Influence of Mass Media, Marketing and Advertising on Development Of

Home , Influence of mass media, Sports marketing

Influence of Mass Media,

Marketing and Advertising on

Development of Sports

Thesis

Tomáš Horák

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of Arts

Communication and Mass Media

State University of New York

Empire State College

2016

Reader: Dr. Todd Nesbitt

Acknowledgement

With this page I wish to express my genuine appreciation and gratefulness to the following people:

First of all, I would like to thank my mentor, Dr. Todd Nesbitt, for his guidance and for having patience with me throughout my studies and especially throughout the time I was writing this work. His feedback and ideas were always constructive, and always proved invaluable. He was always opened to my ideas and guided them into the right direction. Despite the tough times ahead of me, his feedbacks on my work were always punctual and constructive.

Joey Scafidi and all of the members of CrossFit Committed, who participated in my survey and interviews and provided me with valuable information and knowledge, without which I would not be able to finish this work.

Alena Davydova, Peter Šechny for their support and all the fun we had working together, and Danai Baouraki for her patience, help and guidance throughout my studies.

Last but not least, my family, especially my parents, who have always supported me throughout all of the journeys in my life. Without them, their hard work, determination, support, and trust, nothing of this would be possible.

Table of Content

Abstract

1 Introduction ...... 6

2. The Media and Commerce ...... 9

2.1 Marketing Communication ...... 10

2.1.1 Digital Marketing ...... 13

2.1.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Marketing ...... 13

2.2 Advertising ...... 16

2.2.1 Online Advertising ...... 17

2.2.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Advertising ...... 18

2.2.3 Social Media and Advertising ...... 21

3. Sports and society ...... 23

3.1 History of Sports ...... 23

3.1.2 Sports and Culture ...... 25

3.1.3 Influences that Make People Watch and Follow Sports Passively ...... 27

3.2 Understanding Sports Industry and its’ History ...... 28

4. Sports and Commercial Communication ...... 31

4.1 Sports Marketing ...... 31

4.2 Advertising in Sport ...... 33

4.3 Athlete Endorsements in Sports ...... 34

4.4 Social Media and Sports Communication ...... 35

4.5 Ethics in Sponsorship and Sports Advertising ...... 37 5. Case Study – CrossFit ...... 40

5.1 CrossFit, the Sport of Fitness ...... 40

5.2 Marketing and Advertising in Connection with CrossFit ...... 42

5.3 Athletes’ Endorsement in CrossFit ...... 44

5.4 CrossFit and Media ...... 45

5.5 CrossFit as a Business ...... 48

5.6 Influences of Social Media, Marketing, and Advertising on People Doing

CrossFit ...... 50

5.7 Influences of Social Media, Marketing, and Advertising on CrossFit ...... 53

5.8 Conclusion of the Case Study ...... 54

6. Conclusion ...... 55

7. Works Cited ...... 57

8. Bibliography ...... 64

Abstract

This thesis examines the role of media, marketing and advertising, as a catalyst for change in sports and the way audiences consume sports. Sports are examined from a sociological perspective in conjunction with a contextual overview of sports industry providing a background for an analysis of commercial sports communication through marketing and advertising, as well the influence of sports with social media, and the use of sports’ athletes for endorsement activities. These techniques are applied in a case study of CrossFit to show how media, marketing, and advertising can change a sport and how such activities can help a sport to grow. Also, the case study shows and explains effects of the communication techniques on people who are already actively involved in the sport. 1 Introduction

In today’s world, communications media have a massive impact on every aspect of people’s lives. Not only do these communication channels for example set fashion trends, shape people’s perception about politics, events happening in the world, but also the mass media nowadays serve as a very useful business tool for companies around the world. The companies use mass media to promote and sell their products. The promotion can be done in various ways; it can either be through classical advertising, endorsement, or any other ways of sponsorship. Sponsorship and endorsement are key parts of sport and it plays a major role in the promotion and growth of various companies. This goes both ways, sports that are popular and have a solid fan base that can be used as a target audience for companies, are hugely influenced by the sponsors, who want to be seen. This influence has effects on how the sports are played and it also shapes the sport as a whole.

Some sports have grown organically, but others have grown as a result of influence from commercial sources. This influence can bring a lot of money into sports, which allows them to improve conditions for players, build larger stadiums, to come up with more interesting events. These changes are supposed to draw more people to watch the sport, which makes it more interesting to the commercial players. The process of growing and evolving is almost never ending. However, the process is never ending in traditional sports such as soccer or ice hockey, but there are new sports, that have either profited or have been negatively influenced by the money and the commercialization.

The question is, what influence commercialization has on sports, what tools are used in the process, and why exactly sports are used as a way to make money? There are companies that have used the sports well to support their sales and their reputations particularly Rogue or Reebok. These companies have become extremely popular in the last few years thanks to CrossFit and its increasing popularity. Social media, such as

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube play a crucial role in promotion, marketing, and endorsement. This significantly helps to create increased awareness of sport among people.

One has to ask, how the communication needs to be done in order to be effective and to attract audiences? Also, when such communication is undergoing for a longer period of time and the commercialization of the sport begins, the interesting thing is to examine, how the sports change in order to keep up with the sponsors’ demands. In order to examine the influence of media, marketing and advertising on sport, it is necessary to define the terms first and then explain, how the fields work, what features they have and what influences they might have on business, especially on businesses within a sport industry. It is beneficial to examine a case study, as an example of influence of mass media and commercialization on sports, which is something that one would say, is not traditionally very deeply connected. However, it is more connected than one would think. Mass media shapes people’s perception about various topics in their lives, but the relationship goes both ways, the companies that want people’s attention need to create content that will be interesting for the public. Sport is being used as a communication channel for business in order to convey the message appropriately across. For it to be effective, it is up to the sport to be interesting for the people, so they will be consistently

watching it, playing it and buying gear for it, simply so they keep putting their money into the sport. Also, athletes’ communication with public, fans, and media helps companies that sponsor them business-wise and also the communication makes the athletes ambassadors of the sports and it helps them to shape the face of their sport, how the sport is played and regarded entirely.

This paper seeks to examine how the influence of commerce in sports through the media impacts the sport itself. Specifically, it aims to examine how the influence of marketing, endorsement, large-scale media coverage and other factors result in changes on how the sport is played and consumed by the audience.

The paper first covers the basics of both marketing and advertising, their digital branches, techniques used and their advantages and disadvantages. Then, the paper focuses on sports, cultural influences on sports, and communication in sports. It is necessary to cover the terminology and to explain the mechanics before the case study can be analyzed. The case study used in this paper, will focus on describing CrossFit.

The case study itself explains what CrossFit is, its’ history, and growth. Most importantly, the influence of marketing, advertising and endorsement on the sport is deeply examined. Also, the case study includes a survey, which serves as source of information, focusing on what influences people to be involved in the sport, whether the media, marketing and advertising affect their people’s consumer behavior or not. The case study provides the paper with an insight into the biggest CrossFit gym in Prague called CrossFit Committed. It studies what exactly has been influencing members of the

CrossFit Committed gym, what have been their social media habits, and what attention

they have been paying to marketing and advertising in CrossFit. Lastly, the case study features information from the owner of CrossFit Committed, Joey Scafidi, on marketing, building a successful CrossFit brand, using the sport as a business and making a living from it.

2. The Media and Commerce

Before this paper deals with the examination of the theory about marketing and advertising, which is necessary to understand when going deeper into showcasing the effects of these two fields on sport, it is crucial to distinguish these two and state difference between them, since they work closely together and it is important to be able to differentiate them.

Marketing and its techniques are used to drive the desired message and underline the branding strategy. These techniques and branding strategies aim to prepare the product or service for a selected market. Advertising on the other hand is a channel that is used to deliver the message to the audience; it is a communication of an already finished product or service. For example Nike’s Just Do It is the marketing and branding message, but when the company puts it on billboards, into television commercials it is an advertising channel that delivers this message to the desired selected target audience

(Uys, 2010, p.28).

Both of these fields work with target audience. Target audience or target market is a group of people that companies or advertisers aim their products, services or other business activities at. There is a process behind selecting the correct target audience or 9

target market for given products or services. The process includes looking at demographics, geographical location, interests, hobbies and much more (Ferrell &

Hartline, 2013, p.135). All this research helps the companies aim more effectively and efficiently and prevents them from spending money somewhere, where there is no potential interest from the buyers. Social media and information shared on social media serve as a useful source of data to determine one’s interests and hobbies; therefore, they serve well for the advertisers while doing their research.

