Abstract
Established as a successful marketing slogan during the 2014 NBA playoffs, the #WeTheNorth campaign became the face of branding for the Toronto Raptors franchise that enhanced brand loyalty and unified Canadian basketball fans. The following Major Research Project (MRP) explores two different research questions surrounding a social media analysis of the Toronto Raptors #WeTheNorth campaign. The first research question examines the Raptors’ fan perspective, and focuses on the connotative messages that are incorporated into the #WeTheNorth campaign to broaden the team’s message and re-vamp the team’s national identity. The second research question examines the organization’s perspective and focuses on how the Raptors brand utilizes sports nationalism in their social media efforts to support fan engagement. This paper also reinforces research from previous academic findings that include: nationalism, community, collective fandom, social media, semiotics, and branding. Using an analytics tool named Sysomos, a content analysis of the Raptors’ official Twitter account was conducted to gather primary research. One Hundred Tweets were gathered per research question, and then coded to provide insight regarding the #WeTheNorth campaign from the 2018/19 NBA regular season. Findings for the first research question reinforce national fandom, and the support fan unification via the use of the #WeTheNorth hashtag. In addition, over 35% of Tweets from fans included positive sentiment, compared to the 17% that had negative sentiment. Findings for the second research question focus on branding, semiotics, and fan engagement levels that the Toronto Raptors social media team tries to enforce. Results proved that over 60% of Tweets included some form of request for fan participation, with 17% of Tweets containing positive Tweet sentiment. Overall, as long as the #WeTheNorth campaign remains the Raptors’ primary marketing slogan the campaign should continue to reinforce national fandom and support positive online fan engagement.
Highlights
This major research project (MRP) will provide a social media marketing analysis of the Toronto Raptors’ #WeTheNorth campaign
"Have anyone noticed that 36% @OAnunoby has been fantastic at his free throw shooting as of lately. 17% Let's give hi a shout out Nationalism These results provide several important indications relating to the RQ1 that identify the connotative messages incorporated into the Raptors’ #WeTheNorth campaign to broaden the team’s message and increase the brand’s national identity
The Toronto Raptors have been the lone Canadian team out of the twenty-nine others in the National Basketball Association, which began without much promise to uphold a large marketplace based on their inaugural season in 1995
Summary
This major research project (MRP) will provide a social media marketing analysis of the Toronto Raptors’ #WeTheNorth campaign. This campaign originally began as a simple 60second television advertisement, but quickly sparked into one of the most successful marketing campaigns in Canadian sports history (Raptors, 2019). Shannon Hosford, who was the marketer behind the development of the #WeTheNorth campaign, was tasked with the challenge of re-branding the Raptors in 2014 The success she and her team shared is largely attributed to taking the former negative connotations about Toronto basketball, and turning them into an emotionally charged marketing campaign (Niedoba, 2016). The trade resulted in All-Star player and fan favourite DeMar DeRozen leaving the team, the Raptors’ went on to win the NBA championship for the 2018/19 season
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