussions on strategy, and the use of a plethora of engagement channels both digital and traditional. 4 Connected Communities: Icons and Tribalism 123

Everyone will walk away wishing they could bottle it. To create a powerful brand requires extraordinary innovation, inspiring leadership, and a fundamental understanding of the ardent consumer and their tribal practices. To say that sport brands are simply fortunate to have such mal- leable and fervent audiences severely underappreciates the increasingly sophisticated and multi-faceted strategies that are used to thrive in an environment of complexity and intense competition.

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Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty

Introduction: Get Ahead of the Curve

A glance at the webpages of most leading sporting teams reveals an extensive array of baby merchandise. From booties in club colours, right through to elaborate bedding and decorative pieces, a child can literally be swaddled in the parochial loyalties of a parent or a zealous gift-giver. Just as religious and government institutions can bless, decree, confirm, or proclaim status from citizenship to parentage, the choice of sporting connections, whilst less formal, invokes a similar bond. Like other forms of indoctrination, however, it does not automatically confer passion or loyalty. Deep bonding, lifetime connections, and impassioned loyalties remain an elusive step away, unless activated. In the marketing world, some view loyalty as a finite construct. Accordingly, you simply hope to achieve it in some binary fashion. You have it or you do not, and once achieved, the emphasis shifts to relationship management, an idea that has dominated business planning over the past few decades. In this book, we aim to go beyond the linear notion of relationship management. Instead, we explain a more enduring connection that focuses on how to co-create experiences consumers value.

In this chapter, we argue that loyalty is neither finite nor inelastic and that even at the upper-reaches of its influence, new features appear. These deeper features shape the consumptive processes and facilitate lifelong commitment. Here, we delve further into the psychology of consumer loyalty. We explore the formation of passionate connections between consumers and brands, along with the value created as a result. We describe the key elements of consumer identification that create brand fans and then outline the motivational triggers that take customers above and beyond the levels of loyalty once considered peak. To complete the task, we explore how consumer relationships must be connected to multiple facets of a brand, even when not every experience can be a winning one. Critically, we will expand on how community engenders camaraderie and the shared behaviours that grant brands a competitive edge. In an extension of their work into the identification of sports fans, Wann and Branscombe (1993) note that highly allegiant fans are willing to invest greater amounts of time and money to see their team perform. The researchers also indicate that highly allegiant fans view similarly devout fans as “special” and practice in-group favouritism within the loyalty network. Of course, such steadfast envelopment is particularly intox- icating. Many individuals, for example, can recall a childhood memory of acceptance (or rejection) by a peer group during early schooling or childcare. So powerful are these formative experiences that new parents understandably fret over whether their offspring fit in. Critical and ritualised events demarcate our membership of sought after groups, such as baptism, reaching the legal age of adulthood, and securing a driver’s licence. Many are celebrated and feted while others represent rites of passage. As we have detailed, new media platforms have amplified the power of interest-based communities, and the self-enhancement, transformational, and identification opportunities they deliver. In the previous chapter, we briefly highlighted the success of Leicester City in winning the English Premier League (EPL) in 2016. The EPL is a long, season-based event where a first-past-the-post system determines the ultimate winner after 10 months and 38 games of competition. Success cannot be attributed to luck or a statistical anomaly; Leicester was a worthy champion. When Michael Lewis revolutionised how sport managers view the economic principle of efficient markets in his best- 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 127 selling book Moneyball, he observed what statisticians have known for centuries: bigger samples yield greater predictive power. By way of example, Lewis (2004) charted the astonishing success of the Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics (A’s). Their specialised data-driven knowledge ran counter to long held beliefs in the baseball recruitment marketplace, allowing them to operate more efficiently. In this case, the team was able to identify and recruit what they deemed to be better players for a lower investment, and win more games during the long (162 game) regular season. However, the A’s never won the ultimate World Series title during this “moneyball” window because the play-off period involves a system of five and seven matches against very high quality opposition. In those small sample play-off scenarios, statistical variations are slight and the cream does not always rise to the top. What we do know is that A’s fans, despite the lack of ultimate success, rel- ished their prosperity both in-the- park and outside. Fans perceived the team and its management as “ahead of the curve”. During the famed “moneyball” years between 2001 and 2005, over two million fans, on average, attended Oakland’s games each season, a figure matched only once since then by the team in 2014. Eventually, the “Efficient Market Hypothesis”, as economists call it, was proved correct, with all teams realigning their recruitment processes to heed the lessons of Oakland’s astute leader Billy Beane. The search continues for the next inefficiency to be corrected. Sports teams from all around the world hire statisticians to look for elusive “big” and “small” data insights that might give them a competitive edge. Leicester attracted an estimated 250,000 fans to their end-of-season civic celebration, essentially bringing the town to a standstill and generating global attention. Some reports estimated that the victory and the spotlight it brought on the city might be worth over 100 million pounds in tourism revenue alone. Throughout the season, much was made of how the team of “unlikely lads” had been crafted on a tiny budget relative to their main rivals. After all, many players were simple journeymen, taking advantage of third and fourth chances to play at the elite level. Like Oakland, Leicester also had a shrewd leader in the form of Claudio Ranieri, a much-travelled coach, who focused less on his usual tactical tinkering and more on building esprit de corps amongst his unit. 128 Brand Fans

Neither Oakland nor Leicester can be described as big brands, at least relative to some of their peers. Yet they belong to two of the biggest sporting competitions in the world, the MLB and the EPL, respectively. In these vast leagues, chasing the giants—whether the San Francisco Giants across the bay from Oakland, or the EPL titans in London and Manchester—does not always make strategic sense. Oakland and Leicester played “small and smart”, creating lower-value, highly talented teams on a fraction of their bigger rivals’ budgets, and invigorating their fans on the journey to success by creating a sense of endearing over- achievement, one small step at a time. They did not over-promise, as big clubs almost always do. But, they certainly over-delivered, rewarding fans for their faith and exploiting an underdog niche that proved irresistible to many. Along the way, hundreds of thousands of casual fans jumped on the bandwagon, adopting the teams as second or sentimental favourites. Who did not cheer for Leicester as their fantasy turned into reality? Who was not rooting for the A’s, either at the time, or later on a Hollywood screen, as Brad Pitt took on the role of Billy Beane? Testimony to the universal appeal of expectations defied, news sites reported that Leicester “broke the Internet” after their triumph. Both teams were seen as being ahead of the game by taking little things and doing them better than others. In the case of Oakland, they pored over a 100 years of statistical data looking for trends others had missed, and found them. At unfashionable Leicester, they formed a genuine team of matching pieces that played almost all of the season together, while their bigger, richer competitors employed disruptive squad rotations. By definition, most brands will not be the leading brand, so the lessons here are particularly salient to the majority. While the biggest brands can build loyalty through sheer size and scope, others can create unique experiences and moments of enduring involvement that can build long- lasting relationships. Big brands attract fans through the psychology of social acceptance; large groups provide safety and a sense of belonging. Small brands can pitch exclusivity, adroitness, and genuine co-created moments. We believe that these connections, big or small, can form “passionate partisans” (Smith 2008), or brand fans who go above and beyond simple loyalty. 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 129

Make Passionate Partisans

A passionate partisan is more than a loyal fan who engages in positive brand advocacy. They embody a spirit of attachment that goes well beyond a favourable relationship with a brand. Passionate partisans play a pivotal role in facilitating brand communities, particularly through digital platforms relying upon speed, mobility, and permanent connectivity. Quinton (2013) notes the deficiencies in existing approaches to managing relationships on new platforms. She also observes that internally driven processes geared to simply managing consumers are obsolete. It is better for brands to think of their customers as collaborative assets that need encouragement or “nudging” from time-to-time. Passionate partisans are engaged by nature and need little assistance from the brand itself, which lends greater authenticity and gravitas to their online and offline commentaries. Consider the hypothetical example of a passionate partisan watching a football match at a stadium, surrounded by a network of peers who hold season tickets (thus giving that seating network a solidified certainty), while simultaneously contributing to several social media platforms, thanks to the high-speed wireless infrastructure that modern stadia now possess. Passionate partisans do not just agitate for their team at the water-cooler. They are part of the team—at least in their own perceptions—helping to radiate a sense of purposeful passion that both stimulates and facilitates consumption behaviours. For example, a passionate partisan might cajole colleagues to join a “tipping” competition, or distribute free passes to an event. When the Melbourne Storm National Rugby League (NRL) team established itself in the already cluttered Melbourne sporting market, it faced deeply entrenched and resistant behaviours from the local audience. Melbourne constitutes the heartland for the immensely popular Australian Rules football. While the city boasts a sport-loving community that appears open to a variety of major events, it had always treated the northern game of rugby league with parochial contempt. While Melbournians held a begrudging respect for soccer given its position as a global game, many saw rugby league as unfamiliar and unappealing. In 130 Brand Fans response, the Storm, perhaps helped by the marketing nous of its News Corporation owners at the time, proved savvy in making little attempt to persuade the locals in their early years. Instead, the Storm worked on expatriate communities from the rugby loving states of Australia and the nearby rugby-rich nation of New Zealand. Mining local demographic data, the team intensely targeted those expatriate fans who were perceived as being more easily converted to Storm fans. As these fans were won over, they were encouraged to feel like members of the club, despite its corporate ownership structure. In fact, Melbourne Storm sold “membership tickets” in place of season tickets and held regular “member days” to facilitate a sense of community and pride. Some early on-field success also helped lift the team’s profile. To their credit, the Storm’s marketing team made every attempt to engage potential influencers. The club filmed training and conducted interviews, supplying broadcast footage to all the local television networks. They ran promotions, including advertisements in newspapers, explaining the game in simple terms. Most importantly, the brand managers consulted with their existing fans about ways to engage the broader community. At one member’s event, a dedicated fan suggested distrib- uting free tickets efficiently through personal networks, targeting those who might be tempted to return after a trial experience. The Melbourne Storm marketing team resisted the idea at first, concerned that some paying members might feel slighted. However, an overwhelming enthusiasm for the concept amongst the most highly engaged fans ensured that it went ahead. It turned out to be an extraordinarily successful promotion. Not only did those new to the game come along, but they did so with a sense of pride in having been nominated. Many went on to become permanent members. At the ground, the cautiously interested casual visitors encountered a carefully orchestrated experience positioning the Storm as an entertainment brand, not just a rugby team. Conscious that the complex sport requires a sophisticated understanding, the Storm treated the game itself as just the core dimension of an augmented entertainment event. With music, celebrities, children’s activities, fireworks, food, and a range of fan engagement exercises, the event exceeded expectations. Spectators were also treated to a rather unique experience with the ground announcer 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 131 explaining the rules as play unfolded. Fortunately, the team’s passionate partisans adapted to the unusual festivities, pleased that their community was expanding, and that their efforts had proven instrumental. Passionate partisans can exist in all sports, but how can a brand find these consumers and then nurture and harness their enthusiasm? Collegiate sporting fans in the United States are amongst the most exuberant. Such a claim might seem at odds with images of rabid fans from Europe, Africa, and South America, who appear to live and die on the basis of their team allegiances. While these locations enjoy their share of passionate partisans, the North American collegiate market provides an instructive case study featuring several layers of networked engagement. Amongst other structural advantages, the North American collegiate system enjoys the following of committed alumni with strong lifelong ties to an alma mater. Graduates not only take pride in their connections, but also view their university experiences as career-long networking opportunities, continually reinforced thanks to social media platforms. After all, the world’s leading social media site, Facebook, was designed as a way of connecting university students. Alumni also recognise that their degrees, often the product of expensive student loans or substantial family savings, are only as valuable as the brand that conferred them. As a consequence, alumni try to bolster their university’s standing wherever possible, including its sporting achievements. Alumni also regularly donate money to their alma maters creating a valuable line of financial and emotional investments that can go back generations. Although a little bewildering to outsiders, universities in the United States enjoy a synergistic relationship with sport that magnifies the attachment that students and graduates experience. Interestingly, the connection between student fans and sport brands has yielded some important insights. For example, possibly the most influential work associated with fan motivation came from a study on US college students. Robert Cialdini, working with numerous colleagues in 1976, identified an important fan behaviour referred to as “basking in reflected glory” (BIRGing) after sporting wins. Curiously, Cialdini et al. (1976) comment that undergraduate students were far more likely to wear university-affiliated apparel on the Monday morning after a victorious football weekend. Such BIRGing behaviour exemplifies fans’ self-esteem-related urge to be 132 Brand Fans part of a successful group. Of course, even though none of the students had anything to do with the college’s on-field performances, “reflected glory” was automatically appropriated simply through self-determined identification. Merchandise and its display proved poignant given that students were strongly inclined to adorn readily identifiable college sport brands. In the United States, specific clothing items related to colleges are always seemingly en vogue and en masse, defying both fashion and fit. While simple, merchandise offers a highly visible barometer displaying the health of a consumer association. Numerous examples can be found where insightful sporting brands have taken apparel to new levels through a keen understanding of passionate partisans’ identity exhibitionism. Not only have leagues as diverse as the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), and Spanish football’s La Liga, made wearing sporting shirts perfectly acceptable as casual attire, they have also produced a wide range of styles and design alternatives to capture broader markets seeking a visible display of their affiliation. While the infamous “pink it and shrink it” approach to female merchandise has been replaced by much more sophisticated products, one particularly successful innovation involves “retro” designs that inspire nostalgia. That some European football teams can boast of (and sell) four versions of their playing apparel each season may seem to be an obscene money grab to some. Yet, fans demand authenticity and will wear the latest gear, or a design from at least a decade earlier, which attests to their longevity as a passionate partisan. For non-sporting brands, visual displays of affiliation are not as easily achieved. However, many have constructed proud communities who want to flaunt their association with a brand for identification and loyalty reasons, rather than just a fashion statement. Examples include the Harley-Davidson Owners Group (HOGS), construction brand Caterpillar, and farm machinery company John Deere, all of which offer branded merchandise catering for prominent visual displays of brand attachment. While branded merchandise provides an obvious cue to brand affiliation, media platforms can strengthen this attachment by connecting and empowering communities of interest around the brand. One notable 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 133 non-sporting example is Black Milk Clothing (BMC), Australia’s largest online-only fashion retailer. The brand numbers its social media followers in the hundreds of thousands, engaging them with dedicated efforts to facilitate co-creation and trust. The BMC community have dubbed themselves “sharkies”, in describing the digital feeding frenzy that ensues when major sales are announced. Sharkies suggest product lines, organise conventions (called Sharkie-Cons), and support the brand with a fervour matching a Los Angeles Laker’s fan preparing for game seven of the NBA play-offs. Passionate partisans can be created in non-sporting contexts. However, it takes a degree of trust and empowerment that can make even the most seasoned brand manager uncomfortable. While sporting brands accept and embrace the fandom culture, it often comes knocking at their doors. Non-sporting brands need to work harder to create the necessary rapport. Such brands will make mistakes and have to accept them as par for the course.

Ride the Bumps with a Grin

According to the cliché, trials and tribulations build stronger character and, perhaps, brands too. Spiritual commentaries exhort the endurance of suffering in the knowledge that perseverance yields power. Military leaders and car advertisers alike claim that the hottest fires forge the hardest steel, while Nietzsche’s frequently appropriated reminder that what does not kill us will make us stronger, is emblazoned upon coffee mugs. Sentiments and slogans only go so far. As every seasoned brand manager knows, a brand can only withstand a certain amount of negative publicity before it starts to crumble. Some shocks can be absorbed, but a sustained series of problems forces key stakeholders to scatter. Eventually, the talk of demise becomes self-fulfilling. Service industries appear to be especially vulnerable given the ephemeral nature of their intangible products. With nothing physical to demonstrate better prospects to come, service markets invariably fall upon clichéd imagery and hopeful promises. Consider the 2001 cases of once viable market heavyweights Ansett 134 Brand Fans

Airlines in Australia and Swissair in Switzerland, two highly regarded airlines on opposite sides of the world that ran into challenging head- winds, and then groundings. Caught in a perfect storm that constrained financial liquidity, both carriers played out public relations strategies that promised a return to normality as the pressure mounted, but neither could sustain their brand’s long-term credibility. As cracks appeared in their strategies, revival proved impossible for Ansett in a market full of hungry and more financially resilient competitors (Hedge 2011), while Swissair was forced into a major restructure and rebranding that essentially built a new entity (Knorr and Arndt 2003). Sporting brands do hold an advantage. Partisans reaffirm their loyalties to a brand through bad times as a sign of solidarity, giving the brand time to recover. Community support groups can even welcome short-term failure, so long as the consequent crisis brings swift change. Although an odd phenomenon, the evidence is commonplace on fan forums, where passionate partisans look ahead with renewed hope that change will reverse fortunes. For successful sport brands, fan expectations escalate each season. Even for consistently modest performers, the regular emergence of teams like Leicester and Oakland encourage fans to be cynical of excuses about limited resources. This treadmill of newer, better, and bigger reflects a revised market norm and a subsequent imperative for brand managers to manage expectations. In response, sporting brands educate their fans about the rationale governing key decisions and objectives. For example, a wealth of publicly available sporting data can assist in shaping expectations related to game performance. Most sports now capture some form of player ranking or ratings points where teams can statistically summarise players’ performances. For example, Stewart et al. (2007) gave Australian football teams “moneyball” type insights by measuring the performance of players along with comparisons based upon their recruitment draft value. Sophisticated statistical techniques can deliver value-weighted assessments of more and less expensive players, priming coaches and fans for what may be possible, particularly when it comes to recruitment. Not all leagues use the labour market intervention of drafts to recruit players. However, those that do have a valuable mechanism for instilling transparency into their planning processes, as it helps fans feel informed about decisions regard- 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 135 ing the most important resource of all—athletes. During the commonplace downturns characterising sport, brand managers appreciate how draft picks (given the worst performing team usually has the first pick, the second-worst team the second pick and so forth) build hope in their fans. With hope comes a potent collection of motivation and identification tools. The beauty of hope in a sport context is that it can be constantly reset with each new season, coach, manager, system, player, draft pick, and game. Transparency and openness can add to the mix as long as it reflects the internalised version that fans create themselves, not the marketing of clichéd promises. A perfect example can be found in the NFL’s 2016 Super Bowl featuring the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers. The lead-up to any Super Bowl needs little additional hyperbole given the attention the event commands, but this one presented a defining storyline that dominated pre-game commentary. While Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning rightfully captured some of the spotlight, the main focus was firmly on Panthers’ Quarterback Cam Newton and Broncos’ defender Von Miller. Newton and Miller were the respective number one and number two picks of the 2011 draft, as both teams had performed poorly in 2010. Each player carried the hopes and expectations of their teams over the following seasons, leading by example, instilling a purpose, overcoming deficiencies, and most importantly, doing so with the implicit support of all stakeholders. Neither Newton nor Miller was an unknown. Their college careers were outstanding, their credentials tested and certified, and the support base of both teams exuberant by the 2011 draft choices. While not every player selected at the top end of the draft proves to be a star, such transparent selections make it hard for fans to foresee failure. Sport fans have access to a variety of tools to engage with the talent identification and recruitment process, even in the absence of a draft system. While some sources demand fee for access subscriptions, a considerable volume of information can be easily secured online free of charge. Fantasy sports devotees can access all the data they need for role-playing as team managers. An entire video game sector provides simulated experiences in managing professional cycling, motor racing, cricket, and various forms of football. Online play allows a participant to test his or her 136 Brand Fans skills against peers from across the world, ranging from decisions about whether stadium hot dog prices should be raised, overseeing a yacht’s around-the-world race, or taking a penalty kick to win a FIFA World Cup final. Perhaps for the first time, fans involved in fantasy simulations and games can appreciate the skills and insights that elite sport demands. The need for split-second decision-making can be experienced personally through immersive experiences that deliver an armchair player into the middle of the peloton, as it swoops down the twisting terrain of the French Alps. Immersive, technology-driven experiences channel empathy and insight, in the process deepening the intimacy between consumer and brand. Although research in this area remains nascent, understanding how empathy works promises to create superior brand associations. Misch and Peloquin (2005) claim that empathy goes beyond a rational brand assessment as it contains a crucial emotional component. Empathy thus provides the potential for deep and multi-faceted insights into the lives of others, with opportunities for both cognitive and emotional processes to co-exist. Sporting brands generate fan empathy by pulling both rational and emotional strings. Great brands manage sport’s unique uncertainty in outcome by leveraging empathy. Surprise results, from Muhammad Ali’s 1965 first round knockdown of Sonny Liston to Leicester’s EPL triumph in 2016, become woven into the fabric of sporting legends, seeding the hopes and dreams of generations who follow, and building up enormous reserves of character, perseverance, and hope. Shrewd brand managers embrace uncertainty, using the “us and them” mentality to rally the self-esteem and identification needs of supporters. In 1995, the Hawthorn Football Club of the Australian Football League (AFL) faced an unpopular, but seemingly unstoppable, merger with a rival team. Subsequent fan action called on a line of the club song advocating, “riding the bumps with a grin”, which turned into a pivotal collective action preventing the merger. Hawthorn went on to become one of the most successful teams in the history of the league both on and off the field. In doing so, it completely reoriented its approach, putting fans first in every experience and leading the way in a range of immersive 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 137 experiences that made supporters feel responsible not only for saving the club but also for the journey ahead. For non-sport brands, mirroring sport’s potential for empathetic immersion is more difficult. Questions of privacy and commercial con- fidentiality arise as barriers to transparency, and few brand managers will share their plans on a regular basis, particularly when compared to sport leaders faced with often daily interrogation by the media. Hiring decisions in industry have no draft or highlights reels to examine beyond formulaic resumes. Bumps in the journey are seldom met with grins. Yet, brands can more readily explain their positions when their stakeholders have become collaborators in the challenges of building and sustaining a modern brand. We noted at the outset of this section that sporting brands’ passionate partisans display uncommon resilience and loyalty. This advantage also comes at a formidable cost as fans extract and expect a high level of engagement, authenticity, and transparency in return.

Do Not Hide

Along with engendering transparency, bold brand managers collaborate with personally engaged and empowered consumers. Correspondence between customers and companies was once the domain of carefully worded letters, often read and responded to by senior executives. Of course, the current reality holds that consumers can and will voice any viewpoint via a range of brand-controlled and public forums while expecting a timely—or immediate—response. Accustomed to constant scrutiny, sport brands were amongst the fastest to adapt. A chorus of boos at a large stadium swiftly focuses a brand on its customer’s disapproval. Proactive sporting brands access a number of largely self-regulated networks for continuous feedback. This feedback is gathered face-to-face through fan events as well as through online forums incorporating both official brand-controlled sites in addition to a wide variety of third-party sites. Popular social media sites aggregate feedback concerning numerous sports or teams and can be less restrictive about content. The content 138 Brand Fans on “unofficial” sites is generally seen as more independent and authentic. At the very least, sport brands monitor these unofficial channels, although representatives often seek to participate as well. For example, the “Bigfooty” website, discussed in the previous chapter, features team threads with questions and comments answered by team administrators. Most sites, whether official or unofficial, are moderated or admin- istered by emotionally engaged and strongly identified partisan fans. Such volunteers offer an unparalleled brand interface given their sincerity and knowledge. By way of comparison, consider the innumerable non-sporting brands that view the role of social media coordinator as an entry-level position (often handed to interns), whose incumbents may lack a nuanced understanding of the brand and its customers. Such brands express shock when their social media activities go awry from time-to- time. Mistakes get compounded when brands treat social media channels in the same way as other more traditional forms of communication. Research by Meng et al. (2015) reveals that teams in the NBA have become remarkably adept at connecting with fans through social media. In fact, the NBA encourages team-fan social media engagement by presenting awards each year to those teams and athletes who have excelled. Considerable disparity occurs within the competition, however, with some of the more popular teams, such as the Los Angeles Lakers, swamped by posts on popular platforms such as Facebook. For the Lakers, these sites become little more than cheer-squads, with short, repetitive posts to the team and players. Other teams, such as the Brooklyn Nets, take to Facebook with incredible passion. In seeking to redevelop their brand image beyond a name change (they were the New Jersey Nets until 2012), they ask deeper questions of their fans, run a range of competitions and collaborative events, and often participate in discussions beyond basketball-related topics. An online fan-moderated community where supporters can post on any topic can prove compelling to a relatively small brand because it extends their resources while amplifying the connection between the fans and the brand, as well as between the fans themselves. Community groups resolve common problems such as ticket-purchasing options, regulate permissible language, and engage in ritualistic behaviours (such 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 139 as speculating on expected line-ups). They further provide a sporting brand with enormously powerful ethnographic research given the level of detail included in the posts, much of which reflects erudite, thoughtful, and tolerant discussion. As highlighted in Chapter 3, passionate online brand communities also exist in the context of non-sport brands. To leverage the resource, brand managers need to be prepared to listen to the conversations and respond or engage when appropriate. Data derived from this naturalistic context provide key insights towards cultivating a brand’s strategy. Further, these communities develop content of value to the brand as well as its members.