2.1 Marketing Communication

Marketing is one of the fundamental tools on how to sell a product and how to get the product to the customers. Marketing plays an important role in the sports as well, because the sport itself is the “product” that needs to be marketed correctly in order to create demand among the public and potential audiences. In the contemporary age, marketing is widely done online and it is largely used regarding the topic of this paper; sports. In this section, the field of marketing will be examined, as well as its use in today’s digital world and most importantly, the marketing in sports and what influences it has on sports.

Adrian Palmer in his book Introduction to Marketing: Theory and Practice uses a new definition of marketing by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) from the United

Kingdom, which describes marketing as “the strategic business function that creates value by stimulating, facilitating and fulfilling customer demand – it does this by

building brands, nurturing innovation, developing relationships, creating good customer service and communicating benefits” (Palmer, 2012, p. 5). That is a quite broad definition and covers many fields of business activities. In practice, companies which have put their customers in the center of everything they do can be called customer oriented. There are, however, signs that clearly indicate if the company is or is not customer oriented. The signs can be for example; the company’s opening hours, distribution channels that suit the company more than the customers, taking notes of customers’ complaints and ideas, but not acting on them, etc.

The main part of marketing is the marketing mix. The marketing mix is made up of the

4 P’s which are; Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, but often other P’s are added to create more precise marketing mix, like People, Processes, and Physical evidence. To better understand what those 4 P’s are about, they try to cover the focus on satisfying customers’ needs profitably (Palmer, 2012, p. 21, 22).

Important part of marketing is the marketing strategy. Without a proper strategy, the communication is not sound and the message does not come across. The message can come across to an extent, but in practice a marketing communication without a strategy is throwing ideas onto the market and hoping one of them will work. Usually, one of them works, but the practice is that companies spend a lot of money on the communication that did not work. So, what does a proper marketing strategy actually does? First, one has to define what marketing strategy is, which might be a little complicated, because according to Steven P. Schnaars and his book Marketing Strategy

“the term marketing strategy is commonly used, but no one is really sure what I means“

(Schnaars, 1998, p. 18). However, the book provides a good insight on how the

marketing strategy works and what it usually consists of. At the macro level, marketing strategies try to focus on correct application of the marketing mix variables – 4 P’s.

That involves selection of products’ prices, designing an advertising campaign, and making decisions on a plan of distribution. Then there are marketing element strategies that each apply to different parts of the marketing mix and specify it. Finally, there are product-market entry strategies, which work closely with how effectively the new product to the market is incorporated and secure desired market share (Schnaars, 1998, p. 18). Marketing strategy allows using pathways and footholds that apply company’s limited marketing budgets more effectively. Marketing strategy also facilitates the ability to apply marketing money to the correct portion of the audiences, not the section that does not value the message (Schnaars, 1998).There are three sectors of the market that any company or business needs to take into consideration: what the company offers, what the customers need and what the competitors offer. Somewhere in the middle of these three sectors is a place that is called a competitive advantage. If a company succeeds in marketing their services or products so they consider all the three sectors, they will gain the competitive advantage and will most likely succeed

(Schnaars, 1998).

2.1.1 Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a fairly new tool in today’s business world. It has been experiencing quite a boom because of the growth of social media, smart phones and other devices that allow people to stay connected almost anywhere at any given time.

With the growing popularity of internet, social media and applications that allow sharing media content between users, the importance of digital marketing has grown significantly. So, what is digital marketing? Digital marketing is a process of applying technologies which form online channels in order to reach desired markets. These technologies can be for example: web, e-mail, databases, cell phones, tablets, or digital television. The use of digital technologies requires the correct recognition of the strategic importance of digital technologies as well as a planned approach to reach customers through e-communications. It is a use of wide platforms in order to build and maintain relationships with customers. (Chaffey, et al, 2009, p. 10-11)

2.1.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage would be; the ability to monitor the result of the digital marketing strategy in real time or very effectively. The ability to see the number of views, likes, shares or mentions can give the companies accurate image of how effective the strategy is. Another advantage is the variety when it comes to ways of reaching the potential customers. Digital marketing, as the definition shows it, can be done through many different channels, but usually these

channels are connected to each other. For example cell phones and tablets are usually connected to the same social media accounts; the users tend to visit similar web pages on these devices. Therefore, the communication can be different, yet the same. The message stays the same, only the layout changes accordingly to the platform; therefore a consistent well-thought digital marketing strategy can reach the potential customers in many ways and the chance to succeed raises exponentially. Another advantage of digital marketing is its’ possibility of acquiring the right audience. A well done digital marketing strategy can reach not only a lot of customers, as well as the right customers, it can communicate the message as desired; it is fairly cheap and can create a major success for the company (Carter et al., 2011, p. 229). As an example it is good to use

Uber. Uber focused its business activities on mobile-savvy professionals or experienced users, who were able and had no problem with paying a little more for the opportunity to travel comfortably and in style. They main advantage, however, stays their own mobile app, which allows the users to fast and conveniently make a booking of the Uber ride. The speed and extreme easy use quickly became popular among people. Uber and their approach is nowadays viewed as a success story and has been studied in depth

(Periwal, 2014).

There are some disadvantages of digital marketing and they are closely connected with a bad execution of the strategy. First of all, the digital marketing is different by how it is executed, monitored and as well as looked at by the customers. It is very easy to make a mistake because of the variety of possibilities of marketing and advertising activities in today’s digital age. With the spread of internet and social media, with so many potential customers being connected almost constantly to some kind of communication channel,

there are many companies that use digital marketing to reach those people. If the digital marketing strategy is not though through, it will fade into the vast number of junk messages that annoy people wherever they go on the web. Another disadvantage may be the time consuming evaluation of success of the strategy, if desired to be watched in real time. Some digital campaigns demand changes according to immediate results, therefore they need to be observed non-stop, which is very time consuming and can be expensive. However, the main disadvantage of a digital marketing is its’ difficulty. The customer a company wants to reach with its digital campaign has already seen and been through so many similar messages the competition produces, it is very difficult to be different and communicate the message in a way that will attract the customer’s attention. The banners and sponsored posts usually play more of an annoying role than anything else and therefore, creating something a user will find attractive and click on, or even read, is very difficult. It is very important for the company to consider the options social media, websites, devices and other electronic platforms offer and pick the right channels to communicate the messages (Carter et al., 2011). It is important to build a social media strategy that is relevant to the brand and market, it is not necessary to use platforms that are trending right now. There are great social platforms, such as Twitter,

Facebook, and Snapchat, but depending on the desired target audience, the business may add sites, such as LinkedIn, Instagram or Pinterest (Moyers, 2015). Also, one of the main disadvantages is the uncertainty of the future of the Digital World. The platforms, its capabilities and usage is very difficult to predict, because it has been proven to advance very quickly in recent years. Therefore, it may be risky to invest large sums of money into long term marketing strategy that involves some kind of

technology, which can be no longer popular in a near future, or its interface will change in a way the marketing strategy will no longer fit it (Carter et al., 2011).

2.2 Advertising

Advertising is a very important tool to sell goods and services. Advertising as a form of promotion has been around for a long time. However, in the past it was more difficult to use the advertising efficiently due to a limited choice of media and ways of gathering and analyzing data. Nowadays, advertisers are able to use vast media channels to get their message across efficiently and effectively. Sports and sport events have served as a very useful platform for advertising and with new media, advertising in sport plays an important role in the advertising strategies of companies. This chapter serves as an introduction to the field of advertising and describes the basics of online advertising, how it works and what are its advantages and disadvantages.

Advertising has been around for centuries; its use can be dated all the way back to the age of the Ancient Greece and Rome. Even back then, there was a need to inform people about goods, services and events. Advertising is a form of communication paid for by individuals or companies in order to persuade a selected target audience to act in a desired way. The goal of most advertisements is to make people buy goods or services offered by the advertiser. Advertising may use a mass promotion, a promotion done through various channels at the same time, or it may aim the target audience to a very specific and carefully selected channels (Green, 2012, p. 6,7).

