How Social Platforms and Other Influencing Factors Affect Athletic Marketing

Sippy et al (2020): Effect of social platforms and other factors on athletic marketing Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

Yash Sippy1, Nayana Nimkar2* and Shravani Bandwalkar3

1Student, MBA, 2Professor, Symbiosis School of Sports Sciences, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India. 3Student, MSc, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

*Corresponding author: [email protected] (Nimkar)

Abstract Background: Athletic Marketing is one of the major tools used nowadays to develop an athletes image in the society. Sports marketing means marketing of a sport, their teams along with brand products. Understanding the value of sports marketing mediums like social media are used as an easy, approachable and impactful way.Methods: In this research, factors present or to be included and given importance are focused which help to contribute towards positive athletic marketing. In this study a total of 25 athletes who are professionally ranked high in their particular sports from 5 different sports were studied.Conclusion:Based on the study of variables, it has been observed that certain variables contribute towards athletic marketing via social platforms, social behavior, athlete’s managing team and professional achievements. To support these considered variables a survey was conducted. Altogether considered variables did have an impact and smart inclusion of them will prove to positive athletic marketing.

Keywords: Athletic marketing; Athletic ranking and achievement; Brand endorsements

How to cite this article: Sippy Y, Nimkar N, Bandwalkar S (2020): How social platforms and other influencing factors affect athletic marketing , Ann Trop Med & Public Health; 23(S17): SP231758. DOI: http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231758

1.Introduction: In recent years where India was striving to develop its sports industry with appreciable improvement in their management it might get affected significantly due to the post pandemic economic crisis. Sports have been a part of human lives since time immemorial. The significance of this study, is to understand the relationships between the athletic marketing and the variables mentioned which may help the coaches, sports agent and franchises to initiate the required changes from the grassroots stage in athlete’s life. In the last decade the consumption of sport has increased substantially and has also positively impacted revenue. This has resulted in more commercialization of various sports which is a boom to the sports industry as whole. The uncertainty of result in any sport is one of the prime reasons which makes people follow sports so passionately and religiously. In India the penetration of the internet and the ease of access of wireless devices has further resulted in the spurt of fans across leagues of different sports. When we talk about entertainment for a common person, sports will always fall in the primary category. The excitement associated with different sports and the uncertainty of the result of any game or match makes it a thrilling experience. On one hand, Sports fans over the years have evolved and now utmost importance is given by companies to work more towards the engagement of fans across different sports. On the other hand, the Indian sports fans are constantly making themselves aware and educating themselves with regards to sports and games. They have become very active especially via online mechanisms like social media and fantasy game apps. The consumers are

Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231758

Sippy et al (2020): Effect of social platforms and other factors on athletic marketing Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

shifting from just being viewers or casual sport followers to active sport participants due to social platforms that make their fans more aware (7). These social media platforms are also exciting for the fans as they see their favorite players in various roles in playing their respective sport endorsed by their favorite brands, or post where they are enjoying with their family which completes the ultimate aim of relationship building (16). This ends up bringing fans together through social media where they exchange the sport related talks (10). Whereas these conversations have led to the positive rating of Sporting Channel as fans simultaneously increased their communication like increasing their viewership of the sport at the same time (12). Brands know which athletes suit them and start approaching them to have connectivity with them. These brands end up paying huge amounts as they know their customers come from various social platforms following their favorite athlete (9). There are various platforms but nowadays more people use Instagram because of two major reasons which are social influence and the other is the quality that Instagram shows to its viewers which attract them to buy the goods that they don’t demand at that particular point of time (13).The simple e.g. of this may be David Beckham, who is a former British soccer player with a high class marriage, in his profile endorsing lot of brands and staying connected with his fans has increased sale of his associated brands (14). Time has now changed, especially with Indian athletes achieving on and off field both. In India also it has become more convenient for sports fans to view the visuals of the game and also share among their social groups at a same time (1). It has a great impact on fans, as a lot of things are interlinked with it, like brand endorsements, ticket sales etc. Nowadays every athlete has a team to look after them like their physiotherapist, nutritionist, manager etc. but what keeps them active on social media is their social media team who works on it day and night. Lot of sports persons are connected with their sports affiliation company, who groom their personality, their way of living etc. They make them presentable in a simple manner in front of their audience. They are the ones who have changed the sports industry and made it more professional. These managers/agents go out in the market and bring in some of the sponsors and partners, who can support these athletes and take these athletes to higher levels in their career. They change the value of an athlete in the current market. The number of fans are the deciding factor as to the success of the sports industry in India. The more the number of fans, the better is the visibility and sponsorship for the sport.