Segment for Growth

Great sporting brands make each fan feel important, constantly remind- ing them that their input, from cheering to buying a season ticket, is directly correlated to success. As already described, sporting brands identify their tribes through colours, ritualistic practices, and simple common bonds that distinguish between “us” and “them”. Through such overt forms of recognition, sport brands also readily define different levels of behavioural segmentation on the basis of fan action, in the process converting their tribes into sophisticated networks where passion runs deep. Marketing textbooks commonly describe three forms of consumer segmentation: demographic, geographic, and psychographic. The first two are self-explanatory, while the latter focuses largely on the activities, interests, and opinions of consumers, all of which help brand managers understand the psychological profiles of fans. However, while each type of segmentation delivers useful information, great sport brands covet behavioural methods. Behavioural segmentation provides the strategic bedrock for most sporting brands. Behavioural segmentation relies on accessible, easily interpreted data. In the end, what fans actually do trumps guesses at what they might do. More over, the former represents a tangible expression of the latter, rather than just a theory. As a result, strategies using behavioural segmentation encourage fans to feel as if they play a role within a larger community. 140 Brand Fans

Behavioural segmentation examines groups of consumers based upon their relationship bonds to a brand, both in terms of how they engage with a product and what benefits they may seek when doing so. In this instance, the level of brand loyalty holds central. While fans may choose one sport over another, or to attend more or less frequently, they rarely switch loyalties between brands in the same way that shampoo consumers may alternate in order to try something different, or the way passengers may alternate between airlines—irrespective of loyalty programmes— because of cost or scheduling availability. By thinking about the actual behaviours of their fans, sporting brands form a superior understanding of both the bonds that form loyalty and the intricate layers that may exist within them. A behavioural approach operates on two levels. Firstly, and as a starting point for most brands, it can segment the types of consumers in a product category based upon their relational bonds to a brand. These range from new customers (those with no connections) right through to “brand loyals”, or those who routinely purchase a brand. In between, a brand can distinguish between those consumers who swap amongst brands and those consumers loyal to a rival brand. Each group requires a different marketing communication strategy, much in the same way that your own communication style varies based upon the relationship you have with your audience, whether your mother-in-law, a job interviewer, or the police officer who has pulled you over for speeding. At a more sophisticated segmentation level, where most leading sport brands operate, behavioural elements are supplemented with geographic and demographic information. Here, the actual benefits sought by consumers can be forensically examined to yield deeper insights. Sports brands sell a variety of season tickets or memberships, including international versions for fans living in different countries. Paradoxically, international “tickets” do not permit access to a game. However, they do usually provide a sense of connection and offer priority access to other benefits, such as online highlights. For fans purchasing season tickets, game attendance is tracked through barcode activity, allowing a brand manager to establish fan categories based on consumption profiles, as well as on a detailed inventory of the promotional initiatives that attracted their attention and action. Sport organisations even know what time fans 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 141 arrive, allowing them to plan suitable activities in the pre-game build-up. Mobile apps guide fans in and out of car parks, help them locate their seats, and allow them access to a wide variety of shared platforms providing insider insights such as comments from coaches or exclusive footage of the athletes warming up. Fans who make contributions to digital discussions are noted and often rewarded. Details of merchandise purchases are recorded, and when fans wish to sell their tickets, online options such as StubHub offer seamless services. Through various means, sport organisations can access detailed consumption behaviour data on each fan segment, yielding valuable input into acquisition and retention strategies. Behavioural segmentation allows product variations to be more surgi- cally targeted, so that the same core activity can be delivered and experienced in customised ways. Cricket provides an exemplar. Once derided for its stoic conservatism, the sport has become a product innovation and marketing leader. In the previous chapter, we touched on Kerry Packer’s “World Series Cricket” revolution, which at the time seemed like an entertainment circus magnifying the star power of the players. Until Packer’s intervention, innovation in cricket had been shunned given that the traditional foundations of the sport rested on five-day “test” matches and their long tail of history. However, the World Series format led to a popularity explosion for shorter forms of the sport through both “One-Day” initially (around seven hours of game time), and then later “Twenty20” (around three hours of game time) versions gaining substantial traction with audiences. These abridged versions activated a latent appeal amongst younger audiences, particularly in India, which now is the political and financial powerbase of the global competition, even if countries such as Australia, England, and South Africa claim the historic high ground. It was all a response to the emergence of a new and knowledgeable youth audience who demanded a version of the game geared towards a blend of sport and entertainment in a form that was quickly and conveniently consumable. The Indian Premier League (IPL) represents a salutary example where sport and entertainment transitioned into a highly desirable product perfectly matching the segmentation variables of the local marketplace. Using a system of wealthy, aspirational team owners and the diverse geographic rivalry of the Indian sub-continent, the IPL quickly became a hypertro- 142 Brand Fans phied, larger than life version of the game. It encompasses a spectacular collision of star players from across the globe recruited through an auc- tion with celebrity spotting, Bollywood dancing, and festival charm. Run over just six weeks on an annual basis, the IPL hits quick and hard both literally and figuratively. Vast numbers of fans participate both live and through broadcasting while a suite of wealthy corporate supporters line up to join the ride. In fact, the product might even be considered somewhat disposable, at least to the cricket purists who view the format as tantamount to selling out the sport. Yet, while winners and losers might be forgotten quickly, the IPL branding boffins have clearly tapped into a market that loves to be engaged. As a branding case, the IPL’s lessons go well beyond the contextual foibles of a market that likes to infuse Bollywood into everything. For example, a similar product aptly named the “Big Bash League” has flourished in Australia, enticing crowds with summer evening entertainment that stretches beyond a ball and a bat. While the league makes do with fewer stars, it capitalises on fans’ natural tendency to associate cricket with holidays, sun, beach, food, and festivity. The combination of product attributes, including music, competitions, giveaways, and a general festive atmosphere, plays perfectly to a family-orientated audience looking for an evening’s entertainment that caters to a range of tastes. A putative but long-standing branding “axiom” holds that truth is trumped by perception. Marketing commentators Al Ries and Jack Trout contributed a range of popular literature on marketing thought, with their 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing perhaps only surpassed in impact by their classic book, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. Both books contain concepts still taught in business schools, despite some being formulated almost 40 years ago—an eternity in modern marketing. Although most of the propositions seem like common sense, Ries and Trout (1981) never stray far from the notion that it is not what you do to the product that matters most, but what you do to the minds of prospective consumers. Sport brands apply the Ries and Trout axiom liberally and with spectacular effect to help understand the motives and segments of their audiences, especially in terms of how each sport can hold a place in the mind linked to a variety of cultivated attributes. Sport brands across the globe 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 143 have therefore become ingrained in consumers’ lifestyle choices at a depth that cannot be adequately explained by simple product loyalty. To outsiders, most sports—de-constructed into their components—must seem like bizarre collections of inflated rules and ritualised antics. However, what matters most are perceptions of shared and memorable experiences. For example, in North America, baseball enjoys the self-appointed status of the “National Pastime”. It legitimately claims to be a rite of passage for children who experience summer afternoons at the ballpark as part of their upbringing. Similarly, FC Barcelona, with its slogan “more than a club”, represents the whole Spanish Catalan region in ways that political parties would envy. Other sports have failed the Ries-Trout test of building a strong position of unique attributes in the minds of consumers. They have, consequently, suffered at competitors’ hands, or in one particular case, fists. For example, as the sport of boxing grew increasingly irrelevant with its fragmentation and internal squabbling, martial arts themed events, such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), reignited fan interest by focusing on fighter personalities, not to mention the raw brutality of “no holds barred” caged combat. UFC star Ronda Rousey provides a startling illustration. Beginning as a Judo medallist at the 2008 Olympic Games, Rousey embarked on a mixed-martial arts career, and became the UFC’s first female star. Propelled to attention by Hollywood movie appearances, Google ranked Rousey third on its 2015 list of the year’s top trending people. Little wonder that by the middle of 2016, although Rousey had a professional mixed-martial arts record of just 12-1, she held the crown of being the “Best Female Athlete Ever”, at least according to a 2015 online poll conducted by ESPN (Arth 2015). Rousey’s star having ascended, thanks to a digital world of fans living in the moment and for the moment, aptly symbolises the new branding paradigm. However, this new paradigm still requires that brands battle to occupy a position in the consumer’s mind. Pathways to the consumer’s mind build upon a complex network of shared experiences where narratives converge from multiple directions and need curating in order to express a coherent message. Rousey’s brand extends well beyond sport. But, it must be strategically and consistently 144 Brand Fans shaped through social media, appropriate influencers, and a variety of co- branding opportunities, including an appearance on the cover of a popular mixed-martial arts video game. Such cross promotion remains critical in the modern branding environment where online sharing behaviours can be so readily merged. Rousey clearly understands that associations with software companies, movie studios, and other entertainment providers boost the value of her brand. Successful sport stars, as brands, also use positioning based upon benefits, practically rushing to offer fans information to help them form favourable impressions. One universally compelling storyline in sport is that of the underdog. The underdog, as we touched on in the previous chapter, is a cherished position for many sporting brands because it atten- uates expectations. Any service experience is shaped by the expectations consumers bring, whether concerning the pillow in a five-star hotel or the quality of airline food. Expectations provide a benchmark against which a consumer rates his or her actual experience. Where the gap is favourable, so too is the consumer’s brand impression. Being an underdog creates powerful psychological hopes for triumphing against the odds that resonate with innumerable, universal cultural myths. Malcolm Gladwell (2013), in his book David and Goliath, observes that David’s archetypal position brings positive connotations of courage, ingenuity, and forti- tude. In the real world, Rousey’s first UFC loss came in late 2015 in a bout against the relatively unknown Holly Holm. Perhaps unexpectedly, the defeat did not particularly hurt Rousey’s career. Indeed, many observers suggested that it provided a neat boost for women’s mixed-martial arts, setting up a rivalry between Rousey and Holm, and of course, the inevitable rematch (with Rousey as the underdog). Sporting brands do not have to be underdogs. Obviously, not all brands can genuinely make that claim. Many other brands have managed to take a leadership position, preferring to use their favouritism or confidence to establish enviable market positions. The late Muhammad Ali was literally poetic in the pronunciations of his rivals’ defeats, while NFL legend Joe Namath famously “guaranteed” victory in Super Bowl III before guiding his underdog Jets to the title. Successful sport brands always stand for something. For example, positioning such as “America’s Team” (Dallas Cowboys, NFL) or the “Family Club” (Hawthorn, AFL) 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 145 resonates with those fans who identify personally with these attributes. Motorsport fans gravitate to the mystique and beauty of Ferrari, soccer fans in Zurich must choose between the elite and working class when determining if FC Zurich or Grasshoppers FC will be their team, and the famed Fla-Flu (Flamengo vs Fluminense) football rivalry of Rio de Janeiro splits the famous city in two. Irrespective of the position a sports brand may occupy, what matters most is how their fans perceive them. Consumers want to feel like winners, no matter the result, which means they need to be made to feel special.

Make Everyone a VIP

The US Masters stakes its claim as the greatest golfing tournament on the planet. As the first of the four “majors” held each year and hosted by the Augusta National Golf club since 1934, the event title is coveted by the world’s elite golfers with, perhaps, the 1860 established British Open its true modern peer. Despite being the only major played on the same course each year, the setting invokes both majesty and mystery. Held in a members-only club, until the mid-1990s the event’s television coverage was largely restricted to just the back nine (final 9 of 18 holes). Moreover, ticketing restrictions limit access to a relatively small percentage of those who would like to attend, despite the naturally wide-open expanses that could accommodate a vast crowd. At first glance, the Masters would hardly seem like an instructive branding case study. Notwithstanding the difficulties in securing a ticket, many golf fans consider a pilgrimage to the Masters to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience given the gravitas the event holds and the magnificent course upon which it is played. Challenges face the host broadcaster too, which must negotiate its coverage year-to-year within the constraints of clauses and conditions foreign to sport broadcasters. Examples include referring to fans as “patrons” and limiting commercial interruptions to less than a third of the usual rate. Sponsored on-screen graphics are not permitted, on- course announcers are limited to certain areas, and aerial coverage from blimps, helicopters, and drones is strictly limited. All of this formality, matched behind the scenes by special dinners, a range of rituals involving 146 Brand Fans green jackets, considerable officialdom, and a fastidiousness in ensuring that everything is presented to perfection, confer the event with a unique magnetism for fans and players. In terms of the latter, fewer than 100 of the world’s best players based on rankings, and former winners, are invited to tee up. By contrast, the British Open, itself resplendent in its heritage, allows 156 golfers to start its tournament. Like all luxury products, golf consumers equate scarcity with exclusivity. While over-zealous branding has diluted the authenticity of many sup- posedly exclusive products, genuine major events make it work. Like the Masters, other sporting competitions have successfully mobilised their branding power to regulate long-term passion and demand, rather than just to maximise short-term sales. For example, the NFL plays a 16 game regular season, giving each team just eight home games. As a result, these games tend to be sell-outs. Following the regular season, the knockout play-offs allow only the strongest to progress with no second-chances. Although a different competitive structure, the same logic applies to FIFA’s quadrennial World Cup. Qualification tournaments for the event provide years of drama building up to the actual Cup. Similarly, the Olympic Games interpose its four-year cycle with a two-year gap between Summer and Winter Games, in order to avoid cannibalising each other. Big boxing bouts occur infrequently, raising expectations and rumours to bolster demand when they do transpire, while newer mixed-martial arts events and extreme sporting competitions carefully schedule and locate their events to maximise publicity and sidestep other major sports. Impactful sport brands understand the power of exclusivity. Overstretching is not a sustainable option, despite the commercial incen- tive for an immediate pay-off. US sporting brands often receive criticism for their corporate approach to everything from moving teams to dis- carding players, but as any visitor to a major sport league in the United States can attest, once the game begins, the authenticity of the contest holds paramount. Consider the NFL, where virtually no sponsor branding appears on the field, the uniforms, or the ball during the game. In contrast, basketball leagues in some parts of the world appear to cover every square inch of space with sponsor brands and advertising. To some fans, over-saturated commercialisation cheapens the consumption experience, implying that sponsors are sovereign over the sport. 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 147

Every brand needs to deliver its Masters equivalent; that special moment of arriving at Augusta via the famed Magnolia Lane driveway to the clubhouse. This VIP feeling is critical, even if it must be diffused across hundreds of thousands of customers. For example, one of the most notable brands in the sporting world and a recurring example in this book, the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys understand the importance of the tangible, physical experience. Their home games are played at AT&T Stadium, a facility in Arlington, Texas that accommodates approxi- mately 100,000 fans, from swanky corporate boxes to standing room only terraces. The latter space, rare in modern football stadiums due to safety concerns, provides relatively affordable access to fan segments who prefer the atmosphere of close knit camaraderie. This preference is prominent elsewhere too, including Australia, Switzerland, and Germany, where the standing section is prized for its freedom. Visitors to Cowboys games receive an experience that cannot be matched by any home comforts or television camera angles. Players enter the field through an open section, right next to the fans, designed to allow young supporters (and their eager parents) to photograph and high-five the athletes as they come on and off the field. Through the stadium’s own app, fans can select from an expansive array of dining, fast food, and beverage options without fear of missing any action as the seats and stalls all have a spectacular view of what was (when it opened in 2009) the largest high definition screen in the world. While fans might boast of their 50-inch television at home, the stadium’s 53-metre version, suspended in the middle of the arena, allows fans arriving early or staying late to watch other matches and highlights. Keeping fans in the stadium for extended periods, of course, maximises revenue opportunities like food and merchandise sales. The Dallas Cowboys and NFL brand managers work just as hard outside the stadium. For example, the NFL created the “NFL Experience” for younger fans to participate in a theme-styled extravaganza combining technology with football-related physical games. Almost every major sporting event now includes fan experience activities in its programme. Visitors to the Australian Open tennis tournament can spend hours visiting a marquee set up outside the main arena. An array of activities is available for fans, from testing their first-serve speed as measured by 148 Brand Fans radar, to sponsored product experiences such as hair styling and make- overs. Of course, participants are encouraged through incentives to share their experiences on social media. A non-sport example of the same tactics can be found in large shopping centres that can attract crowds, but struggle to differentiate from other locations. Ample parking, hyper-celebrations for almost any reason, theatrical performances, children’s games, petting zoos, and constant upgrades, have become the norm. Just as sporting brands augment their games with a multitude of other features, retailers seek to engage their consumers through more than just shopping.

Multiply Media and Saturate Sponsors

Successful sporting organisations tend to avoid traditional mainstream media campaigns. Instead they cultivate the seeds sown by other institutions with far more reach and at far lower cost, forming powerful partnerships with established media and emerging media platforms. For the most part, sporting brands gear their efforts towards fostering goodwill and positive public relations. In addition, many sport brands aim to build community value and social capital in order to inspire the next generation of players and fans. Such a foundational approach contrasts starkly with the advertising-driven, television-delivered, obstinate push branding some firms utilise with immediate sales in mind. The greatest sporting brands focus on creating lasting experiences and relationships, not short-term transactions. At the same time, more aggressive traditional communications-based brand marketing is often left to major sponsors and media partners who magnify the narratives and drama inherent in sport with expertise and enthusiasm. In addition, as we have already discussed, sport brands recognise that their fans are instrumental in passing on key messages within their networks. These consumers are often best reached through the valuable intermediar- ies and allies—like sponsors—that often attach themselves to sporting consumption. 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 149

Sponsors leverage sport brands and events in order to generate brand awareness, capture new audiences, and imbibe an aura appropriated from the sport’s associated goodwill and imagery. Media players specialise in creating anticipation, in the process driving new forms of digital rights and transmission. For example, at the European Football Championships McDonald’s has turned a simple promotional competition into a symbol that both amplifies a key characteristic of its brand and the sport it supports. At the start of each game, children walk hand-in-hand with players out of the tunnel and onto the playing pitch. The children are usually winners of a global McDonald’s competition designed to promote the fast food giant’s involvement with football, but also to reinforce its family focus that has long been a key brand attribute. Of course, the sporting bodies associated with these promotions are also big winners. Not only have they attracted the support of a global brand, the image of young fans escorting players onto the field, beamed to hundreds of millions across the world, aptly displays a variety of important messages with harmony and children at the forefront. Further, at the start of major sporting events like the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, magical marketing moments arrive in the form of much-anticipated television commercials that rival brands Nike and adidas release to mark the occasion. With both brands invariably involved in some level of sponsorship— with specific teams in the case of Nike, or more broadly across teams and the FIFA World Cup event itself with adidas—the advertisements tend to be spectacular. Curiously, Nike’s three-minute masterpieces rarely even touch on the event directly. Instead, they tell stories starring their sponsored players, complete with catchy music and a gripping, quirky finale. These advertisements, not surprisingly, are some of the most effective and impressive ever created. At the end of any major sporting event, there is no need to look far for highlights, as the television networks will have crafted seamless, emotionally charged montages. Following the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, a particularly memorable highlight reel at the end of the tournament came from the ABC network in the United States. Its pastiche of magic moments played in concert with a U2 ballad was capable of elicit- ing smiles, tears, and fond memories from any fan. 150 Brand Fans

Creating stunning imagery remains, of course, the bread and butter for a major television network. Fans, armed with powerful smartphones and other devices, are also masters at capturing thrilling moments. A quick glance at YouTube after any major event will amply demonstrate their prowess. When John Aloisi scored a penalty to qualify Australia for the 2006 FIFA World Cup after an agonising 32-year absence, a sports drink and an airline both featured an advertisement using spine-tingling (for an Australian fan at least) YouTube footage from a shaky fan phone in the crowd behind the goal. Who needs high definition when the real thing is hyper-real? McDonald’s, Nike, adidas, and a myriad of other major sport sponsors have proven expert in creating brands through sheer magnitude and perseverance. However, in choosing sport to amplify their brands, they also boost the sport, giving it credibility, exposure, and a sense of gravitas that might not otherwise have been possible. At least not without having spent a fortune. Similarly, media networks amplify distribution while nurturing emotional connections to enduring cultural moments. Examples are almost endless: Jack Nicklaus winning The Masters at age 46 in 1986; Jesse Owens defying the blatant fascism on display at the 1936 Olympic Games; Nadia Comaneci’s 1976 Montreal Olympics “perfect 10”; Dwight Clark making “the catch” at the 1982 NFC Championship American football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers; Diego Maradona’s “hand of God” goal for Argentina in a match against England in a 1986 World Cup quarter-final; “Flo Jo” becoming the fastest woman of all time at the 1988 Olympics with her sleek suit and spar- kly fingernails; Michael Jordan’s final shot as a Chicago Bull to win the 1998 NBA Championships; and, Usain Bolt’s third 100 metres Olympic title in 2016. Captured for posterity, the extensive broadcasting of these moments elevated the protagonists and their sports to levels that cannot be matched by any form of traditional brand building. Such moments create brand characteristics such as endurance, passion, brilliance, and pathos, and are woven intractably into cultural history. Media channels and distribution options are growing exponentially, opening up new audiences and opportunities. When Floyd Mayweather met Manny Pacquiao in a much-anticipated boxing match in 2015, 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 151 the big winner, aside from the fighters who both pocketed enormous payments, was Periscope. Twitter purchased the live video streaming application for iOS and Android before it even launched, and was named by Apple as its “App of the Year” for 2015. Despite being a pay-per-view event, users were able to broadcast and access unauthorised versions of the bout. While problematic for promoters with commercial stakes, the situation also challenged major sport brands such as the NFL, which soon realised that it was far better to embrace the technology rather than tackle it with infringement notices. By mid-2016, the NFL had signed a deal with Twitter to stream ten Thursday night NFL matches, with Periscope providing access to a range of behind-the-scenes features. Non-sporting brands do not have the luxury of media and sponsor partners to do their heavy lifting. Nevertheless, the lessons of collaboration, cooperation, and experience-focused branding hold salient. All brands can create personalities intensified by popular culture and strengthened by other brand alliances and the opportunities surrounding them. Apple, for example, stimulates the popular media to multiply its value through endorsement, excitement, and attachment. McDonald’s in Australia refers to itself as “Maccas” in its advertising, leveraging the endearing colloquial term; Barack Obama went from being a single-term senator to US President on a wave of media and endorsement goodwill; NASA is lionised in movies, culture, and lifestyle through their heroic exploits; Ferrari is almost mythical in its automotive stature having used sport more than sport has used it; LeBron James, known simply as “@ KingJames” on Twitter to his 30 million plus followers is as prodigiously talented off the court with self-promotion as he is on the court; Michael Jordan and Nike gained far more from their partnership than either could have achieved alone. In the dynamic world of marketing communication, coherence reigns. The sporting experience shows that amplification comes not from yell- ing the loudest, as many brands mistakenly assume, but from speaking consistently with clarity and purpose through carefully selected channels. Ultimately, it all comes down to influence and persuasion where the most powerful way to influence a consumer’s mind is to empower him or her to make up their own mind. 152 Brand Fans

Locate the Connection, Influence, and Persuasion Trinity

Great sporting brands form resolute connections with their fans, influence fan behaviour in positive ways, and ultimately persuade fans to share and reinforce their experiences. As a collective, this triumvirate represents a “Holy Grail” for all brands aspiring to go beyond just creating customers and seek, instead, to engender brand fans. One element is not enough; all three work synergistically. Connection delivers the opportunity to influence through authentic appeals. In an escalating spiral, influence becomes persuasive in its own right, but importantly, fosters the kinds of network behaviours that propagate broader appeal. In bringing the triumvirate to the fore, sporting brands have concocted their own blend of factors that shape fan interactions. For example, most employ some form of reciprocity to stimulate the initial connection, and then follow it up with demonstrative and consistent commitment. Curiously, the reciprocity linked to sporting brands’ performances possesses an element of paradox. Studies indicate that, unsurprisingly, sporting teams perform significantly better when they have strong, vocal support from their fans. Psychologically, the motivation underpinning cheering helps foster a spirit of camaraderie, but it also manifests as a potent and tangible effect on performance. As we have already discussed, some teams such as the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, equate rowdy fan support to having an extra player. In fact, home teams win more games than away teams. Psychological research suggests that the home crowd exerts a subliminal bias upon officials who must make split-second judgements on key events, such as balls or strikes, fouls or fair plays, and penalties or play-ons. With a cacophony of noise comes a phenomenon that sport economists have statistically verified, and that most fans have long sus- pected: home team cheering and jeering influences officials (Nevill et al. 2002). Of course, fans do not much feel like cheering or even attending a sporting event when their team has been chronically underperforming. Obviously, the home crowd effect works best when there is something to cheer about. Hence the paradox. Fans will cheer winning teams, but 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 153

losing teams need the supportive roar of the crowd to gain a winning edge. During difficult times, teams hope that a passionate partisan fan base will see them through to the next cycle of success. For other brands, loyal customers are similarly essential. The 20 % of customers who typically contribute 80 % of the sales or profits remain the key. Readers may relate to the feeling that, despite long-term loyalty, their insurance provider is taking them for granted, as premiums rise beyond the rate of inflation each year. As many savvy consumers have realised, changing policy providers on a yearly basis to lock-in introductory deals that are now commonplace and have spread across numerous industries including telecommunications providers and utility companies. Sporting fans do not swap from team to team each season; an extraordinary display of loyalty that at least partly reflects reciprocity. While sometimes subtle, reciprocity sits behind all strong consumer- brand connections. Keep in mind that many brands make little attempt to go further than a transactional exchange relationship. If you want to wash your clothes, the washing machine fulfils its role having extracted a price from you in return for the utility offered by the product. In service environments, the exchange can be more complex because it involves intangible expectations. A washing machine can be tested and timed; its cleaning power measured by a tangible outcome. Conversely, a hotel room, a flight, and a basketball game comprise more ephemeral experiences, each with numerous components that fit into a cycle of experiences from arrival to departure (and often beyond, if fans then go on social media to discuss their experiences). In these instances, what we expect, and increasingly how others feel about the event given they can share their views so readily, affects satisfaction. Watching Leicester City play most seasons before 2015 would not have appeared on the wish list of most soccer fans travelling to England to experience an EPL game. But, context changes expectations. Elite sporting brands control context by building connections based upon reciprocal behaviour. They ask fans for a commitment more than the price of admission, but offer the opportunity to be part of something special in return. Sporting brands offer passion, camaraderie, excitement, shared achievement, determination, history, and a plethora of other emotional and intellectual benefits, all of which augment the core 154 Brand Fans

experience of watching the sport performance. Moreover, sport brands unite strangers who become bound together by colours, rituals, and traditions. Mild-mannered supporters become fierce, vitriolic warriors in the stands of sport stadiums, “bleeding the colours” of their respective teams. The AFL club, Hawthorn, came perilously close to voting itself into extinction, but survived a tumultuous meeting when a minority of influential members asked the broader supporter base to become “proud, passionate and paid-up” members of the club. Fans duly responded, putting their money where their mouths were, so to speak. The appeal worked because striking brands offer more than just a transactional event in exchange for the ticket price. Like Hawthorn, strong brands offer admission into a community of like-minded individuals open to anyone willing to cheer (and pay) at the right moments. A call to history helps too, given that stability and certainty in beliefs gives consumers a sense of belonging to something larger and more longevous than their immediate families. Commitment and continuity go hand in hand. Another lesson in building connections from sporting brands can be taken from their rituals. At the extremes of life, it is common for newborn babies to be enveloped in team colours, just as some die-hard (so to speak) fans elect to have their ashes distributed over iconic sporting fields. Equivalent long-term bonds have been sought by non-sport brands aiming to maximise a customer’s “lifetime value” and its multiplier effect, through escalating purchases and word-of-mouth endorsements. Reichheld and Sasser (1990) calculate the lifetime value of customers of various service industries, and conclude that a range of benefits accrue by pursuing a goal of “zero defections”. For example, customers enjoying a positive relationship are less price-sensitive and more likely to pay a premium for sustaining the connection. Another advantage comes from favourable referrals. These benefits have only increased in significance with the rise of the social media age, which has facilitated sharing behaviours, self-enhancement opportunities, and social risk management. We now know, through more recent research by Barasch and Berger (2014) and Eisingerich et al. (2015), that the reach and ubiquity of online platforms allows customers to harness a suite of social benefits unavailable to the non-committed consumer. 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 155

