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Outsourced Marketing in NCAA Division I Institutions: The Companies’ Perspective
Submitted by Robert Zullo, Willie Burden, Ming Li
ABSTRACT
Outsourcing is a crucial tool that allows sport organizations to turn over their noncore processes to external service providers. The outsourced service providers help sport organizations focus on sales efforts to maximize revenue. The purpose of this study was to examine outsourced marketing in NCAA Division I institutions from the outsourced marketing companies’ perspective. A survey was conducted to gather information from the general managers at the primary outsourced marketing company’s property affiliated with select schools in NCAA Division I conferences. Collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics along with qualitative responses. The study found that the outsourced marketing firms focus on revenue generation through securing corporate sponsors. Primary inventories sold included commercials during radio broadcasts of games and signage at athletic facilities. These are typically packaged with the sports of football and/or men’s basketball. The study found that many sponsorship categories remained unfulfilled. There was also growing concern by the companies regarding the escalading financial guarantees paid to the schools. The findings and recommendations are valuable to college administrators, athletic directors and outsourced marketing firms as the parties strive to find outcomes beneficial to everyone involved in the partnership.
INTRODUCTION
More and more collegiate athletic departments have adopted outsourcing as a strategy which uses their corporate partners, such as State Farm, Burger King or Verizon Wireless, to help them earn additional revenue in exchange for advertising at the sporting events. Outsourcing is a crucial business strategy that allows companies to turn over their noncore processes to external service providers while the company concentrates on its core competencies (18). In the highly competitive environment of intercollegiate athletics, some schools are able to handle its corporate partnerships with in-house marketing departments. However, the growing trend for major NCAA Division I schools is to outsource its marketing efforts to an outsourced marketing company that specializes in the sales of inventory such as commercials on radio broadcasts or coaches’ television show, corporate hospitality at home sporting events, signage at athletic facilities and more (24, 38).
The athletic department will typically sit down and outline what they would like to see from an outsourced partner (2). For most schools, outsourced companies offer the opportunity to streamline operations or provide resources that might not otherwise exist, such as sales expertise (24). Li and Burden (24) add that the athletic department may want a company to produce radio call-in shows or coaches’ television shows in addition to the sales efforts. The outsourced companies would have a greater opportunity to improve the quality of the broadcast and simplify the production efforts.
Host Communications, International Sports Properties (ISP Sports) and Learfield Communications were viewed as the main outsourced marketing companies in the early 2000’s (38). Nelligan Sports was also seen as an emerging outsourced marketing company. These outsourced companies handle sponsorship sales while the in-house marketing department shifted its attention to promotions and increasing attendance and ticket sales. The outsourced company would maintain a “property” at the school with the property serving as an extension of the parent company. The property was responsible for the sales efforts and reporting back to the parent company.
The benefits of the outsourced marketing partnership are that of guaranteed and additional revenue (19). An outsourced marketing company will promise a financial guarantee of a set amount to the school’s athletic department in exchange for being able to sell the “rights” of that athletic department. Another option includes a simple revenue-sharing model for the “rights.” The rights could be in the form of a radio commercial, an on-field promotion, a giveaway at a sporting event, or signage at an athletic facility including on a video board (38).
To a lesser extent, the outsourced company will also sell advertising in game programs, on ticket backs and on the athletic department’s website. A fan might pick up a schedule poster and schedule card at a football game with a sponsor’s logo on it. That sponsor may also have a permanent sign at the football stadium visible to fans and may also host a corporate village for its clients prior to the game. In exchange for its advertising opportunities, the sponsor will pay the outsourced marketing company an agreed upon amount of money. The outsourced marketing company will then put that revenue towards the promised guarantee for the athletic department. Once the guarantee is met, the athletic department receives an agreed upon percentage of any future revenue, but it is there that the outsourced company earns its greatest financial sales commission. If this financial model is not used the straight revenue sharing of each sponsorship sold is another viable option.
As these outsourced marketing companies gain more schools under their watch, they spread their sales territory and can start to package a few schools with one corporate sponsor. For example, ISP Sports may approach Verizon about a national sponsorship deal that could reach the Northeast through sponsoring Syracuse University, the West Coast through sponsoring UCLA, the Midwest through sponsoring the University of Houston and the Southeast through a sponsorship of Georgia Tech Athletics. At the same time, Verizon may also discuss a similar deal with Host Communications through sponsoring the athletic departments at Texas, Boston College, Arizona, Kentucky and the University of Michigan. Companies might also pursue schools in a set geographic region, further enabling them to partner with corporate partners exclusive to that particular region. By strategically acquiring attractive schools (those with large market areas and large fan bases) around the country, the outsourced marketing companies can pool their resources, reduce their costs and diversify their portfolio of schools at the same time.
A number of studies have examined the perceptions of athletic directors and senior staff administrators from the institutions that partner with an outsourced company about their relationship with their outsourcing partners (10, 19, 24, 25, 38). Issues examined include details of the outsourcing contracts such as the length of the term, the financial guarantee, and the strengths and weaknesses of the outsourced partnership. This current study provided the outsourced company a chance to respond with its own sentiments about the relationship and future issues related to outsourced marketing. An analysis of the schools’ responses in conjunction with the responses of the outsourced marketing companies could help make for a better relationship in the future. The purpose of this study was to examine outsourced marketing in NCAA Division I institutions from the outsourced marketing companies’ perspective.
An Overview of Outsourced Marketing in Intercollegiate Athletics
The most significant outsourced marketing deal to date took place early in the fall of 2004 as Host Communications won the rights to the University of Kentucky athletics in a ten-year deal valued at more than $80 million. Host placed a bid of $80.475 million edging the bid of $80.35 million submitted by Learfield Communications, while ESPN Regional bid $74 million and Viacom Sports $55.25 (29). The previous deal was $17.65 million over the course of five years and expired April 15, 2005 (20). This deal established a benchmark that has since been surpassed, but clearly raised the fair market value.
To look at the origin of outsourced companies’ involvement with athletic departments, it is necessary to start in Lexington, Kentucky, and the origin of Host Communications. In 1973, Jim Host bid on the rights for the University of Kentucky in what is the first believed outsourced deal in intercollegiate athletics. Within ten years, Host had secured the rights to the Final Four after convincing then NCAA president Walter Byers that corporate marketing was the wave of the future (34). Host saw the opportunity that existed in advertising and licensing given the affinity associated with the college sports fan.
In working with colleges and universities and their marketing efforts, what Host strived for was a clean venue comparable to the Olympic Games where there was limited signage and less clutter in the advertising. The corporate partners who paid the most would receive these exclusive opportunities to advertise. Host notes that the philosophy is not applied to the Bowl Championship Series which is run outside the control of the NCAA (34).
Today, Jim Host is no longer head of the company he started, but he has enjoyed seeing the company grow to the point that it sells advertising on over 500 radio stations for the Final Four (5). This is up from the 200 radio stations the company partnered with in 1982 (12). Host also prints game programs for over 43 NCAA championships and operates most marketing and promotional aspects of the NCAA events. It annually earns over $100 million in revenue (7) and has not limited itself to just intercollegiate athletics. Event marketing in junctures as diverse as Streetball and the National Tour Association (tourism industry) have led the company to be recognized by the SportsBusiness Journal as one of the top five marketing companies in the world and the premier in intercollegiate athletics (6). In 2007, global sports marketing giant IMG purchased Host Communication, as the company exists today as IMG College (17).
In time, other companies began to surface to challenge Host Communications as the “one-stop” shopping point for colleges and universities. The companies realized what athletic departments were failing to grasp, that season-ticket holders were more than just fans who wrote a check once a year for seats to a sporting event. These fans were consumers that could spend up to $100,000 or more during a lifetime on tickets, concessions, and parking (22). In addition, the fans were loyal to their teams and everything associated with their team.
Corporate partners began to realize this and wanted to partner with schools. With money to be made and Jim Host demonstrating some early financial return on investment for the University of Kentucky, more start-up outsourcing companies wanted to become involved in their revenue opportunity. Some of the companies were locally owned and operated, but others were more regional like an ISP Sports, Learfield Communications, or Nelligan Sports. Companies and athletic departments sat down to best figure out which schools were good fits for which company and how to best utilize the relationships over the long-term. After that outsourced companies began to provide sponsorship options or packages to corporate sponsors based on what other schools were doing (22).
In creating packages of what could be sold, the typical items included signage at the athletic facilities, television rights and radio broadcast rights (14). Cohen adds that higher dollar values were attached to such sponsorship packages and enabled athletic departments to offset growing expenses including scholarships and rising facility costs. Schools would “bundle” their inventory and see more of the revenue return directly to the school instead of multiple outside parties (13). Outsourced marketing enabled corporate sponsors to visit one individual or company instead of stopping at the radio station to gain radio advertising during game broadcasts, stopping at the local television station to gain on-air advertising during coaches’ television shows, then concluding with a visit to the athletic department for additional advertising signage at the athletic facilities. This is especially true as video boards became more and more detailed in intercollegiate athletic facilities starting with the University of Nebraska in 1994 (31).
As scoreboards have been supplemented or replaced with video boards fans are now afforded instant replays and advertising messages. A full-color video board could now offer “fan of the game” or “play of the game” or “great moments in history” segments that are presented in collaboration with a corporate sponsor. It could also roll a commercial exactly like the ones seen on television at home. Steinbach (31) noted that with their addition of video boards, Michigan State experienced a sponsorship revenue increase from $400,000 in the pre-video days in 1998 to more than $3 million annually by 2002.
While these video board improvements provided new fan entertainment and sponsorship revenue, they did not come without a price. Many older fans thought the video board was too much like the television they chose to leave at home. Others felt the noise was too distracting and took away from the natural elements of the sporting event including the fans’ cheering, the band and cheerleaders (15). Athletic administrators and outsourced companies had to evolve to package their advertising in subtle fashion around trivia contests, historic moments, replays and scores from around the country. Pure video commercials advertising products were not welcomed in the stadium as it distracted from the entertainment aspect of the game itself. Furthermore, sponsors recognized that if fans were not happy with the advertising, their affinity to the sponsor would not be positive either. Too much advertising could also lead to a clutter of sponsors with their advertising messages being lost on the fans (15). The message was heard by the outsourced companies which now included Viacom Sport and Action Sports Media in the mix.
Recent Concerns in Outsourced Marketing
Arizona State University completed a study in 2004 on a small sample size that found that in intercollegiate athletics, sponsorships are typically formed in the categories of: airlines, auto parts, beer, credit cards, DSL, gas/oil, health and fitness, long distance, paging devices, and tires/auto services (3). The same group also found that categories frequently ignored include: auto parts, boats/marines, computer hardware/software, delivery services, department stores, drug stores, electronics, hardware/home improvement, music stores, pharmaceuticals, personal hygiene, video game systems and video stores. One major concern is that ignoring these categories can result in significant lost revenue. Tim Hofferth, president and chief operating officer of Nelligan sports stresses that outsourced companies cannot ignore pre-existing business relationships between schools and area businesses as those are additional sponsorship opportunities waiting to happen (23). This is particularly important as the parent outsourcing companies, with a greater portfolio of schools, pursue national sponsorships that are more financially viable to the parent company relative to the schools’ properties pursuing regional and local sponsorships. Therefore another concern is that local relationships can be impaired or even lost.
Additional research by Walker (36) noted that it is important that communication between the outsourcing property and the school remain a high priority. Because of the athletic department’s affiliation with an institution of higher education there are certain restrictions that exist that may not be as prevalent in professional sports. Such restrictions may central on alcohol, gambling or lottery sponsorships or trying to maintain a “clean” image at the sporting events to avoid concerns of excess commercialization within higher education. Goals, philosophy and objectives between the school and property must be aligned (11).
Future research needs to also explore whether the escalating guarantees paid to schools have grown too rapidly for the outsourcing companies to keep pace. After Kentucky signed their landmark deal, Connecticut, Arizona, Tennessee, Alabama, Michigan, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio State and Nebraska have since signed contracts guaranteeing at least $80 million to their schools from their respective firms (29). Wisconsin, Oklahoma, LSU and Arkansas are all guaranteed at least $73 million through their school’s contractual obligations with outsourced marketing firms.