Nowadays, female athletes are also gaining more importance on social platforms, as their personality has created an individualized endeavor, which is located in the market (11). All have been strategized and then implemented by the managers for the fans to interact and gain happiness. Seeing the motto of different brands, consumers rank them for their consumption and decide its future with that brand. Thus brands deal with consumers and their emotions at the same time (15). The objective of this study is to find out whether given variables contribute towards positive athletic marketing as well as to see what all factors have been given importance by athletes for their social media platforms. Thus this research covers the gap that the athletes, Sport federations, Franchises, Sports affiliation companies are facing, to understand what are the actual demands in the market that leads any athlete to his all-round success.

2. Material & methods: • Data Collection: As the study topic of this research done is qualitative in nature, the data is collected from various past research papers and articles, to analyze the study. This research to be more precise, a set of questions were formed and circulated among the group who were considerable active on social platforms. When the responses came it was seen that people have answered all the questions by considering all the facts of present and past, famous sport and upcoming sport etc. Thus these 149 responses (99-Male, 50-Female) who are above the age category of 16 years, can be considered while proving that there is a positive relation of social media and other influencing factors affecting athletic marketing. Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231758

Sippy et al (2020): Effect of social platforms and other factors on athletic marketing Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

• Selection of Subjects: For this particular study, the subjects used are all well-known Current international players of top 5 major sports of India. These sports are Cricket, Badminton, Football, Tennis and Athletics. The player’s selection is based on their performance and ranking and not particularly on gender and by selecting these top ranking players their personality traits on social media is studied and which leads to a lot of brand endorsement deals for them.

• Selection of Sample: The selection of sample was done according to the requirement of the study hence it is Purposive Sampling.

• Selection of Variables: The variables that has been selected to prove the given study are as follows:

Independent variables

1) Brands and Endorsements of an athlete

2) Popularity among fans on each social media platforms

3) Posting strategy on Instagram Platform

4) Athlete expertise Ranking and their achievements

5) Agent/Sports Affiliation company representing the athlete.

6) Social welfare done by athletes

Social media profile of athletes is the dependent variable in this research study.

3. Results and Discussion: The following are the results below in this section that contains the data and finding from the various allied literature that has been used for the study. Further, the findings have been discussed.

• Most followed sport brand: Famous sports brands in India are Nike, Adidas, Puma, Asics. Popularity of these brands are the reasons why endorsed athletes are paid a good amount for being their brand ambassador. As we can see from the below chart, Nike stands at top and athletes associated with them are Harman Preet, Sunil Chhetri etc. Followed by Puma and Asics who are at the same position. Athletes associated with Puma are ViratKohli and Dutee Chand whereas athletes associated with Asics are Rohan Bopanna with other famous cricketers. Adidas being at last position and athletes associated with them are Rohit Sharma and Hima Das.

Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231758

Sippy et al (2020): Effect of social platforms and other factors on athletic marketing Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

40 35.6 35 30.2 30.2 30 26.2 25.8 25 20

POINTS 15 10 5 0 Nike Adidas Puma Asics Other 1 2 3 4 5

Figure 1. Most Followed Sport Brand

From the above chart, we are able to see that most famous sports brands, with which the top athletes are associated, have developed on-field and off-field status, so that they can get associated with various other brands. This brings them ahead of other athletes to achieve the worth, which is actually reflected in their net worth and also improve their personality in the society, which ultimately leads to development of their fan base. Hence from the above categories it can be said that players even though they have good achievements records, there are still some factors missing that can lead to attract brand contracts and eventually take them ahead in the race.

• Most followed sport athletes: When the survey was conducted, we found out that Cricket athletes are the most followed athletes on social media due to various reasons which will be shown ahead. Followed by football and badminton. Under the section of ‘other sports’ option games such as Track field and boxing were also gaining public importance.

90 80 80 70 60 50

Points Points 40 30 24 20 11 8 7 10 2 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Figure 2. Most Followed Sport Athlete

Hence from the above categories the number of followers is an important factor as brands may consider athletes profile and then select him for that particular brand. Also sometimes the number

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Sippy et al (2020): Effect of social platforms and other factors on athletic marketing Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

of followers depends on the team who handles the athletes social accounts and the content that they post.

• When the content was subcategorized to see what actually attracts the audiences on social platforms, it was found that athletes are more famous, because of their athletic prowess followed by other factors that are mentioned in the above graph, which makes them stay in this competitive world outside their professional career.

0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 21.20% 16.10% 17.80% 18.10% 15.50% 0.05 11.30% 0 Points Points reputation social media Athlete's represent Sports man Sports media content Athlete's social Brands thatBrands they Athletic prowess representing the by themAthlete'sby Social welfare done Social welfare 1 2 3 4 5 6

Datenreihen1 Datenreihen2 Datenreihen3 Datenreihen4

Figure 3. Reasons for athlete’s fan base on social media

Below tables show the details of the athletes and the variables mentioned help in differentiating between them and the other professional athletes.