Sport provides not only a potent platform for group cheering, positive affirmation, and basking in reflected glory, but it also allows for socially acceptable criticism, dissatisfaction, and displeasure. Leagues and teams facilitate the process by providing tools like hashtags to bring groups together for banter. Furthermore, the interactive nature of online platforms creates ample opportunities to source materials to support view- points, such as statistics, replays, and commentaries. A regular season-long delivery allows some sport brands to become part of fans weekly rhythms. In the United States, football schedules are well engrained. “Friday Night Football” is for high schools, feeding into Saturday college football, and Sunday/Monday is for professional football. Fall (autumn) and winter weekends are further augmented by public holiday events like Thanksgiving Day football, which is symbolically tied to notions of family and gratitude. While industries rush to “disrupt”, having been advised by countless consultants that perpetual innovation is the only way to maintain brand presence, most strong sport brands differentiate through preserving tradition as often as they do through the latest new offering. Olympic flames are lit with ceremonial pomp; Masters champions are presented with a prized green jacket; major trophies are perpetual, accumulating the names of winners; and, the dispatch of the Olympic gold, silver, and bronze medals appears timeless. Sport brands hardly sit still, as our forthcoming chapters argue, but they also construct a sense of purpose and strength grounded in history and enduring values. Like all brands, sport has to manage competing tensions. Not only do they have to balance tradition with innovation, but brand strategy needs to be sensitive to the different levels within the sport system. For example, sporting codes elicit brand perceptions, sporting leagues develop their own distinctive personalities, sporting teams and clubs forge a market position within a competition, and individual players and athletes from solo sports try to stand out from the crowd. However, the most adept sporting brands also manage the tension between aligning with other market levels and standing for something unique. Creating this uniqueness involves exploiting the progression of technology and cultivating the aspects of it that help bring the various actors in sport to life, connecting fans to their heroes. At the 1966 FIFA World Cup, hosted and won by England, just 13 % of the television footage con- 156 Brand Fans stituted “close-ups” of the action. Within just a few decades, this number had risen threefold. According to Whannel (2009), the increase in close coverage transformed the players’ profiles from distant and homogenous members of the team to distinctive and recognisable personalities. In retrospect, early sporting television coverage feels rather bland and clinical. Its static “wide-angle” approach is like watching the game from the back of the stands, a jolting shift from the fluid, directorial camera angle movements characteristic of current broadcasting. The transition was hardly accidental. Fans not only got closer to the action, but also felt like they were part of the action through the use of a variety of technological advancements, including well-placed microphones, cameras worn by officials and suspended from stadium roofs, and a plethora of sideline reporters seeking to take fans “inside the huddle”. Players today contribute immensely to closing the gap between fan and brand by creating their own media content either through official team channels or personal social media. While singers and actors seemingly dominate the latter, sport stars claim their share of followers too. FC Barcelona’s Argentinian football star Lionel Messi has accumulated 100 million Facebook “likes”, although his rival, Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo is clearly the social media king. As we have mentioned before, Ronaldo leads all athletes on Twitter with almost 50 million followers and leads all individuals on Facebook with well over 110 million likes. Ronaldo’s club, Real Madrid, despite its global drawing power and penchant for recruiting international superstars—known locally as “Galácticos”—falls well short of its star striker in terms of followers on both leading social platforms, suggesting that athlete brands connect precisely because they are so unique and personalised. Messi and Ronaldo play pivotal roles as brand ambassadors through social and mainstream media. Like other global sporting superstars, they help cut through to valuable niche consumers, perhaps less interested in the game, but nevertheless drawn to the power of personality and the cult of celebrity caught up in it. David Beckham provides the consummate example as a footballer who made his name with Manchester United and then later played with a series of teams, perhaps most famously with the Los Angeles Galaxy in America’s Major League Soccer competition. He also served as an ambassador of the game, more broadly, which helped grow 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 157 local interest in a relatively untapped market for the sport. His marriage to pop star “Posh Spice”, of course, enhances his star power. Beckham, like Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, Messi, and countless others, transcend their chosen sports, helping build nuanced brand narratives through a human face and an attractive body. Their personal lives are magnified into larger than life caricatures to be worshipped, exalted, emulated, and scrutinised. Sport’s cult of personality is a relatively new branding phenomenon, probably initiated by IMG (now a global sport and talent management agency) founder Mark McCormack’s famous signing of golfing great Arnold Palmer to an endorsement deal in 1960. Now, athletes—as brands in their own right—attract fans in the way that only teams once did, and many supporters are happy to take their loyalties with the athlete when they (seemingly inevitably) change teams. Sometimes, athletes are particularly conscious of their power and feel a responsibility to use their prominent position for social good. Consider the case of LeBron James, a remarkably talented basketballer, born and raised in the US state of Ohio before being drafted as the first overall pick in 2003 by his “local” team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. The label of hometown hero was well deserved when in 2016 James led the Cavs to their first NBA Championship victory. The path to that triumph, which included James vociferously declaring his passion for the relatively unfashionable city, was all the more remarkable given that he left Cleveland in 2010 to join the Miami Heat, a team with which he won back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013 before returning to Cleveland in 2014. James’ decision to leave for Miami was a snapshot moment in his media profile. The announcement was broadcast live across the nation on an ESPN television special imaginatively titled “The Decision”. Watched live by over 13 million Americans, James took 30 minutes on the show to finally reveal his choice, much to the consternation of Cleveland fans who felt betrayed. On the positive side, the special raised over five million dollars for local charities. The role that star athletes play in creating a magnetic attraction to their sport cannot be understated. Superstar athletes constitute brands in their own rights, bringing fans to stadiums, compelling supporters to invest in a narrative, and attracting sponsors and the media. In some cases, athletes can open up entirely new markets as Chinese basketballer 158 Brand Fans

Yao Ming demonstrated when selected as the first pick of the 2002 draft by the Houston Rockets. For sporting leagues and teams, athletes provide an increasingly powerful point of connection. While at one time many professional athletes juggled their sporting commitments with outside jobs, they have now progressed to full-time employment in the increasingly sizable sport entertainment industry. These athletes have also become integral to building the emotional allegiance of fans and elevating those fans to passionate partisanship.

Conclusion: Give and You Shall Be Given

In his Washington newspaper column, William Safire (1987) called on candidates running for the US Presidency in 1988 to put aside their bland rhetoric and become “passionate partisans”. He pleaded that exciting ideology and controversial ideas were needed, and that candidates, to use a horseracing metaphor, must “summon up the blood and stretch the nostril wide”. In this chapter, we have argued that passionate partisans can make or break brands. These passionate partisans do not simply appear. They are nurtured to stimulate a fierce spirit of loyalty that escalates as they are rewarded with the psychological benefits they covet. People have a need to belong, and often without knowing it, they seek acknowledgement of their passions that is not always granted. However, a salient lesson comes from how sport brands help fans locate and announce their own loyalties. While authors may speak of brands as “lovemarks” (Roberts 2005), the term alone fails to acknowledge that successful branding involves far more than brand affection. Deep commitment comes from deep identification, where the brand and the fan become collaborators in co-creating beneficial outcomes for both parties. Unfortunately, some brands become entrenched in endless and damaging sales promotions, clichéd advertising, and ill-conceived push campaigns that do little to engage the modern consumer interested in a deeper level of engagement. In contrast, sport is a broad church, gathering together anyone with a penchant for a contest. It fosters a spirit of togeth- 5 Passionate Partisans: Lifelong Loyalty 159 erness and reciprocity that can slip into a lifelong commitment. Sport asks for nothing more than passion and returns thrills and memories, wrapped in stars, performances, and milestones. Not every consumer needs to be a partisan in order to feel a connection, as long as a brand does not hide behind marketing hyperbole. All brands can learn from the counterintuitive success sport enjoys in selling shared hope rather than victory. Success is meaningless in an empty stadium. Great brands know their limitations and find partners to create the right messaging for the right audiences. Even given this messaging, they are aware that authentic consumer content trumps any amount of marketing spin. As contemporary branding undergoes the paradigmatic shift we have outlined in this book, all brands should be poised to take advantage of the enormous connective opportunities upon which sport has capitalised. The remaining chapters highlight these opportunities in detail, starting with the data revolution.

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Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive

Introduction: Start with a New Normal

In previous chapters, we referred to the extraordinary triumph of Leicester City Football Club in winning the 2015/16 season of the English Premier League (EPL). Leicester, a true underdog, forged their victory in a competition where only four clubs have shared the spoils over the previous 20 seasons: Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Manchester United. Even more remarkable was the club’s playing list, which cost in its entirety less than one star player for any of the four previous champions. Harnessing the power of data gave Leicester the edge. Its statistical scouts had thoroughly examined all the available European playing data with the objective of locating the best underval- ued players. By analysing the key metrics (such as interceptions, tack- les, and forward passes per 90 minutes) of midfield players in Europe’s five premium leagues, for example, the club identified and recruited a handful of exceptional but largely unrated players. These players, as we have highlighted, spent most of the season playing together, forming a genuine team, and building a consistency and momentum that brought them the title. Leicester used fewer players than any other team

© The Author(s) 2017 161 A.C.T. Smith et al., Brand Fans, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-48854-7_6 162 Brand Fans in the EPL, yet never dropped below sixth place at any point during the season. Digital is not a revolution. It is now the status quo; a necessary but not a standalone dimension of branding that no longer commands attention as a headline grabber. For example, even ten years ago—practically an eternity in digital time—FIFA World Cup organisers were combining digital channels, data analytics, and branding in a highly successful initiative that became known as the “FanZone”. FIFA marketers realised that sport fans unable to get match tickets could still experience a similarly emotive atmosphere in specially constructed fan venues. Supporters gathered in front of enormous screens at FanZones for free, indulged in a myriad of sponsored products, and soaked up the World Cup atmosphere, enjoying the camaraderie with fellow fans. Not only did event marketers generate revenue from official partners and sponsors eager to expose their brands, but the fans also loved them for it. By the 2015 World Cup of Rugby, organisers were working to established guidelines for managing both physical and virtual FanZones. The fan community at that tournament could engage with teams, players, and sponsors at the venues, or from a smart device anywhere in the connected world. Today, every major sporting competition uses some form of FanZone, from the niche teams of the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens to the mighty powerhouses of the National Football League (NFL). What they all hold in common is an appreciation of the most valuable brand-related data available—the “digital drive”—located at the confluence of digital channels, consumer identity, and analytical clout. Enter the era of dynamic data. This chapter taps into the quintessentially contemporary problem of converting information into value, for both brands and consumers. According to Andrejevic (2008), consumers in the digital world are sub- servient to the “digital enclosure” where their every piece of personal information is subject to commercial exploitation. Notwithstanding the legal, social, and ethical implications, this commercial bounty remains a distinguishing feature of contemporary business. In fact, we each deliver much of the available content to the world at large quite voluntarily through social media and other public, digital interactions. However, in this chapter, we are less interested in the techniques of information 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 163

capture and more concerned with the branding advantages accompanying big data. We begin this journey by introducing the role of dynamic data in branding, with a focus upon the pivotal nature of digital content. This digital drive is explored further as we continue our discussion on how sport brands are, paradoxically, gaining power by relinquishing it. That is, visionary sport enterprises accept the importance of consumer-generated content in successful branding as well as the importance of cultivating passionate partisans. Going a step further, one of the most influential developments in branding involves conferring consumers with the opportunity to not only develop content, but also to control it. In combination with “superdata” where precise consumer preferences have been mined with surgical precision from big data noise, fluid content control affords the potential for branding in “real time”. Branding under this paradigm introduces the need for rapid product prototyping along with a shift in thinking about the nature of innovation and development. The chapter culminates by connecting data, content, delivery, and digital with consumer identity. Sport recognises that the best brands incorporate digital destinations as part of their value proposition.

Embrace the Digital Dynamic

Sport branding illustrates just how important it is for a consumer to find some self-expressive value in a brand. In fact, increasing access to data has proven to be a causal enhancer of brand connectivity for fans (Tsiotsou 2013). Consider, for example, the campaign orchestrated by baseball equipment manufacturer Louisville Slugger in the slipstream of the 2013 World Series success of the St. Louis Cardinals. Using Facebook and Twitter, Louisville Slugger announced a scavenger hunt, having hidden 45 baseball bats around the city. Social media managers gradually released clues as to the locations of the bats, drawing fans to their sites in order to be amongst the first to receive insider tips. The strategy proved an immediate success. The company’s Facebook following flourished, from less than 1000 followers to more than 7000. At the same time, Facebook likes jumped 150 % while Twitter also accumulated similar 164 Brand Fans growth. As a consequence, Louisville Slugger was able to collect a wealth of information about their prospective customers, including social media gold: a large new group of self-nominated friends and followers, exempli- fying the nature of dynamic data. If dynamic data, as we have named it, is to emerge from the digital mainstream, our starting point must be the digital features of branding. Digital branding might be viewed as any form of marketing involving technology, an assumption invariably linked to the Internet and the increasing array of connected smart devices. While it is easy to get caught up in the technologies associated with new forms of marketing, a focus on these machinations can lead to an over-emphasis on tools and distract from the branding lessons. For example, surveys reveal that at least half of sport fans use their smart phones to access extra content during games, matches, and events. From this simple fact, we might infer that fans want technological add-ons as part of their consumption experience. Such a conclusion misses part of the essential lesson. Today’s branding demands a new kind of thinking as the conventional distance between consumer and brand is increasingly blurred, and where success equates to constant engagement. Digital cannot just be a technological “add-on” to conventional branding. A digital world needs a digital message, and a digital message needs data if it is to enhance the consumer- brand dynamic. Digital media, and the extensive data it accumulates, have become irreplaceable constituents of branding. No longer merely the latest gad- gets, tools, and channels, this new reality has ushered in a data upheaval, which has in turn created a suite of opportunities to transform information into brand assets and revenue streams, including website and mobile digital rights, as well as new sales channels and possibilities in licensing and merchandising. Professional sport has revolutionised business models by employing their websites and other interactive platforms to mould public opinion, engage and inform supporter communities, and generate revenues from gate receipts and merchandise. In common to all of the new business models is an unprecedented connectivity between consumer and brand. As we noted in an earlier chapter, branding in general, and the data underpinning the rise of social media marketing in particular, exemplify 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 165 the rise of the “prosumer” (Santomier and Hogan 2013), the new breed of informed, empowered, and networked consumers who simultaneously produce, distribute, and consume content. In a sense, the prosumer reflects the intersection of mass marketing and micro-marketing. Unprecedented knowledge about huge numbers of consumers gets crunched and converted into customised offerings. Added to this, consumers themselves create and contribute valuable niche content into the data pool, stimulating others to engage around a brand and the experiences it facilitates. This cycle catapults data and branding to unparalleled levels of transformative power.

Transform Consumers into Directors

Motorsport race simulations have generated an enormous game community, including virtual racing on subscription platforms, such as iRacing, where competitors in front of computer screens around the world challenge each other daily. We can soon expect such interactive experiences to develop to such an extent that sporting organisations and broadcasters will offer real-time, virtual participation in events. A gamer, using the latest virtual and augmented reality equipment, might qualify and race in a Grand Prix or a World Rally Championship, testing their skills against the professionals. For example, International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC), the company that owns the commercial rights to the World Rally Championship, has partnered with real-time 3D graphics creator, Virtual Spectator, with the aim of marrying gaming with actual rally broadcasts. Participants will see replays of performances in video game style graphics with the gamer’s virtual car competing side-by-side with a real car on the screen. Beyond the conventional delivery of products, the digital stream offers brand managers an opportunity to delegate directorial control to the consumer. The digital medium enables unprecedented versatility and customisation of each individual’s broadcast experience. Professional sport provides the case in point. For example, coverage of specific players or aspects of a sporting event may be orchestrated at the whim of a viewer, with some emerging platforms allowing camera angles, player tracking, 166 Brand Fans statistical analyses, and replays to be self-selected. A viewer can query the exact distance that a golfer’s ball has fallen from the pin, calculate the speed of a running back, or interrogate a striker’s penalty-kick accuracy under certain conditions. Statistics for each player or team also can be stored and revisited later for analysis or even for use in game play. In the near future, viewers may simultaneously watch and play in direct competition through their home gaming console or computer interface. A fan might try to make a tournament-winning putt, or take a swing at the champ. Since data will be stored for instant retrieval, viewers may later create their own teams and matches by drawing on past historical performances, developing creative scenarios to their heart’s content. Furthermore, artificial intelligence software and machine learning (a form of advanced computing knowledge building) will create new opportunities to play against long-retired champions using algorithmic predictions based on actual statistics to deliver experiences that are only limited by imagination. Once sporting performances can be isolated from their environments, they can be relocated anywhere and in any way to initiate scenarios, add or remove fans, manipulate team colours, augment the playing field, or select/remove/activate the virtual advertising sponsorship. With next generation hardware, consumers will be transported into three-dimensional virtual reality, giving the impression of actually sitting in any given seat in the stadium. Or, they might experience the event from the viewpoint of a specific player. Acceding directorial control of the brand has implications well beyond a sport product. While brands regularly post content to their social media sites, including video, messages, promotional announcements, product information, sales discounts, and a host of other updates, one of the most pertinent issues for social media managers is determining what drives a post’s popularity. We assume, of course, that a post’s popularity stimulates brand exposure and reinforcement, where more “likes” and consumer responses serve as a proxy for brand engagement. Studies also show that vivid posts inviting interaction deliver the greatest number of responses and comments (De Vries et al. 2012). Vividness in this context means the extent to which a brand post stimulates a viewer’s senses. Dynamic animations, moving pictures, attention-grabbing images, vibrant colours, and short, punchy, and unexpected text, all contribute to a favourable 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 167 consumer response. Brand managers should focus on attracting an immediate and evocative reaction from consumers. For example, it has been shown that, although seemingly intuitive, posting a question does not in fact lead to more comments. Instead, readers re-tweet or “like” content when it can be instantly consumed and rated, whether in the form of an image or a comment on a player’s performance. This often leads to an interactive series of responses as well.

Make Content Experiential

One lesson that sport branding can offer all marketers is the importance of not becoming too focused on Share of Voice (SOV) in the marketplace without first considering whether or not a brand’s voice has traction. According to Cahill and Meenaghan (2013), we should be thinking in terms of “engaged SOV”. For example, telecommunica- tion provider O2’s sponsorship of the Irish Rugby Team featured an activation strategy via social media that offered fans the chance to have their names printed on the playing shirt of an Irish player. More than 100,000 fans went online to register for the competition providing O2 with an enormous new database to play with. By tracking this group of self-delivered engaged fans, O2 mapped their mobile spend, number of friends and family on their telecommunications network, as well as changes to these and other measures before and after key promotional messages. Needless to say, O2 successfully upsold a good proportion of these fans through sheer customised interest. Modelling studies have revealed that Facebook page attributes signalling authenticity and user engagement lead to higher attraction and retention rates (Pronschinske et al. 2012). Another example can be seen in the resurgent popularity of “fanzines”, a concept going back to the 1930s when science fiction fans published their own stories. Fanzines, be they sport, music, or other forms, close the gap between consumer and content by creating a collective repository of shared engagement. Fan collectives gather a wide range of audio, print, and online materials for curation and circulation to other fans, media, or stakeholder groups. Branding through fanzines seeks to engage groups of 168 Brand Fans fans with similar interests by using peer-to-peer interaction as an authentic catalyst. The relatively low cost of digital technology has encouraged brands to cultivate and engage with a global fan base. In sport, this has resulted in the launch of “ezines” (electronic magazines), which are really just a combination of electronic forums, online communities, and magazines. For example, the Liverpool Football Club has more fan sites across the world than any other sport brand. Each ezine platform provides a vehicle for fans to connect with other fans. These peer-to-peer networks and conversations represent a branding goldmine, giving marketers an opportunity to inexpensively track fan attitudes and behaviours while cultivating important information and enthusiasm for the brand. Perhaps the key to ezine popularity lies in its consumer-centric focus; the users are content directors and wield the language, imagery, and impact to match. In practice, ezine communities provide a powerful mix of information and entertainment networks. Contributions are characterised by immediacy and the content displays an authenticity that differs from brand-controlled communications. Just like any consumer, the ezine member wants to share the camaraderie of belonging through common understandings with the like-minded. Views are expressed immediately, allowing marketers to respond swiftly with improved services or information. Any brand can mobilise the same kind of branding as long as it can tolerate the vulnerability that can accompany a lack of content control. Credibility is currency, so consumers must be permitted to direct their own content unencumbered by imposed branding communication requirements. Research has shown that sport fans find the opportunity to participate in content creation as central to a gratifying social media experience (Clavio and Walsh 2014). When it comes to social media out- puts by brands, the sport experience reveals the importance of reciprocal engagement. More than a third of sport brand tweets, for example, come about through interactive conversations and commentaries (Hambrick et al. 2010). It could not be simpler; consumers like to be heard, which means that their tweets work best for them when they elicit a response from the brand. 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 169

Use Superdata to Find the Digital Consumer

Outdoor apparel and ski equipment manufacturer, Rossignol, has gam- bled its future by repositioning itself from a ski company to an “experience company”, a move contingent upon its success in mobilising consumer data. The company presently boasts a market-leading volume of 350,000 Facebook fans, more than three million annual visitors to its website, and over 300,000 users of the world’s first mobile social ski app. The resultant volume of data feed the company’s customer relationship management strategy, which includes a loyalty programme as well as channels in business-to-customer, business-to-business, trade marketing, athlete endorsement, and social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). Rossignol’s strategy of delivering data-informed product experiences reflects a decisive confidence in a world where brands will live or die on the basis of their data management. Digital data are ubiquitous and growing at an exponential rate. In the last five years, for example, mobile- to-mobile device traffic has increased 40-fold. Companies like Rossignol have aligned their fortunes with an ability to mine real-time data in order to deliver upon the faintest whim and preference of any prospective consumer. The transaction era has departed. Big data means real-time responsiveness as the key to cultivating the engaged consumer. Five stages characterise Rossignol’s engagement strategy. It begins at “awareness” with the intention of enticing a consumer to test out a product in an “evaluation”. If the test works out favourably, a “conversion” secures a new customer, who subsequently receives further attention, customised products, and attractive offers via a “loyalty” programme. In the final stage, loyal Rossignol customers become passionate partisans, and voluntarily practice “advocacy”. Some will ultimately rise to the rarefied heights of brand fandom. To support the engagement strategy, Rossignol wields a combination of digital tools to acquire the data it needs to enact a conversion. A website not only provides the company’s brand identity foundation but also hosts a comprehensive e-commerce webstore. In order to avoid under- mining its traditional retail partners, the webstore delivers orders directly to these outlets where the consumer completes the purchase using a dis- 170 Brand Fans count coupon. As a result, the retailer enjoys the sale with a bonus, the coupon provided at Rossignol’s expense. With 40 % of its sales originat- ing from the webstore, the modest investment in coupons rewards both the retailer and the customer. Customers can also sign up to a loyalty programme to collect points—for their purchases and for other forms of engagement, such as advocacy—that can also be redeemed for products and benefits. At the same time, the company’s branding team uses a suite of social media platforms to both engage customers around their experiences and accumulate data about their needs and preferences. Each platform has a different focus. Of the 15 platforms, four constitute the core strategy, collectively managing around 600,000 followers. Twitter provides the real-time “brand newsfeed” of sporting results, images, and athlete news. Facebook assumes the role of the “brand magazine”, with more refined, polished, and sophisticated posts, images and stories designed to shape brand attributes and perceptions. Instagram comprises the brand “look- book”, a slick content-rich inventory of professional photography, short clips, and sponsored athlete’s performance imagery. YouTube delivers the final foundational platform as the “brand official” channel where videos promote products, technologies, and action performances of endorsed athletes. Several apps amplify consumer-brand engagement, also driven by carefully accumulated data. For example, “Ski Pursuit” allows users to monitor their skiing activities, location, performance, timing, and details of the terrain and conditions. An add-on app introduces a social dimension providing users with the opportunity to engage with other users in a community, and to share statistics or compete with friends. A third version of the app features a multi-sport tracker where users can accumulate detailed performance data like timing on downhill runs, and make sophisticated comparisons. An advanced version of the app installs on the Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch and facilitates live statistics, run summaries, and sharing options. Some Rossignol products, like boots and skis, can also accommodate sensors that integrate with the apps to provide further performance data. Activity in these apps and the user communities they enable, leads to reward points through the Rossignol “Skiing Heroes” loyalty scheme. Rewards include exclusive product offers, dis- 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 171 counts, and promotional vouchers with other brand partners such as ski resorts, travel agencies, and electronics manufacturers. While Rossignol seems to be operating ahead of the curve, research is beginning to provide evidence for the efficacy of this approach for brands more broadly. For example, the introduction of a digital loyalty card has been linked with improved customer relationship management (CRM), essential consumer data collection, and superior customer retention (Donnelly et al. 2015). Other evidence demonstrates that participation in fan loyalty programmes enhances brand equity through engagement with fan communities, customised product and service use, member responsibility (where fans feel a sense of duty and obligation to a fan community), and positive word-of-mouth advocacy (Yoshida et al. 2015). For Rossignol, managing dynamic data is a process of building brand identity, driving business through online sales, managing consumer life- cycles through CRM and loyalty practices, spiking renewed brand connections through social media, and engaging communities of advocates through experience-based mobile applications to enhance the impact of products. Rossignol’s commitment to big data does not mean that it relinquishes surgical precision or functional efficiency in managing both its business and its customers. Rather, this case demonstrates how a brand can leverage the rise of the prosumer and produce outstanding results. Yet, the best dynamic data seems to reflect just the tip of the branding iceberg.