Outsourcing as a Strategic Alliance: A Brief Overview
As competition becomes more and more intensified, individual firms have to seek out strategies to stay competitive. One of such strategies is strategic alliances (16). The age of in-house operations is quickly being replaced by the age of alliances (16).
According to Spekman and Isabella (30), an alliance is a close, collaborative relationship created between two or more firms for the sake of accomplishing some goals that would be difficult for each to accomplish alone. By collaborating, alliance partners will not act in self-interest, but will promote the partnership and foster its strengths. There are several benefits of forming a strategic alliance. According to Parise and Casher (26), a strategic alliance is characterized as “an open-ended agreement between two or more organizations which enables cooperation and sharing of resources for mutual benefits, as well as enhancement of competitive positioning of all organizations in the alliance” (p. 26).
1. Strategic alliances exist to create value. Whether or not it is in the form of new market penetration, increased profit sharing, or competitive opportunities, companies join to reap the benefits that neither partner could enjoy alone.
2. Strategic alliances are developed to create a number of advantages. Some of these advantages are opportunity-based alternatives. In other words, strategic alliances can provide firms in the alliance with many opportunities to reposition themselves in the market because the infrastructure network created by the alliance gives all members access to a range of information, markets, technologies, and ideas that would be far beyond their reach otherwise (16, 27). Due to the fact that it is often difficult for a particular firm to possess all the resources required to meet new challenges and opportunities, the formation of an alliance can be extremely advantageous (16).
3. Strategic alliances are developed to divert corporate attention away from nonessential efforts where the firm lacks expertise, cost advantage, or scale. The skills gained through new partnerships can introduce new techniques, market segments, or new geographic markets, and the addition of complementary skills also helps boost revenue opportunities by gaining greater returns from existing customers, channels, and products (1, 30).
Outsourcing within intercollegiate athletics is a viable means for an athletic department to utilize strategic alliances to create value and take advantages of skills that may not be found with the in-house marketing staff. The outsourced marketing firm can focus on revenue generation while the in-house marketing staff enhances event atmosphere and boosting attendance.
METHODS
Subjects
The general manager at the primary outsourced marketing company’s property affiliated with select schools in NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision conferences was the original subject of this study. The select NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision conferences included such six conferences as the Atlantic Coast Conference (12 schools), Big East Conference (12 schools, including four independents), Big Ten Conference (11 schools), Big Twelve Conference (12 schools), Pacific Ten Conference (10 schools), and Southeastern Conference (12 schools). Each of these six conferences is a member of the Bowl Championship Series, the leader in the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly Division I-A, post-season play. Furthermore, earlier research by Zullo has indicated that a majority of schools outside of these six selected conferences affiliated with the Bowl Championship Series do not have an existing relationship with an outsourced marketing group (19).
With the six BCS conferences, there are a total of 69 schools. Among these 69 schools, 13 handle their marketing in-house and an additional seven were marketing in-house and recently reached an agreement to start a relationship with an outsourced marketing partner (19). That left 49 schools with outsourced marketing relationships. However, seven schools used multiple companies in their outsourced marketing efforts rather than pooling their efforts bringing the number of included participants down to 42. For example, one firm may sell signage at the stadium while a second sells radio inventory. These schools were not included as this research focused on school’s exclusive outsourcing partnerships only.
The main outsourced parent companies include ESPN Regional, Host Communications (presently called IMG College), International Sports Properties (ISP Sports), Learfield Communications, Action Sports Media, Nelligan Sports, and Viacom Sports (presently called CBS Collegiate Sports Properties). An examination of these companies found an additional 19 Division I schools with outsourced marketing relationships. These 19 schools are not in the six major conferences but have been included in the study to increase the sample size to 61.
Instrumentation
To achieve the objectives of this study, a questionnaire was designed and utilized to examine the outsourced marketing companies’ perspective pertaining to their affiliations with NCAA Division I institutions. The researcher designed the questionnaire in consultation with four account executives from two major sports marketing firms. These four reviewers were not general managers with the outsourced marketing properties thus they could freely express their suggestions and concerns. This collaboration enabled further critique, expertise and anonymous feedback to enhance the instrument’s validity. Further review by academic colleagues aided in the process of eliminating biased questions or clarifying wording. The questionnaire and consent form were then sent to the general managers of the outsourced marketing companies’ operations at 61 major NCAA Division I institutions.
Both close-ended and open-ended questions were included in the survey instrument. There were nine open-ended questions. They were (a) what is the property’s best method of soliciting sponsors? (b) what are the primary goals of outsourced companies? (c) how often do outsourced companies fail to meet their financial guarantee to their schools? (d) what inventory sells the most, the least and why? (e) what sponsorship categories are presently being sold and which are ignored in sales? (f) why do outsourced companies sell certain sports and not others? (g) what are the strengths and weaknesses of outsourced marketing companies? (h) what do outsourced marketing companies perceive as the future problems with outsourced marketing? and (i) at what level is outsourced marketing a good fit within college athletics?
Data Collection and Analysis
The survey instrument was mailed to the respective general managers with a second mailing added to heighten the response rate. Descriptive statistics, such as frequencies were used to analyze the collected data. Qualitative responses were also analyzed to identify reoccurring themes.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
As mentioned previously, the purpose of this study was to examine outsourced marketing in NCAA Division I institutions from the outsourced marketing companies’ perspective. Twenty-eight general managers of the identified sixty-one NCAA Division I institutions responded to the survey, which accounted for a 46% response rate.
Primary Goals of Outsourcing Marketing Operations
In conducting their sales efforts, most surveyed properties (93%) focus on personal selling efforts as their means of reaching out to potential partners or sponsors. Telemarketing and using a database are secondary methods of soliciting sponsors or partners. These sponsorships or partnerships are secured for the primary purpose (68%) of generating revenue for the overall parent company to meet the guarantee to the school. After that goal is met then the secondary focus becomes trying to bring in additional revenue beyond that initial guarantee. This is consistent with previous literature by Burden and Li (9-10) and Zullo (38). The findings are also congruent with the strategic alliance research that place an emphasis on the value of partnerships yielding enhance values to both parties (26).
Table 1 Property’s Best Method of Soliciting Sponsors/Partners/Clients
Table 2 Primary Goals of Outsourced Marketing Properties
As mentioned earlier, this revenue is ultimately shared with the affiliated institution of higher education’s athletic department. It should be noted that the surveyed general managers indicated that outsourced properties focus on sales and not on the business of enhancing an athletic department’s marketing or promotional efforts. The outsourced properties responding also did not indicate a willingness to boost ticket sales or create awareness for the athletic department. This is also in line with past research by Zullo (38) and Burden and Li (9). Consistent with research in strategic alliance the in-house marketing departments focus on the areas of ticketing and brand awareness while the outsourced firms avoid such areas where they lack expertise and experience (1, 18, 30)
Duration of Relationship and Success Rates
Of the outsourced properties responding, 42% have been working with their current school for over six years and 54% have worked with their school for less than six years. There was one non-response. Twenty of the twenty-eight properties have successfully met their financial guarantee to the school’s athletic department throughout the duration of the relationship with the remaining eight respondents choosing to not answer the question. Of those eight, the subsequent question found that two of them have failed at least once to meet its financial obligation to the school’s athletic department. That is collectively a success rate of greater than 90% for the outsourced marketing properties in meeting their financial guarantees to the schools.
Table 3 Number of Years Property Has Worked With School
Table 4 Number of Years Property has Successfully Met Financial Guarantee
Table 5 Number of Years Property has Failed to Meet Financial Guarantee
If one tallied the cumulative number of years that all of the respondents have partnered with their respective outsourced marketing firms, factoring in the two years the guarantee was not met, that pooled annual success rate improves further thus supporting the philosophy of such alliances as advantageous (16, 30). Why companies failed to meet their guarantee could be asked on further questionnaires to help facilitate what factors impact not meeting the guarantee. Additional questions could also explore whether the escalade in financial guarantees paid to the schools by the properties has hindered the success rate. Furthermore, questions could also ask whether joint bids have become a necessity with the higher paid guarantees. ISP Sports pursued joint bids with IMG College before the latter company acquired the former in 2010 (4).
Attractiveness of Marketing Inventory
In examining what inventory items are sold most by the outsourced properties, the respondents cited radio broadcast of games (61%) and permanent signage (57%) at athletic facilities as the best selling inventory. These findings are consistent with Cohen’s findings (13-14) and Zullo’s research in 2000 (38). Video board advertising and ribbon signage at athletic facilities are other top sellers on the second tier of inventory, along with game day promotions and print media. Steinbach noted (31) that while start-up expenses for video boards may be higher the boards can offer a significant return investment. A third tier of inventory would consist of coaches’ radio shows, coaches’ TV shows, corporate hospitality, and the athletic department’s internet advertising rights.
Table 6 Best Selling Inventory Items
The idea of an interactive marketing area or fan zone that is increasingly being found at professional sporting events has not caught on as a popular inventory item at the college level yet. This may be due to the greater expense of such a project relative to the production of a radio commercial or one time cost of making a sign to display in an arena or stadium. An interactive area or fan zone’s costs and expenses could offer a lower financial return on investment for the outsourced marketing property.
The findings indicate that inventory provided by the athletic department and sold by the outsourced marketing company is limited. As professional sports are quick to sell more creative inventory, including corporate hospitality, ribbon stripe advertising in arenas and more fan friendly websites, institutions of higher education, athletic departments and outsourced marketing companies appear to continue to do business in the same way over the last decade as shared by Zullo’s (38) research. Athletic departments that prefer the permanent signage route over ribbon advertising or video board are not maximizing their revenue opportunities. Though accompanied by greater start-up costs, the ribbon advertising and video board messages garner greater fan interest and can be sold at a higher rate to the corporate sponsors. Outsourced companies may provide greater access to this newer technology enabling schools to add inventory they could not otherwise do on their own thus demonstrating another value of the strategic alliance (16, 27).
Category Fulfillment
In terms of which sponsorship categories have been filled by the outsourced marketing property in the last three years, 71% of the respondents maintained some form of sponsorship in the categories of sit-down restaurants, fast food, hotel, soda/cola, banking, cellular service provider, car insurance, hospital/medical center, grocery store, automobile brand, life insurance, pizza and airlines. What is notable is the wide range of categories left unfulfilled by outsourced marketing properties including: water, health clubs, credit cards, real estate, tires, military, home improvement, dairy, automotive repair, motor oil, office supply store, tools/power equipment, coffee, satellite television, batteries, delivery services, boats/marinas, and candy. These findings are consistent with the study conducted at Arizona State (3).
Table 7 Sponsorship Categories Successfully Filled in Last Three Years
There are many categories typically sold in professional sport that are ignored in intercollegiate athletics. Future research is needed to address why this is the case. Is the sponsorship not a good fit for the college setting? Have companies tried approaching these categories and failed in their sales efforts? Or are companies aware that a greater financial return can be found with select categories relative to others? Additional research is warranted in this area as strategic alliances may yield new revenue opportunities and open new markets (1, 30), but only as these questions are explored further.
Attractiveness of Sports as Outsourcing Inventories
When surveyed general managers were asked what sports sold well when working with corporate sponsors or partners, the overwhelming response indicated football first and men’s basketball second. Women’s basketball and baseball were second tier sports in the sales effort. However, football and men’s basketball sold the best because that is what the sponsor/partner demanded (79%) in the sponsorship package first and it was demanded based on the historical perception of greatest return on investment value.
Table 8 Top Three Sports Outsourced Properties Sell
Table 9 Reasons for Selling Such Sports
Other sports simply did not garner the sponsor’s interest (71%), offer a significant return on interest (18%), or yield a past history of success in sales (11%). This was especially true of Olympic Sports and women’s athletics excluding women’s basketball. Low regular attendance at Olympic Sporting events equates to low return on investment from the sponsor’s perspective.
Table 10 Top Three Sports Outsourced Properties Did Not Sell
Table 11 Reasons for Not Selling Such Sports
This should not be interpreted as a dislike of these sports, but rather as a financial decision by corporate sponsors. A State Farm or AT&T corporate sponsor has the ability to reach many more fans at a football game then at a tennis match due to the larger attendance of patrons at the football games. Such a sponsor may also have the capability to advertise to a broader audience on the radio and television via the broadcast of the football and men’s basketball games. These findings are consistent with Zullo’s study (38).