2.2.1 Online Advertising

The 20th century could be viewed as a dawn of advertising with the spread of radio and then the invention of television. These two new mediums brought companies closer to their customers and made advertising their products and services much easier. By the end of the 20th century, the Internet began to be widely used by the masses and it started to be used by the companies that viewed it as the new force of advertising. During this period, the era of digital marketing and advertising was born (Ryan, 2014, p. 3).

Advertising on the Internet has been booming during recent years and with the rise of social media and all the new technologies, it is unlikely to decline any time soon. The advertising has always tried to follow consumers wherever the consumers have gone.

Therefore, it is no surprise that with the boom of the Internet and consumer’s increasing amount of time spent on the Internet, the advertising industry has developed new forms of communication to keep up with their consumers even in the virtual reality. The online advertising differs from the traditional model. Advertising process has been usually done through mass media to reach wide audiences. However, in the age of

Internet, the advertising can be much more precisely targeted with direct e-mail, one-to- one communication, key-word search, and many others. The size of audience is should not be used as a defining factor in online advertising. Another big difference is the paid part of the advertising definition, which does not have to apply online. Some of the most successful online advertising communication may be done through social-network advertising, or viral spread of brand message through YouTube or other free video streaming servers (Tuten, 2008, p.2-3).

However, the advertising online must be done well, otherwise the target audience is not reached and the effort and money put into the advertising has no return. Nowadays, very popular add-ons for browsers are ad blockers, which prevent the users from seeing advertisements on websites. Google, for instance, banned ad blockers from their online app store Google Play Store, therefore their mobile phones with Android operation system cannot avoid advertising while browsing the web. However, normal desktop browsers, such as Google Chrome, still support ad blocking add-ons (Heilpern, 2016).

This makes the job of the advertisers much more difficult and the resources spent on the advertising campaign might come in vein, if wrong channels are selected and the advertisements are blocked by the anti-advertising software.

2.2.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Advertising

Like every kind of advertising, online advertising bears some serious advantages as well as disadvantages that need to be taken into consideration before starting an online advertising campaign.

One of the main advantages of online advertising is the ability to directly target the desired target audience. Especially if the advertisers choose to do advertising on websites in any form, such as banners, pop-up windows and others, they will choose a specific website, which is likely to get visited by the company’s target audiences. This advantage is closely connected with another, specifically tailored messages. The advanced targeting allows for tailoring the message to the exact needs and wants of the customers; one-to-one messages are possible thanks to the nature of the medium. 18

Another advantage that comes with the nature of the Internet is the ability to interact with the customer, which leads to increasing his involvement and satisfaction. Also, the involvement is beneficial for the advertiser as well, because it offers almost immediate feedback (Berker & Angelopulo, 2006, p. 305).

Even though online advertising has been booming in recent years, there are still disadvantages that need to be considered before entering the market or before creating an online advertising campaign. First and probably the most relevant disadvantage is that the customers will simply ignore the message. People are under the pressure of advertisements constantly through various media throughout the day and tend to develop an aversion to them, therefore an add that appears on their screen is rather an unpleasant disturbance than a well aimed piece of information that they can find valuable and can make them go and purchase the given product. Also, the companies want the viewers to click on the banners and pop up messages to redirect them onto the advertiser’s website. However, like in a television or radio advertisement, the customer is in full control of what advertisement they will watch, listen to or click on to.

(Brookins, 2016).

Next disadvantage are the viewing problems. Not every potential customer has a computer, smart phone or tablet or fast-enough Internet connection through which they are able to view the advertisement in its full potential, therefore it is very difficult to create the message in a way it will communicate the desired message and will not slow down the user’s experience of the given website. There is a significant difference between advertising on the Internet and advertising on television or radio. The

difference is that while watching advertisements on television and listening to them on radio, there is no other program going on, it is only the spot and nothing else that would distract the viewer or listener from the message, apart from the outside world, of course.

On the Internet, however, when a website has advertising banners or windows, it usually is not the viewer’s main interest or the only interest at the moment. People go to websites for specific reasons and the advertisement is only addiction to that, so it is much harder to make the reader pay attention to it, let alone make them that interested to actually go and click on it to learn more. (Brookins, 2016) There is also a problem with measuring of the results of a campaign. Every campaign should be assessed in order to correctly plan the next steps. However, online advertising offers a great deal of variance that comes into play. The research statistics then might lack validity and reliability.

Lastly, the variety of options on the Internet as where to advertise may be very confusing for the companies, especially for small business owners, who want to use the

Internet for advertising. It is vital to select only websites and social media that will hit the desired target audience. Also, when the company chooses the websites they want to advertise on, then an important decision needs to be made about the form of advertising, such as banners, pop-up windows, small text, and other forms. All these options if not handled properly can mean losing money, time and effort spent on that given advertising campaign. The campaign should also take into consideration the performance side of the websites, because if the advertisements are not done correctly, slow performance may lead to frustrating user experience, which certainly does not benefit the company’s positive reputation (Berker & Angelopulo, 2006, p. 305).

2.2.3 Social Media and Advertising

Nowadays, social media is one of the most widely used platforms for people to communicate, share, and get information. Social media is an integration technology that allows users to create and share user-generated content. The key feature of social media is that it serves as a tool for a two way communication. The customers are telling each other and the businesses how they feel about it, they provide valuable feedback, which is quite simple to collect and analyze. Social media can be segmented into different groups according to their character. For example, there are social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and other sites. Then there are social blogging sites such as Twitter or Tumblr. There are also social sites focused on video or photo sharing, such as; YouTube or Flickr. Then there are social wikis like Wikipedia and social bookmarking, news sites such as Reddit, Digg (Uys, 2010, p. 35).

Use of social media for business varies from the personal use. Social media is about being connected and active. The key to be proficient in social media communication, the company has to spend a great deal of time responding to their consumers, clients and followers. If the company does not do it or does not plan on doing it, it is better not to choose social media as one of the communication channels. The choice then will not do any good. Being passive and unresponsive creates bad image of a company that does not care about what their customers say (Uys, 2010, p. 35-36).

Another popular platform for advertisers has been the social site Instagram. It serves as a tool for sharing photos and videos among people. Each person creates their own profile that other users can follow. There are many famous people who have use it and 21

have millions of followers. Also, Instagram has been gradually looseing the restrains on the format of shared content. They have allowed landscape photos and longer videos to be shared. These additions can be used by the advertisers to better shape the communication of images. There are two ways companies can use Instagram to promote themselves and their products and services. First, they can use the new service of Sponsored posts which will appear on the user’s news feed, or they can use

Instagram celebrities – people with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers and advertise their content through them (Gold, 2014, p. 57). Millions of followers do not only mean that the person is somehow interesting for the public, but is very lucrative for the advertisers as well. The companies know that if they make such a famous user advertise their product or services, it will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

The companies who want to use these Instagram users wisely for their advertising choose such user who can relate to their products and therefore his followers should somehow fit into the company’s target market. The reward for the “celebrities” is very interesting and it literally pays to have a lot of Instagram followers. It is not only celebrities who can earn large sums of money for taking pictures with or promoting certain products or services. Also photographers are able to make very a decent living out of the social site. A good example of such a photographer is New Yorker Liz

Eswein, 25, who has been using the Instagram since its’ early days back in 2010 and with an account called @NewYorkCity and now has more than 1.2 million followers.

With such a vast number of followers, she is able to charge $1 per like under each sponsored photo she posts on Instagram. Thanks to Instagram she has been able to travel the world, take pictures, which she enjoys and make living out of it (Petersen,

2014).

3. Sports and society

This chapter will briefly examine sports as a whole, why people play sports, what values are shared through it and what benefits do sports bring to people. Also, this chapter will touch upon moral aspects of sport, as well as its’ development and history.

The reason behind this chapter is to understand why sports are popular among people, why people tend to play sports and then watch the sports on the television or online.

Also, this chapter should explain why people associate themselves with professional athletes and why they tend to look up to them as their role models. This understanding will then be useful in next chapters regarding the explanation of the reasoning behind marketing and advertising strategies of big companies connected with sports.

3.1 History of Sports

There is a high probability when a claim is made that sports are as old as humanity itself. The human nature is very competitive and whatever it was the early humans were doing, some sort of competitiveness was involved. It is impossible to date the original start of sports as a category of human activities. It is, however, usually believed that boxing and wrestling, or any activities that involved kicking, punching, hitting or throwing an object were the first sports ever played. As well as human means of transportation – running or fast walking were activities that quickly turned into sports.