Measure and Escalate Relevance

This decade has seen radical advances in computer processing and scalable software design. Particularly noticeable has been the complex learning algorithms and leaps in artificial intelligence programming that enable computers to trawl through mountains of information, including Internet material, books, published research, and raw data, looking for patterns that no human has the capability to uncover. While technologically impressive, the lesson here has less to do with the manifestation of what was once thought to be science fiction and more to do with the acceptance that the consumer’s social world has irrevocably changed. To 172 Brand Fans be effective, digital marketing must do more than just use new technology. It also has to deliver data that allow branding to respond to the changing lifestyles and expectations of consumers. For example, the new era of dynamic, real-time data must venture well past conventional CRM functionality. Data-based brand strategy is moving quickly to make connections and identify patterns between millions, and even billions, of superficially unrelated data sources. Consumers’ lives have changed and are continuing to change at an unprecedented pace. The trends reveal limited discretionary leisure time, the consumption of more media from a greater variety of media outlets, the usage of numerous virtual networks, and an increasing fragmentation of habits and commonly understood preferences that facilitate fine-grained segmentation. Consumers have revised their expectations to include personalised experiences, interactivity, choice and control, the opportunity to multi-task, and access to user-generated content. One significant advantage of digital data and its related brand implications comes in the form of ready metrics. There are at least six major strategies or tools of digital marketing, and each one can be quantified (Kumar et al. 2013). First, the most common strategy in digital marketing involves search engine management where certain search queries receive preferential ranking when manipulated to work optimally with the engine’s retrieval algorithms. Search results can be compiled through the web source and web traffic broken down according to common and successful search criteria. Second, clickstreams can be mapped by tracking page clicks and web traffic data breakdowns. Third, social media content can be rated according to the number of brand mentions. Fourth, blogs can be categorised by favourability, with the valence of posts logged. Fifth, forums can be assessed through conversation volume and favourability. Finally, referral incentives can be measured via membership or sales changes. As we have already discussed, many leading sport organisations are employing social media tracking and monitoring software as part of their CRM-branding strategy. The software allows for real-time, customised dashboards to observe content trends and statistical summaries of multiple social media sites at once. For example, the US National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) uses social media during peak periods and 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 173 events to monitor basketball fans’ feedback. It also incorporates location data to evaluate where trends are coming from as well as stimulate interactions with local fans, media, and sponsors. Posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, amongst other platforms, are tracked, including data revealing the experiences, perceptions, and mood of fans “tailgat- ing” in different parking locations, as well as those waiting in traffic or moving through a city. More than 350 million posts across Twitter and Facebook were collected during the 2016 men’s NCAA basketball tournament, known and marketed colloquially as “March Madness”, given the fervour the event infuses in fans. Marketers also were able to distinguish between locals and visitors travelling to the “Final Four” venue in Houston, Texas, which further enabled them to pinpoint new branding opportunities for sponsors, merchandise, and teams. At the same time, the data provided real-time information to event organisers and to fans concerning safety, security, weather, queues, congestion, or any other essential information. Social media tracking has become a standard in big sport, engaging fans at the Super Bowl, Olympic Games, various World Cups, and baseball’s World Series, amongst other major events and regular games. As we have previously noted, this tracking is often conducted through a “command centre”. The nomenclature is suggestive of the military precision in which data is mined to feed into real-time branding activities. Social media monitoring is not just the domain of professional sport or large corporate brands, however. Free software is available for download and more sophisticated software and applications can be installed for a marginal cost, opening up the opportunities for anyone inclined to venture into the world of real-time analytics.

Accept Real-Time Branding

Branding success is increasingly determined by the impact of numerous, converging platforms and media distribution channels forging a new level of technological integration. In short, the brand fan is enveloped in digital data from copious sources and with unparalleled integration. Being able to pinpoint the characteristics of each brand fan means questioning 174 Brand Fans many long held views on market segmentation. The “prosuming” passionate partisan can only be described one individual at a time, as each exercises a remarkably diverse series of choices and levels of brand interaction and engagement. Data convergence relies on the merging of digital information streams, characterised by a combination of connectedness, integration, and ease of access. In practice, it means that data derived from different technologies, sources, and platforms can be assimilated and understood in a seamless confluence. Not only does data convergence make real-time branding activity an option, it also introduces the possibility of immediate gratification for consumers whose needs and preferences can be instantly met. “Big Data” and the marketer’s fascination with what Hutchins (2015) calls the “digital sublime”, is also responsible for an increasing gap between powerful CRM systems and kitchen table spreadsheets. Data are the most valuable asset available and the source of considerable competitive advantage. In fact, the obsession with big data emanated from professional sport. Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States offers what is arguably the world’s deepest organisational data set, with more than 140 years of painstakingly recording every single game’s content. As seen by the remarkable compilation of statistics and the analytical scrutiny that baseball has received, any organisation can digitise and commodify data to seek insights and advantages, just as the Oakland Athletics did in their famous “moneyball” era. As a result, successful real- time branding involves a routinised and continuous integration of new data from smart devices and the social media platforms to which they are connected. With existing or public data on consumer history, census details, phone records, Internet searches, voting preferences, and other purchasing specifics, extracting value from these data sources represents the CRM “holy grail” and the epitome of branding muscle. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, far better known as NASCAR, officially began in 1949 and has become the premier stock car racing division in the United States. Every season millions of fans attend races all over the country, giving NASCAR the enviable position of being the most attended spectator sport in the United States, commanding over 17 of the top 20 most attended sporting events. But the real success story is in NASCAR’s extraordinary media popularity. 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 175

NASCAR is broadcast in 150 nations and has risen to become the second most watched competition on television in the United States, after the NFL. Numerous electronic sensors are installed at short intervals on each track to provide a data collection point to feed timely statistics to fans and the media. Through its “RaceView” web service, non-attending fans can follow races in real time through 3D virtual rendering of the cars and track, with the ability to choose viewing angles, listen to driver communications, and access a range of statistics that offer incredible insight into the race and the tactics employed by the competing teams. Companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook—gifted with an enormity of personal consumer data—no doubt occupy the vanguard of technological efforts to convert data into dollars. More transparently, however, examples of fine-grained and sophisticated data collection prolifer- ate in elite sport. Data sets on sport performances are routinely compiled, aggregated, compared, and tracked by all manner of interested observers, from major analytics firms to fans eager to “crunch numbers” on their home computers, in order to identify even the most minute opportunity for innovation or insight. Much of these data are also repackaged for the branding specialist to offer to those fans whose thirst for information about athletes, teams, and match-ups never seems to be quenched. Sport’s incursion into real-time branding has also tinkered at the front- line of novel forms of data creation. For example, a radical increase in wearable devices for both sport participants and viewers has led to the emergence of an entirely new class of products. Amongst the newest market entrants, US firm Electrozyme has developed an astonishing form of sensor technology worn like a temporary tattoo or a piece of adhesive tape. The device records and relays information about the wearer’s perspiration, revealing physiological biomarkers from electrolyte balances to lactate levels. STRIVR, another company fast on the rise, is using its 360-degree virtual reality technology to help train and coach professional sporting sides, including numerous NFL teams. Perhaps even more interesting is the company’s latest division, which focuses on immersive and interactive virtual reality experiences for consumers. Fans can, for example, “step into the skates” of a New York Rangers hockey goalie and see what it is 176 Brand Fans like to face shots during game conditions inside a virtual Madison Square Garden. Of course, these wearable technologies are simply the forerunners to modular hardware and software add-ons for just about any product. Through mobile connectivity, a consumer will be able to test out any consumption experience through wearable devices and virtual experiences. And, each experience constitutes another brand-building exposure and revenue opportunity, either through the immediate sale of the virtual experience or the later sale of the original, “authentic” experience. An augmented experience will likely become available and can also be achieved by combining the virtual with the real. Sport’s many forms and experience types encompass a dizzying array of possibilities. Sporting participants and high profile professional athletes can adorn themselves with wearable technologies and the performance tracking possibilities they provide. While the first ubiquitous wearable technology was the basic heart-rate monitor, the range of collectible data now ranges from blood sugar to precise velocity. A further option provides wearable devices to elite athletes and players as part of a viewer’s entertainment choices. Not only does this mean additional performance and physiological data for a fan’s scrutiny but also, more importantly, an insight into the wearer’s real-time performance experience, including visual, auditory, and perhaps in the not too distant future, kinaesthetic feedback. In some sports, competitors already wear microphones to discuss the game on air with broadcast commentators as well as sophisticated tracking devices that analyse movements and responses. By harnessing new opportunities, sport product and technology companies have prototyped wearable technology that relays hands-free event imagery. Devices such as versions of the now defunct Google Glasses are poised to debut in professional sport, waiting only for sporting leagues, teams, and athletes to find the right balance between an acceptable performance interruption and a desirable commercial return. These headsets, glasses, and eventually contact lenses, contain inbuilt visual displays that interface with existing tools such as smart phones, tablets, and watches. Based on new levels of connectivity, product content and data are automatically collected, transferred, ordered, filtered, stored, and delivered at the user’s whim. 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 177

It takes little imagination to locate the branding potential of such devices. Not only can they be employed for other products, from fashion and tourism to games and groceries, they can also stream endless branding messages, virtual advertising, personalised product information, and precise experience-based upselling. For marketers, the undeniable reality of ubiquitous connectivity and experience-driven consumption demands real-time branding responses.

Package the Virtual for Real (Branding)

Sport’s real-time lessons are evident in the way it can leverage a brand into more diversified product offerings. For example, digital data can be modularised and repackaged in order to access a wider consumption base, like the delivery of personalised birthday wishes to club members. The implication here is that strong brands can repackage their mature products in modular digital forms for on-sale; niche content will be available where it has never been before, and popular content will become subject to fee-for-service access, or prioritised for the most loyal or high value customers. Data-driven branding means that conventional methods of segmentation will need to be supplemented with far more individualised approaches. In fact, the better the data, the more customised the product, to the extent that each consumer will constitute a segment of his or her own. Metaphorically at least, each consumer becomes a brand as much as a segment. Modularised, repackaged product features will also reflect a demand for convenience. Whether watching sport or shopping online, mobile interfaces represent the new standard, which means that brands must presume to cover all device touch-points and offer equivalent experiences across each. At the same time, technological convergence ensures that a single portable device can ultimately serve all computing, entertainment, and communications needs. But whether this interface is a watch, phone, or personal computer (or some other as yet unknown device) remains uncertain and the catalyst for a glut of Silicon Valley meetings. Another opportunity highlighted by nascent experiments in sports broadcasting is the coverage of conventionally hidden aspects of a 178 Brand Fans

sporting event, suddenly open to the consumer. For example, as we introduced earlier, in some cases a fan can act as a director if they choose, selecting camera angles, players, activities, or replays at their discretion. The power of directorial oversight of a product’s features has profound implications for branding. We already know from numerous studies on retail marketing that the more a consumer engages with a product, the more likely they are to reach the transaction stage. Enabled consumers are positively correlated to purchasing consumers. Enabling consumers, who are connected to family and friends via devices, makes them more than just purchasers, however. They also become instant creators of personalised content, crafted through authentic experiences. Similarly, as mentioned, modular, real-time, digitalised products can generate previously unavailable data and associated insight about a product. While the prototypical example of sport statistics remains relevant, the same approach has been appropriated by a myriad of mobile applications such as Zomato, a crowdsourced restaurant rating site. Just as digital convergence allows sport fans to connect easily with each other through forums and social media, so too can food aficionados, all augmented by, or facilitated through, a brand’s lens. With the potential for a virtual world of product experiences, the sepa- ration between sport spectator and participant is diminishing, the disag- gregation foreshadowing a similar closure between brand and consumer. The power of virtual technologies lies in combining the real world and an enhanced reality. A leading example can be found in online virtual worlds where consumers’ virtual participants—avatars—live, play, work, and engage in commercial transactions that have value in the real world. Virtual consumption worlds in the form of websites and mobile applications allow consumers to wander through an augmented experience that, at times, may be even better than the original. For example, while some people will always prefer the inky-fingered tactile experience of perusing a hard copy newspaper, it can never deliver hyper-linked keyword content referencing a database of every previous online edition. And with every click and every second of interaction captured by “tracking cook- ies”, every day’s new edition becomes more streamlined for the customised habits of each reader. The result is a superior reading experience for the customer and a greater likelihood of resubscription and advocacy for 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 179 the news brand. In this sphere, the sport brand also stands tall as an exemplar. Sports Illustrated, the famous and much admired magazine read by millions, offers a digital edition that is rich in video, updates, social media linkages, highlights, and archival linkages to take the reader on a wonderfully immersive journey. At present, gaming consoles employ controllers with positioning systems that detect spatial orientation allowing correspondence between the physical actions of the user and their gaming activities. In addition, users personalise the appearance of the characters in line with their own (sometimes idealised or fantasy image). Combined with artificial intelligence in the software, characters and their environments take on emergent lives of their own. At the same time, sport entertainment-based games are adding wireless connections where headsets, sensor-detection feedback suits, and three-dimensional imagery are replacing traditional screens to produce a hyper-reality. All brands will face this enhanced connectivity in due course, just as sport has presaged. The traditional consumer is no longer a passive customer, but a “player” in his or her own right.

Practice Failing Forward

As outlined previously, some of the most common innovations for sport include wearable activity tracking devices, sport injury remediation products, smart phone integrated sensors, and a wide range of sport-specific equipment from 3D swimming cameras that analyse the biomechan- ics of technique, to cricket balls that record their own speed and spin. Many of these product innovations have made their way onto or from crowdsourcing sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and are clearly not just accessories for sport equipment anymore, characterised as they are by their connectivity to everything else. Sport is a self-innovating industry. With the potential motivation of enhanced performance in such high demand, the governing bodies of many sports are now faced with the decision of whether to curtail innovation to preserve parity in their competitions. Imagine the record times swimmers could achieve with ultra-buoyant suits, the scores golfers could post with clubs and balls not technologically shackled, and the 180 Brand Fans speed at which race cars could travel without current engine restrictions. Innovation continues unabated, however, as sport brands, from the ubiquitous Nike and adidas to small start-ups in garages, seek to push the boundaries. Most of this innovation is done in real time, tested incessantly on tracks and athletes to measure the gain immediately, and in the case of elite athletes, produce a marginal (and hopefully legal) advantage where possible before others catch on. In a real-time branding context, the months or even years spent on developing new products is no longer viable. Cutting edge sport branding has revealed how powerful speed-to-market can be in positioning an organisation to capitalise on the changing priorities and fickle tem- peraments of consumers. One solution is rapid prototyping, a method of quickly testing a product idea to see whether it could work prior to investing significant resources in its full-scale production. This process makes use of fluid and iterative approaches like mock-ups, trial services, or unrefined but fully functional “beta” versions of the technology. A central principle of real-time fast prototyping maintains that the start, rather than the finish, holds the key to success. Conventional product development, in contrast, begins with the intuitive assumption that the end deliverable must be as perfect as possible. However, in the current data-driven digital world of branding, consumers have little patience and seek instant gratification. In reality, the majority of product innovations fail to make it to market simply because they require too much up-front investment for an uncertain outcome. By applying a branding model that employs a rapid prototyping methodology, marketers can skirt around the lengthy development periods that accompany traditional product innovation. Instead, fast prototyping product development and the branding that supports it, turns ideas into tangible consumer experiences on the run. This way, the new offering is tested, redeveloped, and refined in the crucible of consumer feedback. Innovation cycles are radically shortened and some products are abandoned before they get off the ground, becoming “fast (and cheap) failures” where lessons are learned. Although it may appear to be a failure, resources have been preserved. Prototypes, experi- mentation, and trials lead to better designs, faster. Formula One teams exemplify this mentality, their very success dependent upon the speed with which they can add speed. 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 181

It might seem risky to test out new products on customers, but it is actually riskier not to. From a branding perspective, these products represent honest attempts to meet consumers’ needs by delivering a better experience. A brand manager, for example, might wish to streamline ticket purchasing through a mobile app. By working with users to test the idea, a quick assessment can be made about whether consumers have an appetite for a fully scaled product. A prototype could range from the low fidelity, such as a handful of simple mobile pages, to high fidelity, similar to a working application with a range of functionality. Naturally, superior prototypes duplicate the final product experience with more precision than lesser prototypes, but even a relatively poor version can yield sufficient feedback for either an improved version or a decision to terminate the project. Rapid prototyping exemplifies the frenetic pace of world-leading branding. It conflates data analysis, market research, and product testing into one process. Since consumers struggle to express their responses to proposed new product innovations without actual experiences to draw upon, prototypes vastly amplify the productivity of market testing. Moreover, prototypes demonstrate to consumers that their needs are being met, at the same time, collecting more data about preferences and decision-making.

Locate the Brand Fan

In sport, at its branding best, some of the most valuable entities come in the form of individual athletes. The world’s fastest man, three-time Olympic and multiple world champion, Usain Bolt, presents a case in point. Bolt’s branding perspicacity has led to astonishing personal, symbolic, and economic value. Recognisable, unique, and distinctive, Bolt has become a fully fledged brand in his own right and has transcended the sport environment to enter the pantheon of cultural significance. Each generation prominent athletes have transformed themselves into mega-brands, a combination of on- and off-field perceptions, including physical characteristics, clothing, general appearance, disposition, attitude, playing style, and fan/media interaction. In short, they become a 182 Brand Fans showcase for talent, audacity, and iconography that is symbolic of their time. Bolt, for example, converted signature imagery into commercial value. His trademark lighting emblem displays a visual representation of his brand and all of its symbolic associations that is perfect for the fast-consumption social media driven world. In fact, as a leader in social media, Bolt’s digital presence offers a benchmark for all brands to emu- late. Generations before, Muhammad Ali used his oratory skills at a time when words resonated particularly strongly. Ali’s “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” reference to his own boxing style was a perfect soliloquy to the complex social times he battled through, and a powerful personifi- cation of his own brand’s showmanship. Bold sport marketers have attempted to tap into more customised value propositions, albeit with small groups rather than with individual consumers, often through easily recognisable patterns of behaviour such as rituals. Apparel manufacturer, adidas, has used the Maori Haka, a famous tradition of New Zealand rugby, as a communication tool. Locating the brand fan means getting to the bottom of key values by understanding what holds groups together and what drives them to see themselves as a collective. As we have seen, ritualistic behaviour can play a strong role, as passionate partisans follow the patterns of consumption connecting them to their tribe or group. At the same time, with the availability of more complex and sophisticated data about individual consumers, a brand can determine the way in which a personal series of desires map on to those related to group product preferences. Sport again helps expose the process. For example, one individual can occupy a “Manchester United fan” identity in the context of a group of the club’s many supporters, as well as a personal identity in relation to their specific consumption preferences. In seeking a deeper level of detail, brands must be wary not to overstep the boundaries. With engagement front and centre, marketers are forced to experiment in order to find the balance between being seen as “spam- mers” and being viewed as unresponsive (Thompson et al. 2014). From a digital drive perspective, the evidence suggests that the key to locating this balance lies in using social media primarily as an information delivery mechanism with a secondary focus on entertainment (Witkemper et al. 2012). Marketers can even employ Google metrics in the form of search 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 183 data to assess the effectiveness of campaigns, most recently demonstrated in evaluations of ambush marketing and product awareness (Herzog and Nufer 2014).

Work on Who They Think They Are

It has been well established through sport research that modifying the attributes or characteristics of a brand to better align with a fan’s preferences and perceptions of identification improves the consumer-brand connection (Kunkel et al. 2014). Identification in sport comprises the level of emotional engagement that fans experience and demonstrate. The importance of identification is more transparent when viewed through sport branding than most other forms. Sport fans tend to identify more strongly with the consumption of sport than many other products. This so-called identity salience relates to the importance of one aspect of their identity that an individual holds relative to others. For example, being a fan of a particular club typically has greater traction than identification with daily consumables and even many luxury products. That is, identity salience in sport is naturally elevated, but it also reveals how non-sport brands can cultivate higher levels too. Data-driven branding helps marketers to work out identity-related ties, and consequently, the identity salience hierarchy for each consumer. The key insight from sport comes with its foundational place in a consumer’s critical methods of self-identification. Other non-sport identities occupy a place as well, such as political preference, religious orientation, and ethnic background. The limitation with these personal affiliations is that they are not necessarily expressed overtly in purchasing behaviours. As a result, branding can focus on the wrong level of salience, becoming preoccupied with observable but less potent attributes. The best exemplars of sport branding emphasise how the fan’s self-concept determines what they believe they are allowed and supposed to think, and how this is expressed in behaviour. Consumption makes little sense until the values driving behaviour become evident. Sport branding seems easier given the strong personal identification many fans exhibit. But what should a marketer make of the “bandwagon” 184 Brand Fans fan? Are they really so easily swayed as to “jump on” when a suitable team or product enjoys some success? In reality, we are probably all “bandwagon” consumers and we are all loyal consumers, in our own ways. Identification simply puts certain scripts in front of us that require our undivided attention toward some products at some times. The pattern of loyalties we each hold shifts throughout our lives, mitigated by subtle changes in self-identity. In sport branding, identity features as a core vehicle for communication. What fans are (or ought to be), and how they should act in particular roles, is typically expressed through vicarious associations with successful, high profile athletes. In addition, athletes appear in tightly scripted commercial endorsement and public relations programmes that convey messages about what is valuable in society, countries, cultures, tribes, and clans. Sport celebrities can be role models, and if they fit the profile of the marketer’s target segments, they can be used to endorse a wide variety of products. The key message to non-sport marketers is that being close to consumers is not a proxy for intimacy. That is why higher levels of customer service are not enough for deeper connections. Branding is not about an improved transaction; the key lies with finding the information that allows a brand to help consumers get closer to the focus of their passion and the source of their identity. And, getting closer begins with the right lever. In this case, the right data. Data allow for deeper experiences where relationships are sovereign.