Though this may be an area of concern between athletic administrators and outsourced marketing companies, most schools’ administrators understand the financial implications if an outsourced marketing company focuses too much time on selling sponsorships for a softball game instead of football or men’s basketball. The financial guarantee would not be met by the outsourced company and their services would not be retained. While the guarantee would be paid by the property’s parent company, the school would lose confidence in the property’s ability to sell and would look to partner with another company. It is a balancing act by the outsourcing marketing companies and many of these companies have offered to package Olympic Sports or women’s athletics with football and men’s basketball sponsorship packages provided that the corporate sponsor did not object. That noted, schools such as Georgia, Texas, or Stanford may need to explicitly state in their contracts with an outsourcing company that Olympic Sports and women’s athletics must be sold, given the high status of such programs at these schools.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Outsourced Marketing
Respondents noted that the major strength of outsourced marketing properties includes revenue generation (57%) with service quality ranking second. The weaknesses of outsourced marketing properties range from lack of control over content to lack of interest and promotion for certain sports. This reaffirms the previous research of Zullo (38) and Li and Burden (24).
Table 12 The Major Strengths of Outsourced Marketing
Table 13 The Major Weaknesses of Outsourced Marketing
Future Problems/Issues Facing Outsourcing Marketing
The respondents indicated the biggest future problem in outsourced marketing is too great of a financial guarantee for a school (50%), one that an outsourced marketing parent company may have trouble meeting on an annual basis. Smith (29) found that an increasing number of schools were surpassing the 2004 benchmark Kentucky deal as financial guarantees to school were reaching the $100 million mark. Secondary problems include clearly demonstrating a return on investment for sponsors (18%), an oversaturation of the marketplace with sponsorships, and turnover in sales personnel (both 14%). Tertiary concerns include ambush marketing, faculty concerns of over commercialization, increased operational expenses, and lack of control over the inventory and sponsorship content.
Table 14 Biggest Future Problems of Outsourced Marketing
Overwhelmingly, the respondents supported NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision institutions (96%) and conferences (61%) when they were asked the level of intercollegiate athletics outsourced marketing that is best suited for outsourcing. Lower levels of intercollegiate athletics simply did not catch the interest of outsourced marketing properties. Their response is consistent with Tomasini’s (35) findings, as well as those of Zullo (38) and Li and Burden (24). It is hypothesized that this is due to the smaller audience in attendance at sporting events at these levels compared to the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision institutions.
Table 15 Level of Intercollegiate Athletics Outsourced Marketing is Best Suited For
CONCLUSIONS AND APPLICATION IN SPORT
Direct Practical Recommendations
Given the limited amount of research concerning outsourced marketing in intercollegiate athletics, research on outsourcing in higher education in general is important to consider when deciding whether to outsource sports marketing efforts. In examining the findings of this study and turning it into practical applications for presidents, athletic directors and general managers of outsourced marketing companies, the author would suggest the following recommendations for improving the business relationship and being pro-active in addressing future issues in outsourced sports marketing within the context of higher education:
1. Utilizing their acknowledged strengths, outsourced marketing companies should offer their consulting services in the area of marketing and sales to “smaller” Division I schools in non-BCS conferences that would not otherwise be financially attractive to partner with for an extended relationship. Their sales expertise would be considered invaluable to a smaller school and could be an extended revenue stream for the outsourced company collectively. Smaller schools could be packaged by entire conferences, or by several schools in same geographic region, or other characteristic (ex. HBCUs); outsourced companies could sell their season ending tournaments or championships, or “classic” games, etc. Smaller schools should also think in terms of packaging their entire campuses and not just the intercollegiate athletics department. This would help outsourced marketing companies address their concerns with the escalating financial guarantees paid to certain school that reduce the profit margin of the parent company.
2. Outsourced marketing companies must include new categories in their sales efforts as today’s sponsors simply have more places to spend their advertising dollars. Without a clearly defined return on investment, long term corporate partners may consider advertising elsewhere. Before this occurs, outsourced companies need to pro-actively evolve and consider alternative sponsorship categories that have been largely ignored in intercollegiate athletics as demonstrated by the research findings. This can alleviate departing sponsors due to the untapped revenue streams with new categories while also providing support in the escalating financial guarantees owed to schools.
3. In similar fashion, outsourced marketing companies need to continue to expand their inventory options in collaboration with the athletic department. As more options arise for corporate partners to spend their advertising dollars elsewhere, including professional sports, outsourced marketing companies need to be pro-active in offering new and exciting inventory and not remain stuck in the status quo option of radio commercials and permanent signage.
4. Along those lines, athletic departments who think they might not be able to afford new inventory items, particularly video boards and ribbon advertising, need to consider the option of letting an outsourced marketing company buy or finance the technology as they can earn a greater financial return on investment from the corporate partners with new capabilities.
While the arms race in intercollegiate athletics continues to press on and excessive spending in intercollegiate athletics is being criticized by detractors such as the Knight Commission (37), there exists the opportunity for compromise. As administrators in higher education begin to accept this belief as truth, Myles Brand, the former head of the NCAA, insisted that not all external involvement with intercollegiate athletics has been bad be it from alumni, supporters or corporate partners.
Brand (8) stressed that how you utilize the money contributed is of the greatest importance. He stressed that intercollegiate athletics focuses on opportunities for student-athletes namely in the means of scholarships and a quality education. It is not profit-driven like professional sports and owners of the teams. And funding for these scholarships and athletic department operating budgets can derive from corporate partnerships. The key is maintaining a clean fit for the corporate sponsor on the school itself and not just in the athletic setting (21). Outsourced marketing companies can play a vital role in these efforts through collaboration with their school’s mission thereby appeasing such groups as Faculty Athletic Representatives, the American Association of University Professors, the Drake Group, Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA), the NCAA and others.
Commercialization is not a bad thing as it occurs all over campus and it frequently comes with initial resistance. Fans and faculty may not initially like the addition of sponsorships, but it does offset the budget for the athletic department without relying too heavily on the university for financial support. As faculty groups arise around the country to denounce athletics’ place in higher education (32-33), it is important to realize that the excessive spending in big-time intercollegiate athletics is the problem and not necessarily the commercialization as that is occurring everywhere on campus.
In examining outsourced marketing companies and their relationship to colleges and universities around the nation, evolutionary and creative thinking needs to occur more frequently. If the outsourced marketing company continues to think from the mindset of the institution of higher education and not purely as a sales group, future relationships will continue to prosper. It is when outsourced marketing companies lose that train of thought that problems start to arise. Ideally, greater communication and utilization of these findings and similar research will enable future relationship between the school, the athletic department and the outsourced marketing company to create a “win-win” situation for all parties involved. In turn, this can also extend over to better benefit the corporate partners for the duration of the partnership.
Limitations and Delimitations of the Study
A number of limitations existed in this study. The willingness of the surveyed general managers to participate and answer the questionnaire honestly, and to share detailed information about their specific marketing contracts and relationship. Another limitation is that some schools may have several outsourced companies overseeing their sales efforts. One company may handle sales for the radio and television while a second company may direct the sales for the athletic department’s signage at athletic facilities. A third may manage the sales for corporate hospitality and promotions. To address this concern, only schools with a single outsourced marketing partner were selected to participate in this study. In-house marketing and multi-sourcing efforts were not addressed.
Finally, as noted above, not all schools in the six major conferences have an outsourced marketing relationship thereby limiting the initial sample size. However, this was offset with the addition of 19 schools that are not in the six major conferences but have existing relationship with the major outsourced marketing companies. All participating respondents shared the characteristics that they are Division I in nature and have an exclusive outsourcing relationship with one of the leading outsourcing sports marketing firms.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
None
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Ranking College Football Programs Based Upon Athletic Performance and Academic Success
Submitted by Frederick Wiseman & John Friar
ABSTRACT
The NCAA has become increasingly concerned about the academic well-being of its student-athletes and has adopted a new measure to monitor the academic progress of each collegiate team that grants athletic scholarships. It is called the Academic Progress Rate (APR) and measures the extent to which a team’s student-athletes retain their eligibility and stay in school on a semester by semester basis. Lucas and Lovaglia (2005) believed that the ranking of collegiate teams based upon both academic success and athletic performance would be of value to numerous constituencies and developed such a ranking system for collegiate football teams. In this paper, we build upon their work by constructing a statistically based ranking system that utilizes a team’s multi-year APR and their Average Saragin Rating. During the 2007-2010 academic years that were investigated, the three top ranked teams were Ohio State, Boise State and the University of Florida. The results also revealed a moderate and positive correlation between a team’s multi-year APR and its Average Saragin Rating.
INTRODUCTION
The NCAA recently implemented a number of changes that were designed to improve the academic well-being of student-athletes. These changes fell into four categories: (i) new initial eligibility standards, (ii) new requirements for two-year college transfers, (iii) new requirements for post-season eligibility, and (iv) new penalty structures and thresholds. Refer to Harrison (2012) for an excellent review of these changes and for a history of the NCAA’s commitment to the academic success of student-athletes. A key component of this academic reform movement has been the development and adoption of the APR for each collegiate sports team that grants athletic scholarships (8). The APR measures the extent to which student-athletes are maintaining their eligibility and staying in school. It represents a significant improvement over previous measures of academic success because it provides specific information on the extent to which current student-athletes are satisfactorily completing the academic requirements that are necessary to obtain a degree.
The APR is a number between 0 and 1000. On a term by term basis, each student-athlete receiving athletic aid earns one retention point for staying in school and one eligibility point for remaining academically eligible. Excluded from this calculation are those team members who decide either to leave school to sign a professional contract or to transfer to another school, provided in each instance they were still eligible to compete when they left school. The total points earned by team members are divided by the possible number of total points that could be earned, and then this proportion is multiplied by one thousand. The resulting figure is the APR score for the team. Defined in this manner, the APR provides an up-to-date measure that can be used to evaluate the academic success and the academic culture of collegiate sports teams at a given point in time. It also allows comparisons to be made between teams playing the same sport throughout the country. Each year, the NCAA reports for each team both a single-year APR and a multi-year APR, based upon the last four seasons.
For the 2012-2013 academic year, teams in all sports must have obtained a multi-year APR of at least 900 or have an average single-year APR of at least 930 in the last two academic years in order to be eligible to compete in post-season play. This requirement disqualified the University of Connecticut’s Men’s Basketball team, the 2010-2011 national champions, from participating in the 2012-2013 tournament. The APR requirement becomes more stringent each year until it reaches its desired multi-year standard of 930 in 2015-2016.
The use and wide-spread acceptance of the multi-year APR as an appropriate measure of academic success has had a dramatic effect on college sports teams and athletic departments. It is the single most important measure of academic success for the NCAA and is closely monitored by athletic directors, coaches, and academic advisors. This is especially true at the elite revenue producing schools competing in football and basketball where the imposition of penalties can result in a substantial loss of revenue and prestige.
Lucas and Lovaglia (2005) and, more recently, Crotty (2012), indicated that it would be of value to rank college athletic teams using a combined measure of academic success and athletic performance. They argued that such a measure would be of benefit not only to university administrators when evaluating their athletic programs, but also to potential student-athletes when choosing a college to attend. Lucas and Lovaglia proposed such a measure for Division 1 football programs and called it the Student-Athlete Performance Rate (SAPR). To arrive at a team’s SAPR score, they added a team’s single year APR to a team’s Athletic Success Rate (ASR). Unfortunately, the ASR that was developed was seriously flawed because it did not provide a valid measure of a team’s athletic performance for a particular period in time, but rather it was designed to measure the “well-being” of a team over some undefined period of time. For example, included in the construction of the ASR were such factors as a team’s all-time winning percentage, its average attendance in a particular year, the number of conference championships won in the last five years, and the number of student-athletes that went on to play in the National Football League.
In this paper, we build upon this previous work by describing a statistical ranking system which is based upon valid measures of both athletic success and athletic performance. This ranking system is then applied to the 120 members of the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The methods used to create such a ranking system are described in the next section.
