Exploring the Role of Influencer Marketing to Drive Participation of Gen Z in Gaelic Sport”
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“Exploring the role of Influencer Marketing to drive participation of Gen Z in Gaelic sport” Dissertation submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Digital Marketing at Dublin Business School Francisco Cordova 10533841 Master of Digital Marketing 2020 1 Declaration “I declare that this dissertation that I have submitted to Dublin Business School for the award of Msc Digital Marketing is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated, where it is clearly acknowledged by references. Furthermore, this work has not been submitted for any other degree.” Signed: Francisco Cordova Student Number: 10533841 Date: 25/08/2020 2 Table of content Declaration ........................................................................................................................ 2 Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................ 6 Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 7 List of figures ..................................................................................................................... 8 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Research problem: Social Media Influencer Marketing ............................ 10 1.12 The relevance of Gaelic Games in Ireland. ................................................ 11 1.13 Research problem: Social Media Influencer Marketing ............................ 13 1.2 Research Gap ................................................................................................ 15 1.21 Instagram authenticity ............................................................................... 15 1.22 Role of Generation Z in social media ......................................................... 17 1.23 Gaelic Games Social Media Influencer Marketing and Generation Z ........ 19 1.3 Research aim and objectives ........................................................................ 19 1.4 Contribution ................................................................................................ 20 1.41 Academic implications ................................................................................ 20 1.42 Practitioners implications .......................................................................... 20 2. Literature review................................................................................................. 22 2.1 Social Media Marketing .............................................................................. 23 2.12 Social Media Influencer and Social Media Influencer Marketing ............. 26 2.13 Instagram Influencer Marketing .................................................................. 31 2.2 Social media and Generation Z .................................................................... 35 2.21 Social Media Influencer Marketing and Generation Z ................................ 38 2.22 Social media marketing in sport .................................................................. 41 2.3 Social Media Influencer Marketing and sport ............................................. 46 2.31 Social Media Influencer Marketing and Non-profit Sport Association ....... 49 2.4 Key insight of literature review .................................................................... 53 3 3. Methodology ....................................................................................................... 55 3.1 Research design ............................................................................................ 56 3.12 Research philosophy .................................................................................... 57 3.13 Research approach and strategy ................................................................ 57 3.2 Data collection method ................................................................................ 59 3.3 Sample criteria ............................................................................................. 61 3.4 Sample size .................................................................................................... 62 3.5 Sampling strategy ........................................................................................ 63 3.6 Modes of communication with participants ............................................... 65 3.7 Data analysis ................................................................................................ 65 3.71 Research ethics ............................................................................................ 66 4. Data analysis ...................................................................................................... 68 4.1 People associate Influencer Marketing in GAA with Advertising ............. 69 4.11 Identifying Influencer by participants ........................................................ 70 4.12 Participants identified specific brands ...................................................... 70 4.13 Influencers Marketing have different roles in GAA ................................... 71 4.2 Expertise determines an Influencer in GAA ............................................... 72 4.3 Participants don´t feel close to influencers ............................................... 73 4.4 Influencer for young people ....................................................................... 74 4.5 Influencers contribute to GAA ..................................................................... 75 4.51 Participants manifested own contribution by influencers ........................ 76 4.52 Increase the use of Influencer will benefit to the GAA organization and sport .................................................................................................................... 77 4.53 Social media marketing is an important tool for GAA ................................ 78 4.6 Participants use Instagram to inform about GAA ....................................... 79 4.61 Participants use Instagram for social reason .............................................. 80 5. Discussion ............................................................................................................ 81 5.1 Influencers Marketing in GAA have roles inside and outside the of sport ... 82 5.2 Highlighting what is important to determine an Influencer ........................ 83 5.3 The engagement with influencers could depend on the area and the stage which people are in ........................................................................................... 84 5.4 Influencer Marketing and social media marketing contribute to GAA to increase the popularity of the association and sport ......................................... 86 5.5 Connection between Instagram, participants and GAA ............................... 89 4 6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 91 6.1 Conclusion and recommendations ............................................................... 92 6.2 Limitation and future research .................................................................... 94 References ...................................................................................................................... 96 Appendix .......................................................................................................................104 5 Acknowledgement I would like to thank my parents for giving me the opportunity to study and my family in general for always supporting me even being thousands of miles away. I would also thank my girlfriend for her emotional support and always encourage my skills and knowledge. Special thanks to my supervisor, Ieva Masevic, for her active role during this process, giving me the advice to carry out the research for the correct way and patience overall. I would also thank participants who helped to share their experiences and taking the time to do the interview. Finally, but not less important, thanks to all my friends who always gave me their support to continue and do not let me give up, especially a huge thanks for my friends who helped me with transcripts and grammar corrections. 6 Abstract: In recent years, some famous players of Gaelic Games or better known as GAA have positioned themselves on Instagram, posting content, and promoting brands. Definitions name them as Influencer Marketing, social media marketing strategy to create brand communication. The purpose of the research is to explore the role of these Influencers Marketing in the GAA to drive participation of Generation Z in the sport. The use of a qualitative research design is adopted with interpretivism philosophy and inductive approach. The data have been collected with semi-structured interviews to investigate the experience of people belonging to the GAA and Instagram with Influencers. The results show that Influencers Marketing could increase the visibility of the GAA, promoting products related to the sport, and showing content to improve skills in the game. Furthermore, there is an association with other brands non-related to the field. Participants have stated to interact on Instagram with influencers, however they admitted that this could be more suitable for kids and adolescents. The results are analyzed with the literature review in the discussion chapter. Moreover, conclusions and recommendations