Actually, the first ever Olympic Games in 776 BC included running as one of its few disciplines. Physical sports were added because of Greeks warrior nature. Many

activities done on daily basis like arching, running and hunting have also transformed into sports (Delaney & Madigan, 2009).

There is one sport that all cultures share since their days of origin and that is dance.

Dance was primarily not viewed as a sport, but it has, like almost any human activity, evolved into sport due to human nature and its competitiveness and even today, dancing is not viewed as a classic example of sport as a football would be. A good example of the perception of dancing being a sport but not being regarded by many people as one is the case of footballer Jason Taylor, who competed in the Dancing with the Stars show in 2008. Many famous athletes from across the broad sport spectrum have gained popularity from their participation in the show. Dancing with the Stars has very simple rules, at the beginning it involves 12 male and female celebrities who pair up with professional dancers and then compete against each other in an elimination round format where viewers possess unique ability to determine who will win, unlikely in any other sport, where viewers usually play only passive roles. Taylor made it with his partner all the way to the final rounds, but his coach in the Miami Dolphins, Parcells, was furious about it, he perceived dancing as an activity, which should not interfere with a footballers training, and as something that could endanger Taylor’s physical abilities needed on the field. However, Taylor himself claimed he was in a great shape because competitive dancing requires a lot of exercising. The whole conflict resulted in

Taylor being traded to a different team before the 2008 NFL season started (Delaney &

Madigan, 2009, p. 26). This example shows that even a physically very demanding activity does not meet everyone’s standards for being called a sport.

Baseball for example, one of America’s most popular sports, was its’ first great pastime sport. Despite its’ unclear place of origin and inventor, Major League Baseball (MLB) considers Cooperstown to be its home and it also serves as the city for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Baseball was the sport of summer; therefore of the season of leisure activities and baseball games were usually followed by festive events involving lots of food and alcohol (Delaney & Madigan, 2009, p. 40). Also, baseball played an important role in the sports marketing with its’ top players which cards were included in chewing gums to promote the company.

3.1.2 Sports and Culture

People play sports because it is fun. They usually start at an early age and stick to it because they simply enjoy it. Playing sports as kids has a positive impact on developming of motor and social skills as well as creating better relationships among peers. Sports play an important role during every stage of people’s lives; children learn to get along with others, they learn important values such as; being a team player, not to be selfish, to follow rules and to accept their mistakes and be responsible for them, also to win and to have fun while being physically active, which is vital for the development of their health, and fitness skills (Kremer et al., 1997, p. 174). Also, active children and children who have tried playing sports can later in their life easily identify themselves with the professional players they see on television. Identification is a very helpful process of learning, together with imitation (Kremer et al., 1997, p. 5).

Culture also plays an important role in sport and people’s participation in them and it shapes the sports. There are various definitions of cultures and what a culture may be.

However, for the purpose of this paper, the definition of social culture most accurate is that; culture “is a description of particular way of life, which expresses certain meaning and values not only in art and learning but also in institutions and ordinary behavior”

(Jenks, 2003, p. 28). A good example of cultural influence on sports would be the

American Football. From the European sport of Rugby, in which the American Football has its origin, due to cultural influence and differences it has evolved a completely different sport only with a similar meaning. The development of American football serves as a great example of sports being a microcosm of society (Delaney & Madigan,

2009, p. 51). The nature of sport, its organization, values, goals, functions and structure, provide revealing clues about a society (Jowett & Lavallee, 2007, p.281). Sports also create subcultures which are smaller cultures within a culture and its members can usually distinguish themselves from other members of the greater society (Delaney &

Madigan, 2009, p. 52). The subcultures usually involve people who are interested in one particular activity or subject, who tend to spend their time doing similar things, a sport for example. Culture, as values, behavior or history of people who are professional athletes in a given sport will be significantly different from the greater culture of the whole society. They can label themselves as being weightlifters for example, because for them, weightlifting comes first and everything else second. However, as being labeled a weightlifter a negative stereotyping can come from the greater society that could for example regard them as people, who rather use their muscles than their brains

(Delaney & Madigan, 2009, p. 52).

Culture plays an important role in people’s decision making, which sport they will play and watch, and follow as fans. Of course, the subcultures do even a better job in that, because they influence people even more. A research done by the U.S. Anti-Doping

Agency has shown that apart from other reasons like societal and cultural influences, the main reason why people or young kids become involved in sports is fun. Also, when sport stops being fun, there is a high tendency for people to stop. There are other important attributes that matter to children when they play sports. With having fun being the most important reason, others are doing their best, being with friends or just improving skills necessary for the game. When they stop playing, it is usually because they do not have fun anymore, or they find something they like to do more. Another reason is that they realize they are not as good as the others in the sport (U.S. Anti-

Doping Agency, 2012, p. 42-45).

3.1.3 Influences that Make People Watch and Follow Sports Passively

Active children and those who have tried playing sports can later in their life easily identify themselves with the professional players they see on television. They look up to them as their role models, they want to be like them and they want to play like them.

The professional athletes, therefore, have a strong influence on children and their development either physical or mental. The children while playing the given sport, know what the players they see on television or read about in newspapers are going through during the game, they visualize themselves being the players, or even better –

the winners on the field, and that creates a bond between the individual and the sports.

These bonds are later very important when people stop playing sports, they still tend to watch it on television or read about in in the newspapers (Delaney & Madigan, 2009, p.

46).

Identification and visualization are not the only reasons why we watch sports. Another reason is the unpredictability of the games. We just have fun watching the games, cheering for our team or athletes and hoping they will win. A team can have the best players in the world, but at the end of the day, it is still a sport and anything can happen, these twists are the reason why people have so much fun watching it. Also, the national identity plays huge role in sports watching. There are many cases of people who do not watch sports until a World Championship in a given sport is taking place and suddenly the cheer for their team. It does not really matter what sport it is, it can be soccer, it can be ice hockey, but the national pride and patriotism draw them to local bars or in front of their own televisions in their apartments (Henin, n.d.).

3.2 Understanding Sports Industry and its’ History

To understand sports marketing, it is necessary to explain its’ roots and historical development. The connection of sports and marketing goes a long way before the modern era of sports we know right now. Sports have always been an interesting event for the population, it was an event, where people would gather at one place, talk to each other about the sport or about various different topics, so attending sports has also

become a social event. This attractiveness has always meant one thing; an interesting opportunity for people who wanted to make money out of the sports event. The business and sports relationship goes back to the era of the Ancient Olympic Games, where the people – marketers quickly saw the opportunity to make money out of the athlete’s performance and from the exclusivity of the games. Of course, the ancient marketers did not have the knowledge, experience, nor the tools the modern marketing companies have, but the connection between sports and desire to make money has been evident ever since (Shank & Lyberger, 2014, p. 6).

During the modern era, the history of sports marketing in North America goes back to

1850’s and 1860’s, where the business started to realize that connection of sport and business may be profitable and very beneficial for both sides. There are two events, one collegiate and one professional, which Shank and Lyberger describe as key events in history of connection of sports and marketing in their book Sports Marketing: A

Strategic Perspective. The first event, a two-mile rowing contest between Harvard

University and Yale University took place in Center Harbor on Lake Winnipesaukee,

New Hampshire proved that such event can create a positive impact on the businesses in the area. There were many fields of businesses that profited from the race, such as hotels, rails, restaurants, and others. The second event is connected with baseball.

Tobacco companies began to work with professional baseball teams to include the photographs of the teams and players on their products to increase sales and brand loyalty. This goes back to the late 1850’s and early 1860’s and with minor adjustments, especially in the choice of products due to legal and ethical conditions – a switch from cigarettes to something more consumer friendly, such as candies or

chewing gums, we can see these marketing and promotion tactics still being used. Also, these strategies have set roots for new industries, which are card and memorabilia collecting/trading, which still exists today (Shank & Lyberger, 2014, p. 6). Fast forward hundred and fifty years to the era of 1990’s, the era of Michael Jordan and other superstars in their sports, the television became the driving force behind almost every league, including NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, and NASCAR. The involvement of television meant expansion of the sports to areas, where they had not been popular before.