METHODS
A valid measure of academic success and a valid measure of athletic performance are required to construct an overall ranking of schools. For the academic success measure, we use a school’s multi-year APR score (http://www.ncaa.org). At present, the latest available multi-year APRs are based upon the 2007-2010 seasons. Since the multi-year APR is based upon a four year period of time, the athletic performance measure used should also cover this same time period. Various performance measures were considered before it was decided to use the average of the Saragin ratings at the end of each season for each team. A team’s Saragin rating is based on three factors (i) won/loss record, (ii) strength of schedule, and (iii) margin of victory. The Saragin ratings for college football teams have been published on a weekly basis by USA TODAY since 1998 and have been used to help determine which teams will play in the national championship game. The ratings can be found at: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin-archive.htm.
To obtain an overall ranking of schools, we employ a methodology using two independent standardized z-scores as previously described by Wiseman et al. (2007). With this methodology, we first have to determine whether a correlation exists between a team’s multi-year APR and its Average Saragin Rating. If a correlation does exist, we cannot simply compute standardized z-scores for each individual rating and add them together to obtain an overall measure. Instead, we need to construct two standardized z-scores which are independent and which take into account the correlation that exists. For each school, these z-scores would be: (i) the standardized z-score for the Average Saragin Rating and (ii) the standardized z-score for the multi-year APR given the Average Saragin Rating. The first standardized z-score would be computed as follows:
For the second z-score, we would need to calculate the expected multi-year APR given the Average Saragin Rating and the standard deviation of the multi-year APR given the Average Saragin Rating. To obtain these values, we compute:
where µAPR is the average multi-year APR, p is the correlation coefficient between the Average Saragin Rating and the multi-year APR, and σAPR is the standard deviation of the multi-year APRs. Given the above, the second z-score would be:
Statistical theory concerning bivariate normal distributions tells us that the standardized z-scores for the Average Saragin Rating and for the multi-year APR given the Average Saragin Rating will each have a mean of 0.0 and a standard deviation of 1.0. Further, since the two z-scores are statistically independent, they can be added together to obtain an overall summated z-score for combined athletic performance and academic success. The higher the overall value of Zsum = ZSaragin(i)+ ZAPR|Saragin, the higher the overall ranking.
RESULTS
Table 1 presents the Average Saragin Ratings for the four seasons as well as the multi-year APR score for all 120 schools. The average Saragin rating (µSaragin) was 70.62 with a standard deviation (σSaragin) of 10.03. The highest average ratings were obtained by the following five universities: Florida (90.85), Alabama (90.82), Oklahoma (89.17), Oregon (88.98), and Ohio State (88.35). The average multi-year APR (µAPR) was 951.97 with a standard deviation (σAPR) of 18.27. The five highest ranked universities according to their multi-year APR were Northwestern (995), Boise State (989), Duke (989), Ohio State (988), and Rice (986).
Table 1. Average Saragin Rating and Multi-Year APR for Schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision: 2007-2010
When the individual schools were grouped by conference, the Average Saragin Ratings of the six major conferences (SEC, Big East, Pac 10, Big 10, Big 12 and ACC) were all greater than the five smaller conferences (Mid-American, Sun Belt, Mountain West, Conference USA and Western Athletic). In terms of the academic success measure, similar results were obtained except for the Mountain West conference which had a higher multi-year APR than three of the major conferences — the Pac 10, the Big East and the Big 12. These results are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Scatterplot of Average Saragin Rating and Average Multi-Year APR by Conference: 2007-2010
A correlation of r =.32 (p<.01) was found between the Average Saragin Rating and the multi-year APR. This finding is similar to results obtained in earlier studies that used graduation rates as the measure of academic success (1,3,6,7,9,10). Universities that ranked highly on both measures were Florida (1st and 19th), Alabama (2nd and 23rd), Oklahoma (3rd and 23rd), Ohio State (5th and 4th), Boise State (10th and 2nd), and TCU (8th and 17th). Given the correlation that existed between multi-year APR and the Average Saragin Rating, the two independent z-scores (ZSaragin(i) and ZAPR|Saragin(i)) were obtained and then added together for each of the 120 schools. These scores are presented in Table 2 and the top ranked school for the four year period was Ohio State which had the fifth highest Average Saragin Rating of 88.35 and the fourth highest multi-year APR of 988. Boise State, Florida, Alabama, and Northwestern had the next highest rankings. The Anderson-Darling test was used to test for normality of the two z-scores and the test results revealed that the normality assumption could not be rejected at the 5% level of significance.
Table 2. Comparison of the Top 25 Ranked Schools using Alternative Ranking Methods: 2007-2010*
The previous ranking of schools gave equal weight to athletic performance and to academic success. Giving such equal weight to each of the components was originally suggested by Lucas and Lovaglia (2005). However, one could also argue that more weight should be given to the athletic performance measure since this would be a national ranking of football teams. Our methodology allows for that possibility. For example, if we decided to give the first z-score (ZSaragin) a weight of .8 and the second z-score (ZAPR|Saragin) a weight of .2, we could obtain a weighted average of the two z-scores and re-rank the schools based upon this weighted average. The results of such a weighting are shown in Table 3 and, once again, the top ranked school was Ohio State. It was followed by Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Boise State. Now, however, seven new schools entered into the Top 25. These were schools that had relatively strong Average Saragin Ratings but relatively poorer multi-year APRs. They were South Carolina, Oregon, Oregon State, West Virginia, USC, Auburn, and Texas. The schools that they replaced were Northwestern, Air Force Academy, Rutgers, Duke, Georgia Tech, Kansas, and Wake Forest. These latter schools are generally better known for their academics than for their football success.
Sensitivity analyses were conducted in order to determine how the rankings would have changed if different weights were used. These analyses were conducted for the following three sets of weights –(.9, .1), (.75, .25) and (.7, .3), where the first number is the weight given to the Average Saragin Rating and the second number is the weight given to the multi-year APR given the Average Saragin Rating. The rank correlations between each of these three weighting schemes and the (.8, .2) weighting scheme that was originally used were .97, .98 and .91, respectively. This indicates that the actual rankings were relatively insensitive to the actual weights used when the weight given to the Average Saragin Rating was .7 or higher.
DISCUSSION
We have shown that it is possible to have a combined ranking of athletic teams based upon athletic and academic success. The results of this ranking for the 2007-2010 period indicated a positive correlation between athletic success and academic success. The analysis also revealed that the top performing football schools are more likely to ensure that their student-athletes stay in school and maintain their eligibility. This makes sense because such schools have the most to lose financially if their teams are not eligible for post-season play. These teams also spend a considerable amount of time, effort, and money recruiting promising student-athletes. They also generate a substantial amount of money and provide a high level of academic support and facilities for its student-athletes in order to help them maintain their eligibility. Such a high level of support may not be available for student-athletes at poorer performing schools with fewer resources devoted to their academic well-being.
Additionally, many of these large and successful schools offer specific programs geared to the student-athlete population, thus increasing the likelihood of their academic success. Similarly, these schools may also be less likely to take a chance on a potential student-athlete with significant athletic potential, but with very little chance of academic success at their school.
CONCLUSION
The ranking of FBS teams was based upon their success in the classroom and their performance on the football field. Rankings for other collegiate sports, both male and female, including the non-revenue sports could easily be obtained using the methodology described. In addition, it would be of interest to identify the key factors that lead certain teams to have high APRs, while other teams have low APRs. Such an investigation is the subject of future research, and should be of value to numerous groups including the NCAA as it continues with its academic reform movement.
APPLICATIONS IN SPORT
Critics and some members of the NCAA have argued that the organization should increase its emphasis on the academic well-being of its student-athletes. This has led to the academic reform movement that has taken place in recent years. With the methods presented here, the NCAA could recognize schools that excel both on the field and in the classroom. It also gives member schools a scorecard as to how well its team is doing on and off the field. The results also indicate that the schools with the weakest football teams in the non-BCS conferences, often times, are also the ones whose teams have the lowest multi-year APRs. Reasons for these differences should be investigated so that corrective actions can be undertaken which will enable all student-athletes to increase their likelihood of academic success.
REFERENCES
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6. Mangold, W. D., Bean, L. and Adams, D. (2003). The impact of intercollegiate athletics on graduation rates among major NCAA Division I universities: Implications for college persistence theory and practice. The Journal of Higher Education, 74, 540-562.
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8. NCAA. (2012). Academic Progress Rate. Available at: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/Academics/Division+I/Academic+Progress+Rate.
9. Rishe, P. J. (1993). A reexamination of how athletic success impacts graduation rates: Comparing student-athletes to all other undergraduates – the university. American Journal of Economics and Sociology (April). Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1536-7150.00219/pdf.
10. Tucker, I. B. (2004). A reexamination of the effects of big-time football and basketball success on graduation rates and alumni giving rates. Economics of Education Review, 23, 655-661.
11. Wiseman, F., Habibullah, M. & Yilmaz, M. (2007). A new method for ranking total driving performance on the PGA Tour. The Sport Journal, 1. Available at: http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/new-method-ranking-total-driving-performance-pga-tour.
An Empirical Analysis of the Effectiveness of World Wrestling Entertainment Marketing Strategies
Submitted by Sungick Min, WonYul Bae, David Pifer and Colin Pillay
Abstract
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE), which is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, produces one of the most popular sporting events in the world, spans a diverse audience, and has a fanatical base and following for its entertainment value. This study was designed to investigate the numerous ways in which the company promotes and markets its brand, its programming, its events, and its products. Drawing from 107 randomly collected survey questionnaires, the results of this research indicated a variety of significant differences in the effects of WWE marketing promotions on the age, income, marital status, and ethnicity demographics. These findings can in turn be used to help the WWE target designated consumer segments with the appropriate resources and marketing strategies as the company strives to increase future opportunities for success. Further samples from other areas in the country are needed, though, to verify if the regionally recognized inclination is consistent across the country. In addition, research should be performed at different times of the year to clarify seasonal sport preferences.
INTRODUCTION
Professional wrestling fans receive different reactions from people. Some people think it is “cool” to be a fan; others are disappointed because they consider it to be faked. Fans respond that they enjoy the entertainment value of professional wrestling. According to Ball (1990), wrestling fans tend to be stereotyped as the “dregs of society,” a group composed mainly of lower-class people.
Nevertheless, professional wrestling is also a tremendous entertainment business and has become an addiction for a large portion of young Americans. Ball (1990) stated, “Professional wrestling in the United States provides an ideal platform for the study of entertainment-culture and portrays some of the richest symbolism in society today” (p. 4).
It incorporates action in the arena, and sometimes outside the arena. It is an action adventure show, a cartoon, drama, and a sitcom. It is like a big soap opera for men, a hybrid of everything ever seen on television. World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE), which produces some of the most popular shows in the world and reaches a diverse audience, has an enormous fan base and following for its entertainment value. As one of television’s most unique shows, it draws upon many other successful forms of entertainment. The continuing story lines are familiar to viewers of soap operas. The action, adventure, and racier elements draw their motivation from the best that sports and Hollywood have to offer. According to Gresseon (1998), professional wrestling has gone from a dull participant ritual to an exciting, action-filled form of entertainment.
The action in WWE events may be “fake,” but the entertainment value of World Wrestling created by Vincent and Linda McMahon is very real. Gresson (1998) asserted that wrestling has taken into consideration the audience’s needs and successfully translated them into spectacular shows that draw spectacular profits. The WWE has dominated its market and has established its brand in the minds of the American public. As an integrated media and entertainment company, the WWE is principally engaged in the development, production, and marketing of television programming, pay-per-view programming, live events, and the licensing and sale of branded consumer products featuring its successful World Wrestling Entertainment brand.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In WWE’s 2006 annual report, net revenues of $400.1 million were generated, while an income from continuing operations of $55.2 million, before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortizations, stock options, and other non-cash charges, was reported.
WWE is incredibly prevalent in the male demographic, especially those aged 14 to 34. The company has been involved in the entertainment business for over 20 years and has established the brand as one of the most popular forms of entertainment today. According to Stotlar (2005), demographic changes in the United States population have directly influenced sport marketing. Brenner (2004) indicated that population trends have caused organizations to take a long, hard look at marketing efforts as teams and leagues find that there is no single, correct approach. To increase market penetration, marketers often discuss how to reach Hispanic, Asian, or other ethnic consumer groups, but oversimplify the challenge by applying such labels. According to WWE, its operations are organized around two principal activities:
1. Creation, marketing and distribution of live and televised entertainment, including the
sale of advertising time on its television programs; and
2. Marketing and promotion of its branded merchandise.
In an effort to further exploit and bolster its business, WWE launched a brand extension that created two separate and distinct brands, “Raw” and “SmackDown!” Each extension has its own distinct story lines, thus enabling the company to have two separate live event tours. The two tours permit the company to visit new domestic markets while touring internationally on a more frequent basis. In addition, WWE currently maintains licensing agreements with approximately 70 licensees worldwide. The company logo and images of WWE characters appear on thousands of retail products, including various types of apparel, toys, video games, and a wide assortment of other items.