Make Old Fans Part of New Media

Sport brands lead the world in converting their traditional supporter bases into digital consumers. Consider the Dallas Cowboys, one of the most prominent brands in what many people consider the most successful professional sporting league ever, the NFL. The Cowboys have cultivated an extraordinarily vast and loyal group of supporters. However, given the demand for tickets and the immense nationwide and global supporter base, sport brands like the Cowboys also need to engage with 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 185 all of its disparate supporter community. By wielding dynamic data and deploying it through new media offerings, the Cowboys have put in place a suite of platforms through which any fan can engage with the brand from any location. Global connectivity means that two-way information exchange through new media has subsumed traditional media as the hub of consumer engagement. What can brands learn from the Cowboy’s transition? To begin with, it does not matter if a Cowboys fan cannot attend a game or even find the time to watch it on television. For the geographically displaced fan, it is possible to view highlights or an entire game streamed to a mobile device. In addition, it is possible to acquire scores, player updates and statistics, watch interviews, download team-related games, podcasts and vodcasts, or view historical archives on a smart phone. New media for a team like the Cowboys remains pivotal to its branding profile. For example, the brand’s “True Blue” fan club uses an online interactive game to entice new users to engage with the site. “Pigskin Toss” employs a training camp style football challenge to encourage visitors to linger and explore other online activities, such as discussions, media content, and insider information. Game players can involve friends, with the intention of increasing the web traffic further. For the serious Cowboys fan, there are also invitations to view social media pages of fellow supporters, and even visit them in online virtual worlds, such as Second Life, where there is a burgeoning trade of Cowboys’ memorabilia, such as player jerseys for avatars to wear. Another key strategy involves the use of Really Simple Syndication (RSS) software. RSS provides an easy way for fans to access news, discussions, and media content from multiple websites. The “feed” on the Dallas Cowboys’ dedicated RSS web page contains team-focused headlines and links to related content. Fans do not need to surf through a range of sites as all the information a fan could want, from media content to blogs, is aggregated. It also, of course, ensures that the Cowboys’ website is crammed with traffic, which will inevitably divert to other features of the site. All of this activity and traffic receives careful scrutiny from brand managers who analyse the trends and preferences of visitors. An advantage of RSS technology is that it enables brand managers to monitor the kind of 186 Brand Fans information that is being published and posted about the team and its products, allowing them to respond to both positive and negative press. In addition to well-known outlets like Twitter and Facebook, other platforms give sport consumers a chance to interact and network with other fans. For example, Furl offers fans the opportunity to organise and share a personal file of websites and content they have enjoyed. A similar site, del.icio.us, also offers social bookmarking so that participants can see what other people have liked. Flickr provides a visual networking forum, where individuals can post and share photographs of subjects that interest them. Even a cursory visit to these sites demonstrates that teams like the Cowboys generate a tremendous volume of content, all of which provides valuable brand exposure. More than 70 % of major global brands have adopted social media platforms, such as “Instagram”, as a means of promoting their products. Instagram, now owned by Facebook, is a highly successful social media application that takes advantage of photos and videos to say more than promotional words could possibly achieve. Social media is particularly proficient in spreading images and messages to the wider audience faster than any mainstream medium, with over 500 million active monthly users on Instagram sharing 70 million photos daily (expandedramblings. com 2016). While brands use social media and other digital platforms for promotional and engagement purposes, the use of these vehicles for collecting data about consumers and their preferences is less well understood. While many sport fans can still venture to their local venue to experience live sport, only a decade ago, few had the opportunity to access much desired information about teams like the Dallas Cowboys without using an inconvenient blend of television, radio, and newspapers. The emergence of new media as prominent access points has led major teams such as the Cowboys to become a focus for social networking. Geography is less important than technological literacy, and the current generation of fans represent the vanguard of new media, where data intersects with branding. The most powerful opportunity for all marketers lies with using this confluence to simultaneously communicate with consumers irrespective of their location while facilitating engagement between consumers. In other words, new media enables marketers to learn about consumers and help them talk to each other. 6 Dynamic Data: Branding the Digital Drive 187

Conclusion: Make the Brand a Digital Destination

The digital drive refers to the use of electronic media technologies, tools, and channels in branding programmes. However, digital marketing means more than just using up-to-date technology within a traditional marketing paradigm. It demands a new, data-informed branding approach that recognises the increasingly complex social and technological world that consumers occupy. To be effective, branding strategy must do more than just use new technology. It must also respond to the changing lifestyles and expectations of consumers, since most of modern life is now spent in close proximity to multiple screens, including television, computer, tablet, and smart phone. In fact, most of us take at least one digitally connected device with us everywhere we go, leaving our electronic footprint firmly in the cyber-soil for marketers to track. Sport branding exemplifies the opportunities that go with constant connectivity to draw fans more deeply into the game, its players, and all the intrigue, excitement, and hype that occurs via the seemingly personalised communications that the digital drive delivers. A sporting experience no longer means just viewing a game or event. Sport fans have at their fingertips a smorgasbord of information, statistics, live feeds, replays, messages, and insider observations with which to engage. Twitter feeds and Facebook posts can integrate with broadcasts. Venues and media channels can provide customised apps with real-time updates to enhance the viewing experience. It is now common for major sporting venues to provide enhanced Wi-Fi in stadia to encourage fan use of social media and the sharing of highlights. Numerous stakeholders have an interest in such engagement including the sport properties, advertisers, sponsors, broadcast content-owners, and the social media platforms themselves. At the same time as the technologies and tools of the digital era have become entrenched in our marketing lexicon, all brand managers must come to terms with a new way of looking at their offerings. In short, the digital drive demands a new mind-set where the distance between properties, their marketing representatives, and consumers is increasingly blurred, and where success means constant adaptation. 188 Brand Fans

A digital world needs a digital message. This is important because digital media creates additional branding opportunities, such as new assets and revenues (like website and mobile digital rights, as well as new sales channels), and new possibilities in licensing and merchandising (such as videogames). Although the types of technology that are available continue to develop, the principle remains the same: brand managers can use data-based methods to communicate with their customers and sell them additional products, precisely attuned to needs. Perhaps more importantly, the digital revolution allows marketers and their brands unprecedented connectivity with their customer base. The implication here is that brands will be packaged in modular forms for on-sale; niche, often consumer-generated content, will be available where it has never been before. The demand for convenience will drive commercial offerings. Digital and data convergence allows consumers to connect more easily with each other through forums and social media, often augmented by, or facilitated through, brands.

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Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic

Introduction: Engage and Enhance

In just a few short years, the consumer has changed radically. While impatience has always been a feature of western audiences, the expectation that products should be available on demand has become the standard. With the information overload epidemic, the contemporary consumer assumes that what they need to know will be at their fingertips, literally. An enhanced consumption experience is not only instant, it is also assessed, reproduced, and distributed via digital media. More than two billion smart phones, a 24/7 perspective, and global connectivity make for a branding environment where the new normal is never normal for long. To make cutting edge branding more complicated, an enhanced consumption experience equates to a customised one. As we have already noted, one of sport’s greatest branding challenges has been the constant reminder of the brand fan’s fickle preferences. Like the oyster’s grain of sand as an agitating irritant, shifting consumer preferences keep branding fresh and responsive.

To round out the triumvirate of prerequisites for enhanced experiences, instant, customised consumption must also arrive seamlessly, delivered through any device with a minimum of clicks, taps, or swipes, and available from anywhere. Furthermore, consumers demand integration. That means customised communications through any device, at any time, and all blended together, so that it makes sense intuitively and without dupli- cation. If the estimates are correct, then some consumers pick up their smart phones up to 100 times a day, with at least half never parting with it, night or day. And, as we have reinforced through a myriad of sporting examples, consumers expect dynamic content. Branding efforts will go unwanted and unnoticed unless delivered in novel forms, packaged for entertainment, exclusivity, and value. However, when done effectively as sport demonstrates, the buzz of the contest can also be the buzz of the brand. Brands rely on marketing to capture attention, secure media coverage, shape favourable associations, and make sales. But as we have argued, deep brand value results from the kind of intangible engagement and enhanced experience exemplified by the brand fan. Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and Bayern Munich have each cultivated immense brand value that goes beyond just being a great football team. Although important, this prodigious value did not emanate from comfortable stadia seating, attractive colours, or even a slick mobile website. Rather, at the heart of each of these brands lies an irreplaceable emotional consumption experience underpinned by remarkable personal loyalty, unshakeable identification, and dizzying lifetime commitments. At the same time, the passionate partisans of even the greatest sporting clubs rarely hesitate to criticise. The most ardent brand fans—sporting or otherwise—are also the most difficult to please, the fastest to complain, and the most eager to share their views with just about anyone who will listen. Despite the legendary commitment and endurance some fiercely loyal sport fans exhibit, not all fans are so forgiving of consistent defeat, the sporting equivalent of a product failure. How to develop and sustain loyalty has therefore occupied the attention of sport marketers, as much as for any product. According to sport branding research on successful loyalty bolstering approaches, a combination of relationship marketing with a hierarchy of effects focus has proven the most effective tactic (Tsiotsou 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 193

2013). In practice, relationship marketing emphasises a personal, customised, and interactive connection with consumers. Used with a hierarchy of effects approach, a marketer works first to create awareness and then to establish a link between the brand and favourable associations, with the intention of firming up an automatic series of positive thoughts that pop into mind. From there, the relationship strengthens when these associations also take on an emotional flavour. Finally, with the mind and emotions in harmony, the brand can seek behavioural responses from its fans in the form of committed consumption. The simple lesson from this and other similar research is that engagement occupies the bottom and top of the consumption and loyalty hierarchies. Engagement is the currency of experience, which means that superior engagement reflects an augmented experience. This chapter explores strategies for engagement and augmentation, as brands seek to form meaningful connections with their customers. It begins by highlighting the power of engagement in converting regular customers into passionate partisans and, perhaps, even fanatical advocates. Where brands relentlessly augment customers’ experiences, a trail of brand fans can be found. Amongst the lessons from sport about how to achieve an augmented and enhanced experience, we consider modularised branding, which aims to optimise the fluid mobility accompanying digital delivery as it is applied to the specialised preferences of consumers. The use of mobile channels also augments the customer experience through personalised content. When permission branding supports these channels, a brand can deliver customised messages which cut through the information clutter and arrive seamlessly through smart devices. A key part of this chapter emphasises the importance of selecting the right branding tool for the job; content must be aligned with channel. We note how social media in sport works most effectively when it creates engaging native brand experiences within a platform, rather than attempt- ing to use one platform to drive consumers to another. Furthermore, a brand must manage its social presence holistically through a process of social “curation”. Finally, we turn our attention towards a different form of social marketing through social responsibility and its impact upon the consumer conscience. 194 Brand Fans

Convert Loyalty into Fanaticism

We have learned from sport branding that there is no substitute for emotional joy. Not only does joy causally escalate consumer satisfaction, its opposite dejection just as readily blunts all the kinds of behavioural intentions that branding seeks to embed (Biscaia et al. 2012). Sport mobilises communities, forges identity, confers meaning, infuses passion, engenders satisfaction, and stirs the soul. Mythical yet real, sport delivers in regular narratives, transforming quintessentially human physicality into a mechanism for vicarious experience. It is here, in experience and its engagement, composition, augmentation, and enhancement, where the brand fan can be nurtured. Enhanced experiences in a multiplicity of forms have become central in differentiating successful from struggling brands. Ironically, although sporting brands enjoy an unequalled level of consumer engagement, fans’ displeasure with imperfect experiences appears to be axiomatic. In fact, emotional attachment provides the inflection point; powerful in either a favourable or unfavourable direction. Brand fans possess this feature in great measure, and brand managers must be ready to reap the rewards as well as bear the consequences. As Abosag et al. (2012) maintain, fans who demonstrate a strong emotional attachment also hold a strong perception of the sporting club as a business brand. Furthermore, these fans exhibit high levels of comfort with brand extensions as a way for the club to attract additional supporters and resources. Brand fans not only accept extensions as valuable augmentations to experience, they demand them. Engagement turns customers into fans. The secret, Sashi (2012) claims, is moving consumers through an engagement cycle, beginning with connection, interaction, and satisfaction, leading to retention and loyalty, and culminating in advocacy and engagement. Under this model, engagement using new media—as described in the previous chapter— demonstrates significant advantages over traditional marketing given its heavy emphasis on two-way interaction. In addition, the model suggests that customer engagement requires a combination of emotional commitment and trust between brand and consumer. Part of the key to melding these two essential features revolves around including consumers in a 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 195 value co-creation process. We have already addressed how consumers co- create content with the brand. As a result, genuinely engaged customers, as exemplified by dedicated sporting fans, are more resilient through ups and downs, acting more like collaborative long-term partners resolved to lifetime commitments, rather than passive, transactional users of functional products. The lesson is clear: engagement converts consumers into fans, and the digital drive facilitates the connections and interactions essential to the conversion process. Sport illustrates that engaged fans are the most vocal, authentic, and powerful advocates a brand possesses, launching co-created content and drawing in new consumers. As Sashi (2012, p. 66) puts it: “Fans connect with other fans, interact with one another, and improve overall satisfaction, reinforcing their loyalty and delight”. The question then turns to how we might augment the brand engagement experience.

Augment Experiences

Sport offers the benchmark for product extensions. A new season comes with new merchandise, typically reflecting a prominent sponsor and a slightly revised livery for the playing gear. Another season ticket becomes available and a subscription to pay television will grant access to matches that cannot be attended or are not provided free to air. Notwithstanding broadcasts, the match-winning goal or touchdown might be viewed live or on replay via a mobile phone, or through some other smart device. After the event, the entire game can be dissected play by play on community chat-rooms with like-minded supporters from anywhere in the world. Research has shown that technology and mobile product attributes, such as perceived ease of use, usefulness, entertainment, and aesthetics, mediate the customer experience, which in turn affects brand equity (Sheng and Teo 2012). Such research reminds us that it is customer experience driving brand equity rather than any product attributes, although users’ experiences are affected by those attributes. In other words, great product features are useless unless they directly improve the usage experience. 196 Brand Fans

As we have observed on several occasions, the most prestigious Grand Slam tournament in tennis, the Wimbledon Championship, was first played in 1877, and now constitutes a mega-sporting event as well as a social institution. Despite its unremarkable origins as an amateur competition, Wimbledon has married the troublesome duo of tradition and novelty, by delivering a serious core product, augmented by a series of more contemporary and experiential extensions. Only 200 spectators attended the first Wimbledon Championship. Now, around 140 years later, attendance figures top 500,000 over its two weeks, not to mention a global broadcast reaching nearly 400 million viewers in around 200 countries (wimbledon.com 2016). Up until relatively recently, the event’s status and success rested on spectators’ experiences at the venue. In fact, the tournament owner, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC), has stridently resisted change. Their prioritisation of the traditional aspects of the event has meant an increasing deviation from other Grand Slam tournaments, which have aggressively refreshed their events with coloured synthetic surfaces, a focus on player individuality, and a consumer-oriented experience. However, as highlighted previously, the Wimbledon Championship has more recently evolved to include augmented experiences, like smart phone applications and games, in order to capture a new generation of viewers without sacrificing the event’s historical gravitas. Undeniably, Wimbledon’s core product reflects its traditional pres- tige, a factor differentiating it from other Grand Slams as well as most other hallmark sporting events. While other long-standing events, like some of the golf “majors”, downplayed or diluted their histories and embraced unrestrained commercialisation, Wimbledon walked the fine line between eccentricity and obsolescence. But, for many contemporary sport and tennis aficionados, what the AELTC viewed as an uncompromising commitment to a past amateur ideal was also an outmoded presentation of the world’s best tennis. With strictly enforced conduct and dress codes for participants and spectators, exclusive membership to the club constituting only 375 life members (reflecting the number of seats available in the original Wolpole Road Stand), and limited tickets for the club’s relatively modest venues, the majority of interested fans remained unable to gain either physical or virtual access to the matches. 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 197

As attractive as strawberries and cream, or Pimm’s and lemonade might be, their availability could not offset the frustrations caused by a lack of connectivity. Worse still, not only were spectators irritated, but also the sponsors and media could not complete their jobs adequately either. Further, sponsorship strategies had always been dealt with discretely, but intensifying pressure from sponsoring corporations for increased commercialisation and media opportunities challenged the traditional, understated Wimbledon standards. The result was an irreconcilable tension between the brand’s core image, emphasising adherence to tradition, and the commercial reali- ties necessary to ensure that the event would prosper into the future. As a result, the Wimbledon Board of Management worked to balance the tensions without compromising the distinctive flavour of the event. In fact, they recognised a need to focus on the augmented product more closely, so as to preserve the one thing that makes it stand apart. For example, the traditional all-white dress code of players has been largely preserved and reinforced, as players in recent years have displayed only subtle uses of colour and branding through clothing, footwear, and head- gear. At the same time, the tournament has radically upgraded its connected presence, from in-ground wireless to real-time web content. This modularised design works synergistically with the digital drive, as digital opportunities afford the opportunity to augment the product experience without comprising the core features of the product itself.

Modularise Branding

A modular branding approach, taking full advantage of digital fluidity, provides marketers with specific information about the behaviours and preferences of their customers. Customisation and nuance are recurrent themes in this book, precisely because exceptional branding strategy always takes aim directly at the personal needs and meticulous choices made by consumers. A modular, or scalable, approach helps to ensure that branding never succumbs to “marketing entropy” where activity becomes more important than impact. At the turn of the millennium, for example, companies like Nike began offering personally customised and 198 Brand Fans designed shoes. An extension of this modular approach reached another level when the National Hockey League (NHL) franchise, the New Jersey Devils, unveiled what was effectively the first professional sport social media centre. As highlighted in an earlier chapter, the “Mission Control” centre was unprecedented in its use of fan content and ownership. A tireless and devoted team of committed fans stimulated and monitored online “chatter” connected to the franchise. Their involvement conferred a unique sense of authenticity to the content, which resonated with other fans. The new model proved to be a benchmark for all brands seeking greater consumer engagement through customised digital media. Better yet, the model foreshadowed a radical push for brand authenticity, delivered in this case by critical, but committed, passionate partisans. In a technical sense, a modular augmentation consists of elements or add-ons to the core product delivered by a brand that enhances its value but does not require a change to the original product itself. In combination with other modularised product augmentations, a brand can offer a wide suite of additional features and functionalities. Branding models employing modularity have proven highly versatile in delivering what can be an immensely diverse range of personal consumer preferences. For example, the best digital marketing is structured using modular architecture. The exemplar from sport can be seen in sports betting sites and applications, which utilise a set format for creating a betting account, available to the user at his or her convenience. Modularised digital communications can be linked to numerous platforms and mobile devices, including Facebook, electronic newsletters, and automated databases. From an experiential perspective, modularity means that communication with consumers can be fast, responsive, simple, and flexible. Branding messages must be timely and relevant in order to maximise the likelihood that information will be shared. The modular approach to augmenting product experiences allows for direct and virtually instant two-directional communication with consumers, accommodating for their unpredictable preferences. A favourable consumer response encourages product extensions to be scaled up, while hostile reactions can lead to scaling down or even termination. In this respect, modular brand extensions reflect the natural outcomes of rapid prototyping. 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 199

Modular extensions also allow information to be seamlessly transferred between consumers. Twitter “retweets” are the prime example, given the ease with which a simple message can be passed on exponentially, with just a few screen taps or mouse clicks. Other examples include: “Tell-a- friend” tools on websites; “save to my web” and “email this page” icons; “furl this site” links; and “forward to a friend” functions. Major sport properties commonly partner with social media platforms to offer engagement-based augmentations. For example, Major League Baseball’s “MLB Fan Cave”, incorporated tweets from bloggers aiming to engage fans with play-by-play accounts of every game. In another example, NASCAR teamed with Twitter to deliver a television commercial unveiled via a hashtag and incorporating an exclusively customised micro-social networking site. As these examples demonstrate, the modular and the mobile go hand in hand in order to connect brand with mind.

Access the Mobile Mind

Mobile platforms offer a versatile feature in modular brand extensions. They comprise the suite of sites and applications delivered through smart devices that especially encourage the exchange of user-generated content. Kaplan (2012) recommends the application of four “I’s”. First, marketers should strive to integrate their mobile content into the lives of consumers, being cautious to avoid irritating them in the process. Second, integration may be facilitated through individualising the content, and delivering activities and exchanges customised to the personal interests and preferences of users. This also assumes that the content will involve consumers through two-way communications, which if done effectively, will potentially encourage users to initiate their own unique content for sharing, distribution, and word of mouth (and mouse) endorsements. Mobile methods wield a wide range of communication tools, but are typically focused around smart devices. Examples include Bluetooth, smart phones and tablets, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless, SMS, multi-media messaging service (MMS), 4 or 5G mobile/cellular phones, and gaming consoles, all of which are free from the restrictions 200 Brand Fans of traditional land-based connections. Mobile communications such as these can be used to distribute information using a push or pull strategy. A push strategy involves sending unsolicited communications to consumers, such as through an SMS. A pull strategy involves providing free information, such as weather reports, game updates, and news headlines that the consumer seeks out or has asked to receive. However, an SMS can do much more than simply convey information. A trend leveraged by sport brands, and non-sport brands such as airlines, involves the use of mobile phone coupons (much harder to lose than paper coupons) where a barcode can be sent to a consumer and scanned at the point of sale. Using this technology, sport leagues, events, and retailers can offer exclusive promotions to consumers who want to receive regular offers and special deals. Competitions can also be designed to make use of mobile phone technology, such as those offering free tickets or other discounts. Going well beyond messaging information to consumers, mobile communication augments the consumer experience by delivering personalised content. The obvious examples from sport range from more accessible information, replays, live footage, and statistics about prominent events and games from anywhere in the world. Sporting venues sometimes rent out smart devices for this purpose at games and events, although most consumers rely on their own devices. Through mobile apps, fans can even make a purchase on the spot. Further, these apps are quickly becoming the most efficient and profitable tool to engage and activate fans at live events. Some professional sports teams have apps that help fans find parking spots, purchase premium seat upgrades, check-in and locate their seats, order food and beverages, find the closest restroom with the shortest line, watch high definition instant replay videos, view exclusive content, access promotions, coupons, and statistics, and get traffic information about the fastest route home after the game. Mobile is the future of augmented branding experiences due to the potential for roaming connectivity between different portable and permanent technologies such as smart phones and tablets, laptops, handheld computers, and diaries. The “Internet of Things” means that every device represents a mobile branding opportunity, facilitated by networked communications. 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 201

Networked communication makes heavy use of digital platforms and mobile augmentation to encourage interaction between consumers. The aim is to facilitate a networked approach to interactive communication instead of one-way content delivery. Quite simply, the brand lesson revolves around getting consumers to talk to each other. We know from research that instead of lecturing to consumers about products, a more effective approach is to get consumers to talk to each other about the brand. Sport makes this look easier than it might be for some products, but the principle remains because networked, mobile platforms naturally support interactive consumer-to-consumer engagement. For this reason, sport branding strategy aspires to cluster consumers together in the form of online communities, blogs, podcasts, and message boards. Networked, mobile product augmentation is not just another communications tool- kit, but also a virtual place where interaction occurs organically. Because networked communication provides consumers with a personalised experience, it is sometimes viewed as a kind of engagement marketing, based on the assumption that consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketing is more powerful than conventional business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. The mobile move and its C2C interactive engagement also encourage connections at a deeper level, of the kind epitomised in sport belonging. Sport provides case after case of consumers infused with a psychological gratification, which can now be met both virtually and instantly with mobile augmentation. As a result, new products can receive strong support from anywhere in the world. Brands are no longer constrained by geographical boundaries or narrow delivery supply chains. For example, in 2014, Manchester City Football Club purchased Melbourne Heart Football Club for just over AU$9.75 million (afr.com 2016). Manchester City already owned New York FC and with a similar integration strategy in mind, determined that the elite competitive level of Australian soccer, known as the “A-League”, was also a sound platform for product augmentation. Through a comprehensive strategy using mobile branding, Manchester City was placed in the minds of Australian soccer fans, in effect making the Melbourne Heart, renamed and rebranded to Melbourne City, a product extension of the English Premier League (EPL) club. Such a strategy would not have been feasible in a pre-networked era, but now 202 Brand Fans validates the reality of a digitised global market. With Australian soccer’s A-League growing as a genuine Asian presence, Manchester City secured an Asian stronghold from which to launch their global branding strategy. The football boom intensifying across the massive Asian marketplace represents a significant opportunity for Manchester City to diversify its brand and gain the attention of a new generation of technologically savvy, globally oriented football fans with a growing interest in following the EPL. Marketers for Manchester City know very well that there is little chance of expanding their market share in the cluttered domestic space, but are prepared to make strategic forays into the nascent sporting riches of Asia.

Pull, Do Not Push

Conventional branding and marketing communications rely on pushing content. It interrupts and intrudes whether the consumer is interested or not. The classic example is television commercials, where an advertisement interjects during a viewer’s programming. A similar viewing experience occurs for the online consumer who must navigate through banners, pop-ups, and “click bait” while they search for content. Such conventional “push” brand marketing assumes that a consumer will notice, at least briefly, the commercial material, even if only during the initial moments of attention transition from the content to the interruption. Of course, the reality for most push marketing messages is more sobering. Exposed to thousands of brand communications each day, consumers develop an unyielding resistance and some well-honed skills in tuning out invasive messages. Sport properties need to worry about push marketing far less than many other types of products. Sport’s product creates a natural “pull”, where consumers come into contact with branding as a consequence of their own pursuit for content. Pull branding, or as it is sometimes called, “permission” marketing, works ideally in the new media, digital environment. By securing a consumer’s permission through sign-ups requiring an email address—and often motivated by the offer of free content, prizes, or other incentives—a brand can deliver customised messages that are 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 203 less likely to be ignored or discarded, arriving seamlessly via email, text, multi-media message, or social media platform. In a branding world cluttered with unwanted interruptions, the pull approach can provide an effective cut-through. In addition, it facilitates an effective segmentation strategy by giving consumers literally what they ask for as consumers will sign up to receive communications when the content is sufficiently compelling. But making a brand compelling means offering something valuable. Marketers need to provide an attractive value proposition in order to generate a response. Valuable content leads to more engagement, which in turn enhances experience. Sport brands have perhaps been the most successful in using pull methods to drive engagement. As we mentioned earlier, subscription-based instant messaging is being used successfully by sport stadia and venues to inform members and spectators about parking, short queues, half time food and beverage specials, merchandise deals, games results on other courts/arenas, and actual game content like video replays. Other options include blogs and social networking sites, email newsletters, web video, podcasts, vodcasts, pop-ups, virtual worlds, wikis, and electronic commerce (for easy payment). By broadcasting snippets of compelling content to an audience eager for thrills and entertainment, sport brands are reaching larger audiences than ever before. Requiring fans to complete a simple registration to receive this content means that relevant messages are sent to interested recipients. Effective branding is personal. Fortunately, technology allows brands to develop an unprecedented combination of consumer interaction and marketing customisation, with few barriers to entry and a limited investment in resources.