Leagues such as NHL expanded to southern parts of the USA and NBA, for example, became widely popular beyond the American borders. With the television attention, popularity rose, sponsors were anxious to step in, salaries of the athletes skyrocketed, and leagues expended. Most of the fans tried to be loyal to their sports, but events like strikes in baseball in 1993 had serious impact on its popularity and therefore, loyalty of the fans (Shank & Lyberger, 2014, p. 12).

In recent years, sport marketing still grows, but a lot has changed since the yearly years.

The pace of the rise is more moderate and the marketing is not without restrictions and limitations. In today’s era of social media, networking, listening and enhancing relationships has become priority, the sales come second. Thanks to the enhancement of technology, the focus has been shifted to audience-centered approach. It has created a paradigm that continues to evolve and it requires the sport marketers to develop a more audience – dictated framework. Also, the advancement of technology has created an international market, which is composed of various cultures (Shank & Lyberger, 2014, p. 13).

Leagues and organizations such as NHL, NFL, and MLB have changed their schedules and displays. These changes have brought growth to the organizations as well as challenges to the marketers. The variety of platforms and channels enables the markets to deliver and fulfill many of the basic functions of the marketing communication mix.

Nowadays, an interactive positioning is the key to marketing success in sports.

4. Sports and Commercial Communication

This chapter examines the process and power of commercialization in sports. Sports are a lucrative market for companies. Therefore, they have to shape their business and communication activities accordingly. Nowadays, it is a common practice to use marketing and advertising techniques in sports in order to reach out to the target audience. Also, new channels such as social media are being used to communicate the desired message, especially in combination with athlete’s endorsement.

4.1 Sports Marketing

Sports marketing and its techniques are the main concern of this paper. Marketing has brought money to sports and thus has naturally influenced the outlook of sports and the attention they get. This chapter seeks to connect the two terms sport and marketing together and to explain how the two work together and benefit of each other. Also, this chapter will explain the beginning of the connection of marketing with sport and will provide the necessary information to understand the sport industry.

Sport marketing is a process of “specific application of marketing principles and processes to sport products and to the marketing of non-sports products through association with sport” (Shank & Lyberger, 2014, p. 5). Sports marketing can be quite a broad topic to discuss. There are various areas sports marketing operates on. Sports marketing can range from a soccer mom trying to get money for the local soccer team by convincing a local sport goods store that sponsorship will be a great deal for them, to a multi-million dollar deals in the most popular sports on the planet with huge brands such as Nike or Adidas. To succeed in sports marketing, “one needs to understand both the sports industry and the specific application of marketing principles and processes to sports context” (Shank & Lyberger, 2014, p. 5). Understanding the sports industry is a difficult process and might be quite challenging for someone who has never done the respective sport, or been around people who are directly involved in it. Sports and their environments are very different from the way they are presented to people through media. Media tend to look for the sensations, tend to follow the best players, the biggest teams, or on the other hand the biggest losers. Media are looking for something that will be worthy for their audience. However, the sports are like any other business and the marketing needs to be handled accordingly. Every sport has its fans, who create the market and the audience. The fans go to see the games, they buy tickets and apparel.

The fans are people who the marketing communicates the most to. Together with the fans there are recreational athletes, who may never make it to the big league, but still need the equipment and gear to play the sport and are an ideal target group for marketing teams to communicate towards the relationships of famous athletes with brands producing the equipment.

4.2 Advertising in Sport

Advertising is an essential part of every sport team or organization. Sport organizations make the majority of its income from advertising, better said from selling spots in arenas or on jerseys to companies that want to advertise their products or services.

Sports advertising can be done in various ways. Usually, the company wants to associate itself with the positive feeling that sports bring. Also, the companies want to connect themselves with successful athletes, they want to create the idea that the athletes use their products and that the products somehow contribute to their success.

This is a mutually beneficial relationship; the companies want to advertise their products or services and the sports, team organizations, athletes want to make money

(Richards, 2016).

From time to time there is a major sport event that draws a lot of attention from viewers from all around the world. A good example of such event can be the World Cup in soccer. Soccer is the most popular sport on the planet; therefore it is safe to presume that the World Cup will watch people all around the world. In 2010, Hyundai was the official car partner of the FIFA World Cup and the Lucozade Sport was the official sport drink of Team England. These two companies have selected to advertise themselves during the World Cup for simple reasons; Lucozade is very relevant to sport fans and can be easily associated with the sport – while you play football, drink Lucazade. When team England is winning, the Lucazade drink could be perceived by the public as a green lighter and as something that actually helped the team to achieve the win.

However, the same goes for an opposite scenario, when team England does poorly, the 33

drink can be associated by the public with it as well. Also, Hyundai was on to something, when they decided to be the official car partner of the championship, because summer is usually a very productive period for the whole car industry.

Therefore, if someone was to buy a car and was constantly being targeted by the

Hyundai commercials all summer long during the World Cup, the probability that he or she will buy Hyundai is higher than without the partnership with the championship.

Every successful Return on Investment (ROI) is very dependent on engaging the target audience and whether the target audience shows some interest in the brand and in what is being advertised. Also, being connected with such a huge international event can boost the trustworthiness of a brand and the customers can view the companies as trusted and recommended to deal with (Pipe, n .d.).

4.3 Athlete Endorsements in Sports

Athlete endorsement is a process of using a well-known and/or successful athlete whose fame and success will help to increase sales or enhance the company’s image. There are several kinds of athlete endorsements in sports. First style is the explicit mode, which refers to an athlete endorsing a product. Second mode is called the implicit mode, in which the athlete actually uses the products. Third, imperative mode, communicates the message that the audience should use the product. Lastly, the fourth is the co-present mode which refers to a mode when the athlete merely appears in some setting with the product (Mullin et al., 2007, p. 246).

First athlete to ever be engaged in endorsement activities is believed to be Honus

Wagner who in 1905 gave the J.F. Hillerich & Son Company permission to use his name to promote their Lousiville Slugger bats.Wagner made $75 from this deal. The earliest sport endorsement activitites involved sport-related products, which is still true today. The most effective endorsements are still related to sport products, for example

Nike and Michael Jordan’s Air Jordan shoes. However, not only sport related products can be endorsed by top level athletes. A good example of this is a speech given by quarterback Joe Montana, who responded to a commentator’s question about what he was going to do next; he responded that he was going to Disney World (Mullin et al.,

2007, p. 246).

The selection of endorsers should always go together with the product or service and its target audience. However, according to 2004 SportsQ, retired successful athletes are held generally in higher regard by the public than the next-big-thing athletes. It is because of the notoriety and dollar attraction of the new players. Trustworthiness plays crucial role in the endorsement process (Mullin et al., 2007, p. 246).

4.4 Social Media and Sports Communication

Sports organizations have been following the trend of the increasing popularity of social media and have begun to start using it widely as well. Many teams have created communication teams that deal primarily with social media and create content to communicate with the fans, supporters and stakeholders. The webpages and other

channels of almost all of the sport organizations include links to their social media profiles, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social platforms.

The promotion of these profiles makes sense, because every sport organization heavily depends on its fan base and wants the base to grow. These digital media that work on bases of two way communication provide the organizations with necessary feedbacks and opinions of their fans. Also, it is a very efficient way to research and analyze the mood of the customers – fans; due to very low entry costs and large fan populations present (Wysocki, 2012, p. 8).

There has been a significant rise in social media use in sports and entertainment industries due to the decline of traditional marketing and communication methods.

Rothschild (2011) conducted a research among sports and venue managers to understand the role and prediction for social media in sports and entertainment. He found that social media is becoming increasingly popular and an important communication tool and also that there is need for more resources to effectively manage the social media efforts. The study shows the rise of social media while the traditional channels are becoming less efficient due to cost, customers resistance to advertising and variance of products. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have proven to be the most popular social media choice to monitor the conversation. Also, the research showed that the biggest obstacle to successfully manage the social media activities and monitoring was the lack of staff, which would devote their time exclusively to tasks related with social media (Wysocki, 2012, p. 9).

Social media have transformed the consumption of sports media. There is a connection between athletes and organizations with fans, which was not possible before. Sports

organizations and athletes also profit from this by having more control of news releases and information sharing. They have the ability to bypass the traditional media and offer their version of the news story through social media platforms. Social media have revolutionized the communication by giving the athletes and sport organizations the unique ability to create and share media content. Thus, traditional media appear to be losing their edge and exclusivity in sports. Professional athletes now share the content themselves and traditional media then use that message to write a story about. The athletes themselves are the main source of the story, this provides opportunity to the athletes and organizations to be better connected with their stakeholders (Wysocki,

2012, p. 10).