According to WWE’s 2006 annual report, the company produces and promotes wrestling matches for TV and live audiences. Its nine hours of TV programming each week include “Raw”, a top US cable program, and “Smackdown!”, the highest-rated UPN show. Most of its programming airs on Viacom outlets, including MTV, TNN, and UPN. WWE also produces 14 pay-per-view programs and about 240 live events each year, licenses characters for merchandising, and sells videos and DVDs that showcase such wrestling stars as “The Rock”, “Hollywood Hulk Hogan”, and “The Undertaker.”
WWE’s success prompted this study, which set out to investigate the numerous ways in which the company promotes and markets its brand, its programming, its events, and its products. Kwon and Armstrong (2004) asserted that one of the most crucial elements of sport marketing involves segmenting the market of sport consumers into smaller, homogeneous groups for which specific marketing strategies can be cultivated. Accordingly, this study examined the different results of WWE promotions and marketing based on age, income, marital status, and ethnicity.
Pitts and Stotlar (2002) defined sport marketing as “the process of designing and implementing activities for the production, pricing, promotion, and distribution of a sport product to satisfy the needs or desires of consumers and to achieve the company’s goals” (p. 80).
Understanding the “4 Ps of Marketing” is crucial to any successful marketing channels in an organization. In traditional marketing, the “4 Ps of Marketing”, a concept coined by E. Jerome McCarthy (McCarthy & Perreault, 1990), specifically refers to the following:
Product: the essence of the product or service that includes product lines, product extensions, and the meeting of new consumer needs within the targeted group of customers.
Price: shows the desired image a company wants to portray about a product or service while taking into consideration competitors’ prices, available discounts, and market share.
Place: the actual, physical distribution of a product or service. This can include the transporting of goods to wholesale and retail outlets or the geographic location of a business or organization.
Promotions: carrying messages about products and services to potential consumers. This can be performed through publicity, advertising, or other means of communication.
A brief overview of the 4 Ps as they relate to the WWE will serve as a base from which to understand WWE’s success. To begin, the WWE “products” are its superstars – “The Rock”, “Trish Stratus”, “Stone Cold Steve Austin”, and “The Undertaker”. These superstars are professional and skilled in the portrayal of popular characters. One of WWE’s top superstars, “The Rock”, the son of a Samoan homemaker and an African-American pro wrestler, became a feature film action hero in Universal’s blockbuster, “The Scorpion King”. WWE has a vastly increased talent pool that translates directly to brand extension and additional revenue streams producing more pay-per-view events, more live events, more international tours, more branded merchandise, and more new television programming with new stars and new brands outside the genre.
Compared to other sports leagues, the WWE ticket “price” is one of the most expensive. According to the WWE website (2007), the average ticket price for three live events in Asia in March 2002 was $63.00 and the average ticket price for live events in the United States was $36.00. Each of WWE’s other 11 domestic pay-per-view events have a suggested retail price of $34.95, up from $29.95. Compared to the baseball ticket, ESPN (2007) indicates that the lowest average price is $13.79.
According to the WWE annual report (2006), it has major arenas, such as Madison Square Garden in New York City, Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, California; Allstate Arena in Chicago, First Union Center in Philadelphia, Fleet Center in Boston, and Earls Court in London, England. These major arenas represent the “place” in the marketing mix. WWE has a 46,500-square-foot entertainment complex located in Times Square. The complex boasts a 600-seat restaurant and 2,200 square feet of retail space. The complex provides for a variety of entertainment uses, including:
1. Airing WWE’s regularly scheduled TV shows and pay-per-views;
2. Hosting concerts and other live events, including press conferences,
stockholder meetings and product launches;
3. A night club;
4. Appearances and autograph sessions featuring performers; and,
5. Banquets, birthday parties and other social and corporate functions.
“Promotion” is the final P in the marketing mix to be discussed. According to WWE, the company promotes and markets its brand, its programming, its events, and its products in numerous ways, including:
1. Approximately 200 live events are held each year in major stadiums and arenas
throughout the world, including Madison Square Garden in New York City, Arrowhead
Pond of Anaheim, California; Sky dome in Toronto, Canada; and the Manchester
Evening News Arena in Manchester, England;
2. Nine hours of original television programming are produced, 52 weeks per year;
3. 12 domestic pay-per-view events are produced each year;
4. Programs and pay-per-view events are distributed in over 150 countries in nine languages;
5. Branded merchandise is marketed and sold directly to consumers and to major retailers
worldwide;
6. The branded merchandise is licensed to approximately 85 companies to produce and distribute thousands of retail products worldwide;
7. Two monthly magazines are published with a combined annual circulation of
approximately 5.8 million; and,
8. News and information is distributed about the WWE’s story lines, performers, and
programming and, consequently, affects e-commerce sales through Internet sites.
For years, a great deal of research has been undertaken in an effort to understand the behavior of sport marketing strategies. However, most studies have focused on direct sport marketing strategies, while studies examining the factors that influence indirect consumer behavior have been neglected. At present, studies investigating the effectiveness of WWE marketing strategies have not been well designed, thus creating a need for further research. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of various WWE marketing platforms and the demographic composition of its fan base. An empirical analysis looks at the numerous ways in which the company promotes and markets its brand, its programming, its events, and its products.
Furthermore, this study also examines the effectiveness of WWE promotions and marketing based on age, sex, educational level, and ethnicity. Differences based on age, sex, educational level, and ethnicity may compel sports marketers to adapt current marketing approaches.
Best marketing practices of current WWE are also examined, and recommendations for sports marketers on how to successfully target the population segment are provided.
In sum, the general research question for this study is: How do WWE marketing channels affect various fan bases?
METHODS
Sample and data collection
As mentioned, WWE’s 2006 annual report showed a strong following of fans in males aged 14 to 34. Taking this into account, the designated target population of this study was university students aged 18-34. In addition to its representation of the WWE fan base, this demographic was also deemed appropriate due to the fact that university students fall into the age demographic (18-34) that is most sought after by sport producers. According to Turco (1996), college students differ significantly from other markets in their consuming behaviors. Therefore, surveys were distributed to over 500 students and a total of 107 viable questionnaires were obtained using SurveyMonkey. Within the collected sample, 40 students were from a public university in South Korea and 67 students were taking Sport Exercise and Science (SES) activity classes from April 23 to May 4, 2007, at the University of Northern Colorado. This sample size was intended to be used as a pilot study for future research.
Instrumentation
The questionnaire was comprised of several sections with a total of 35 items. Part of the survey contained questions to gain information about general demographics of spectators, WWE-related information, and marketing-related information. Requested demographic information included age, sex, marital status, and household income. This survey was formulated to WWE marketing channels before the questions for demographic information. The objective of the study was to provide other related information necessary to assist WWE in developing effective marketing strategies. It took respondents approximately 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire.
Procedures
The data was collected through SurveyMonkey from April 23 to April 30 in 2007. The researcher contacted course instructors and obtained consent from them to disseminate the surveys. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the author’s Institutional Review Board, which approved the methodology and survey instrument. All participants were informed in advance that participation was voluntary and that all information would remain confidential and anonymous. They were able to refuse and decide to stop responding at anytime. 107 survey questionnaires were distributed randomly. A total of 103 usable surveys were collected. All questionnaires were answered anonymously. It was assumed that the participants in the survey gave honest and thoughtful responses to each question.
Data Analysis
A cross tabulation is the process of taking two variables and tabulating the results of one variable against the other variable. A cross-tabulation gives us a basic picture of how two variables inter-relate. It aids us in searching for patterns of interaction. Each cell indicates the number of respondents that gave a specific combination of responses, that is, each cell contains a single cross tabulation. A cross tabulation was performed to examine the correlation between the different variables and various demographic make-up of its fan base. Descriptive statistics were also calculated for each of the demographics. SPSS 13.0 for Windows was utilized to perform the above statistical analyses.
RESULTS
The participants of this study included Caucasian, Asian, African-American, and Hispanic populations. Of the 107 total respondents, 55% considered themselves Caucasian and 38% considered themselves Asian. Only 7% of the responses gathered this study were from African-American and Hispanic (Chart 1). Figure 1 indicates that there is a significant difference between various ethnic groups. The majority of Caucasian respondents indicated that they made their decision to go to the WWE event to entertain guests, while most Asian respondents preferred attending the event to spend time with their families.
CHART 1 Demographics of Participants
FIGURE 1 Factors to Go to the WWE Event
Overall, giveaways were not seen as a significant factor in determining whether or not to go to the WWE event. In addition, in the question regarding the importance of the excitement offered by WWE, approximately 90 % of female respondents provided a response of neutral or less. 29% of male respondents produced a neutral response (Table 1).
TABLE 1 The Levels of Excitement by WWE
One of the interesting findings in this study is that while the majority of Caucasian respondents watched over 3 hours of television a week, their Asian counterparts reported watching less than 5 hours of television in a single week (Table 2). According to the WWE Report (2006), the majority of the WWE fan base was Caucasian. However, the results of this study indicate that 52% of Caucasian respondents were not watching WWE events on television. In general, the results of this study indicated that there were more male than female spectators at WWE events. The majority of the respondents who attended the events was from middle-income families and was Caucasian.
TABLE 2 Hours of Watching WWE on Television
A large proportion of the spectators were single. The people in different age groups differed significantly in the marketing channels. Those 30 years of age or younger appear to be more interested in attending the events, ordering pay-per-view, and visiting the WWE site. In regards to ethnicity, not only did very few Hispanic people attend WWE events, but very few participated in or were affected by the other marketing strategies.
DISCUSSION
According to the responses, pay-per-view and the website were the most effective sources of information about WWE. CD’s, home videos, print media, and other items were relatively less effective sources of information for WWE. Consequently, WWE should develop additional weekly television programming through creative and entertaining events while strengthening its pay-per-view marketing efforts to reach new consumers.
In essence, WWE must strengthen its existing television and pay-per-view distribution relationships and develop broader distribution arrangements for WWE branded programming worldwide. This can be accomplished by continuing to produce high quality, exciting live events, branded programming, and consumer products for global distribution.
In addition, WWE must develop its story lines by further integrating contemporary themes and increasing its focus on the continuous cultivation of skilled, young, entertaining characters to complement its pool of established talent. This can be accomplished by recruiting, developing, and maintaining a roster of highly skilled athletes who possess the physical presence, acting ability, and charisma to develop into popular performers. WWE should also augment the licensing and direct sales of WWE branded goods through its distribution channels while cultivating its Internet operations to further promote the brand and develop additional sources of revenue. In addition, the organization should also inflate the licensing and direct sale of WWE branded merchandise, and bring the distribution of home videos, CD’s and publications in-house.
WWE must meet certain objectives if it wants to achieve its goal and be the number one entertainment business in the United States or among the Hispanic Community. While advertising and broadcasting in Spanish may invite Latino and Hispanic consumers to the arena, the presence of Spanish-speaking ushers, vendors, and customer service representatives will ensure an enjoyable experience. According to Sergio Del Prado, Los Angeles Dodgers’ Vice President of sales and marketing (summarized in 10 Tips for Reaching Hispanic Consumers, 2007), “one thing where people really drop the ball, you get [Latinos] to commit, and then they come to the ballpark and nobody speaks the language and they feel different than anyone else.”
A Hispanic marketing blitz should contain promotions in the Hispanic newspapers, on Hispanic TV channels, and on Hispanic radio stations. Heavy advertising through all these media outlets will enhance the WWE brand name and symbol in the Hispanic community. Spending on advertising to Hispanic media outlets should be double that of English speaking outlets. WWE does not want to be an organization for the elite, but an organization that all of the country, regardless of income and race, can enjoy and love. This end message has to be communicated to WWE’s prospective Hispanic fan base in order for WWE to become profitable in the Hispanic community.
