Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how sports marketing can attract audiences towards less popular sports. Design/methodology/approach A total of 22 interviews were conducted first to explore the opinions of sports professionals about how audiences can be attracted towards less popular sports. Then 479 responses to an online questionnaire were collected. The online questionnaire includes a pretest-posttest experiment in which each respondent has watched a video. Confirmatory factor analysis, reliability test and hierarchical regression analysis have been performed. Findings The elements of sports marketing that can help to attract audiences towards less popular sports are sports media, sports advertising, star athlete and sports sponsorship. The performance of national teams moderates the relationship between sports advertising and attraction towards less popular sports. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, a definition of sustainable sports marketing is introduced for the first time. Sustainable sports marketing can be defined as the continuous implementation of marketing activities in the sports context to ensure the continuous existence of the sports themselves (all types of sports) and the prosperity of future generations. Elements that can attract audiences towards less popular sports have been examined for the first time.
Highlights
In January 2017, the Egyptian national football team played in the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon
Sustainable sports marketing can be defined as the continuous implementation of marketing techniques in the sports context to ensure the continuous existence of the sports themselves and the prosperity of future generations
The performance of national teams moderates the relationship between sports advertising and attraction towards less popular sports
Summary
In January 2017, the Egyptian national football team played in the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon. The Egyptian national handball team played in the World Men’s Handball Championship in France. A total of 100 Egyptians were surveyed by the researchers. They were chosen randomly in a convenient way. 67% did not know about the handball championship; the majority of the Egyptians followed passionately the national football team. This pushes the researchers to think about the possibility of attracting audiences towards different types of sports other than football. A total of 22 interviews were conducted with sports professionals to explore their opinions about how audiences can be attracted towards less popular sports (discussed later in the methodology section)
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