4.5 Ethics in Sponsorship and Sports Advertising

There are products or services or whole industries that cannot advertise themselves during sport events because of ethical reasons. These products are usually not healthy to the human body, therefore the connection of them and a sport is not desired, because then the sports which should be a healthy activity promots something completely opposite. The problem is that the ethical values can be in contradiction with the desire of the sport’s desire or need for financial gain (Richards, 2016).

Tobacco companies have been making great sums of money and they were very active in sports advertising. A good example of such mutually beneficial relationship between an industry and sport is the most prestigious racing sport Formula 1. By mid-nineties tobacco advertising was a synonymous with Formula 1. Top drivers and their teams 37

were all sponsored by some tobacco companies. However, Europe banned the advertising because of the lethal effect of smoking and therefore the tobacco companies have all left the sport and the teams looking for another financially strong partner that would sponsor their drivers and their racing activities. During the days of tobacco companies’ presence, the teams were financially free to take part in the race and try to be the best they can because of the financial support. Nowadays, they need to be more careful who the pilot is, what car they drive or when they train, because the money is simply not there anymore. It is safe to say that Formula 1 quit smoking but it did not make it any healthier (Weeks J., 2015).

Not only tobacco advertising caused controversy with their connection with sport. The connection of McDonald’s with Olympic Games is very interesting. McDonald’s is the official restaurant of the Games (Sponsors of Olympic Games, n. d.) and many people, including top professional athletes, find it very controversial to say the least (Weeks C.,

2014). Olympic Games have always been a showcase of the world’s finest athletes in their respective sports. The connection of a fast food chain that has been generally known for its unhealthy food that includes high-fat hamburgers and French fries with an event that is there to celebrate athleticism clearly shows how money can change the view on things. Money is needed everywhere and when such a big company as

McDonald’s shows up and wants to be an official sponsor, it is very difficult to say no.

However, in this case, with the Olympic Games, having McDonald’s and Coke as one of the main sponsors, it can send very wrong message to the viewers and especially to the children who are watching the Games on television. These huge sponsorships can be very misleading and some of top athletes try to fight it, because they believe it send

wrong message (Weeks C., 2014). The problem is that these companies such as

McDonald’s or Coca Cola use the athletes in the commercials and therefore the connection of elite level athleticism and these companies is obvious. It is not only advertising that causes this. In 2012 Summer Games in London a huge McDonald’s was built in the middle of the Olympic park. Several top level athletes including Patrick

Chan and hockey player Drew Doughty have been pictured on the McDonald’s website saying how great is it to be involved and have partnership with such an amazing company. This clearly sends a wrong message. He even says that his favorite burger is a

Double Quarter pounder, which is one of the least healthy burgers the company offers and the McChicken sandwich (Weeks C., 2014).

Sport events are very expensive to run, promote, and manage. Money is needed to ensure the quality of the event, the quality of the media coverage, the quality of the teams participating, and the quality of services for spectators and fans during the event.

Usually, the richest companies are the ones which have very little to do with a healthy life style, such as those mentioned above. However, these companies are eager to boost their reputation, promote their new products and most importantly, have the money to do it. Ethical dilemmas then come into play, whether sport organizations and athletes, who should be promoting healthy life style, should or should not take money from companies, which certainly do not support it.

5. Case Study – CrossFit

In following section, a case study has been chosen to demonstrate the power of media, marketing, advertising, and endorsement on sport, the way the sport is played and regarded entirely. This case study aims to examine the growth of the sport and the attention that it has been getting from the media. Also, it is going to describe the evolution of CrossFit Games, which went from being a small local competition to an international event that is broadcasted by prime sports media all over the world. Also, it aims to describe the communication of the sport through social media, the use of elite athletes to promote the sport and companies, whose business activities have been heavily influenced by the growth of the sport.

Finally, it aims to examine a real sample of CrossFit athletes from CrossFit Committed, the biggest gym in Prague, who participated in a survey, which was aimed to explore why people do CrossFit, how they learned about it and how extensively they have been using media to learn more about the sport and the companies that are connected with it.

Also, to better understand the process of running a CrossFit affiliate, an interview was conducted with Joey Scafidi, the owner of the CrossFit Committed gym.

5.1 CrossFit, the Sport of Fitness

CrossFit is a trade mark name of a company that provides programming for the sport of

CrossFit, which practices constantly varied, functional movements that are performed at

high intensity. The aim of CrossFit is to forge broad, general and exclusive fitness.

CrossFit as a training methodology is different from any other methodologies in the world; it is believed that the needs of an Olympic athlete and a middle-age woman vary by degree, not kind (CrossFit Training Guide, n. d.).

CrossFit was found and developed by a former gymnast Greg Glassman, who is also put a trademark on the name, started the CrossFit company and became its’ CEO. He was the first person to define fitness in a measurable way and then created a training program purposely designed to improve fitness and overall health. He proposed that fitness is able to be measured in means of “increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains” (What is CrossFit, n. d.). Later, the first CrossFit affiliate was opened in Santa Cruz back in 1995. Since then, it has gone a long way. Nowadays, there are over 13000 certified affiliates all around the world.

CrossFit looks at fitness from the perspective of combining the 10 general fitness skills which are; cardiovascular endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy and makes the athletes to master all of them. The result then is that ideally the CrossFit athlete is somewhere in the middle between endurance type athlete, like a marathon runner and a strength based athlete, like a power lifter. CrossFit makes an argument that when one specializes in one or few fitness skills, then they are very good at it, but they cannot be called fit, because they lack the other aspects of fitness (CrossFit Training Guide, n. d., p.19). The CrossFit company offers free workouts that are daily posted on the crossfit.com website. On the website, CrossFit also offers a vast knowledge about the movements, diet, programming

and methodology for free. Everything that anyone needs to start doing CrossFit is offered by the company for free. How does it make money then? CrossFit’s main sources of money are fees for Level 1 certificates, affiliation fees, and money from companies that want to advertise their products during CrossFit events. To ensure

CrossFit sells enough certificates and affiliate licenses, they use clever marketing strategy, which helps them to grow and draw more people towards the sport.

5.2 Marketing and Advertising in Connection with CrossFit

CrossFit’s success has not been achieved only through the quality of the training program and methodology, but also through clever marketing and the use of CrossFit

Games for advertising purposes, which led to the significant growth of the sport and increased its value.

Marketing team at CrossFit bases its’ activity on the general knowledge that the target audience are people in their 20’s, employed and healthy, which is similar to almost every sport on the planet. However, CrossFit came with a brilliant marketing strategy to aim also at people, who are out of shape, who suffer from a chronic disease or are handicapped, this helped the brand to significantly broaden the spectrum of potential customers. They have been marketing the motto that “It Is for All People, Shapes, and

Sizes” (Wells, 2014, p. 71). CrossFit is branding itself as a sport for anyone and this strategy is enhanced by the use of social media and sharing of people’s success stories, such as losing weight or their athletic achievements.

CrossFit uses social media to reach their desired market, and uses the athletes, either top level or everyday people, in order to increase the trustworthiness and value of the brand.

To increase the value of the brand, CrossFit also uses certification of the official gyms to ensure the standards of the services will be met. CrossFit has come up with a list of requirements which has to be met before anyone can open their own CrossFit gym. One of the requirements is to have a Level 1 certificate – a paid ($1000) certificate that is given after completing a basic 3-day CrossFit course, which provides the fundamentals of the movements and training philosophy. Then, the affiliate has to have a website and must pay an annual fee of $3000 (How to Affiliate, n. d.). In return, the owner of the gym earns the right to use CrossFit trademark before the name of the affiliate. CrossFit is a powerful trademark and thanks to the standards, the brand has value and customers know what exactly they can expect from such a gym, which can help them to overcome potential uncertainty. Also, the affiliate is put on the list of official affiliates and anyone can search it on the crossfit.com website. The list could be viewed as a promotion done by the CrossFit HQ, because for example when one travels or looks for a new gym in

Prague, they can simply search the list at crossfit.com and then choose the gym they want to join.