In addition to Hispanics, young people are a second market that WWE must target in order to achieve lucrative success. WWE must gear its consideration toward the young generation, a mission that can be accomplished by concentrating on young people while they are at school. WWE must work with the schools to generate programs and initiatives that spark the students’ interests. This can be accomplished through WWE ticket and merchandise giveaways. For instance, students who accomplish a certain GPA receive four tickets to a WWE live event. At the event, WWE will acknowledge their accomplishments with either scoreboard or public address recognition during a break in activities. This sort of program could generate short-term expenses, but will benefit WWE in the end. These students and their parents will become consumers of the WWE’s brand and will subsequently be more interested in WWE’s product. This interest will bring them back to the live events, where additional marketing strategies can move them up the consumer escalator.
Considering the time people normally spend on watching TV, television promotion showed high efficiency to communicate the information about WWE events to the respondents. However, it is obvious that TV advertising is the most expensive means to promote any event. Due to the fact that most people who attend WWE events are working class and spend plenty of time in their automobile driving regularly, radio is a comparatively cost-effective and efficient method to market a WWE event.
CONCLUSIONS
The aim of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of various WWE marketing platforms and the demographic composition of its fan base. What was discovered was that many people cannot pay for the price of a WWE event. The price is too costly for many people living in the United States at the present time and many of WWE’s prospective consumers consider a live event as a novelty and not a usual night of entertainment. Providing new ticket plans that are reasonable for the majority of U. S. residents would be exceedingly favorable to WWE. It would augment its revenue and attendance in a very short period of time and supply WWE with a stronger fan base for the future.
APPLICATIONS IN SPORT
WWE should implement new forms of entertainment and build brands that harmonize its existing businesses, including the improvement of new television programming that will extend beyond its current offerings. Such formulations will appeal to WWE’s targeted demographic market and build up branded location-based entertainment businesses directly or through licensing agreements, joint business enterprises, and other preparations. For the promotion to be flourishing and fill the stands, this decision must be made based on knowledge of WWE’s prospective spectators, their characteristics, and behavior patterns.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
None
REFERENCES
1. Ball, M. R. (1990). Professional wrestling as ritual drama in American popular culture. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen.
2. Boston has highest average for 10th straight season. (2007, March). Retrieved from http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2819597
3. Brenner, S. (2004). A world of opportunity. Sport Business Journal, 15-16.
4. Gresson, A. D. (1998). Professional wrestling and youth culture: Testing, taunting, and the containment of civility. Boulder, CO: Westview.
5. Kwon, H., & Armstrong, K. (2004). An exploration of the construct of psychological attachment to a sport team among college students: A multidimensional approach. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 13(2), 82–93.
6. McCarthy, E. J., & Perreault, W. D. (1990). Basic Marketing (10th Edition.) Boston: Irwin.
7. Pitts, B. G., & Stotlar, D. K. (2002). Fundamentals of Sport Marketing (2nd Edition.). Morgan town, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
8. Stotlar, D. K. (2005). Developing successful sport marketing plans. Morgan town, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
9. Turco, D. (1994). Event sponsorship: effects on consumer brand loyalty and consumption. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 3(3), 42 – 45.
10. World Wrestling Entertainment Website (2006). Retrieved April 2, 2007, from http://www.wwe.com
11. 10 tips for reaching Hispanic consumers. (2007, January 22). Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, 9(37). Retrieved April 5, 2007, from http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm.
The Impact of Social Media on the Awareness of the Olympic Movement
Submitted by Lawrence Judge, Don Lee, Jeffrey Petersen, David Bellar, Karin Surber, and Chelsie Krill
ABSTRACT
The Olympic Games are an established sports festival garnering a tremendous amount of public attention and awareness, while the X Games and the Youth Olympic Games are relatively new events targeted toward a younger audience. The purpose of this study was to collect awareness and opinion data from undergraduate students in sport administration, exercise science and sport pedagogy from a university in the Midwestern United States regarding the then upcoming Winter Youth Olympic Games, London Olympic Games and Winter X Games. The level of familiarity and public awareness of the 2012 Youth Olympic Games was generally very low (mean scores for both were 1.9 out of 7.0). In contrast, the participants expressed more familiarity with X Games as indicated by higher mean scores (4.4 and 4.6 measured out of 7.0, respectively). Similarly, the participants expressed greater familiarity with 2012 London Olympic Games as evidenced by higher mean scores (5.6 and 5.7 measured out of 7.0, respectively). Additional correlation and multiple regression analyses examined the relationships of event awareness, familiarity, social media and other marketing efforts on the intent to attend these sport festival or to watch them on television. The results of this study indicate rather poor results for the social media campaign promoting the Youth Olympic Games. ANOVA tests additionally indicated that participants’ intention to watch games and follow social media on the events were significantly different as the levels of both familiarity and public awareness changed.
INTRODUCTION
The Olympic Games (OG) are a historic, century’s old world-wide sports festival garnering extraordinary amounts of public attention and awareness (13). The X Games and the Youth Olympic Games, on the other hand, are comparatively new events that are targeted toward a younger audience (3, 9). The 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) became the third sport festival event ever introduced by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), while the X Games (XG) and Winter X Games (WXG) began in 1995 and 1997, respectively (7). The world-wide exposure of the OG has increased dramatically during recent decades primarily due to the advances in media coverage and technology. Younger generations, however, may be losing interest in Olympic Sports due to the proliferation of extreme sports and becoming more interested in non-traditional sporting events like the XG. To create excitement and interest in these newly created events with the millennial generation (born between 1980-2000), the effective use of social media marketing can be used to specifically target this audience with messages tailored for each market segment (10). Social media could prove to be an effective communication channel for the millennial generation because the social media platform has become an essential part of their everyday lives (10).
Social media marketing utilizes various forms of internet-based electronic communication tools, forums and sites that offer customized messaging to very specific audiences. By utilizing social media marketing, the events associated with the Olympic movement may experience greater success with communicating to intended audiences with more relevant messaging. Likewise, the IOC has actively been encouraging its participants to use social media to blog, post, comment, and tweet during the OG (8). However, the IOC has implemented strict guidelines for participants and other accredited persons related to what and how he/she shall post, blog, or tweet while at the OG. The primary goals of the Olympic movement are to be associated with youth, health, sportsmanship, peace, education, and enjoyment; ideals encapsulated in the Olympic Charter (13). However, the youth of today have far more varied interests and distractions than during past decades when the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, each contested every four years, were more eagerly anticipated. Through events and marketing efforts targeting youth, the International Olympic Committee seeks to reignite interest in Olympic sports within a generation of increasingly inactive and overweight adolescents.
The IOC’s strategy for marketing the upcoming London Olympic Games (LOG) and the subsequent Youth Olympic Games (YOG) includes efforts to help create new generations of young athletes that have an ethical approach to sport with strong values and principles (8). They also look to educate young people on the importance of living healthy lives and lower the climbing youth obesity rate. Another goal of the committee is to inform young people about the problems that arise from doping and excessive training (8). IOC President, Jacques Rogge has taken it a step further and stated that he wants the YOG to be more about education than about competition. The main goal, according to Rogge, is to give the young athletes an education based on Olympic values. He elaborates further by stating that the main emphasis of the YOG is for athletes to enjoy the event. Not only was the event about the athletes gaining an education based on Olympic values, but the YOG has also established several related programs such as a Young Reporters program and a Young Ambassadors program to give invaluable Olympic experience and education. The Culture and Education Program (CEP) was designed to promote skill development, social responsibility and expression to the YOG participants through digital media efforts (8). The Culture and Education Program (CEP) was formed to create an atmosphere that would inspire the athletes to view their competitors not as mere competitors, but as lifelong friends (12). This can be seen carried over in the Olympic Games as well with distance runners Mo Farah (Great Britain) and Galen Rupp (U.S.A.) who became training partners due to their coach Alberto Salazar and British intermediaries. Rupp and Farah became great friends through the process and talked about anything but running; encompassing the Olympic ideals throughout the way (12). In promoting the YOG, they needed not concern themselves with the singular focus on winning and competing typically associated with the larger Olympic Games. Krieger’s (11) study of a group of (German) athletes showed that they were dissatisfied with what the IOC saw as one of the success stories of the first YOG in Singapore, the Culture and Education Program (CEP); yet, the athletes enjoyed the unplanned or unexpected experiences that come with being at an international multi-sport event and staying at the athletes’ village. Such a finding supports Gold and Gold’s (5, p. 405) assertion that the YOG are “an important step in helping to return the Olympics to something of their roots” and could help the IOC consolidate and enhance the Olympic brand. To do so, however, requires innovation in discipline selection and the cooperation of the international sport federations (2).
Since the ability to impact sport and engage a younger audience will initially hinge on audience awareness, it is important to understand how the event is viewed by various stakeholders. The external stakeholders of the YOG (athletes, international delegations, athletes and their mission/support staff, media, sponsors, and the community) can to be explored by using the network approach to gain a better understanding of how the various pressures created by the YOG are experienced (8). The network approach is a construct that allows examination of changes in the interconnections between the actors involved (6). A variety of internal and external stakeholders exist with the OG, those organizations, groups, individuals which have an impact or are impacted by the local organization (4). Exploring the newly framed YOG using a network approach helps to explain how various stakeholders exert various forms of pressure on YOG (19). The IOC, the media, and the parents were the three primary stakeholders with the most influence on the development of the YOG. Two main points can be made in this regard. First, utilizing the network analysis, independently and in relation to each other, the YOG needs to take into account the needs of all three stakeholders. The high salience of these three stakeholders means that the organizational survival of the YOG is dependent on all of them; they must be satisfied to a sufficient level, as determined by the stakeholders, in order for the YOG to gain legitimacy and survive, as well as be successful (1,15,17).
The network approach could help in understanding certain processes and activities connected with the YOG’s sustainability potential (19). The stakeholders have a bigger impact on the sustainability potential of the YOG than they would in the OG because less attention is paid by the media by design (19). Sponsors could have a different degree of involvement with less attention paid to the YOG by the media, and this could affect the sustainability potential because they are a primary funding source for the Olympic Movement (19). However, the stakeholders’ expectations, needs, and interests should be considered as they may change as the YOG changes with time, especially with the emergence and impact of social media (19). Public awareness and effective messaging of the LOG and YOG will play a critical role in drawing advertising and sponsorship dollars for future OG and YOG events. The economic and tourism impact are key determining components of the legacy that the YOG will leave for Nanjing. In addition, it is important to understand present and future coach and sport practitioner awareness and how they view the creation of such an event. The purpose of this study was to collect awareness and opinion data from undergraduate students in sport administration, exercise science and sport pedagogy from a university in the Midwestern United States regarding the then upcoming winter YOG, upcoming LOG and upcoming WXG. This manuscript will review the basic characteristics and behaviors of millennial consumers, effective marketing techniques to reach this audience in meaningful ways and the marketing strategy changes adopted by the IOC to increase their reach and impact for future Olympic events.
METHOD
Sample and Procedure
Students majoring in sport management, exercise science and sport pedagogy were surveyed during the 2012 winter YOG to assess the event’s global marketing efforts. The survey instrument was composed of six demographic elements and five research-related questions, and was modeled upon a previously developed and tested instrument (9). This current survey was modified from the original instrument with changes to the demographic elements and the addition of scaled questions related to intention to attend or view the London Olympic Games (LOG), Winter X Games (WXG) and future Youth Olympic Games (YOG) events. In order to verify both content and face validity, the instrument was reviewed by a panel of experts in the area of youth sport. The demographic components included: gender, coaching experience, sport administration/management experience, athletic background, parental status, and nation of residency. A seven-point Likert-scale method was used for ranking the dependent variables of the study which included: perceived personal awareness of the YOG, perceived public awareness of the YOG, intention of YOG event attendance, and intention to view the YOG on television. Questions were added to the present study to measure the social networking habits and behaviors of the subjects. The final question was a multiple choice element requiring the recognition of the correct logo of the YOG, WXG and the LOG from a selection of five similar graphic designs. Both the survey and the research protocol were reviewed and approved by the appropriate university Institutional Review Board (IRB).