1) Brands and Endorsements: Brands and endorsement are the important part of athletes off field career. By being at the top in their professional career, they get lot of brands into their pocket. So let’s have a look at how each athlete covers his brands list at the same time seeing how much is their net worth.

Table 1. Brands and endorsements of an athlete. Sr. Name of the Sport Gender Age Net Worth Brands association No. Athlete

1 ViratKohli Cricket Male 31 688 cr. One8 puma, Mobile premier league, wrogn, American tourister, ocean beverages, google duo, Myntra, muve acoustics, Philips India, Remit 2 India, Audi cars, Wellness for India, Scentials world, Blue star limited, Volini, Shyam steel.

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2 K.L. Rahul Cricket Male 28 4M MPL App, Red Bull, Boat nirvana, Gully live fast clothing, Tata harrier, SG Cricket, puma, Dolce &gabbana, The lapel couture, air bnb, pure New Zealand.

3 Rohit Cricket Male 33 $18.7M Maggi, lays, oppo, Sharma Hublot, Adidas, CEAT, Highlander, Aristocrat bags, Relispray, Conekt India, Sharp India, Animal planet India, Massimo batteries, TRUsox India, Highlander India, la Liga, Cadbury bournvita, Star sports, TRUsox.

4 SmritiMandh Cricket Female 23 $1 M- $5M Hero, green plywood, ana Reliance trends, koovs (Approx.) fashion, Amstrad India, The body shop India, shrey sports, vivo India, air optix, pantene India, bata, oyo, women's national t20 cricket tournament and few more.

5 Harman Cricket Female 31 $1 M- $5M NIKE, B Natural, Allen Preet Kaur Solly woman, cricplay, (Approx.) star8bat, blaupunktvindia India, ceat tyres and few others.

6 Sai Praneet Badminton Male 27 5 Cr. No Brands.

7 KidambiSrik Badminton Male 27 38 Cr. Lining India, Amazon anth India, Bank of Baroda, Red bull.

Sr. Name of the Sport Gender Age Net Worth Brands association No. Athlete

8 ParupalliKas Badminton Male 33 $1 M- $5M Cipla, yonex, sunrise hyap click official, Indian (Approx.) oil.

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9 P.V. Sindhu Badminton Female 24 $10 M JBL, Lining, Gatorade India, Krsna Couture, Suave, Kohar jewellery, Bank of Baroda, Mirrors hair salon, RNIL, Pooja created homes, Bridge stone, lovebirds, Aquamarine jewellery, Good cow café, ogaan Hyderabad, Notebook clothing brand, Varun Bahl Clothing Brand, forever new India clothing brand, All 2 Defy, Label Nimbus, Pnb. Met life, visa India, stay free few more such tie ups.

10 SainaNehwal Badminton female 30 28.40 Cr. Levis India, Yonex, Sunrise, HSBC, Herbalife India, Kaira clothing brand, zebronics, Nihar naturals, kay by katrina, Usha international, dyson, Anker India, Sound Core India and few more like this.

11 Sunil Football Male 35 2.30 Cr. Game plan, Nike, Chhetri AXE, Asian Paints, Spykar official clothing brand, Herbalife Nutrition, Puma India, GIIS, Gulf Oil,

Sr. Name of the Sport Gender Age Net Worth Brands association No. Athlete

12 SandeshJhin Football Male 26 3.8Cr. No Brands gan (Recent Value of club buying him)

13 Gurpreet Football Male 28 $1 M- $5M Red bull, puma, Spykar Singh clothing brand, Sandhu (Approx.) Volkswagen, Aplapollo steel pipes

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14 Bala Devi Football Female 30 (Approx.) No Brands.

15 Aditi Football Female 27 $1 M- $5M She Kicks, Fast and up, Chauhan Decathlon, Oziva, (Approx.) Skechers performance, Fast and up Vitamins, World of play, Capsul shopping and retail.

16 Leander Tennis Male 46 $8 M. No special brand name Paes that we found on his name as he has been supported by lot of Angel investors

17 Rohan Tennis Male 40 $3.2 M. Bangalore. Recently he Bopanna has been announced as the brand associate for “Asics''.

18 Sania Mirza Tennis Female 33 175 Cr. She doesn’t have a lot of brands but what she has done in the last few years is that she has emerged as a global celebrity by coming up in a lot of Cover pages and Extra innings for commentary