Advertising is another significant source of money for CrossFit. The most interesting event for advertisers are the CrossFit Games. The CrossFit Games are an ultimate test to find the Fittest on Earth. It is a week-long competition consisting of multiple events to find the world’s fittest athletes. (About the Games, n. d.) The history of the Games goes back to 2007 and since then they have become “one of the fastest growing sports in America” (Rishe, 2011).

In 2010, a deal with Reebok was signed, which meant two things; Reebok became an exclusive partner of the CrossFit Games and the sport of fitness. Secondly, CrossFit gained an exclusive media partner and a trustworthy name, which helped the brand to increase its’ value and credibility. The Games were named The Reebok CrossFit Games and the director Dave Castro himself said that this partnership was significant and would be beneficial for both sides, and would help the sport to grow (Rishe, 2011).

Reebok has managed to profit from the connection and has started a clothing line of products Reebok CrossFit and presents itself as a brand dedicated wholly to the sport of fitness (We Are Better Together, n. d.). Apart from Reebok, other companies have used

CrossFit to promote their brand. American brand Rogue, which manufactures equipment used in weightlifting, strongman sports, and CrossFit, joined the sport of fitness back in 2008 and became the official supplier of the equipment for the CrossFit

Games (Huntley, 2012).With the media attention and the increasing popularity of the sport, Rogue has become one of the main companies connected with CrossFit and has signed top athletes to promote the brand and its products.

5.3 Athletes’ Endorsement in CrossFit

The athletes’ endorsement plays a crucial role for companies involved in CrossFit.

Especially, the athletes’ communication on their social media profiles. Nowadays, two main companies mentioned earlier, Reebok and Rogue, which have built their business around CrossFit, have signed top level athletes of the sport. One of the main faces of both companies is the 4-time CrossFit Games champion Rich Froning Jr., who is one of

the most influential individuals in the sport and is called “The Fittest in History” (Fittest

Man in History: Rich Froning, 2013). Froning’s Instagram profile has over 680 thousands followers. Froning, being a Reebok and Rogue athlete, often posts pictures and videos promoting new lines of gear and merchandise of both comapanies. Also, he has his own signature series of products, for example his Reebok CrossFit Compete shoes or Rogue barbells and t-shirts. Basically, both companies have signed the most notorious and well-known names in the sport to promote their products. These athletes together have hundreds of thousands of followers on various social media sites and when they post something about either brand, it will hit the target audience, because people who follow these athletes are usually people who do CrossFit or are interested in the sport.

5.4 CrossFit and Media

CrossFit is a sport of the 21st century and as it was explained in previous chapters, in the

21st century the social media play a crucial part in advertising and marketing. CrossFit’s media department realizes this very well and knows that social media can not only be used as a good promotion of how well the sport works, but it also can attract people to join the sport. Therefore, the main media channel the CrossFit uses are social media.

CrossFit uses the most popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The media team uses it for sharing knowledge, people’s achievements, to promote events, to share media content created by the CrossFit media staff and for re- posting media content of top CrossFit athletes from their personal social media profiles.

CrossFit differentiates between the two faces of the sport – competitive and general fitness, and uses social media communication accordingly. There are two main profiles to communicate with the people; CrossFit and CrossFit Games, both have different target audience, therefore the content of the sites differs.

The first uses social media as a platform to share basic knowledge about the sport, tracks hashtags under people’s posts and then shares their accomplishments. CrossFit’s

Facebook, which currently in March 2016 has almost 2,5 million followers shares mainly educational videos, people’s success stories like weight loss, health improvements and fitness achievements. Currently, CrossFit fights big soda companies such as Coke to put warning labels on the drinks to warn people that drinking sodas can lead to health problems such as diabetes (Cecil, 2015). CrossFit uses the social media extensively to promote the campaign and to communicate about the stages of the legal process. Another social platform CrossFit uses is Instagram, which currently in March

2016 has 1,2 million followers. The Instagram profile is being updated with new pictures and videos almost daily. The purpose of this platform is similar to Facebook’s; to share educational short clips, people’s achievements, and pictures of the community from all around the world. Third important platform is YouTube, which serves a little bit of a different purpose than Facebook and Instagram. CrossFit’s Youtube page works as a library of educational videos mainly focused on proper movements’ technique, correct execution and other tutorial materials. These videos usually feature top level athletes performing the movements. Also, CrossFit’s YouTube channel connects both competitive and general fitness aspects of the sport together and provides viewers with

content from both. Currently in March 2016, the Youtube channel has over 800 000 subscribers and the videos have accumulated over 347 million views.

The key of the CrossFit’s social media communication is its unification as well as the ability to correctly take advantage of the platforms’ potentials and the vast numbers of their followers. Usually, what is posted on the Instagram is also posted on Facebook and videos that are posted on YouTube have usually short previews posted on both

Facebook and Instagram. This communication tactic allows reaching maximum number of people with the same content and maximizing the chance to successfully communicate the desired message.

CrossFit Games accounts, on the other hand, on social sites serve mainly to keep the audience updated about the official competitions in CrossFit – the Open, the Regionals, and the Games. The CrossFit Games accounts keep the audience updated about the competitions, leaderboards and other related content. They also provide advanced athletes’ performance analysis from experts, interviews, and exclusive media content from the competitions, such as; videos and pictures. Currently in March 2016 Games’

Facebook account has 1.3 million followers and its’ Instagram nearly 1 million followers.

The social media activities communicate the messages clearly and the sites share relevant information to the target audience. The social media team also keeps checking the comments below the posts and makes sure the two-way communication takes place; they react to comments that are asking relevant questions or need help. The correct

communication allows spreading the knowledge about CrossFit, it helps newcomers learn about the sport, which can encourage them to become actively involved, find a local affiliate and start with the sport. The increasing number of followers and attention means also the changes for the sport. The need to satisfy the demand for media content means to create more quality content, which then leads to increasing popularity and then to increasing people being involved with the sport. Also, increasing number of people on the social sites means increasing number of feedback that is very valuable and can serve as a source for potential changes not only in the media communication, but also in the sport itself. Social media play crucial role in promotion and growth of the sport, but it has not come naturally, it has happened because of the correct execution of various communication tactics and techniques.

5.5 CrossFit as a Business

An interview was conducted with the owner Joey Scafidi, an American, who owns and runs the CrossFit Committed affiliate, the biggest gym in Prague with over 200 active members. The aim of the interview was to understand CrossFit from a business side and from someone, who makes his living from the CrossFit industry. Scafidi describes his and his coaches’ activities by saying that they are in a business of building community and enriching lives through fitness.

CrossFit Committed got its’ affiliation certificate in May 2011 and back then, it did not even have its premises. It started as a small group of 5 to 10 people working out in

Prague’s parks. However, with worsening weather conditions and low temperatures,

Scafidi had to look for a place to rent and workout at. The gym’s first premises were opened in the fall of 2011 in a small room in Prague 1; it was the only place available and the only one that Scafidi could afford. At the beginning of 2014, CrossFit

Committed moved to a much bigger place in Prague 7, and now the gym has the biggest premises among any other CrossFit gyms in Prague. It follows the American standard business model for CrossFit gyms; it runs coached classes, private trainings and bases its existence on building a strong and supportive community.

Marketing and advertising wise, not many changes have taken place from the beginning to recent days. Scafidi relies on word of mouth, social media, and the power of CrossFit brand. He says that people come either because they got a recommendation from their friends, who are already members, or because they have found CrossFit Commited on the Internet. Scafidi believes that the premises, private coaching and coached classes are the reasons why people choose Committed as their CrossFit gym. Joey also uses social media advertising to promote the gym, especially advertising on Facebook, where he pays to make the gym site’s posts to be promoted on people’s news feed. Scafidi selects posts which promote the community among the gym members. Scafidi has never used any paid online advertising or marketing techniques. He has never paid for his gym to be suggested to people, while searching on Google or any other search engines. He claims that CrossFit brand is strong enough to do it for him and also adds that in Prague there are not so many gyms that it would be necessary to pay to be first in the search engine results. He also added that he values being affiliated as the official CrossFit gym, because the CrossFit name adds value to his gym and the services he provides. He

believes that people will find their way into his gym after checking its websites and social media platforms, which provide enough information and pictures to convince people to give the CrossFit Committed a try. Obviously it has been working. From a small group of friends working out at Letna, CrossFit Committed has grown into a family of over 200 members with others coming in regularly wanting to start training at the gym.