Data Analysis
Descriptive and analytical statistics were calculated for the overall variables using SPSS version 18.0. Two multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the extent to which the independent factors (familiarity with the YOG initiative, level of general public awareness, accessibility to social networking/media sites, advertisements on social media sites, importance of traditional means of newspapers and magazines, importance of traditional means of TV and radio, and utilization of World Wide Web to gain information) influenced 1) the intention to watch televised Youth Olympic Games, and 2) the intention to attend future Youth Olympic Games. The sample (N = 256) consisted of 58% of males and 42% of females with ages ranging from 18 to 50 with the mean age of 21.0 (SD = 4.58).
RESULTS
Descriptive Statistics
From the descriptive statistics, nearly 54% of the participants had no coaching experience while 41% and 7% of them had coaching experience in youth sports and public/private school, respectively. A total of 73% of the participants were former athletes, while 18% and 10% of them are current athletes and had no athletic experience, respectively. Participants’ sport leadership background was assessed, and the following was found: no leadership background (83%), local sport official (15%), and local sport administrator (3%).
The level of personal familiarity and perceptions of general public awareness of the 2012 Y OG was generally very low (the mean scores were below 2.0 out of 7.0). In contrast, the participants expressed more familiarity with the WXG as indicated by higher mean scores (4.4 and 4.6 measured out of 7.0, respectively). Similarly, the participants expressed more familiarity with the 2012 LOG as evidenced by higher mean scores (5.6 and 5.7 measured out of 7.0, respectively; (see Table 1).
Table 1 Descriptive Statistics
Correlation Analysis
Statistically significant correlation values were found between independent factors (familiarity and general public awareness) and dependent measures (intention to attend, watch, and follow social media). The only exception was that general public awareness of the 2012 London Olympic Games was not statistically significantly correlated with intention to attend the event (see Table 2).
Table 2 Correlations
Multiple Regression Analysis
Multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the extent to which independent factors (the level of familiarity with and the general public awareness of the designated sporting events) influence participants’ intention to watch televised coverage of the YOG, WXG and the LOG, follow social media related with the three events, or attend the three events. The overall results revealed that the two independent variables collectively explained small to large amount of variance in the dependent measures (variance explained ranged from 9% to 55%). At the univariate level, several significant findings were revealed. First, the level of familiarity with the designated games and the general level of public awareness of the games consistently impacted participants’ intention to watch and follow social media related with 2012 YOG, 2012 WXG, and 2012 LOG. However, none of the examined independent factors had statistically significant impact on the participants’ intention to attend any of the three tested sport festivals. The overall regression results confirmed consistent patterns observed in the mean scores and correlation values (see Table 3).
Table 3 Summary of Significant Multiple Regression Analysis Results of the Independent Variables on the Intention to Watch Events on Television or Follow Events on Social Media
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
As a post hoc test, ANOVAs were used to examine statistical differences in the dependent behaviors due to different levels of familiarity and public awareness of the games. The analyses were all significant, F values ranged from 47.53 to 96.12. The overall results indicated that participants’ intention to watch games and follow social media on the events were significantly different as the levels of both familiarity and public awareness changed (see Table 4).
DISCUSSION
The IOC’s good intentions, regarding the establishment of the YOG, were not met with the requisite effort to draw sufficient public attention to the event (9). Olympic competition, in general, draws great world-wide attention, with the 2008 Games in Beijing drawing the largest global audience in Olympic history (9). As for the LOG it appears to have a high level of awareness from the students in the present study. In Table 1, the descriptive statistics show the mean number of students’ in the present study “intention to follow social media” of the YOG (2.10) is nearly two-thirds that of the WXG (3.31) and even less than half the mean of the LOG (4.68). This means that even with the impact social media has on the millennial generation, it is not impacting the YOG as much as it has with the popular X Games and Olympic Games. As the winter YOG approached, the event received very little attention from the mainstream media and the personal awareness and perceived public awareness of the students in the present study was very low. With the addition of 966,110 Google followers, 1,931,365 Facebook fans, and 1,686,762 Twitter followers to its social media fan base the LOG has been nicknamed the “Social” OG (13). While 166 networks worldwide covered the 2010 summer YOG, high levels of coverage on top networks were lacking (9). Perhaps the IOC selection of a non-American broadcast company for the broadcasting rights of the 2010 YOG demonstrated their commitment to avoiding the evolution of becoming a commercialized mega-event and to consider the best interests of the participants. The IOC appointed Media Corp, SingTel, and Star Hub as the official broadcasters within Singapore for the inaugural YOG in 2010. However, Olympic Broadcasting Services, the host broadcast subsidiary that is wholly owned by the IOC, was responsible for delivering to these three organizations and broadcasters around the world, a number of live broadcast feeds and a 24-hour Youth Olympic News Channel, which incorporated two daily highlight programs. The coverage embraced all broadcast platforms, including free-to-air television, radio, cable television, mobile phone and online (9). This greater level of IOC control over the media coverage may have been put in place to guard against an over-commercialized and nationalized message. But, based on the results of the present study there may have been a lack of interest in the event by U.S. television networks because of a limited audience for the new event. In contrast, the XG’s were arranged and are controlled by the U.S. sports broadcaster ESPN (with coverage also shown on its sister network ABC)(3) .
The authors recently reviewed the new marketing assets for the 2012 Innsbruck YOG and found some improvements. The website content has been updated and is more interactive than the inaugural YOG site. The primary focus on the front page was on a contest for youth around sending photographs of their personal performance of a YOG sporting category. Additionally, the site offered various school focused initiatives including a program to connect various schools across the globe to encourage international collaboration and communication. A second program, the YOG School Sports Challenge, was designed to introduce youth to the 15 sport categories included in YOG and encourages a local school led sporting challenge to be held during the 2012 YOG (7). In addition, the site asked visitors to identify themselves as one of the following: a youth, a fan, or a volunteer. Visitors were then directed to customized content. These enhancements to the site added significant relevance to millennials and should impact the number of repeat visitors to the site. In contrast, the Facebook site, which is a primary social media vehicle, was static and did not appear to have any updated information. Ideally, the Facebook site would have content updated several times a week if not daily to drive adoption of members and sharing of content. There were no additional social media sites available or mentioned from the Facebook site. However, on the YOG website there are other social media sites available such as Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and Google Plus. There is even a large Twitter bird logo stating “Check out our Twitter feed” showing what the YOG has previously tweeted to help promote itself with the growing social market. The @innsbruck2012, which was the Twitter screen name during the 2012 YOG, currently has 2,901 followers during its YOG period. On the @innsbruck2012’s profile it also shows other screen names fans could have also followed to stay up-to-date on the 2012 YOG. The fans could have also tweeted about their favorite “trend”, for example the website had #innsbruck2012 to spread the excitement of the YOG as a “trend” (7).
The Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Organizing Committee announced that the Internet Services sponsor will be Tencent for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games (18). Tencent, using its already strong influence among young audiences, plan to include key features on the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games website such as sports program and results, culture and educational activities, and interactive games targeted at youth (18). One Olympian diving champion relates her excitement about her ability to share her experiences at the upcoming 2014 YOG with the World (18). However, there has yet to be additions of any social media sites to the website such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google +, or the like, but this could be due to the newness of the website and the announcement of Tier One sponsor Tencent (18).
Based on these results, it can be extrapolated that the general publicity and marketing activities surrounding the YOG event were not as effective as needed to drive event attendance or television viewing, and thus, self-sustaining revenue to fund the events. The participants in the present study were more aware of the X Games and the LOG. Sport marketers can take from the results of the present study and learn how to better market toward the millennial generation. For example, marketers can utilize social media during the more popular XG and OG to promote the YOG. The LOG website started promotion of the Second YOG that will be held in Nanjing. There is a direct link from the LOG’s website to the Nanjing YOG’s website for fans to explore and begin learning about the 2014 YOG (13). Sport marketers could also expand their study on social media by taking a methodological approach to the social network theory in the future. The social network theory could solidify the measurement and analysis of how the relational properties of social media impact the YOG, XG, and the OG (19). An alternative route that researchers may take is a type of cross-sectional study. Researchers may consider conducting a study that compares behavioral variations of millennial generation who may associate themselves as a fan of professional sports than collegiate sports. Analyzing the efficacy of the marketing and awareness campaigns is an important step in improving future results, and insuring the long term success of a relatively new event like the YOG. Analyzing these campaigns can be difficult due to the numerous variables involved, and the fact that the “newness” of the YOG provided little historical comparative data.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
None
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‘The Personal Journey’: A Study of the Individual Race Stories of Desert Marathon Runners
Submitted by Richard Cheetham MSc, University of Winchester
Abstract
The research recounted the personal journeys and experiences of individuals who had undertaken and completed a Desert Marathon race, with specific focus on the reasons behind their participation, their race experiences and how the race had subsequently impacted upon their lives. The lack of a comparative analysis of these individual personal race accounts formed the rationale behind this research. The objective was to achieve a greater appreciation of what drives those to challenge themselves in such harsh and high risk environments. The eight runners interviewed all sought a challenge beyond that of the normal marathon distance and one that would require very diligent training ‘rituals’… The very personal reasons ranged from using the race to seek adventure, to grieve, to “make people sit up and take notice” and to experience and conquer an event of such magnitude. The recollection of the race and the months that have since passed, highlighted the impact on each of the runners. This impact showed changes in their outlook on life, a greater self-belief, and a “greater respect for humanity.” They had become invigorated by the experience and in some cases, there was a continued pursuit of the next ‘arena’ in which to test themselves as well as making enduring friendships with those they met along the way.
Introduction
In the words of Dean Karnazes, Desert and Ultra Marathon runner who once completed 50 marathons in 50 states on 50 consecutive days, and author of Ultra Marathon man: Confessions of an all-night runner.
I run because long after my footprints fade away, maybe I will have inspired a few people to reject the easy path, hit the trails, put one foot in front of the other, and come to the same conclusion I did: I run because it always takes me where I want to go. (Karnazes, 2005, p.276)
The ‘culture’ of ultra-distance running has inspired a number of autobiographies from those who have found that they have a story to share of their adventures, heartache, drive and conquest of distances and terrains beyond ‘normal’ recognised running / endurance events. Dean Karnazes is one of those runners. Individuals’ life changing circumstances have led some to immerse themselves in the raw beauty of the long distance trails and the open road. They have entered a previously unknown world of suffering, unchartered territory of heightened physical and mental demands, and yet also one that embraces obstacles set along the way. It was these stories and the author’s own experience from the 2010 Atacama Desert Marathon that inspired this narrative research into this specific aspect of ultra-marathon running among those who set their goal to triumph in completing of one of life’s most difficult endurance challenges.
Extreme Running
The emergence of ‘extreme’ running as a new sports genre has seen races on all five continents run across deserts, along mountain ranges, and through dense jungle. What qualifies these as extreme are the length, terrain, and altitude; as well as extremities of heat, cold, isolation and remoteness. They demand physical and psychological strength from the participants and “extend them beyond the norm of running experiences” (McConnell & Horsley, 2007, p.10). The standard format for desert ultra-marathons is to require the individual to complete six marathons in 6 days, carrying all their equipment and food. It is only water, tents and medical support that is provided.
The locations for the races include the Sahara, Gobi, and Atacama deserts, as well as Antarctica (often referred to as the ‘last wilderness’). Runner and author, Robin Harvie, refers to these as the “theatre of the wild” (p.38) in his book Why we run? The challenge of long distance running goes beyond a simple calculation of mileage and often into a psychological territory unknown to most. It is therefore an event that takes the runner to “the extreme frontiers of the environment and their own physical capacity for endurance” (McConnell & Horsley, 2007, p.10).
An early insight into the appeal and demands of these extreme environments is given by Polar explorer Richard Byrd who wrote in 1938 of the appeal, the dangers and the challenge in his book ‘Alone’ long before they were used for endurance running events.
After gazing at the sky for some time, I came to the conclusion that such beauty had been reserved for remote and dangerous places, and that nature has good reasons for demanding special sacrifices from those who dare to contemplate it.
These sacrifices would require the runners to show thorough preparation and discipline, little room for error in an event that has claimed lives through dehydration and sheer physical fatigue.
