The Marketing of the F1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix

In 2008, the inaugural Formula One SingTel Singapore Grand Prix was held as the first night-time race in the history of Formula One Grand Prix. Through the years, the event had been marketed using various marketing activities. The purpose of this chapter is to provide readers with a better understanding of how F1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix markets itself. The chapter begins by examining the history behind motor sports racing events in Singapore. This is followed by a review of the marketing activities of the F1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix. The last section describes an analysis of spectators' blogs and attempts to shed light on the relative success of the marketing strategies employed. The analysis suggests that the marketing of the event had been successful as there was a high level of awareness of the event and that some spectators indicated the experience was positive and that they would attend the event again. However, the analysis also indicated that there were spectators who were more interested in the concerts held in conjunction with the race rather than the event itself. This remains to be examined in further research.

Effect of Image Transmission in Sports Sponsorship in Chile

This chapter firstly aims to introduce the notion of sports sponsorship and the effect it has on the commercialization of products and services with society and, more importantly, its use by companies to project a positive image associated with their brand and objectives. Secondly, the chapter explains the various measurement and evaluation tools available for efficacy transmission of image in sponsorship. It provides a process model for the implementation of the sport sponsorship model based on Irwin and Asimakopoulos (1992) and later adapted by Karg (2007). Finally, the chapter compares sports sponsorship investment in Chile with more advanced countries such as Spain and the United States and how companies allocate funding towards sports with the aim of increasing their brand in associated markets.

Getting Brand Commitment through Internet and Mobile Sports Marketing

This chapter provides a better understanding of the impact that the Internet and mobile sports marketing are having on a business's ability to achieve customer engagement. To achieve this goal, the case of Real Madrid football team is analyzed, as it is calculated to have over 200 million supporters worldwide. Information about Real Madrid was gathered from September 2012 to March 2013 by repeatedly browsing the team's Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and apps. Data from interviews of Real Madrid's marketing department published in business press and posts was also compiled. Additionally, a focus group was conducted to discuss the customer engagement of Real Madrid's fans. The findings offer new opportunities to get customer engagement. They also highlight the important role of social media to gain insight about the fans.

Sport Environment/Atmospherics

This chapter discusses atmospherics as a sport marketing strategy. Even though it has traditional retail roots, atmospherics have emerged as a strategy that may be utilized in the physical, online, and mobile sport environments. A comprehensive review of major traditional and sports atmospheric variables, online atmospheric variables, and applications to sport are discussed. In addition, the spectator experience cycle is introduced with atmospheric correlations. The purpose of the chapter is to explain why atmospherics are important to the sport industry and to demonstrate how sport marketers may use physical, online, or mobile atmospherics to enhance spectator experience, increase loyalty, impact attitude, consumer choice, and impact purchase behavior. In addition, the chapter is meant to emphasize the importance of atmospherics to ultimately achieve promotional and marketing objectives. Finally, future research directions are recommended.

Sports Tourism Marketing

Research dealing with the motives of sports tourists from a marketer's perspective remains underdeveloped. This chapter describes the phenomenon of sports tourism and aspires to examine with an empirical study the motives of winter and summer sports tourists. The first sample (n=339) was comprised of active as well as passive summer sports tourists. The second sample (n=477) only focused on active participants being winter sports tourists. Both samples were sharing a particular profile of consumers: The respondents were predominantly male, medium-aged, well-educated, and affluent. Cluster analysis based on the items of involvement and strengths of motivation revealed the clusters Casual and Committed. The Committed cluster showed a higher level of involvement, whereas sport motivation differed between the two clusters. Implications for marketing are presented.

Public Perception of Costs Associated with Major Sporting Events

Sporting events have become first-order promotional tools of large cities, allowing them to reach levels of dissemination economically unaffordable as conventional advertising. The social impact of the event on residents is very important, given their role as main actors. Perceptions of the residents of the cities that host sporting events have been extensively studied, although in this case a singular point of comparison to study the perception of the costs of organizing and holding the sporting event is provided. The purpose of this chapter is to assess the perception of the citizens of Valencia (Spain) on specific aspects of three sports events held in the city in 2012: European Grand Prix Formula 1, the Tennis Open 500, and Valencia Marathon. The results show significant differences in the perception of the costs of organizing the events related, and demonstrate the impact of the type of activity in the perception of residents.

Predicting the Attentional Effect of Sport Sponsorship Information as an Innovative Evaluation Approach

Most major sports events can no longer exist without the investments of sponsors. However, financially strong companies are increasingly adopting a critical attitude towards sponsorship since their strategic investments in a sports event cannot be evaluated sufficiently. Against this backdrop, the current approaches to the evaluation of sponsorship are discussed critically in this chapter before a more innovative approach is suggested. The new evaluation approach directs sports viewers' attention to sponsorship information, the central valuation object. At the core, it involves measuring the visual and cognitive attention in standardized experiments and using the identified patterns to predict sponsorship effectiveness. In this regard, the theoretical and methodological fundamentals of the new approach are introduced in the main part of the chapter before their applicability is illustrated based on three typical phases in sponsorship management. To close this chapter, the authors suggest topics for future research.

Ambush Marketing

The rapid growth in sponsorship throughout the world has been accompanied by a parallel growth in ambush marketing practice over the last two decades, particularly in the context of major sporting events. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the concept of ambush marketing, discuss the moral and ethical issues surrounding ambush practice, and provide solutions and recommendations in dealing with ambushing issues from the perspective of different parties. This chapter begins with an introduction of ambush marketing and explanation of how it has evolved over time. The different types of ambush marketing strategies are then identified, followed by an exploration of the effectiveness of ambush marketing and its influence on sponsorship activity. The main focus then turns to the moral and ethical debate on ambush marketing among events owners, sponsors, and ambushers. Finally, the future development of ambush marketing is discussed and suggestions are made in terms of how to cope with the ambushing issues in the future.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Sporting Events

All businesses are expected to behave in socially responsible ways. These responsibilities include ethical treatment of employees and all stakeholders, addressing environmental issues in a sustainable manor, and contributing to the community. Corporate social responsibility is not just a concern for the manufacturers of products, but extends to all business organizations including professional teams and sporting organizations. The chapter discusses the importance of corporate socially responsible behavior and then focuses on the importance of such behavior by sporting teams and organizations. A specific discussion is presented about the responsible social behavior undertaken by the National Football League, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, Formula I racing, FIFA, the English Premier League, and the Olympic Games.

The Marketing Implications of International Sports Rating Systems

Recognized world sports federations appear to have chosen their official rating systems with marketing in mind. 87% of the 105 official rating systems involve the simple accumulation of points, which encourages top competitors to enter as many tournaments as possible. Most of those systems recognize a seasonal champion. A marketer can exploit the importance of the end-of-season events and the appearance of top athletes. To be successful in a combat sport like wrestling, boxing, and judo, physically overcoming the opponent is intensely personal. Top competitors can be advertised in personal terms to encourage the awaiting audience to buy into the upcoming contest on an equally personal level. In other sports such as running, swimming, and rowing, each competitor performs unimpeded by the opponent. Often the best performance for a season is used to crown a yearly champion. A rating in seconds and meters is more tangible than one in points. A marketer can illustrate the small gap between top competitors making every stride important to potential ticket buyers. Some of the object-control sports like basketball, cricket, ice hockey, rugby, soccer, and tennis are rated by point accumulators and some are rated by more sophisticated systems that self adjust, based on the relative strengths of the opponents. Mind sports such as chess and bridge are included because these competitions are recognized by the International Olympic Committee and by SportAccord. The specifics of those rating systems are provided in this chapter as are suggested marketing opportunities.