Find a Platform

In a formal sense, social media is usually defined as any communication channel that facilitates sharing and discussion through a connected network, irrespective of the device or platform used. These hardware and software innovations allow inexpensive content creation, interaction, and interoperability by users (Berthon et al. 2012; Okazaki and Taylor 2013). The more popular options include collaborative platforms (e.g. Wikis), 204 Brand Fans blogs, user-generated content communities (e.g. Flickr, YouTube), social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), virtual game worlds (e.g. EverQuest), and virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life) (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). According to Kim and Ko (2012), social media marketing activities span five dimensions: entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customisation, and word of mouth. Their study shows that the presence of these features through social media is directly related to relationship quality and brand equity, mainly due to consumers’ perceptions of novelty, as well as their sense of being personally courted. Mobile applications, from smart phone software to social media tools, offer both opportunities and challenges for branding. Abeza et al.’s (2013) survey of social media research in sport identifies several of each. On the positive side of the ledger, they recognise five opportunities associated with the application of social media for relationship marketing, most of which we have already noted. First, it contributes to better knowledge of sport customers; that is, fans and participants. Second, it facilitates more advanced communications and interactions between sport consumers and sport enterprises. Third, it gives sport consumers a superior engagement experience, where they are more likely to feel as though they have a voice in the management of the sporting entity. Fourth, it can be more resource efficient in terms of both time and money. Finally, social media affords faster evaluations of the on-going customer-organisation relationship. At the same time, the Abeza et al. (2013) analysis also specifies a number of serious challenges connected to the use of social media in relationship marketing for sporting organisations. To begin with, the brand relinquishes control over the content of messages posted in social media. Second, that content is subject to variable quality to such an extent that its credibility and reliability may be a cause for concern. Third, only a small portion of self-selected consumers are actively interested in engaging with social media, which means that the effectiveness of reaching consumers remains limited. As an extension, fourth, sport organisations have great difficulty in locating social media engaged consumers, who for the most part have to make the decision to seek out the content for themselves. Finally, most sporting organisations face tough decisions about how much and where to deploy their limited marketing resources in order to reach this nebulous audience. Moreover, finding 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 205 tangible ways of measuring the impact of any social media effort remains challenging. The preceding opportunities and challenges extend to other industries just as readily as to sport. However, brands cannot avoid engaging anymore; a social media presence is no longer optional. In fact, social media has become the dominant marketing platform for a wide range of brands. Nothing can rival the cost effectiveness and immediacy of this vehicle for communicating with potential brand fans. Consumers can discuss, debate, and dissect anything, and brands naturally want to ensure they find a place amidst the action. A well-considered social media strategy has fast become a must for all brands from the grassroots to the global. Returning to the world of sport, YouTube provides a continuous stream of video footage highlighting the disappointing, the average, and the extraordinary endeavours that occur on the field of play. The appetite for more content is as relentless as the number of sporting codes, teams, and product brands seeking to provide it. At the same time, the ubiquitous Facebook offers a remarkable and hitherto unavailable mechanism through which a brand can make “friends”, and congregate in a virtual space to share their experiences, passion, and knowledge of a product. Once again, we consider the astonishing case of Real Madrid and Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, whose Facebook site is one of the most “friended” in the world. As it happens, football (soccer) clubs make up the majority of the top 10 most popular sports teams on Facebook. For the more impatient consumer, the instantaneous application of 140 characters of information has made Twitter more popular than newspapers. In the Twitter-verse, as we have highlighted, Ronaldo commands the strongest following of any athlete, attracting around 50 million followers. The choice of platform should reflect the functionality of each. For example, consumers tend to engage in discussions about products more readily via Facebook, but when it comes to events and experiences, Twitter sees one and a half times more volume than Facebook, and holds court as the platform of choice for displaying and sharing instant opinions. The effective use of social media is commonplace in professional sport. In the National Basketball Association (NBA), the competition, teams, and players all use social media to engage with fans, making extensive use of its interactive features for enhanced experiences. At the broadest 206 Brand Fans level, the NBA employs social media platforms to deliver high profile news items to fans, often prior to their general release to the mainstream media. Followers, therefore, may feel as though they are being granted access to behind the scenes information before everyone else. Associated brands, like those of the NBA sponsors and broadcasters, also try to tap into this attentive and receptive market by teasing fans with new product information, giveaways, and special deals. Perhaps the most salient social media branding lessons can be gleaned from the players who share personal knowledge and feelings, comment on game strategy, reveal little known social relationships, update injury recovery, and generally offer rare glimpses into a sport celebrity lifestyle. Although this book takes its inspiration for successful brand leadership from sport, we can also find cautionary sport examples. Quite evidently, social media cannot be rivalled for immediacy and intimacy between brands and consumers. However, just as with all familiar personal relationships, closeness can lead to the expression of all kinds of inappropriate communication, from the insensitive and inopportune to the provocative and insulting. Three aspects of social media’s dark side merit comment. A first issue is that a consumer can express their angst or anger to an audience of other brand fans with some degree of anonymity. Most of the time, this provides a brand with useful feedback, even if the message lacks diplomacy or manners. However, social media’s instant delivery means that consumers can post in the heat of the moment, sometimes leaping over the line of good taste, appropriate- ness, and ethics. The NBA and its constituent teams, for example, face a significant challenge in trying to deal constructively with negative publicity, insulting remarks, and even bigotry and racism directed towards teams and individuals. The problem lies with control and moderation given that social media contributors to franchise team accounts remain independent of the NBA’s influence, or hide behind a pseudonymous account profile. Dealing with negative or even abusive posts is vexing for all brands, not just sport. A second issue has to do with the responses brand representatives post in reaction to highly emotive and other inflammatory events, or worse, those posted without provocation but which incite furious rejoinders. For example, sporting brands cannot always control the flurry of feeds 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 207 individual players, coaches, or staff from within a club can post, some of which border on poor taste, and occasionally inspire an angry backlash. For example, in 2013, former New York Knicks player J.R. Smith directed an aggressive rant towards an opposition player via Twitter, for which he was fined US$25,000 by the NBA (sbnation.com 2013). Since Twitter delivers instant communication and subsequent feedback, by the time the club had realised the damage done, it was too late. A third issue can arise when a corporate sponsor or shareholder creates negative publicity. A prominent example occurred in 2014 when the then owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling, was captured making controversial comments. The story “went viral” via social media, and remains a source of contention having incurred Sterling a lifetime ban from the NBA (espn.com 2014). Aware of the vulnerabilities associated with social media use, some prominent professional sport competitions and their member teams and clubs have devised risk-mitigating policies. In the NBA, the policy spells out the nature of acceptable content that can be posted by players, coaches, officials, and support staff. Of note are the rules governing when and where players can communicate with fans, with bans in place on tweets during games and 45 minutes either side. With social media now the preferred means of communication for sport consumers, and for many other consumers as well, getting governance policies regarding content right has escalated in importance.

Create a Social Network

As we have argued, savvy sport brands have converted much of their communications to a digital form, within which social media platforms represent the pivotal channels. Major sport events create an astonishing convergence of social media activity. The 2016 Australian Open Tennis Championship recorded up to 15,000 tweets per second at the culminating moments of key matches. The event acquired nearly 100,000 Twitter followers and 750,000 Facebook fans. However, the Australian Open social media volume pales in comparison to the 150 million tweets posted during the course of the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 208 Brand Fans

15–20 million for the 2016 NFL Super Bowl. Other events, such as the 2016 UEFA Champions League Final and the EURO 2016 final, generated hundreds of thousands of tweets. The 2014 FIFA World Cup exceeded the Super Bowl effortlessly, and even eclipsed the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Not all sport brands are hallmark events. In fact, most sport organisations face serious resource issues and turn to social media as a cost- effective channel for engaging with consumers. The evidence suggests that smaller sporting bodies use social media as a communications tool more than as a promotional or marketing tool (Eagleman 2013). Fan relationships take precedence, achieved through a content focus. That is, through posts which deliver stories, videos, or pictures, or engage consumers in discussions. Although counterintuitive, some of the most successful social media activities in sport go light on “hard” marketing; less promotion, selling, sponsorship activation, discounts, merchandise, and contests, and more focus on stimulating interactive engagement. In the previous chapter, we noted how the strength of digital goes well beyond convenience and agility. Rather, its greatest strength resides in its capacity to establish deeply personal connections with consumers, make them feel a unique sense of belonging, and generate two-way interaction. Of course, great relationships precede memorable experiences, which in turn encourage positive feedback and brand advocacy. The enhanced experience has always been a social experience, and social media has irrevocably changed what a social experience means. For example, the pervasiveness of mobile devices, including smart phones, tablet devices, and even smart watches, has enabled social media to become mobile, overriding traditional time and geographic restrictions. Social networks rely on the platforms and applications provided by social media with the aim of connecting members of virtual communities to each other via a common interest, such as a brand. In sport, the brand arrives in the form of a player, athlete, team, or club, but this platform could just as easily seek to unite communities of interest around specific tangible products or around experience-based services. Social media is just the platform where communications occur, whereas social networking is the strategy for engaging consumers through social content and 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 209 belonging. Better social media tools blur the distinction between the media and network as a result of their functionality and interface. Consider the nature of each social networked engagement channel: blogs, social platforms (e.g. Facebook), pictorial narratives (e.g. Instagram), and networks of short messaging, including links to other media (e.g. Twitter). In sport marketing, fans wield unrestricted access via interactive media in ways that add or remove value by sharing and commenting upon content. As we observed in an earlier section, unlike old media where a brand’s content is pushed at consumers, new media aims for deeper relationships enveloping the reciprocal give and take of content (Hollebeek 2011). This does mean, however, that brands must relinquish the desire for full control over their branding content (Brodie et al. 2011). In summary, employing social networking for branding is essential for several reasons. First, it offers a fast and cost-effective method for creating and maintaining consumer networks where the brand resides at the centre of the action (Donath and Boyd 2004). As a result of a growing social network, brands can encourage the more committed and active consumers to convert to higher levels of engagement, in the process becoming brand advocates who upgrade less committed supporters as well as those more emotionally distant or geographically diverse (Sigfusson and Chetty 2013). Second, social networking techniques maximise electronic word- of-mouth (eWOM) to enable information exchange and bring users together, in-so-doing generating a tribal group of shared allegiance and belonging (Lee and Youn 2009). Third, social networking allows brands to develop innovative and efficient ways of deploying their limited marketing resources, without investing heavily in expensive traditional advertising (Sullivan Mort and Weerawardena 2006). No other form of branding can so swiftly align consumers’ personal identities with a brand’s symbolic associations.

Make Strategic Social Choices

The world’s fasting growing professional sport, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), created a brand on the back of social media. One of its unique strategies is to offer financial incentives to fighters on the 210 Brand Fans basis of their Twitter following. This “Twitter bonus” ensures that fighters work hard on building their social media presence because they receive payments for the fastest increase in followers, the largest number of followers, and even for the most creative tweets. Supporting this strategy, the UFC employs social media specialists to help the fighters become more adept with the platforms. The combination of professional training and generous incentives has proven to be enormously successful for the UFC, with their social media reach expanding exponentially since the system was introduced. Engaged fans spend bigger, and the UFC has enjoyed unprecedented growth in pay-per-view numbers as a result, helping fuel the sale of the brand for what was estimated to be over US$4 billion in 2016 (De la Merced 2016). Like every branding tool, those directed towards enhancing a consumer’s experience need to be selected with care depending upon how the nature of content—that is, the product—aligns with the delivery channel. Studies have demonstrated that a brand’s value proposition can be successfully expressed through social media platforms such as Facebook while sites like LinkedIn can bolster brand awareness and generate referrals (Andzulis et al. 2012). According to Agnihotri et al. (2005), successful sport and non-sport brands engage their customers in a way that improves responsiveness. This may also lead to better satisfaction levels. Although constantly fluctuating in popularity and fashion, at the time of writing three social media platforms dominate, albeit with a proliferation of competitors on the rise: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Google+ also feature depending on the survey sample, while the Chinese alternates to Twitter and Facebook, Sina Weibo and Renren, are growing remarkably quickly too). Most strong brands already use a variety of platforms but with a focus on one or two. The key to an effective strategy lies in leveraging the strengths of each platform. Facebook allows sport properties to connect with fans, as well as to help fans connect with each other. Facebook is therefore the place for sharing photos, event details, news, comments, and links. Increasingly, Facebook is being employed as a merchandise hub as well. Meanwhile, Google + offers competition with the added benefits of integration with other Google features, tools, and applications. Twitter, however, takes the 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 211 lead for mobile connectivity and instant communications. It established the micro-blogging trend with a compelling restriction of 140 characters per tweet, and is more recently being used for digital streaming of sporting content. Most serious sport fans follow at least one high profile athlete or player in order to receive the latest inside information. Fans can also follow teams to access live scores or specialist updates about player injuries, team tactics, or club promotions. YouTube is employed by sport properties to upload and share video content. Many larger sport organisations develop their own “television station” and broadcast highlights, or even live events. With the remarkable popularity of YouTube, sport organisations are expected to post content using either embedded YouTube videos, or for larger organisations, establish their own YouTube channels. From professional sport we again find the exemplar with different sites ideally suited for emphasising different content relating to associations, teams, events, players, or products. However, engagement always remains the focus. For example, clubs, such as Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Toronto FC, run live competitions as part of their Twitter feed. Marketers award prizes to the best tweets from fans using designated club hashtags. Other forms of engagement involve question and answer sessions with players, coaches, or managers. The key for brands remains how they leverage these exponentially growing networks of passionate partisans.

Leverage the Links

The various social media sites used by fans and brands can gain leverage from each other’s content. Facebook, for example, allows the user to stream information, pictures, and videos of current activities. In addition, YouTube enables fans to upload and share videos with others featuring their favourite player, team, or organisation. Each of these social media options are used for building relationships with fans, but not nearly as instantaneously as Twitter or Instagram. Twitter allows the fan to be quickly linked to his or her sport brand with immediate impact. We see 212 Brand Fans the pinnacle of branding hopes realised in sport as fans follow their idol or team and then spread tweets to other fans. Social media leader, FC Barcelona, was the first sports club to acquire more than 100 million followers on its social networks, a number that had advanced to 160 million by 2016. In so doing, the club became the world’s first mega-digital sporting brand, and perhaps also the most prodigious social media brand ever, keeping in mind that the most popular non-sport brand is Coca-Cola with around 100 million total followers in 2016. It seems unlikely that Barcelona FC will be challenged in the immediate future as it acquires about 100,000 new followers a day on its different social networks, and holds the number one sports club position on each of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Tencent Weibo, and YouTube. Of the top 10 Facebook sport team profiles, eight are European football clubs. The highest “likes” attracted by a US-based team belongs to the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, although the NBA itself and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) claim more. While European football dominates, ahead of the NBA and the National Football League (NFL), a handful of individual athletes have remarkable social media profiles. As a genuinely global sport, tennis superstars Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Maria Sharapova each have tens of millions of followers. And, Jamaican sprinter and world record holder, Usain Bolt, enjoys similar exposure. In 2016, Facebook released its “Sports Stadium”, a virtual location for its 650 million or so sport fans to congregate, communicate, celebrate, and commiserate. All forms of content related to any game of choice are available through the Facebook Sports Stadium, appearing in real time and chronologically, allowing users to watch events and matches, comment, share information, receive live scores and statistics, consult replays, and discuss all of this with “friends”. “Speed to consumer” standards were revolutionised when Twitter gained prominence as the micro-blogging social network of choice. Instant two-way communication with fans has allowed sport brands to deepen engagement by offering more personalised and meaningful interactive experiences. For example, all the professional sporting leagues and their constituent franchised teams in the four major US competitions 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 213

(NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL) employ Twitter to connect with fans, including via players and sponsors. Twitter’s unexpected competitive advantage was also its most natural. The 140 character limit for each tweet compels the “tweeter” to pitch their idea succinctly and creatively, in so doing cutting through more information-dense alternative content and establishing an immediate and efficient rapport with users. A message’s success can then be tracked as its journey onwards to other followers occurs, with retweets accounting for the majority of traffic on the platform. No other method of marketing communications has ever come close to such an economical mechanism for branding before. Nor can any other platform bring a consumer closer to a brand more quickly. The standard from sport remains hard, if not impossible, to beat. Since the start of this decade, many athletes have employed Twitter to communicate with fans before, during, and well after the competition’s end, generating increased interest for individual stars, such as 2011 and 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Golden Glove winner, goalkeeper Hope Solo. Yet, most impressive are the followers flocking to hear about the daily, and sometimes even hourly, observations of European footballers and other superstar athletes. Usain Bolt’s 2016 Olympics 100 metre final stimulated more than 100,000 tweets-per- minute. Currently, major sport properties are partnering with social media and broadcasters to channel customised advertising and merchandise to sport fans. For example, “Twitter Amplify” has taken an early position as a powerful new channel to generate advertising revenue. The platform works by teaming with content providers like ESPN, which provide short video highlights soon after their live broadcast. Numerous stakeholders have an interest including the social media platform, sport properties, advertisers, sponsors, and broadcast content-owners. Celebrities, athletes, or journalists involved in breaking or sharing news of their exploits, represent less than 5 % of the Twitter community. The platform is just as useful to individuals and corporate brands. An abundance of additional social platforms are available for brands to experiment with as well. Some examples include Flickr, Instagram, and Pinterest for posting and commenting on images, while Tumblr has com- 214 Brand Fans bined micro-blogging with imagery. Location-based social media applications like Foursquare present another interesting avenue for brands to explore. These platforms use downloadable applications to allow users to register their visits to specific venues and even receive discounts or giveaways for their activity. Obviously, retailers have much to gain from location-based social media in driving store traffic, participation, and merchandise sales. Sport properties and sport media and entertainment companies provide their own mobile apps, which allow consumers to access information, content, and commentary through a proprietary avenue. Typically through the sport enterprise’s website, all of its social media accounts can be accessed in a sleek and interactive manner. Feed column platforms like Hootsuite or Buffer can help manage the clutter of different channels by allocating or redirecting content across a range of outlets automatically. These platforms integrate and manage numerous social media platforms simultaneously through dashboards and other metric-based interfaces.

Find a Social Media Identity

Another lesson from sport branding relates to having a clear narrative on social media; a strategy for each platform. In one illuminating example, Roland-Garros (the French Grand Slam tennis tournament) celebrated their 40-year sponsorship with BNP Paribas by using a novel combination of social media and real-world action called “Tweet & Shoot”. Through Tweet & Shoot, fans using social media were able to “train” the top French seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Through a custom developed website using a game mechanic system, fans could specify the location of machine-fired balls to Tsonga. Each decision a fan made on the virtual tennis court was translated into a coded tweet directing the aim of the shots at Tsonga during a training session. For the first time ever, a ball- firing robot was instructed by fans. More than 5500 fans recorded tweets, while the website received nearly 200,000 views. Some brands still think of Facebook and Twitter as vehicles to encourage a trip to their website. Context proves the pivotal factor. Consumers will frequent Facebook when they have a great Facebook experience. No 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 215 one goes to Facebook in order to be hyper-linked to something elsewhere. Thus, brand managers must begin by abandoning any notion that social media exists exclusively as a channel for shunting consumers towards other content. A superior strategy demands a clear social media identity for each site. As a result, each social media platform should deliver unique content and a fulfilling experience in itself, independent from any other vehicle. Brands need to ensure that each platform has a definitive role to play towards the market position sought. EPL club, Manchester City, has created an engaging and one-stop Facebook location for interaction with a constantly revolving suite of content, including advent calendars, “fan- cam”, live streaming, question and answer sessions with players, and a variety of competitions. Adding to the site’s authenticity, the club provides specific pages for the team captain to offer his own personal comments in response to fan posts. Links also connect “friends” to Facebook accounts for other players. Social media will not always create new customers, but it does deliver an unprecedented opportunity to connect with existing customers, and to help them connect with each other. And, engaged, connected, and interactive consumers enjoying an enhanced experience can become brand fans. In marketing terms, a social media identity cultivates relationships leading to stronger affiliation, brand identification, and ultimately, more spending. Some sport enterprises even use social media to crowdsource ideas for new branding collateral, like next year’s jersey design or a racing team’s car livery.

Engage the Social Conscience

A final lesson from sport branding concerns a different form of social marketing, the kind connected to sustainability and responsibility. Over the last decade, in particular, sport enterprises have accepted a degree of accountability for their social and environmental footprints, and have therefore sought to find the intersection between social and economic dividends. From a branding perspective, considerable distrust and cynicism sometimes surrounds proclamations about social 216 Brand Fans responsibility. However, regardless of whether social responsibility is a thinly veiled attempt to convince consumers that companies care about them beyond the contents of their wallets, is a sophisticated version of philanthropy, or part of a larger agenda towards brand image, managing consumer engagement is our focus here. For example, according to FIFA, the chief social effort used in concert with the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa was branded the “Win in Africa, with Africa” programme. It was designed to bolster the continent by delivering a legacy well beyond the actual event. Results from a study of visitor perceptions connected the social responsibility positioning favourably with event image, revisit likelihood, and word-of-mouth intentions (Walker et al. 2013). Social awareness clearly impacts upon consumers’ brand perceptions, ranging from corporate responsibility to green issues. Sport brands have responded by using social media to communicate social responsibility messages to consumers in an attempt to positively influence perceptions about the brand and its associated causes without stimulating a cynical consumer backlash. Corporates like Nike, Patagonia, and Asics have famously integrated a “green” identity into their branding strategies to attenuate consumer worries about sport’s environmental impacts, from the field of play to product manufacturing. At the same time, sport enterprises have enjoyed considerable success using the social impact brand commitment to not only attract more favourable brand and event associations, but also to secure corporate sponsors and benefactors. The United Nations General Assembly’s recent adoption of the Millennium Development Goals also reinforces sport’s potential as a human rights exemplar. Professional sport offers a peek into successful social awareness branding due to its complex position at the confluence of immense financial resources, the ever-escalating expectations of entertainment amongst consumers, and a win at all costs mentality (Blumrodt et al. 2012). So although sport’s consumers have concentrated greater attention on social matters, sport brands remain squeezed between commercial pressures and the intense scrutiny of a public who believe that the intersection of economic and financial returns should not come at the expense of winning. As Blumrodt et al. (2013) show through 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 217 professional club soccer data, sport brands are expected to be “good” brands. They observe, “The impact of CSR on sport spectator-based brand equity is essential. It adds value to the brand” (Blumrodt et al. 2013, p. 219). Finding the balance can be elusive for brands caught in the consumer gaze. In sport, fans view their leagues, teams, and clubs—along with all the associated products and services—as “social anchors” and community hubs (Alonso and O’Shea 2012). Yet, despite the expectation of social outreach, few fans will concede that it should be pursued if competitive success must be sacrificed. The available evidence does, however, suggest that the perception of financial independence is important to consumer perceptions (Anagnostopoulos and Shilbury 2013), leaving brands to manage the strain between difficult to control external pressures and difficult to duplicate internal funding (Babiak and Wolfe 2009). All brands face this same challenge as a consequence of consumers demanding sustainability and responsibility at the same time as low prices and high quality. Social responsibility branding benefits start with greater social exposure through public commitments and identification with the key issues, and gains momentum when consumers are enticed to engage with these messages. A delicate line sits between under-exposure and over-exposure. The former has generally proven less risky, as engagement bleeds away when consumers view social awareness statements as gratuitous promotions, or just another branding technique. To that end, there is no point taking the social awareness path if it has no genuine substance underpinning it. And, in some cases, legitimate efforts may yield little if any branding advantages, or even a cynical response. Consider the now “textbook social responsibility case of Nike, accused of exploitative labour practices in developing countries and vilified for using “sweat-shop” manufacturers. Despite a comprehensive response by the company in transforming its outsourcing practices, Nike still receives negative press on the issue, even though they pioneered industry-leading practices and new benchmarks for labour advocacy. Other sport enterprises have incorporated social awareness content into their activities, yet remain reluctant to integrate it into their branding machine. In the surf-fashion context, for example, brands have developed 218 Brand Fans equipment and clothing with a high level of environmental consciousness, but see the efforts as part of their consumers’ basic expectations rather than as positioning or differentiation strategies. Social awareness undeniably influences the way consumers’ brand perceptions are forged. Irrespective of potential cynicism, brand managers need to understand how authentic environmental or social messages can be embedded in their own unique contexts. A solution involves the selective application of social media where one platform is allocated as the primary “social conscience” of the brand. Here, the brand can express its social commitments while receiving feedback from consumers. A typical starting point would see a brand clearly declare what they perceive their social responsibilities to entail. For example, relevant issues may include internal (e.g. policies on non-discrimination in the workplace), external (e.g. policy on labour standards of suppli- ers), accountability (e.g. commitment to reporting on social activities), and citizenship (e.g. educational programmes for the promotion of social initiatives) elements guided by standards such as the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the UNESCO Project on Technical and Vocational Education, the UN Global Compact, the International Labour Standards Convention, the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, as well as benchmarks for sustainability. In addition, some brands may either see themselves as particularly connected to certain social issues, or assume an advocacy position regarding matters they hold as important. Some examples from sport include performance-enhancing drug taking, crowd violence, racial vilification, gender inequality, sex and alcohol offences, anti-competition legislation regarding the structure of sporting competitions, and general role modelling. Not only are all of these issues pertinent in terms of sport’s social responsibilities, but some like domestic violence and gender stereotypes may be amongst a general cadre of social issues that any prominent brand might seek to take a position on. These issues, particularly if they resonate with key customer groups, can amplify the emotional connection between the brand and customer, with the potential for elevating the customer to become a more committed brand fan. 7 Enhanced Experiences: Enlisting the Fanatic 219

Conclusion: The Augmented Brand Fan

Most of modern life is spent in close proximity to several screens including the television, computer, tablet, and smart phone. In fact, most of us take at least one device with us everywhere we go, including to bed. Compared with traditional marketing, digitally engaged and enhanced approaches can help brands to spread messages more quickly and effectively to a large, but targeted, audience. Successful sport brands have grasped the opportunities that go with constant connectivity to draw fans more deeply into the game and its players, as well as all the intrigue, excitement, and hype that occurs via the seemingly personalised communications that digital platforms can deliver. A branding experience no longer means just being a passive recipient of marketing copy. Great branding strategy is characterised by multi- faceted engagement. Notwithstanding the type of product or service that a brand offers its consumers, a brand fan becomes an advocate through superior experiences. Sport demonstrates how content can be two-directional with fans holding at their fingertips a smorgasbord of information, statistics, live feeds, replays, messages, and insider observations with which to engage and interact. Twitter feeds and Facebook posts can integrate with broadcasts. Venues and media channels can provide customised apps with real- time updates to enhance the viewing experience. In short, the enhanced experience is an intensely personal, involved, active, meaningful, and immediate experience.