19 SumitNagal Tennis Male 22 Upto 2 M. No Brands

Sr. Name of the Sport Gender Age Net Worth Brands association No. Athlete

20 Yuki Tennis Male 27 $1 M- $5M No Brands Bhambri (Approx.)

21 Dutee Chand Sprinter Female 24 $1 M- $5M Skechers, Puma, pantene, SBI life (Approx.) insurance,

22 Hima Das Sprinter Female 20 5 Cr. Adidas, Gatorade, Daniel wellington, Haier India, Fitness honey,

23 Neeraj Javelin Male 22 $1 M- $5M Amstrad India Chopra Thrower (Approx.)

24 Irfan 20Km Walk Male 30 Not Known No Brands KolothumTh

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odi

25 Shivpal Javelin Male 24 Not Known Milo India’s Singh Thrower

From the above table the data can be divided into following three categories: a. Those who are excelling with their brand endorsement and career like ViratKohli, Rohit Sharma, K.L. Rahul, P.V. Sindhu, SainaNehwal b. Those who are not at the peak stage but have started gaining audience with few brands in their pocket like Hima Das, Dutee Chand, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, KidambiSrikant, Leander Paes. c. The ones, who have just stepped into sports endorsement and are at initial stage with 1 or no brands with them like Shivpal Singh, Irfan K.T, SumitNagal, SandeshJhingan, Bala Devi.

2) Social Media prowess: Each individual has their own creativity when a platform of social media is concern. So let’s see how much each athlete is famous across the 3 major social media platforms.

Table 2. Social media popularity of athletes. Sr. No Name Sport Instagram Facebook Twitter

1 ViratKohli Cricket 57.1 M. 37 M. 34.9M

2 K.L. Rahul Cricket 5.8 M 2.9 M 4 M

3 Rohit Cricket 13.4M 10 M 16.3 M Sharma 4 SmritiMand Cricket 2M 967K 536K hana

5 Harman Cricket 598K 302K 325K Preet Kaur

6 Sai Praneet Badminton 29K NA 13.6K 7 KidambiSri Badminton 133K 92K 1.1M kanth 8 ParupalliKa Badminton 99K 73K 249K shyap 9 P.V. Sindhu Badminton 1.6M 1.3M 2.8M

10 SainaNehw Badminton 1.4M 7.6M 8.4M al 11 Sunil Football 1.M 617K 1.6M Chhetri

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12 SandeshJhi Football 324K 89K 148K ngan

13 GurpreetSi Football 128K 114K 57.1K nghSandhu

14 Bala Devi Football 6.2K NA 2.2K 15 AditiChauh Football 24K 2.2K 7.4K an 16 Leander Tennis 60.6K 80K 1.2M Paes 17 Rohan Tennis 15.8K 14K 378K Bopanna 18 Sania Mirza Tennis 6.3M 12 M 9.1 M

19 SumitNagal Tennis 24.5K 5.5K 10K Sr. No Name Sport Instagram Facebook Twitter 20 Yuki Tennis 7.9K 15K 3.4K Bhambri 21 Dutee Sprinter 57.7K 75.6K 31.1K Chand 22 Hima Das Sprinter 263K 321K 333K

23 Neeraj Javelin 63.7K 36K 62.5K Chopra Thrower 24 IrfanKoloth 20KmWalk 8.1K 6.5K 83 umThodi 25 Shivpal Javelin 4.5K NA NA Singh Thrower

The above data can be divided into following categories:

1. Athletes with million followers: Virat, Rohit, SainaNehwal, P.V. Sindhu, Leander Pace.

2. Athletes with moderate followers: Sai Praneet, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu etc.

3. Athletes with less than moderate followers: Shivpal Singh, Irfan K.T., Neeraj Chopra etc.

3) Social Strategy on Instagram Platform: As it was mentioned earlier that each individual athlete has their unique strategy to maintain their profile on such social platforms, let’s see how much difference can be noticed here, when a comparison of different profiles of these athletes have been made.

Table 3. Social media strategy

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Sr. Name Total no. Professional Business Social Post No of Post Post (PP)= Post (BP)= (SP)=

1 ViratKohli 295 31.8% 36.9% 31%

2 K.L. Rahul 178 31.46% 23.03% 45.05%

3 Rohit Sharma 157 20.3% 29.2% 50.3%

4 SmritiMandh 84 23.80% 34.5% 41.6% ana

5 Harman Preet 96 23.95% 22.91% 56.25% Kaur

6 Sai Praneet 40 57.5% 2.5% 40%

Sr. Name Total no. Professional Business Social Post No of Post Post (PP)= Post (BP)= (SP)=