5.6 Influences of Social Media, Marketing, and Advertising on People Doing CrossFit

To better understand how social media, marketing and advertising influence people actively involved in the sport, I have conducted a very basic survey among members of the gym CrossFit Committed in Prague. The questions in the survey were designed to learn how people learned about CrossFit, how long have they been doing the sport, which aspects of the sport they value the most and about which they care the least. Also, the survey was designed to learn if people follow or at least sometimes check the social media profiles of either CrossFit or CrossFit Games. Other questions asked whether people have been following or at least sometimes checking any of the top CrossFit athletes’ social sites profiles and whether they have been paying attention to what gear and clothes the athletes wear while they are working out. Last set of questions dealt with consumer behavior of the respondents, such as if they own any pieces of Reebok

CrossFit gear and if yes, how many and whether they are planning to buy more in the future or not.

In the survey, 65 people participated and they ranged from the age of 18 to 54 with the age group of 25-34 being the most dominant (57%, 37 respondents). Most of the respondents have been doing CrossFit for one to two years now (75%, 49 respondents).

All of the respondents said they have been planning on staying with CrossFit in the future. Over a half of respondent have learnt about CrossFit from their friend or family member (56%, 36 people), followed by 24% (16 people), who have learned about if from social media (either Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube). The respondents answered that they considered the provided aspects of CrossFit (getting fitter, community, enjoyable sport, and having a coach during classes) being equally important, except for the last aspect – the current popularity of the sport, 68% of people showed no interest in it. Regarding following the social media profiles of CrossFit and/or CrossFit Games, 70% (45 people) said that they have been following them and almost 22% (14 people) have not, but have been checking the social sites from time to time. Over half of the respondents (63%, 41 people) have been following or regularly checking Games athletes’ social media profiles. Regarding the gear and clothes the top level athletes wear, 70% of people (45 people) have either been paying attention to it or recognize it. Well over half of the people (65% 49 people) own one or more pieces of

Reebok CrossFit gear and 64% (42 people) of respondents have been planning on buying more.

From the results of the survey, it is safe to state that social media, marketing and advertising can have an effect on people, who already participate in the sport and shape the consumption of the sport’s content. Also, given the high percentage of respondents,

who have learned about CrossFit through social media, social media can also influence people who have not started doing CrossFit yet, but might join the sport in the future, therefore the communication techniques can also have effect on the sport as a whole, because it helps it to grow. Most of the people from the sample have been using social media to get media and promotion content from CrossFit and CrossFit Games. They have also been following the athletes and been paying attention to what they wear. Also, the people own some pieces of the Reebok CrossFit gear. This fact supports the activities of companies using athletes as endorsers for their products.

The conclusion of the survey could be that people, who do CrossFit actively, are very likely to be targeted and also influenced by social media marketing and advertising, which also includes the top level athletes’ endorsement. These marketing and advertising activities can lead to purchasing the promoted gear as well as clothes and other equipment connected with the sport. The survey also shows how the commercial activities and communication of CrossFit shapes the consumption of the sport. People consume the content of the sport and of the companies which advertise their products at the same time. The sample is not big enough to draw any general conclusion from it, but it is a representative sample of a regular CrossFit gym, similar to thousands of others all around the world. It is, therefore, safe to assume, given the total numbers of people worldwide, who follow the Crossfit’s and athletes’ social sites, that behavior of this sample could also occur elsewhere.

5.7 Influences of Social Media, Marketing, and Advertising on CrossFit

There is no doubt that CrossFit’s growth has been influenced by the increasing attention from media. The sport has been evolving fast, especially its prime event, the CrossFit

Games. Back in 2007, when the Games started, it was a small two-day event featuring

70 athletes at a ranch in Northern California. The whole Games were just three events to test, who would be the fittest at the end. Fast forward 8 years later to the last CrossFit

Games in 2015, 40 male, 40 female athletes and 40 teams were battling in 13 events spread into four days for the title of Fittest on Earth in a modern, large StubHub Centre in Carson, California. Thousands of people watched the events crowded in the stands of the stadium, other tens of thousands watched the events live on YouTube or ESPN. Over the years, additional categories of athletes have been added, such as masters divisions for people over 40 years of age or teenage categories (Finding the Fittest On Earth, n.d.).The sport has changed significantly, the events got more demanding for athletes and more interesting for spectators to watch. All of these changes could not have been made possible without the media attention, correct marketing and advertising activities of companies, which have become an inseparable part of CrossFit as people know it today. The money brought by such activities has changed the face of the sport. Athletes like Rich Froning, have been quitting their daily jobs and from accountants, firefighters, police officers, they have become professional athletes making living out of sponsorships from companies such as Reebok or Rogue (Hunt, n. d.). All of these changes have significant impact on the level of the sport. Athletes, who today do not qualify to the Games, but make it through the first round of qualifiers are significantly

more fit and more capable than people who were winning the Games back in 2007 or

2008 (Finding the Fittest On Earth, n.d.). The popularity also changed how the sport is consumed by the audiences. Back in 2007, the main source of information was the

CrossFit Journal, a website featured on crossfit.com, nowadays, the main source of information and media material are the social media sites. CrossFit has transformed from being a training methodology with a competition potential to a professional sport that anyone can do at their own gym, but only the fittest can succeed in the competition.

5.8 Conclusion of the Case Study

CrossFit can serve as a great example of how sport can grow with media attention, correct marketing strategy, and advertising activities from companies, who are involved in the sport. There are many fractions of the sport, which could be described roughly one by one to show the great influence of commercialization on sport. This study aimed to provide an overall look at the topic and to describe the main fields, in which commercialization takes place. CrossFit has been growing since its beginning and its popularity has been increasing every year. As stated in the study, the popularity has not been achieved only by the fitness methodology that works, but clever marketing has been necessary to deliver the sport to the masses. CrossFit is a business like any other. It needs people’s attention to survive and grow. CrossFit has been getting a lot of the attention thanks to marketing, advertising and the whole process of commercialization.

Despite the unavoidable exploitation of sport for profit from the companies, the media

attention and businesses’ activities have helped to get the sport closer to people and thus have helped many to change their fitness and overall well-being for the better.

6. Conclusion

Marketing and advertising are crucial parts of any business activity. They can be considered to be the key activities to sell products or services. They have been around since Ancient times and will probably still be a part of business life in many years to come. The principles have stayed the same; it has always been about making money, getting the advantage over a competition or just to be heard. What has changed over the years, however, are the channels and techniques how to approach and create a proper marketing strategy, or advertising campaign. The changes have to be made with new technologies, media, opportunities, or consumers’ habits. Marketers and advertisers have always tried to use all the possible options to get as much out of the campaigns as possible. These principles are the same for any given market and they do not change.

However, the influence of such techniques changes the markets and consumer’s behavior. In the case of this paper, the market is sport. Sport serves as a tool to stay healthy, in shape, have fun, to compete, physically evolve, and to make money. Making money in sport does not take into consideration only the professional athletes, who perform in the arena of the sport, but also all the companies and people, who are connected with that sport. People want to make as much money as possible, this comes naturally. However, during the process of using techniques such as marketing and advertising in sport to make money, the market and the sport, changes. These changes come naturally, because customers react to the marketing and advertising activities. In

order to make money, the market needs to stay attractive for the customers, therefore the market and the sport, evolves. The question is whether something like sport should be affected by media, marketing, and advertising and should it change according to their needs. There could be long discussions, whether it is ethical to change sports just to satisfy the need for money. The trend, however, is that sports change, athletes participate in endorsement activities, under contracts they help companies sell their products and services. CrossFit is a good example of a sport that has changed a lot due to media attention, marketing activities and advertising potential that the sport possesses. The case study showed how serious the impact may be for the sport and for the way it is consumed by the audiences. It is easy to call such development exploitation, but the argument has to be made; what if there was no exploitation from media, marketers and advertisers? Would the sport be able to grow on its’ own so fast as it has in the past years? Would it be enough for the sport just to be fun and beneficial for people who actually do it? Who knows, one thing is certain, however, the growth and changes in the sport that were caused by the exploitation from media, marketers and advertisers, have helped to spread the sport and knowledge about it. According to stories that are easy to find online and are shared by CrossFit media itself, the sport has been helping overweight people, those with disabilities, or injured war veterans. It is quite easy to make an argument that the exploitation and changes to the sport have not been all negative.

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