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Conclusion: Future Brand Fans

Introduction: The Sporting Touch

Sport’s hyper-competitive instinct can take hold of even the smallest contest and breed larger than life caricatures. Accordingly, on the triumphantly symbolic 4th of July 2016, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut reclaimed the annual hot dog eating championship title staged at New York’s iconic Coney Island. Chestnut, once again able to strap the (mustard yellow) International Championship Belt around his burgeoning waist, swallowed 70 hot dogs in 10 minutes, setting a new world record in the process. And, the crowd went wild. As did the Internet, electronic, and social media, with the event’s culminating moments of stuffed celebration reaching a vast global audience, insatiable, so to speak, for its newest champion. Sport, and its innumerable brands—from the National Football League’s (NFL) New York Giants to hot dog’s New York giant—mobilises, forges, creates, infuses, and enlivens (Earnheardt et al. 2013). A remarkable combination of myth and money, sport branding takes humanity’s quintessential physical vulnerabilities and transforms them into heroic apertures for basking in vicarious heroism. And, like all good brands, the new season promises even more than ever.

Brand Fans has argued that the greatest sport brands in the world convert consumers into compulsives, loyalties into lifetimes, and fair weather following into fanaticism. Our branding lessons pivot around seven themes common to the best in the business of sport. First, consumer attachment, passion, commitment, and loyalty are created through interaction, engagement, connectivity, and collaboration. Second, consumers and brands co-create valuable consumption experiences, effectively crowdsourcing brand equity. Third, consumers and brands become identity-entangled through communities built upon ritualistic, tribal practices. Fourth, at the intersection of brands and consumption, and between social acceptance and belonging, sport brands co-create consumption experiences with brand fans that linger as immortal moments of immense value. Fifth, brand power accumulates when it is shared, with consumer- generated content as a central mediator of brand intensity, carefully facilitated through data analytics designed to craft bespoke consumer experiences. Sixth, where sporting brands have relentlessly augmented consumers’ experiences by treating its collective of products as an integrated package, a trail of brand fans follows. Finally, seventh, in the presence of imminent and exponential technological convergence, passive consumption will become dynamic engagement, and brands will face the prospect that there will be multiple ways of structuring value propositions that align with an individual’s exacting needs. An underlying opportunity associated with branding in sport concerns its global character. Our cases and examples reinforce the diminution of national barriers to capital, technology, and information exchange, an upsurge in the power of corporations at the expense of the state, rampant economic progress where the market is the principle mediator of activity, and disruptions in the distribution of the spoils. These factors have, in turn, encouraged professional sport to focus on the economic impera- tives of their activities, thus creating market-oriented and demand-savvy branding. From this forge of cutthroat capitalism, we have selected the branding highlights. 8 Conclusion: Future Brand Fans 225

More generally, the past few decades have seen branding strategy inflamed by change, driven by prodigious technological progress, rampant commercial pressure, burgeoning media sophistication, and unprecedented social engagement. Although we acknowledge the presence and influence of a vast number of cultural, social, and political forces, our commentary on branding has been shaped the most by a consumer focus. Looking towards the future, and with an inexorable and escalating technological convergence, we can expect a substantial transition from passive consumption to active, dynamic engagement. As we have observed, the progression of sport towards a digital orientation heralds a number of important changes in the expectations of sport consumers and the nature of product and service delivery. The imposition of technology brings with it the power of superior knowledge and choice for customers. Thus, sport consumers, like all consumers, will have more leverage than ever before. Enter the “postmobile consumer”. All devices will be connected and mobile, therefore, relegating the concept of mobility as redundant, in much the same way as the word “Internet” is disappearing from our vocabularies; it is a given, an unnecessary description in a world where connected presences are the norm. If every “thing” has a sensor connection, then everything is online. We think that consumer leverage will manifest in several ways. Increased access to information means that consumers will be more knowledgeable about the activities of their favourite brands. As a consequence of the information revolution, consumers will also have ready access to more products and entertainment alternatives than ever before. Innumerable items and experiences will compete at any given time for the interest and discretionary spending of potential customers (Pritchard and Stinson 2013). A dominant new class of consumer will emerge by default, who we term “brand epicureans”. Neither driven exclusively by functional requirements nor the need for identity—but by a fluid combination of the two—the brand epicurean will become the mainstream in a world where choice and change are defining market features. Loyalty will be challenged. The epicureans will change their affiliation with fashion, as 226 Brand Fans fleetingly as they buy a new pair of shoes or a new phone. The implication for brands is that there will be no single way of structuring value. It will be perceived differently depending upon the individual’s temporal and contextual needs. Consumers will be bombarded with options, and marketers will have to invent new ways to become central to consumers’ purchasing habits in an environment that discourages and sometimes even punishes loyalty by taking it for granted. This tsunami of change will demand new business models that harness technology and leverage its potential for personalisation, customisation, interaction, collaboration, and community. Ultimately, the only way to win in such an environment is to cultivate brand fans. This chapter will explore the implications of the dynamic future that awaits brand strategists and the challenges and opportunities presented to them in their quest for brand fans. In particular, we highlight the impact of digital disruption on consumption communities and brand relationships, the role of smart devices in continuous digital consumption, and the emergence of augmented and virtual reality as well as “wear- ables” in delivering the ultimate in personalised and intensified customer experiences.

Virtual Brand Fans

One of the salutary lessons we observed from sport is the increasing geographic dislocation of its consumers. Sport’s dependency upon particular stadia and venues has decreased and this will continue to be the case, as many sport brands seek even more diverse, global audiences who will experience sport through new platforms (Lee 2010). We argue that sport consumers will cluster around virtual hubs of interactivity where cyber sport, forums, and broadcasting will take place. Presently, networks are facing immense pressure from far more nuanced and individualised Internet broadcasting, especially by offshoots of the sport properties themselves like Manchester United’s or Real Madrid’s own television operations. Even smaller sporting brands will find that web broadcasting and all its digital opportunities are their best bet for finding a stable niche. Future content will include highlights from games or events, and 8 Conclusion: Future Brand Fans 227 invitations to participate in the cyber version of the sport in real time against the best in the world. Sport brands may even discover that viewers find it more entertaining to watch a fencing or archery tournament when they can actually compete along with the athletes. Professional wrestling may even take on a new appeal. If we can actually command our own likeness to wrestle against the champ without any scripting, it may just be more fun than folly. Although we have used sport as the exemplar, the same trends and pressures are propelling all brands in the same direction. For example, one of the difficulties that will come with distant, virtual consumers lies in the distinction between transactions and people. In order to develop and sustain fans, brands need to be more than just a seamless shopping experience and the occasional repeat purchase. Virtual consumers need locations where community building, two-way engagement, and social interaction can take place. Brands must facilitate a community of social reciprocity and meaningful experience; a hub of activity and identity. Communities are about shared interests and values, and virtual brand communities must provide the opportunity for these connections to be forged. This means that brands must have the tools to ensure that the relationships they have with their customers bridge the gap between commerce and community. In turn, community building necessitates the careful management of customer input into products. Through the virtual environment, consumers have the power to co-create a fully customised experience rather than a pre-packaged one that has been determined by the brand. Consequently, brands must interact and collaborate with fans in order to develop meaningful products and services, using relevant data to construct far more nuanced and even fully personalised experiences. There is also the need for caution because the biggest trends are not necessarily the most sustainable, whether in the form of Pokémon Go or Pilates. Fashion can sweep over consumers just as quickly as it does for bandwagon supporters in sport. Technology can sometimes bring, or hasten, the unwelcome conversion of services or customer experiences into commodities. In order to fortify the consumption experience, brands must focus on understanding the emotional responses and needs of their consumers. Such an empha- 228 Brand Fans sis reinforces the need for new, data-driven, fluid, fine-grained, micro- segmentation strategies. Humans are experience driven rather than consumption driven. This explains why new industries can be created by packaging services around existing consumables. There is value for consumers in reducing search costs—like with shopping—making sure the products are compatible with their lifestyle—like with fashion—and removing impediments from the quality of the experience—like with technology that allows the consumer to tailor their products. At the heart of our lessons from sport is the premise that consumers are not units of demand or potential transactions. They are passionate “experiencers”, often seeking emotional validation, personal meaning, and social revelation from their choices. We observed that sport’s social role is one of powerful coalescence, often reflecting a commitment to collective cooperation. What makes sport exceptionally powerful is the way in which it combines with social variables to produce a site where cooperation is essential for collective achievement (Simons 2013). In the following sections, we continue the chapter’s “future-watch” theme by profiling the gatekeeping trends that will shape the next generation of branding.

Branding in a Cloudy Future: The Digital Mesh

A “digital mesh” of smart devices, machines, and “things” will connect to allow for a seamless and continuous digital consumption experience set to revolutionise branding. Fluid and dynamic interconnections in the “cloud” mean that the so-called Internet of Things will provide the decisive element in the triumvirate, linking consumers with products and content. For example, Samsung recently released its Family Hub refrig- erator, which with the aid of the Internet of Things, does a lot more than keep its contents cold, and switch on a little light when the door opens. In a taste of what is surely to come in white goods, the Internet-enabled fridge can automatically order groceries, provide meal options and recipes, and deliver content mirroring that of a Samsung smart TV, thanks to an enormous touchscreen on the door. However, also foreshadowing the “Internet of Things to come”, the fridge will only run applications 8 Conclusion: Future Brand Fans 229 developed on Samsung’s operating system. Other apps will need to be customised. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this new technology is Samsung’s branding approach. As a prototype designed to position the company as a first mover in cutting edge technology, the new fridge is priced at roughly double its nearest non-Internet-enabled competitor. Early adopters will have the unique experience of sampling Samsung recipes and watching movies on the fridge while preparing meals. At the same time, such positioning is a powerful signal to a tech-savvy market of consumers, who are influenced by prototype branding. Ubiquity will be a key feature of future consumption. Think in terms of the total experience chain: home, work, car, customer, travel, retail, consumption, entertainment. Application, platform, and interface design will revolve around the characteristics of the digital mesh. As a result, we will work seamlessly across multiple devices—some of which will be wearable—all cloud-based and contextually sensitive at the same time as being personalised, with intelligent and automated responsiveness. With such an immense complexity of digital entanglement, the foundational system architecture will grow exponentially in order to accommodate. Flexibility and modular connectivity will be central characteristics in systems that need to bolt together data, devices, machines, “things”, platforms, software, apps, printing, content, and all the products and services to be delivered through them (Hutchins 2015). Developments will not be restricted to smarter white goods. Wearable technology and “smart” consumption will provide consumers with a customised opportunity to purchase products via devices that have learned their preferences and can deliver accordingly.

Wearable and Comparable

A ubiquitous Internet of Things requires sensor technology to be manufactured within the devices, machines, and objects we use. Feedback from the sensors is then shunted back to a centralised processor which crunches the data using adaptive AI and corresponding learning algorithms that can not only make sense of the voluminous stream, but also take action 230 Brand Fans as a progressive response. Cutting edge examples can be found in medical technologies like swallowable cameras and wearable sport performance monitoring equipment. From a marketing perspective, advertising billboards in Japan already record imagery of those passing, instantly pattern-matching their appearances against pre-programmed models and adjusting the electronic advertisement to align pedestrian profiles with predicted product matches. The same approach is under scrutiny in consumer testing with companies trialling dynamic pricing schemes to capture real-time market features such as the combination of timing and user profile. Real-time demand might change prices, for example, as after work consumers are forced to pay more for groceries. At the same time, sport fans might get the chance to pay half price to attend a match with little spectator interest. Subject to legal and regulatory approval, buying anything in the future will be like the current experience of searching for an airline or hotel ticket with prices changing frequently. However, prices will not only reflect algorithmic predictions about demand. A consumer’s personal history is available for analysis too, leading companies to charge more to users they think have the capability or willingness to pay. An alternative or additional complexity might see pricing modulate on the basis of a user’s risk profile, a bit like insurance policies. Under this model, an Internet connection fee might be affected by a consumer’s likelihood of being a target for security fraud. Or, a fan’s ticket price is affected by their previous conduct at the event. Anti-social behaviour could incur additional costs, while a big spender on food and beverage or merchandise could receive a discount. Behavioural tracking and advanced analytics will be essential to make sense of the proliferation of data. In addition, even now, sensor readings in retail outlets can track consumer responses to olfactory stimuli as well as colours, background music, and point of sale promotional offers. Of course, behavioural pricing already appears in some sectors, such as energy, where peak demand periods cost more. But imagine a consumption world where other products were affected by business models prioritising a more optimised use of resources. Like an air conditioner that costs more to run during the summer, perhaps we will see a time when it costs more to buy a Coke from a vending machine on a hot day. 8 Conclusion: Future Brand Fans 231

Our interface with connected things will also transform, as virtual reality becomes hyper-reality. Virtual reality will grow exponentially, such as the Oculus Rift headset, which has been used in environments such as galleries to provide viewers with a 360-degree interactive experience of artworks. If virtual reality is not the preferred experience, then consumption can also be facilitated by augmented reality. Augmented reality is a little different from its virtual counterpart. Using equipment such as a helmet, glasses, or a suit, virtual reality replaces the real world with a digital one. Augmented reality, on the con- trary, enhances the real-world experience. From a cognitive viewpoint, supplemented environments easily fool the brain, whether replaced or augmented. From pilots to surgeons, both methods have been used to enormous effect, although up until recently it has been prohibitively expensive. Consider the branding opportunities. For example, Tommy Hilfiger allowed customers shopping in its New York 5th Avenue store to watch and experience a recent New York Fashion Show as if they were present. Similarly, tourism, education, theatre, exhibitions, health, transportation, and logistics are all leading contenders for virtual or augmented content, as is sport and entertainment, of course. Goldman Sachs (goldmansachs.com 2016) has estimated that the virtual/augmented reality market will overtake the TV market in annual revenue by 2025. Given that devices, data, and delivery will seamlessly coalesce, brand experiences will be contextually sensitive and personalised to the user; synchronised across the numerous platforms a consumer utilises, whether physical, virtual, augmented, or digital.

Contingent Consumption Experiences

Branding strategy will focus on the consumer’s journey through the consumption experience, so that mobility has no impact on the fluidity of access. Design will be paramount as the mesh of systems, products, and services must work smoothly with each other. Continuity of experience will be the ultimate benchmark, leading to the fully quantified consumer whose preferences and consumption habits will be meticulously com- 232 Brand Fans piled and analysed by big data algorithms; a combination of immense quantities of data generated from a multiplicity of micro-consumption measurements. Brands will start to get a handle on how to cut through the clutter and concentrate on the data most relevant to their branding activities with a particular emphasis upon user-directed and user/brand co-created information. But in order for the data to be useful and inter- pretable, developments in analytical learning software will be essential. Furthermore, the ability to “print” products on site from digital files constitutes a generational shift in logistics and distribution. Consumers may simply download a file rather than receive an online delivery or visit a retail outlet. Developments are rapid with 3D printing now commonly involving a wide range of materials such as alloys and plastics, carbon fibre, glass, forms of ink, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and even biologi- cal matter. Printed products are being employed in aerospace, medical, automotive, energy, military, leisure, and fashion at present, and will shortly encompass most product sectors in some way. The next step in the technology will see the integration of different kinds of materials into the one printed product. This also means that brands will be able to step up their level of customisation to the point where each consumer can receive a unique product matching his or her exact needs and specifications. A mass of raw consumption and activity information containing the aspirations of consumers will become available to brands for analysis. Already, Internet trawling software is available to comb individual social media consumption activities as well as for so-called bucket lists, aspirational goals, and must-do experiences. The most valuable data might be those related to the mercantile objectives of individuals. So-called passion data represents a kind of marketing Holy Grail, as axiomatically, consumers will spend big to reach their most coveted ambitions. An Internet of Things closes the loop; gathered data automatically introduces interven- tions to the system, so that continuous improvement no longer relies on human intercession or the correct interpretation of the limited feedback (mainly) dissatisfied customers willingly provide. Every device, sensor, and console will be connected through the cloud. This means that everything a “thing” does can be captured as a piece of data, measured and observed in real time, and be accessible from anywhere cloud connected. The Internet of Things will escalate to include 8 Conclusion: Future Brand Fans 233 an Internet of People, and ultimately an Internet of Nodes—people, places, things, content—all merged into units through inbuilt or wearable devices. One nascent example is Buckitdream, a start-up venture seeking to raise capital to develop a platform to uncover and then deliver consumers’ passion data to big brands. The business model works by giving users the opportunity to create a personal bucket list to share with their social networks, and also with potential brands, products, and equity providers, in order to secure and resource them. Passion data will become the foundation of branding strategy.

Advanced AI and Autonomous Behaviour

Increasingly, smart devices will actually be smart, by learning, adapting, and responding to changing user preferences. As a result, learning software will be included on all connected things, whether it is the refrig- erator, oven, phone, or social media app. Advanced AI will take brands beyond market research and useful feedback. Rather, devices through their software, will immediately respond to the needs of a consumer, automating the feedback/product review process. We are already seeing the rudimentary application of AI in product ordering systems, social media, smart devices, and search engines. With AI reporting on the preferences of consumers, for example, content providers can automatically update specific product options for each person on the basis of their habits and some measured expectations about other products that are likely to be well received. This goes a lot further than offering a football spectator a discount on beer or a retail consumer a free set of steak knives. A culminating eventuality will be machines that take action without human guidance or intervention. For most people, the examples that comes to mind involve driverless cars, intelligent robots, delivery drones, and human-like interfaces such as Apple’s Siri. However, the key feature that will make all of these products satisfying and generationally different user experiences will be voice activation. In short, we will instruct our devices via autonomous intelligent agents, some of which will be incorporated into the devices and material we engage with, and others 234 Brand Fans will be controlled by agents overseeing a suite of devices on our behalf, a little like a virtual personal assistant. Action will happen in the background, oblivious to the end user, orchestrated by learning algorithms continuously crunching data and adapting accordingly. AI-driven learning machines will be poised to deal with an unprecedented level of complexity, make probabilistic predictions, receive feedback, learn and adapt, act autonomously, interface with humans, and appear to understand, and revise their own programming in order to make more complex decisions over time. Smart machines will be both tangible and virtual, blended in application so that some display obvious modes for human interface, while others churn away in the background. We are already familiar with the more tangible forms of smart machines like sensors, and smart appliances such as Internet-enabled refrigerators, cameras, robots, and drones. Hidden or virtual smart machines will include intelligent and autonomous personal assistants, customer service operators, and the wide range of enterprise applications from advanced customer relationship management systems to voice translation software.

Lessons in Anticipating Sport’s Branding Future

As we have argued throughout this book, developments in sport—and its branding—signpost a future for marketing soaked in the digital, packed with data, and connected by the cloud. From a sporting perspective, three major events foreshadow how these elements can prove transformative for branding all forms of products and services: the 2016 NFL Super Bowl, the 2016 Summer Olympics, and the yet to be played, 2018 FIFA World Cup. Collectively, these three events demonstrate(d) how the cutting edge of sport branding reveals the pathway ahead for all branding and customer engagement activity. To begin with, it seems clear that “appointment” experiences are no longer dominant, even when it comes to major events and their real-time demand. In sport, appointment television has succumbed to mobile live, on-demand viewing, highlights, replays, streaming video, gaming, and 8 Conclusion: Future Brand Fans 235 social media interaction as preferred channels to engage with content, typically with numerous screens going at once (Dos Santos 2014). From a broader viewpoint, consumers will expect engagement with brands to be characterised by a similar suite of options where fluid, mobile, and unrestricted access is normal. Whether buying fashion items via a smart phone, securing a restaurant reservation through a single smart watch command, or selecting an entertainment option for the evening to be viewed through smart glasses, the demand for flexibility in consumption will orchestrate the nature of supply. Brands that fail to emphasise a turn- key consumption experience will not last in the cloudy future. A second observation based on the latest in “big” sport branding is that the event itself constitutes only a portion of the actual consumption experience. In fact, we can expect that in the future, the augmented product will play a greater role in the total experience than the core product. It is easy to see this development when using sport as the exemplar. Sport consumers can already engage through contests, forums, blogs, gaming consoles, tablets, smart devices from TVs to watches, and a growing range of social media and networking sites and applications. With specialisation comes customisation. Each consumer experience will be highly individualised and designed to meet the most idiosyncratic of demands. Of course, the augmented, customised, and specialised experience means that brands must have at their disposal an extensive range of modular add-ons to bolster their core offerings. Accompanying the first two trends has been an emergence of new business models allowing sporting brands to capitalise on fan loyalty in order to sell additional products and services. Commercial revenues associated with sport brands are escalating, mainly because the best brands have brazenly created innovative methods for exploiting sport’s brand equity. While the commodification of sport is hardly new, a proliferation of enterprises have entered the market seeking to find a niche facilitating the connections between sporting brands and their partisan fans or their nascent followers. As a result, we have witnessed a flurry of new media entities organised around the confluence of social media, broadcasting, sponsorship, and sport property franchises (Fortunato 2013). Unsurprisingly, smart and mobile device applications and platforms lead the way. Apple’s iBeacon offers a window into the future. It allows 236 Brand Fans retailers, including sport enterprises, to deliver messages directly to a user’s mobile device if they have the app installed. Major League Baseball adopted the app in 2014 and uses it to provide customised information to fans, such as the location of available seats in a stadium. At the same time, fans can be directed to merchandise stalls, food and beverage stands, and a raft of digital point of sale opportunities from media downloads to sponsored products. Such platforms demonstrate how new business models can be introduced. In fact, their use in sport has proven instrumental to success in other sectors like banking and fast-moving consumables. Since some consumers tend to be reluctant to test out new products, especially those that demand a shift from bricks and mortar to virtual thinking, sport has smoothed the way by providing consumption experiences associated with well-trusted brands. Ownership of content will also gain greater prominence as the basis for new business models. Visitation and revenue growth from digital sites foreshadows the remarkable possibilities. For example, over the last few years, visits to NBA.com have increased by more than 100 % year on year while revenue from the Australian National Rugby League website has doubled. Many companies and products have sought to mobilise their brands by converting content into entertainment or, at least, infotainment. Sport examples can be seen on a relatively small scale in the form of packaged content, like the Wimbledon or the FC Barcelona YouTube channels. Sport brands remain juxtaposed between fee-for-service broadcasting partners and the unexplored but colossal potential of self-broadcasting. As sport enterprises contemplate their immense potential with global audiences, they will become more reluctant to establish partnerships with existing broadcasters beyond television. Already many sport brands like professional football clubs and their governing leagues, have shown an interest in compiling their own content through inexpensive, fluid, virtual, digital news, and replay stations. With content ownership, further opportunities for business expansion arise, from selling online advertising to direct sales channels to fans. There is no reason to expect that content exploitation and ownership will be restricted to sporting brands either. Also leading the way are fashion houses, technology manufacturers, and nutritional supplement companies. 8 Conclusion: Future Brand Fans 237

Branding strategy will increasingly rely on social networks and media. In sport, for example, these platforms have propelled athletes into the spotlight, not just stars on the field of play, but also on the virtual field too. This trend also has extended to junior athletic performances. Some high school players, particularly in the United States, have seen their athletic endeavours captured by a spectator’s smart phone and uploaded to become trending social media sensations. In some cases, college recruit- ers are attracted to certain players as a result of the attention garnered through these channels. Social media can also be successfully leveraged to amplify pre-season hype and maintain fan interest during times when sponsor awareness and merchandise sales can flag. For example, during the off-season NFL draft where there is an absence of game content, teams like the Atlanta Falcons fill the void with content including statistics, player profiles, commentaries, and highlights. The same material can be repackaged for websites and other mobile consumption too. Sport broadcaster ESPN uses a similar strategy to augment their draft broadcast. Social media and conventional broadcasting content will increasingly converge as social media, customised apps, and leveraged, cross-promotional advertising and sponsorship campaigns all morph into different versions of the same foundational content, most of which will comprise augmented products (Galily and Tamir 2014). Sport demonstrates the convergence impact as hardware technology, software development and application, digital channels, and social media enmesh to create new opportunities for mobile devices to become more seamlessly connected to the human senses. As we suggested earlier, wearable media technology, soon to be joined by a glut of new smart watches, micro-chipped armbands, and remote hardware integrated into phones providing everything from heart-rate monitors to predictive software capable of anticipating the needs of the user, will be an essential component of a marketer’s strategy. Wearable technology is also a surrogate for wearable branding, in this case going well beyond a simple logo on a shirt or shoe. In sport, high profile players and athletes will wear devices allowing fans to monitor physiological performance and even to experience the same sights and sounds that players experience during the big moments of a game. Cameras embedded in eyeglasses, and even contact lenses, 238 Brand Fans could be worn by celebrity endorsers for a range of products and services. With athletes wearing such devices, the data could be transmitted directly to viewers who could choose an athlete to follow as well as a choice of angles and replays, along with a constant logo, of course. Similarly, a coffee fan might log in to an app to “experience” a few moments in the life of Nespresso aficionado, George Clooney.