7 KidambiSrika 86 33.72% 26.7% 39.5% nth

8 ParupalliKas 96 38.54% 5.20% 54% hyap

9 P.V. Sindhu 132 5.3% 39.3% 55.3%

10 SainaNehwal 199 11.5% 12.06% 76.3%

11 Sunil Chhetri 52 40.38% 25% 34.6%

12 SandeshJhing 84 58.3% 1.19% 40.4% an

13 GurpreetSing 132 62.8% 18.93% 18.18% hSandhu

14 Bala Devi 46 60.86% 8.6% 30.43%

15 AditiChauhan 153 61.4% 14.3% 24.18%

16 Leander Paes 97 47.4% 5.15% 47.4%

17 Rohan 106 21.6% 18.8% 55.6% Bopanna

18 Sania Mirza 209 5.2% 24.8% 69.8%

19 SumitNagal 99 52.94% .98% 48.03%

20 Yuki 54 22.22% 0% 77.77%

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Bhambri

21 Dutee Chand 613 34.4% 6.1% 59.3%

22 Hima Das 115 26.08% 23.47% 50.43%

23 Neeraj 40 32.5% 15% 32.5% Chopra

24 IrfanKolothu 105 27.6% 0% 72% mThodi

Sr. Name Total no. Professional Business Social Post No of Post Post (PP)= Post (BP)= (SP)=

25 Shivpal Singh 58 56.8% 1.72% 41.3%

Where,

Professional Post (PP)= Total of PP x 100

Total no. of post

Business Post (BP) = Total of BP x 100

Total no. of post

Social Post (SP) = Total of BP x 100

Total no. of post

From above we can say there are 3 categories which are identified depending on the Content that they post. Also after observing all profiles we find different types of profiles like there are.

• Some athletes who post too many posts in 1 year think of increasing Followers, but they don’t realize that sometimes people observe the content and not the number of posts to be attractive and famous.

• Whereas we also saw few athletes giving more importance to career related than others on their social platforms and vice versa.

• On the other side there were also some profiles of the athletes in which all the three categories were given equal importance.

4) Ranking and achievements: Athletes are being ranked seeing their performance and are awarded for this valuable achievement. Below is the list of awards assigned to these athletes.

Table 4. Athlete ranking and achievements Sr. Name Sport Rank Awards No

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1 ViratKohli Cricket 10 2013 Arjuna Award, 2017- Padma Shri, 2018 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna

2 K.L. Rahul Cricket 2 2018: Padma Bhushan, 2009: Padma Shri., 2007−08: Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Sr. Name Sport Rank Awards No 3 Rohit Sharma Cricket 11 Arjuna Award (2015), ICC ODI Player of the Year (2019), ICC ODI Team of the Year (2014) (12th man), 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) 4 SmritiMandhana Cricket 7 2018: Best Women's International Cricketer. 5 Harman Preet Kaur Cricket 12 2017: Arjuna Award.

6 Sai Praneet Badminton 10 2019 Year honored with the Arjun Award. 7 KidambiSrikanth Badminton 12 2018: received Padma Shri,

8 ParupalliKashyap Badminton 25 Arjuna Award, 2012

9 P.V. Sindhu Badminton 6 Padma Bhushan, Third Highest Civilian Award of India (2020), Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, highest sporting honor of India (2016), Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India (2015), Arjuna Award (2013) 10 SainaNehwal Badminton 18 Most Promising Player of the Year, (2008) award by Badminton World Federation(, Arjuna Award (2009), Padma Shri (2010),Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2009– 2010), Padma Bhushan (2016)

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11 Sunil Chhetri Football 1 2011 − Arjuna Award, by the Government of India in recognition of his outstanding achievement in sports, 2019 − Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award. 12 SandeshJhingan Football 3 Kerala Blasters FC, Indian Super League Emerging Player of the Season: 2014, All India Football Federation's Emerging Player of the Year: 2014 13 GurpreetSinghSandhu Football 2 Arjuna Award(:2019, Indian Super League Golden glove: 2018-19 Sr. Name Sport Rank Awards No

14 Bala Devi Football 1 2014 AIFF Women's Player of theYear, 2015 AIFF Women's Player of the Year 15 AditiChauhan Football 2 Asian Football Awards: Women in Football Award 2015 16 Leander Paes Tennis 115 2014, for his outstanding contribution to tennis in India. 17 Rohan Bopanna Tennis 37 2010: Bopanna was awarded the renowned Arthur AsheHumanitarian of the Year award 18 Sania Mirza Tennis 253 Arjuna Award (2004), WTA Newcomer of the Year(2005), Padma Shri (2006), Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2015)), Padma Bhushan (2016), NRI of the Year (2016)

19 SumitNagal Tennis 127 He won the 2015 Wimbledon boys' doubles title and became the sixth Indian player to win a junior Grand Slam title. He represents India at the Davis Cup.AITA nominates Rohan Bopanna and Yuki

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Bhambri for Arjuna award

20 Yuki Bhambri Tennis 319 AITA nominates Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri for Arjuna award 21 Dutee Chand Sprinter 34 ₹3 crore (US$420,000), from the Government of Orissa for winning the silver medals at the 2018 Asian Games.( 22 Hima Das Sprinter 57 Conferred with Arjuna Award by the President of India on 25 September 2018. 23 Neeraj Chopra Javelin 4 Qualified for Olympics Thrower 2021 Tokyo

24 Irfan K.T. 20KmWalk 51 Qualified for Olympics 2021 Tokyo 25 Shivpal Singh Javelin 16 Qualified for Olympics Thrower 2021 Tokyo

Table 4. Importance of athlete’s achievement over Social media separates athlete in the form of Higher, Medium and lower order with their achievements and ranking. Upcoming athletes in their professional career as well as their social career develop further benefits such as brand endorsements. In the end it’s seen that athlete’s expertise and rank in their sports helped to understand their professional achievement in that respective sport.

From the below response, 86.5% people feel that athletic achievement helps to improve their social media platforms which indeed helps to increase their fan base. Likewise, 11.5% are not sure and the other 2% are totally against this.

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Sippy et al (2020): Effect of social platforms and other factors on athletic marketing Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

Figure 4. Importance of athlete’s rank and achievements over athletic marketing.

5) Athlete Management Company: Nowadays each athlete who is been viewed at a public level wants to have their perfect personality in front of their fans. Thus this gives the entry to such companies which creates a huge demand for them.

Table 5. Athlete affiliation to sports companies Sr. No Name Sport Rank Sports Company Managed By

1 ViratKohli Cricket 10 Cornerstone

2 K.L. Rahul Cricket 2 Cornerstone

3 Rohit Sharma Cricket 11 IMG Reliance

4 SmritiMandhana Cricket 7 Baseline Ventures

5 Harman Preet Kaur Cricket 12 Cornerstone

6 Sai Praneet Badminton 10 Go Sports

7 KidambiSrikanth Badminton 12 Baseline Ventures,Go Sports (Supported by)

8 ParupalliKashyap Badminton 25 OGQ

Sr. No Name Sport Rank Sports Company Managed By

9 P.V. Sindhu Badminton 6 Baseline Ventures

10 SainaNehwal Badminton 18 OGQ

11 Sunil Chhetri Football 1 Cornerstone

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12 SandeshJhingan Football 3 No Agency

13 GurpreetSinghSandhu Football 2 Athletes Today, bandana Fair play sports in.

14 Bala Devi Football 1 Football Edge

15 AditiChauhan Football 2 Managed personally

16 Leander Paes Tennis 115 His own Company named ‘LeanderSport’

17 Rohan Bopanna Tennis 37 Meraki Sports & Entertainment

18 Sania Mirza Tennis 253 Globo Sports

19 SumitNagal Tennis 127 Cornerstone

20 Yuki Bhambri Tennis 319 Has his its own team

21 Dutee Chand Sprinter 34 Maatjacks entertainment and lifetime services.

22 Hima Das Sprinter 57 IOS Sports and Entertainment

23 Neeraj Chopra Javelin 4 JSW Sports Thrower

24 IrfanKolothumThodi 20KmWalk 51 Not Known

25 Shivpal Singh Javelin 16 Not Known Thrower

Agent/Sports affiliation are one of the key success factors who have changed the living of athlete’s representation professionally as well as socially. This variable has been taken to prove its positive impact on how players are being helped to upgrade their personality, skills etc. on social platforms which eventually help them in signing various contracts with top companies of the market.

The responses below show that 54% of people agree with athlete’s fact that Sports Companies do help to make an athlete achieve in their career as well as with their social life. Mostly these companies handle an athlete off the field taking into consideration the non-core elements. Some of the companies are at good level e.g. Baseline ventures, Go sports, cornerstone. Whereas few companies operate on a CSR funding for e.g. Companies like Lakshya sports.

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Sippy et al (2020): Effect of social platforms and other factors on athletic marketing Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

Figure 5. Importance of athlete’s sports affiliation over athletic marketing.

Hence it is important for athletes at a higher level to have a strong company base to crack more deals for them and reach out to more and more people and make a huge fan base.

6) The below response shows that social welfare goes in favour and support of the athletes to make their profile attractive and gain more followers. Out of all the responses 75.7% are with ‘yes’ who feel that yes there is a strong correlation of athletes getting fame from their charity welfare. On the other side, it gives these athletes a step to show their concern for people and do betterment of people around them.

Figure 6. Importance of athlete’s social welfare over athletic marketing.

Social welfare has a significant impact as it helps many individuals at one time. Thus Social welfare is an important element in an athlete's life in several ways. This variable has been taken so that it may prove to be a positive factor for athletes to do their social welfare activity for both reasons naming one for humanity and other for increasing their social status. It is common among people who become famous to do social welfare in some form or the other to develop and maintain

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their public image, but does this social welfare actually help the social media of the person who does it? Surely this question may be a little bit contradictory for now but by studying the profiles of athletes on Instagram it was seen people start respecting that athlete and many new followers can be attracted from this social field.