Conclusion: A Brand Fan’s Future

A brand fan is defined by his or her personal and social gratification through the brand. As a consequence, branding strategy and fan engagement will also need to be reconceptualised. We have extrapolated the technological trends guiding the distribution of, and access to, sport in the future. We have foreshadowed fragmentation, customisation, and physical dislocation of sporting fans from the sporting object. The coun- terpoint, however, is that the nature of imminent technology will facilitate powerful customer experiences and tribal belonging, encouraging an unprecedented level of fan-to-fan interaction. In this respect, sport will transcend physical or geographic barriers, and become accessible to almost anyone with the ability to access the necessary technology. This technology will also encourage increased fan engagement and co-creation with sport. Similarly, this technological evolution has implications for all brands and their brand fans. The future of consumption will be shaped by the impact of numerous powerful platforms and media distribution channels, which are converging to forge a new level of technological integration. Consumers will wield unprecedented freedom of choice as well as new levels of interaction and engagement, in the process becoming active participants and co-creators of value. However, consumer segments will also become more fragmented, as the interactive, participative aspects of technologically driven product delivery offer customised possibilities that undermine physical closeness with offerings. We have argued that technological convergence will yield a merger of digital components characterised by connectedness and ubiquity. In practice, it means that computing technology with different functional- 8 Conclusion: Future Brand Fans 239 ity will be capable of integration, so that it can work together seamlessly and with unprecedented levels of customisation. For example, wireless networks, allowing roaming connectivity between different portable and permanent technologies like phones, laptops, handheld computers and diaries, and the Internet, will prove instrumental in delivering consumption on demand from almost anywhere and with a range of different devices. Not only does convergence make consumption fully portable and accessible from virtually any location in the world, it also opens the door to a suite of new sport products packaged and branded for instant, opportunistic experiences (Smith and Stewart 2014). All of the previously identified trends and developments presage a transformational shift in branding, most of it exciting and pacey, but not without its risks. Brands must ensure that the relationship they cultivate with consumers scaffolds the gap between commerce and community in order to facilitate co-creative engagement where brand fans thrive.

References

Dos Santos, M. A. (2014). Strategies in sports marketing: Technologies and emerging trends. Hershey: IGI-Global. Earnheardt, A. C., Haridakis, P., & Hugenberg, B. (2013). Sports fans, identity, and socialization: Exploring the fandemonium. New York: Lexington Books. Fortunato, J. A. (2013). Sports sponsorship: Principles and practices. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers. Galily, Y., & Tamir, I. (2014). A match made in heaven?! Sport, television, and new media in the beginning of the third millennia. Television & New Media, 15(8), 699–702. goldmansachs.com. (2016). Profiles in innovation. Available at: http://www. goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/pages/virtual-and-augmented-reality.html. Accessed 1 Sept 2016. Hutchins, B. (2015). Tales of the digital sublime: Tracing the relationship between big data and professional sport. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. doi: 10.1177/1354856515587163. Lee, J. W. (2010). Branded: Branding in sport business. Durham: Carolina Academic Press. 240 Brand Fans

Pritchard, M. P., & Stinson, J. L. (Eds.). (2013). Leveraging brands in sport business. London: Routledge. Simons, E. (2013). The secret life of sports fans: The science of sports obsession. New York: Overlook Press. Smith, A., & Stewart, B. (2014). Introduction to sport marketing (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. Index

A authenticity, 33, 34, 63, 84, 97, 99, adidas, 93, 97, 149, 180, 182 122, 129, 132, 137, 146, 167, advocates, 3 168, 198, 215 AI, 229, 233–4 avatars, 178, 185 Ali, Muhammad, 136, 144, 157 allegiant fans, 126 Arsenal, 49, 80, 81, 161 B artificial intelligence, 166, 171, 179 basking in reflected glory, 131, 155 Aston Villa, 1 behavioural segmentation, 139 Atlanta Falcons, 237 belonging, 4, 5, 9, 30, 33, 34, 43–5, attachment, 27, 29, 32, 62, 80, 48, 70, 101, 104, 119, 121, 89, 90, 103, 105, 106, 122, 128, 154, 168, 201, 208, 116, 129, 131, 132, 151, 209, 224, 238 194, 224 best sporting enterprises, 2, 4 augmentation, 193, 194, 198, 201 big data, 169 augmented experience(s), 17, 176, Bolt, Usain, 4, 12, 181, 212, 213 178, 193 bonding, 50, 94, 115, 122, 125 augmented reality, 7, 39, 165, 231 Boston Celtics, 28 Australian Open, 64, 147, 207 Boston Red Sox, 12, 33 Australian Rules football, 104 brand advocacy, 53, 71, 107, 208

© The Author(s) 2017 241 A.C.T. Smith et al., Brand Fans, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-48854-7 242 Index brand advocates, 2, 29, 59, 63, 79, 136, 137, 139, 166, 185, 187, 82, 209 194, 215, 218 brand ambassadors, 46, 118, 156 brand proposition, 15, 16 brand authenticity, 33, 198 brand relationships, 3 brand characteristics, 150 brand stories, 76, 78, 79, 82 brand community(ies), 9, 48, 59, 67, brand value(s), 34, 111, 115, 162, 79–83, 89, 96, 101, 107, 129, 192 139, 227 British Open, 145 brand equity, 10, 11, 15, 16, 49, 81, business models, 84, 164, 226, 230, 171, 195, 204, 217, 224, 235 235, 236 brand experience(s), 3, 26, 30, 38, 53, 57, 59–62, 116 brand fanaticism, 5 C brand fans, 2, 17, 26–8, 30, 32, 42, camaraderie, 49, 73, 103, 104, 118, 45, 48, 53, 58, 59, 62–5, 67, 121, 126, 147, 152, 153, 168 71, 72, 76, 77, 79–82, 84, channels, 4, 14, 15, 17 126, 128, 152, 169, 193, 205, Chicago Cubs, 41, 52 206, 215, 224, 226, 238–9 Chicago White Sox, 41, 68 brand gluttons, 18 Cleveland Cavaliers, 58, 72, 75, 157 brand identity, 7, 13, 34 Cleveland Indians, 42, 63, 64, 66 brand image, 7, 10, 32–4, 53, 138, cloud, 228, 229, 232, 234 216 co-creation, 2, 4, 15, 26–8, 30, 38, branding, 1–14, 17–19, 34, 37, 58, 39, 45, 48, 50, 53, 57, 59, 60, 62, 68, 69, 77, 79, 82, 84, 80, 84, 106, 116, 133 85, 92, 96, 97, 106, 110, co-creative, 6 113–16, 121, 134, 142–6, cognitive, 26, 120, 136, 231 148, 151, 157–9, 162–5, collaborate, 47, 71, 107, 117, 227 167, 168, 170–8, 180, 181, collaboration, 16, 26, 27, 59, 63, 183–8, 191–4, 197–204, 107, 151, 224, 226 206, 209–10, 212–17, 219, collaborative, 27, 35, 48, 49, 79, 223–5, 228, 229, 231–5, 116, 129, 138, 195, 203 237–9 communication, 2–4, 8, 12, 16, 27, branding model, 180 58, 63, 72, 74, 84, 90, 107, brand intensity, 17, 224 138, 140, 151, 168, 182, brand management, 27, 33 198–201, 203, 206, 207, 212 brand managers, 26, 29, 30, 59, communication channels, 2, 12 64–6, 71, 72, 74, 79, 80, 85, community(ies), 5, 16, 39, 48–51, 105, 106, 117, 120, 130, 134, 64, 67, 79–82, 89, 91, Index 243

96–101, 104, 107, 111, 113, customised, 38, 44, 141, 165, 167, 122, 126, 130, 132, 139, 168, 169, 170, 172, 177, 178, 182, 170, 171, 194, 201, 204, 208, 187, 191–3, 197–9, 202, 213, 224, 226 219, 227, 229, 235–8 community hubs, 217 competitive advantage, 3 connections, 3–5, 9, 17 D connectivity, 15, 27, 32, 35, 69, 70, Dallas Cowboys, 4, 9, 12, 62, 81, 129, 163, 164, 176, 179, 185, 144, 147, 150, 184–6 187, 188, 191, 197, 200, 211, dashboards, 172, 214 219, 224, 229, 239 data, 38, 81, 104, 127, 128, 130, consumer attachment, 29 134, 135, 139, 141, 159, consumer behaviour, 6 161–6, 169–78, 180–8, 217, consumer communities, 84 224, 227–34, 238 consumer content, 74, 84, 159 data analytics, 17 consumer engagement, 54, 58, 185, data convergence, 174, 188 194, 198, 201, 216 data revolution, 159 consumer experience, 193, 200, 235 Denver Broncos, 73, 97, 135 consumer-generated content, 17, 59, Detroit Pistons, 37, 67, 71 163, 188, 224 differentiate, 7 consumer loyalty, 17, 126 differentiating, 32, 194, 196 consumer networks, 84, 209 digital, 6, 15, 17 consumption, 3, 5–9, 15, 17, 18, 26, digital branding, 164 28, 29, 35, 37, 39, 41, 49, 65, digital channels, 162, 237 67, 80, 83, 95, 119, 129, 140, digital destination, 186–8 141, 146, 148, 164, 172, digital drive, 162, 187, 195, 197 176–8, 182, 183, 191–3, digital enclosure, 162 224–33, 235–9 digital engagement, 69 content creation, 59, 67, 72, 75, digital entanglement, 229 168, 203 digital era, 187 conversion process, 195 digital marketing, 3 coopetition, 112, 115 digital media, 58 crowdsource, 16 digital mesh, 228–9 curation, 72, 167, 193 digital platforms, 27, 35, 58, 107, customer engagement, 2, 25, 64, 129, 186, 201, 219 194, 234 digital stream, 165 customisation, 25, 165, 203, 204, digital sublime, 174 226, 232, 235, 238, 239 digital tools, 82, 169 244 Index distribution channels, 173, 238 F dynamic, 27, 37, 47, 72, 106, 151, Facebook, 36, 37, 58, 67–9, 72, 78, 162–5, 171, 172, 185, 192, 82, 100, 131, 138, 156, 163, 224, 226, 228, 230 165, 169, 170, 173, 175, 186, dynamic data, 17, 162, 164, 171, 185 187, 198, 204, 205, 207, 209–12, 214, 215, 219 failing forward, 179–81 E fan, 1, 5, 16, 26, 28–33, 36–53, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), 59–70, 72–5, 77, 78, 80–3, 66, 209 96, 99, 100, 103, 112, 118, emerging technologies, 2 129–31, 133, 134, 136–7, emotional, 4, 5, 8–10, 12, 19, 26, 143, 147, 149, 150, 152, 153, 28, 32, 41, 48, 53, 72, 73, 76, 156, 158, 162, 166–8, 171, 78, 79, 90, 131, 136, 150, 173, 178, 181–5, 187, 192, 153, 158, 183, 192–4, 218, 194, 198, 199, 208, 211, 214, 227, 228 215, 218, 219, 235, 237, 238 emotional attachment, 5, 19 fanatical, 6 emotional intensity, 4, 19 fanaticism, 63, 119, 194–5, 224 empathy, 95, 100, 136 fanatics, 5, 6, 26 empowered, 80, 85, 137, 165 fan communities, 16, 171 engaged, 6, 15, 16 fandom, 1, 28, 115, 119, 133 engagement, 2, 11, 15, 18–19, 25, fan zones, 29, 50, 60 27–31, 35–7, 44–46, 53, 54, FC Barcelon, 4, 9, 34, 46, 47, 69, 58, 59, 61, 63, 64, 69, 77–80, 72, 92, 97, 99 106, 122, 130, 131, 137, 138, FC Porto, 42 158, 164, 167–71, 174, 182, feedback, 30, 31, 65, 74, 83, 85, 183, 185–7, 192–5, 198, 199, 104, 137, 173, 176, 179–81, 201, 203, 204, 208, 209, 211, 206–8, 218, 229, 232–4 212, 216, 217, 219, 224, 225, FIFA World Cup, 14, 99, 136, 149, 227, 234, 235, 238, 239 162, 208, 234 English Premier League (EPL), 1, 11, Flickr, 186, 204, 213 93, 126, 161, 202 enhanced experience, 32, 192, 193, 208, 215, 219 G enhancement, 126, 154, 194 gaming, 119, 165, 179, 234, 235 EPL. See English Premier League Gatorade, 66, 82 (EPL) globalisation, 7 ESPN, 14 Golden State Warriors, 47, 51, 58 Index 245 greatest sporting brands, 4, 11, 122, interactive, 25, 27, 66, 68, 80, 155, 148 164, 165, 167, 168, 175, 185, greatest sport organisations, 2 193, 201, 205, 208, 212, 214, Great sporting brands, 2, 71, 122, 231, 238 139, 152 interactivity, 4, 172, 226 Green Bay Packers, 50, 60, 103 International Cricket Council, 109 internet of people, 232–3 Internet of things, 228, 229, 232 H hashtags, 73, 155, 211 Hawthorn Football Club, 136 J James, LeBron, 12

I identification, 4, 5, 8, 9, 13, 16, L 28–30, 33, 45, 48, 49, 63, 81, learning algorithms, 171, 228, 232 103, 108, 126, 132, 135, 136, Leicester City, 76, 120, 126, 153, 161 158, 183, 192, 215, 217 lesson(s), 2, 6, 11, 15, 16, 19, 27, identity, 28, 32, 34, 40, 48, 60, 62, 44, 53, 85, 90, 95, 100, 73, 77, 90, 91, 106, 118–20, 104–6, 108, 109, 112, 114, 162, 163, 169, 171, 182–4, 116, 120, 127, 128, 142, 151, 194, 214, 215, 224, 225, 227 154, 158, 164, 167, 171, 177, identity salience, 183 180, 193, 195, 201, 206, 208, imagery, 32, 33, 121, 133, 149, 150, 214, 215, 224, 226, 228 168, 170, 176, 179, 182, 214, licensing, 164, 188 230 lifelong commitment, 126, 159 incentives, 65, 148, 172, 202, 209 lifelong fans, 15 innovation, 30, 51, 52, 92, 94, 123, lifelong loyalty, 2 132, 141, 155, 163, 175, 179 lifetime value, 154 Instagram, 37, 38, 64, 67–9, 78, Liverpool Football Club, 81, 168 169, 170, 173, 186, 209, 210, Los Angeles Kings, 39, 51 212 Louisville Slugger, 163 integrated, 6 loyalty, 2, 4–7, 10, 12, 17–19, 26, interaction, 25, 26, 35, 38, 39, 43, 28, 29, 32, 35, 43, 49, 53, 61, 50, 58, 64, 67, 68, 73, 74, 81, 68, 71, 77, 81, 89, 107, 118, 103, 166, 173, 174, 181, 194, 125, 126, 128, 132, 137, 140, 201, 203, 208, 215, 224, 226, 143, 153, 158, 169–71, 227, 238 192–4, 224–6, 235 246 Index

M mobile, 17, 25, 31, 38, 39, 44, 47, Madison Square Garden, 176 58, 69–70, 74, 75, 84, 164, Major League Baseball (MLB), 14, 167, 169, 171, 176–8, 188, 174 192, 193, 198–201, 203, 208, Major League Soccer (MLS), 112, 211, 214, 225, 234, 235, 237 113, 156, 211 mobile channels, 193 Manchester City, 43, 65, 75, 77, mobility, 92, 192, 225, 231 161, 201, 202, 215 modular, 176–8, 188, 197, 198, 229 Manchester United, 9, 12, 25, 46, modularised, 177, 193, 197, 198 77, 93–6, 99, 118, 156, 161, Montreal Canadiens, 41 182, 226 motivation, 28, 29, 39, 53, 61, 62, marketing strategy, 57, 83, 187 73, 131, 135, 152, 179 meaning, 27, 29, 57, 62, 76, 101, multi-faceted engagement, 219 103, 119, 194, 228 media, 3, 5, 10, 15, 26–9, 34–9, 42–6, 49, 51, 52, 64–70, N 72–6, 78, 79, 81, 83, 84, 94, narratives, 73, 94, 108, 117, 143, 99, 103, 106, 107, 110, 148, 157, 194, 209 112–14, 117, 118, 131, National Association for Stock Car 133, 137, 138, 148, 150, Auto Racing (NASCAR), 15, 151, 156, 157, 163, 164, 31, 40, 83, 174, 199 166–9, 172–4, 181, 185, 187, National Basketball Association 191, 192, 197, 198, 202, (NBA), 113, 132, 205 204–16, 218, 219, 225, 233, National Collegiate Athletic 236, 237 Association (NCAA), 172 Melbourne Cricket Ground, 70 National Football League (NFL), 37, Melbourne Football Club, 89 39–41, 52, 60, 61, 66, 68, 70, Melbourne Storm, 129, 130 73, 97, 98, 110–14, 121, 135, memorabilia, 52, 83, 185 144, 146, 147, 152, 162, 175, merchandise, 26, 29, 30, 39, 41, 43, 184, 212, 223, 234, 237 49, 60, 62, 65, 67, 71, 74, 78, National Hockey League (NHL), 13, 90, 93, 101, 112, 125, 132, 39, 60, 64, 65, 68, 77, 78, 98, 141, 147, 164, 173, 195, 203, 112, 113, 132, 198, 213 210, 213, 214, 230, 236, 237 National Rugby League (NRL), 44 metrics, 7, 161, 172, 183 NBA. See National Basketball Miami Heat, 157 Association (NBA) micro-blogging, 211 networked consumers, 165 Milwaukee Brewers, 48 New England Patriots, 70, 73 Index 247

New Jersey Devils, 60, 64, 66, 198 Phoenix Suns, 65 new media, 27, 58, 76, 126, 184, Pinterest, 68, 213 186, 194, 202, 209, 235 Pittsburgh Penguins, 69 New York Rangers, 175 Pittsburgh Steelers, 50, 62 New York Yankees, 9, 12, 33, 71, 76 platforms, 27, 35, 36, 46, 50, 58, 64, New Zealand Rugby All Blacks, 9 66–9, 72, 76, 78, 84, 94, 104, NFL. See National Football League 107, 126, 129, 131, 132, 138, (NFL) 141, 148, 154–6, 164, 165, NHL. See National Hockey League 170, 173, 174, 185–7, 198, (NHL) 199, 201, 203, 206–10, 213, Nike, 4, 9, 13, 25, 38, 93, 97, 120, 214, 219, 226, 229, 231, 149–51, 180, 197, 216, 217 235–8 postmobile, 225 postmobile consumer, 18 O Poznan, Lech, 118 Oakland Athletics, 127, 174 primal, 101 Olympic Games, 10, 14, 93, 94, product extensions, 195, 198 102, 108, 143, 146, 149, 150, prosumer, 35, 165, 171, 174 173, 207 prototyping, 17, 163, 180, 181, 198 online communities, 50 psychological benefits, 73, 158 psychological bond, 19 Psychological Continuum Model, 29 P psychological meaning, 16 Packer, Kerry, 94, 141 pull branding, 202 passion, 3, 4, 6, 15, 17, 27, 30, 34, 45, pull strategy, 200 46, 48, 60, 62, 63, 65, 73, 77, push strategy, 200 101, 102, 122, 125, 129, 138, 139, 146, 150, 153, 157, 159, 184, 194, 205, 224, 232, 233 Q passionate, 2, 5, 6, 15, 17 quality, 2, 10 passionate connections, 126 passionate partisans, 128, 131, 132, 134, 137, 158 R permission branding, 193 rapid prototyping, 181 personal identity, 5 Real Madrid, 9, 12, 36, 72, 92, 156, personalisation, 25, 58, 226 192, 205, 226 personalised content, 17, 60, 178, real-time analytics, 173 193, 200 real-time branding, 177 248 Index reciprocity, 152, 153, 159, 227 social acceptance, 128, 224 Reebok, 13 social anchors, 217 relationship(s), 5, 9, 10, 13, 25, 27, social connections, 84 41, 42, 44, 45, 48, 57, 59, 64, social curation, 18 66, 67, 82, 84, 100, 107, 125, social hub, 18, 72 128, 129, 131, 140, 148, 153, social identity theory, 120 154, 169, 184, 192, 204, 206, social marketing, 193, 215 208, 209, 215, 226, 227, 234, social media, 3, 7, 30, 31, 35–8, 42, 239 43, 46, 48, 52, 58, 63–9, relationship management, 57, 125 72–6, 78, 80, 82, 83, 103, retention, 81, 101, 141, 167, 171, 107, 118, 129, 131, 133, 144, 194 148, 153, 156, 162–4, Ronaldo, Cristiano, 12, 72, 156, 205 167–74, 178–82, 187, 188, Rossignol, 169–71 198, 199, 203–6, 208–16, RSS, 185 218, 223, 232–5, 237 social media strategy, 205 social networking, 67, 80, 199, 203, S 208, 209 St. Louis Cardinals, 83, 163 social presence, 64, 193 San Diego Padres, 42 social responsibility, 193, 216, 217 San Francisco 49ers, 70, 150 sponsor, 47, 66, 102, 146, 151, 195, San Francisco Giants, 68, 82–3, 128 207, 237 satisfaction, 73, 101, 107, 112, 153, sponsorships, 92, 97, 149 194, 210 sport branding, 11 search engine management, 172 sport entertainment, 39, 42, 52, 53, Seattle Mariners, 42 115, 120, 158, 179 Seattle Seahawks, 40, 60, 152 sports broadcasting, 177 segment, 31, 41, 47, 62, 107, 141, Spring Racing Carnival (SRC), 105 177 stakeholders, 26, 27, 36, 48, 51, 53, segmentation, 139–41, 172, 174, 133, 135, 137, 187, 213 177, 203, 228 Stanley Cup, 41 self-esteem, 29, 73, 103, 119, 122, Super Bowl, 14, 39, 60, 62, 98, 135, 136 144, 173, 208, 234 smart devices, 164, 174, 193, 199, superdata, 17 226, 233, 235 sustainability, 117, 215, 217, 218 smart machines, 234 Sydney Swans, 90 smart phones, 31, 37, 70, 164, 176, symbol, 7 191, 199, 208 symbolic, 4, 8, 9, 29, 32, 33, 90, 100, Snapchat, 36, 37, 68, 210 117, 119, 155, 181, 209, 223 Index 249 symbolic meaning, 8 V symbolism, 16, 19, 100 value, 25–30, 34–41, 43–5, 48–53, 57, 59, 60, 64, 67, 71, 80, 91, 92, 96, 97, 103, 106, 107, T 115, 116, 121, 122, 126, 128, tailgate, 50, 60 134, 139, 144, 148, 151, 154, Tampa Bay Lightning, 64, 72, 73 162, 163, 174, 177, 178, 181, team identification, 28 182, 192, 195, 198, 209, 210, technological convergence, 177, 224, 217, 224, 226, 228, 238 238 value co-creation, 2, 11, 15, 16 tribal, 9, 16, 43, 89, 91, 101, value creation, 2 115–18, 121–3, 209, 224, 238 Vancouver Canucks, 64 tweets, 37, 59, 63, 68, 71, 73, 77, vicarious experience, 194 116, 168, 199, 207, 208, 210, virtual reality, 75, 166, 175, 226, 231 212–14 volunteers, 102, 138 Twenty20, 141 Twitter, 36, 37, 52, 63, 64, 67–9, 72, 78, 82, 151, 156, 163, W 169, 173, 186, 187, 199, 205, Washington Redskins, 39 207, 209–14, 219 wearable technology, 229, 237 Western Sydney Wanderers, 118 Wimbledon, 25, 31, 37, 75, 196, U 197, 236 Ultimate Fighting Championship wireless technology, 6 (UFC), 13, 143, 144, 209 World Wrestling Entertainment Union of European Football (WWE), 94, 110, 212 Associations (UEFA), 50, 115, 208 user-generated content, 172, 199, Y 204 YouTube, 68, 69, 74, 82, 150, 170, US Open, 69 204, 205, 211, 212, 236