Discussions:

1) Brands and Endorsements of an athlete: It has been described that there was a time in each player’s life when they had to concentrate on a lot of things other than their sporting profession on their own. It took real effort to the athlete to handle their accounts of athletes on their social media platforms. They had to keep updating their profile regularly, so that their characteristics such as on field performance, off field lifestyle and also their own personality that people may admire and gain fans. Nowadays brands gave various suggestions to an athlete that how can they improve their brand image and recognition in front of their fans and the whole marketable industry (17). Also social media nowadays is very important as it makes the fan community and even takes them closer to the well-known industry of brands and endorsements. Athletes have to maintain their professional and personal life separately, as there may be incidents sometime that may take an athlete to their worst case and can drag them down. On the other hand, nowadays brands have started seeing long term investment in players who will last for a long time in his/her career and not the player who has a short period remaining and who may be not useful in attracting sponsors. Thus Social media proves to be an additional tool for activating sponsorship and endorsement deals (2). The table.1 gives us the insights of the players, their associated brands and their net worth. We have also seen that more the no. of brands associated with the players, the net worth of the player in the market increases.

2) Popularity among fans on each social media platform: Nowadays social media platforms have made human life more important. These social media platforms are used to share the present, past of an athlete, as it gives the answer to what a player is doing right now and who are their friends with whom he/she is moving out? These things attract fans regularly, which may later prove in liking and commenting on their post. To improve the number of consumers of a particular brand, athletes were considered as the prime source to enhance their marketing and therefore it leads to development of sports endorsement. As and when the social media pages started to boom and seeing the trend the platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter gained more popularity (18). Fans are not built overnight by an athlete but it is their activities based on things that are to be done by particular athlete, once they come up in their professional life. Nowadays elite athletes have their own management team for various departments like Social media team, PR team etc. It is said that people get attracted and become their fan when an athlete posts a variety of photos and not just one or two categories of photos. Also it is said that elite athletes get marketing from various competitions, that they are part of, as well as they stay connected with their fans by being active on their social media handling. Therefore, it is suggested that athletes should post with their desired brand in which they are comfortable which can guide their fans in a good way further (6). From the table 2. it can be seen how famous each athlete is on different social platforms, which indicates comparison to other professional athletes. From the below table, Instagram media is much more widely used compared to other social media platforms as there has been 14 athletes out of top 25 athletes who are more famous on Instagram then other social media platforms.

3) Posting strategy on Instagram Platform: There are communities nowadays that have come up in sports that get interacted on various social platforms. These conversations have a link between online communities and its Para social relationship. When this research came with more facts it proved that Instagram is ahead of Facebook in the social conversation which were made by fans.

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Sippy et al (2020): Effect of social platforms and other factors on athletic marketing Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

Hence social interaction on the information shared was having a positive relation in making a community of that sport. Through para social relation they saw that Instagram users are motivated actively as well in sharing of various articles, posts, news which made a good community. Thus this research keeps Instagram over Facebook while explaining various facts about it (3). The reason behind this research is to explain how social media helps a player in his professional career. It has been seen how players gather their fans and help their community to see the matches, support them etc. But when it comes to player’s use of the Social media it has both the effects some time positive and sometimes negative. The positive effects come from players watching social media and getting relaxed during their off practices. There comes a lot of motivational videos through which players get attracted and can use those things in their match. Also seeing the fans support players' conscience thinking gets developed and players may start thinking in the positive direction of winning. Thus these positive things may lead an athlete in sowing his ultimate result by winning, improving his ranking and also shine with lots of Awards (5). Later it explains how association and brands nowadays are coming with a lot of campaigns with players participating at various social platforms and increasing the followers at the same time encouraging more and more people to turn out to be fans and later join the community of that sport. So the question is what these brands do to bring fans and build a community of social platforms? According to this research it is said the brands study the consumers, about their likes, about their fashion and then carry out what they actually demand, which later has been implemented. While carrying this they also stated that each brand should have variations related to their products and also may post a lot of good content through which the fans may get attracted and increase the followers of the page which is recently seen on Instagram than other social media platforms (6).

This variable is taken to define the content into three different categories that the athletes are posting. Every athlete is different and can be compared using this variable as here we can actually see how each athlete is giving importance to which of the 3 categories and increasing his followers and eventually their fan base. Following are the categories that are considered above:

• Professional Post: It includes post of the player related to their profession.

• Business life Post: It means post purely related to Business by promoting associated brands etc.

• Social Post: It includes when the athlete’s give a message to everyone, Family post, Post which makes them happy other than business and their professional life.

The reason behind this variable was keeping a measurement factor for the content that is been posted by each athlete and likewise how it will help athletes with not impressive profile standards to come up by viewing the strategy of the top ones. Also these figures are taken from every athlete's Instagram profile from March 1st 2019 to April 30th 2020.

4) Athletic expertise Ranking and their achievements: There is various support from various individuals who helps an athlete in bringing their game to the top level. There are many e.g. of athletes who have come up just because of their family support. This eventually shows a huge boost in the players when we see their relationship with family support, coach’s guidance and influence over social media. With all these things happening in a player's life and having seen their professional athletic career each player has to maintain it with a proper self-integrity. As with a lot of social things in an athlete's life, it may disturb his schedule and also can shift his mood from his sports career to some other. Thus an elite athlete maintains properly all the social things around them which may reflect in their career and ranking (19).

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Sippy et al (2020): Effect of social platforms and other factors on athletic marketing Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

Further This variable defines the athletic experience (Ranking and major awards) that the audience are looking for while they follow any of such professional athletes on any Social Platforms. This variable was taken to implicate what are the differences that people usually see before following any athlete. This variable may also give insights on how ranking and awards make players fame in both ways naming professionals as well as on social platforms as well. Also as we know there is no such specific ranking of Indian football players, hence there have been segregation of boys and girls and ranked them on their matches, to decide their athletic experience.

5) Agent/Sports Affiliation company representing the athlete: The motivation behind the examination was to find out relationships between social media and Sports Affiliation Companies/Sports agents. Sports agents are very important in the career of athletes as they completely change their personality and make their image a good for the market. The sports agents are responsible for all forms of signing deals for his/her athletes. They share a platform with their athlete and maintain a good relation with them so that they can understand them properly as they represent them completely. They are the one who takes the decision on players off field contracts and even on field brands to be displayed while they are playing. They work for a certain percentage, as a sports agent is the one who negotiates with brands and takes the deals of brands to his athlete. The Agent sees a huge scope first before signing any athlete and they represent a player before representing their actual sport (21). The point of the present evaluation of this study was to evaluate how companies look at the sponsorships and deals of athletes. We have seen a lot of things depending on sports agents, as an athlete’s image and its layout is done totally by them. The companies also have segregated themselves in 2 ways, on one side we have companies targeting finances as their prime focus on individual sporting athletes whereas on other hand we have companies focusing on their employees and supporting and sponsoring team sport. This is how endorsement is carried on nowadays and taking into consideration all the factors that a sport agent does on various social platforms (4).

6) Social Welfare: This study has a good impact of showing, how good is social welfare for the sporting Industry. It is said that sport is a platform through which you can make people aware of their rights, social steps and each and every thing that a common man can do, which does make them different from others. They understand that athletes represent the country and their participation in this can change the whole scenario within the country. More and more people can be educated and shown a way in their career. The athletes also have been doing great things which helps the society at all the platforms and gives them the basic rights which they actually deserve (8). Further the point of athlete’s charity has been raised by taking into consideration their own trusts and organizations. We have a lot of athletes who have been doing these social welfare things and supporting other talents to come up. Further it explains how important is this social welfare for the society and how an athlete can figure himself as an entrepreneur who wants to change the society, one who wants to scale everyone equally, one who can provide a lot of help to people, who are indeed needy. The social welfare things keep an athlete in front of the public as they prove to be the favorite person in front of the media. They gain respect and also come up on social media platforms as one of the emerging personalities (20).

4. Conclusion:

Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231758

Sippy et al (2020): Effect of social platforms and other factors on athletic marketing Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

The main intention of this academic research work was to understand and answer the question, how Social platforms and other influencing factors affect athletic Marketing in India? The objective of the study was to see and check whether the variables that have been selected contributed towards positive athletic marketing. Based on the study of the variables, it has been observed that certain variables do contribute towards athletic marketing via Social Platforms. Social Platforms have a direct link and consequence to the athlete’s market, the brands that they endorsed etc. This study can act as the base for further study because it takes into account very important factors which are so vital in a country like India to develop more sports fans. India as a sporting country has great potential and many of which are untapped. This study also provides information of the areas which can be used to increase the fan base of various untapped sports as well as their individual players, who do not know or neither they are aware, even though they have excelled a lot in their professional career. This study can play a good role in educating athlete’s agents/Sports affiliation companies who are trying to establish their foothold by increasing the fan base of their athletes in the Indian market. It focuses on the various parameters that need to be kept in mind like what content of marketing or advertising a product or service should be posted on their athlete’s social platform. In the next five to ten years, not only 2/3 sport athletes but slowly and steadily many other sport athletes will also start getting the fame which they deserve. Thus the study in question has a lot of relevance in today’s time. The selection of the topic has been done keeping in mind the rise of the sports market in India. The follower of sports has increased substantially and one sport fan is having an influence on the other, as sports is taking lead to social integration.

Ethical Clearance: Not applicable Source of Funding: Self-funded Conflict of Interest: There is no conflict of interest among the authors

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