And so it is from these desert cauldrons that emerge the individual race stories, their untold personal journeys that often begin beyond the start line and continue past the finish. It is the recollections which give an insight into the appeal of the challenge, the one that lures them into the desert, to endure such hardship and to be rewarded by such an achievement. With this article the author hopes to not only learn from the runner’s narratives, but to convey a sense of appreciation for the participants’ personal motives, barriers and doubt that were overcome in pursuing their goal of running across, in this case, the Sahara and Atacama deserts.
Author and runner, Billy Isherwood, provided perhaps one of the only detailed personal accounts of such a race when he completed the 2006 Atacama Desert race. It begins with an account of his battles with alcoholism, drug abuse, and the domestic violence he experienced during his childhood. Yet at the age of 54 he crossed the finish line after 250 kilometres of running through the unforgiving terrain and climatic conditions. This autobiographical account of his life, and how he arrived at the start line of the 2006 Atacama Desert Marathon, provided a story that was to partially influence the rationale behind this narrative study, as it detailed his journey to the race, his race account and the transformation since. Karnazes (2012) and Zahab (2007) have described their desert race accounts, but in among a collection of other races. The aim of this study is to collate and compare narratives from those competing for the first time, to achieve a greater appreciation of what drives those to challenge themselves in such harsh and high risk environments.
This research began with a review of a number of autobiographies and selected texts surrounding ultra-marathon runners and endurance running. This was coupled with the autobiographies of triathletes, Richard Roll and Chrissie Wellington. The experiences from this variety of ultra-endurance athletes helped to form a backdrop to the work and a basis for the direction of the interviews.
Ultra marathon runner, Robin Harvie (Harvie, 2012) produces an insight into his running motives and explains that the only way to truly understand ‘the why and your own why’ is to take part in these events. He states that the race changes an individual beyond their initial motivation and that “to really know where the road leads, is to take that road yourself” (p.4).
Robinson (2011) provides a starting point for the research in terms of accomplishment and for some, the need for self-actualisation. Many people “never connect” with their true talents and subsequently “never know what they are really capable of achieving” (p.xi). For Marshall Ulrich, who ran across America at the age of 57, it was the accomplishment, not the pursuit of “high prize money or stadiums of adoring fans” (p.17). For Scott Jurek, a world renowned ultra-marathon champion it was wanting to “pry myself open going beyond the body beyond the mind” (Jurek, 2012, p.224). Krissy Moehl, twice winner of the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc (a 100 mile race in the Alps), also speaks of the accomplishment of “pushing your physical limits” (Moehl, cited in Powell, 2011, p.2). She refers specifically to the emotional responses that such challenges evoke aside from those physical boundaries that are realised. Multiple Ironman Triathlete, Chrissie Wellington (2012), refers to a “contest against the race itself” (p.1) regardless of fellow competitors.
Dean Karnazes identified that time spent running allowed him space for “finding peace” (p.276). Dietz (2011) recognises that in ultra-marathons the time out running and away from work, family, and finances rarely happens and therefore allows “a holiday for the mind” (p.42). Trail runner, Boff Whalley states that “We all of us run … To give our bodies a general sense of purpose – creating, in this hurly-burly world, space to think, space to breath” (Whalley, 2012, p.5). He refers to a connection with the environment – the relationship between “the earth and our feet” (p.3). His focus was on running away from normal chosen routes and exploring challenging paths with harsh terrain, unpredictable weather and undulating, demanding wilderness.
Andrew Murray who ran from the far north of Scotland to the Sahara desert (Murray, 2011) was driven by the endeavour, for a charitable cause but also the appeal of the locations he would visit along the way. The desert marathons are organised in places rarely visited but, it could be argued, in some of the most extraordinary destinations on earth. Dietz (2011) also highlighted that the running became an excuse to travel to places around the world. Karnazes (2005) was also led by the appeal, the freedom to explore and to experience the environment for real.
Some people may have fear of living in a comfort zone of neither risk nor adventure and a fear of living from “meal to meal” which Jim Schekhdar (Schekdhar, 2002) saw as his inspiration to break out from ‘normality’ and row across the Pacific in 2001. Or as Reid (cited in Austin, 2007) comments that there is a real need to achieve and challenge ourselves, to “do something with our lives” (p.120) and that this can be achieved through running. Maybe it could be the fear of simply “walking along the corridors leading to the lives of our parents” (Harvie, 2010, p.74) and therefore exist with the confines of ‘normal life.’
An analysis might reveal it as simple as runners looking for the next step, the further distance as they draw from their previous accomplishments (Dietz, 2011). One marathon may not be enough to provide some with the satisfaction after completion and that coupled with a new inner belief that there is more ‘in the tank’ which leads inevitably onto higher stakes. For some however, their very existence is defined by running (Harvie, 2010). Described by Karnazes (2005) as a very simple “primitive act” (Karnazes, 2005, p.276).
Selected comments from these autobiographies and ultra-endurance focussed literature show some of the deeply felt emotions and motivations. These are mere ‘snapshots’ of their stories.
Alongside these individual perspectives from endurance racers, a specific contextualised series of narratives from desert runners will add to and enhance the breadth of studies. This research was therefore designed to be an innovative research project within a developing specific area of athletic performance. To accomplish it I use narrative enquiry where “people’s lives are storied” (Savin-Boden & Major, 2013, p.227). Hopefully this will not only enable a more sophisticated academic understanding of the extremes of human sport, but it will provide a resource for those wishing to compete in such events, beyond what training manuals offer. As Parker (1978) sought to understand in the novel ‘Once a Runner’ there too was a desire to “capture some of the bittersweet beauty and heartbreak of the only all-consuming quest for physical excellence” (p.274).
Method
This research used a narrative research methodology which, through a study of research suitability, has been regarded as the most relevant and effective for understanding the individual race motives and race recollections (Savin-Boden & Howell Major, 2013, Jones, Brown, & Holloway, 2012). The study aimed to recount the experiences of individuals and therefore “focus on people’s perceptions and experiences of the world they live in – and what it means to them” (Jones et al. 2012, p.113) and to show an understanding of that experience (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). Schultz (1964) emphasises that this is the world as viewed by the individual and not constructed by the researcher who should act to safeguard any misinterpretation of data. The study aimed to truly reflect first-person accounts of life experiences, which is essential in the use of narrative research and allows the individuals voices to be heard (Cresswell, 2007). The research sought to provide a richness of data that eight individual accounts of desert races can achieve. It was a description of what they underwent and how they lived through it – “the essence of the experience” (Cresswell, 2006, p.58).
Essential to this study, was the ability to recognise themes that may emerge, commonalities of the runners backgrounds and the race impact for example, and also to identify and highlight the very personal nature for undertaking their journey and encounters along the way. The runners developed a trust with the author that was built on ensuring they were represented honestly and accurately throughout.
Sample
A selection was made of eight runners (n=8), from 28 to 52 years of age, who all agreed to an interview, four female and four male. They were chosen through convenience from a number who had competed with the researcher in the Atacama Desert marathon in 2010 or from contacts of those participants and who had raced in other locations. Some of these have completed desert ultra-marathons since 2010 in the Sahara, Atacama, Antarctica, and Gobi Deserts.
The relatively small sample size is consistent with narrative research of this kind as Holloway and Wheeler (2010) suggest homogeneous groups can require only 6 to 8 participants. The selection of participants is also consistent with sampling recommendations by Morse (1986, 1991b) who encourages the choice of interviewees to be based upon their experience, knowledge and ability to articulate (in this case, their race journey). This form of purposive sampling was supported by the shared and “specific phenomenon” (Jones et al, 2012, p.35; Mayhut & Morehouse, 1994) that is recommended in qualitative study.
The interview procedure
All participants were interviewed individually at work or home in locations chosen by them. Four were interviewed via Skype, as they lived in the United States, Hong Kong and Australia. By their nature qualitative interviews are often unstructured (Jones et al, 2012). They use open-ended questions which is a primary consideration within qualitative research (Mayhut & Morehouse, 1994; Gratton & Jones, 2004). The aim was to allow the participants to describe their race experience in as much detail as possible and interviews lasted between 45 minutes and an hour but there was no time restriction placed on them. It was essential that the interviewee described their experience in as much detail as possible and felt they were encouraged in some way to lead and control the interview, recognizing that they were the expert of this very particular journey.
In this case, however, the interviewer has also completed a desert Ultra-marathon and this proved to be an advantage in the interview process as the interviewer was able to further explore their encounters with greater empathy. This may be a question of guidance as opposed to direction.
Interviews of this nature have been described as a “conversation with a purpose” (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994, p.88). As a result the questions designed and selected were guided by the subject content and also by Patton (1990) who used six types of questions. Selected from these, were themes based around experience, behaviour, feelings, background, sensory and opinion. The recounting of the race story from a personal perspective focussed on pre-race, race, and post -race experiences within the context of a personal journey.’ Their feelings, thoughts and motivations, as well as the impact that the race completion has subsequently had on them, shaped the interview process.
Data Analysis
The gathering of the stories from the interviews followed the approach recommended by Maykut and Morehouse (1994) in which what is meaningful to the participants guides the analysis, and not that which is pre-determined by the researcher. Therefore data collected aimed to represent those participants in a “coherent and meaningful way” (Hunter, 2010, p.44) by ensuring that the information was given order and structure in the analysis stage. Following each interview the audio tapes were transcribed and coded using thematic analysis (Gratton & Jones, 2010). Thematic analysis led to the selection of significant emerging themes that the participants identified, not those deemed worthy by the researcher; while not losing the reconstruction of the desert race journey. These emergent themes were identified in the results section. The analysis of the interview transcripts enabled a more meaningful presentation of the interviews and was considered in such a way that when read by the participants they would feel that they still ‘owned the story.’
Discussion of Results
Individual running history
The initial question aimed to gather a running history of each interviewee. This showed that they were not ‘well versed’ in the demands of endurance running in such harsh conditions and would have to acclimatise and adapt to the sheer volume of training and preparation required. It proved to be far in excess of that required for anything experienced before. Lucy confessed that before the Sahara Desert Marathon, “I’d never been a serious runner.” All the participants had completed a marathon before the race began, in some cases as part of their training and in others something that had been part of their running history.
It was felt important that, in initially focussing on this aspect of their stories, that the reader would be made aware of the running history of the group in order to put the accomplishment into a better context. The findings showed variety in their pre-desert race running accounts.
David who had competed in two Marathons and adopted an increasingly more serious approach to his training to the point where he wanted to find an event that allowed him to “incorporate all the training.” His father had completed “11 or 12 London Marathons” and he had grown up within an environment where “he’d (his father) go out on Christmas day or whenever…we just accepted it. Ross, who had “accidentally done a full marathon” three years before Atacama, played rugby and kept general fitness as it was “something I have always worked on.” He also confessed to not enjoying running and felt “I don’t think I’ve got the right body type.” Ricky who had played professional baseball where running formed part of the training programme and except for several shorter distance events including five and ten kilometre races “I had never really done anything formally and no marathons.”
Andrea had “sporadically” done some running at High School and College including cross-country but her father had “been a life-time runner and has done like I think around fifty marathons.” Andrea recalled a moment when “I gave him a call and said if I do a half-marathon will you come and do it with me?” This had come when she had taken up running again after a period in her twenties she had been “a really heavy smoker.”
Sam indicated that while she was always “an active person” despite taking part in several half-marathons stated “I definitely haven’t been a very good runner.” Marilena had completed six full marathons including Hong Kong, London, and one in Uruguay. She had a great deal of running experience; as a result the training application alone would, in itself, help her with the preparation for the Atacama Desert race.
Tremaine referred to the military CFT (Combat Fitness Test) as the only real specific running he had done while in the British Army but had no real interest in it outside of this form of ‘compulsory’ training.
It is this analysis that gave a starting point for the research. This showed that these successful desert marathon runners had no experience of extreme endurance events prior to that first day on the start line. A race start that would see them carry up to 12kgs each day of food, basic medical resources and other essential supplies to survive the extremes of heat (daytime temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius) and cold ( temperatures fell to near freezing at night). And so it seemed inevitable to begin the questioning with – why choose something so extreme?
Reasons why the participants chose to race across a desert.
The discussion then moved onto ‘the why’, the why something so extreme? And it was this question that unearthed some common themes. The level of extremity should not be underplayed. This was highlighted in the 2011 Gobi Desert race where one runner died. The need for thorough preparation was essential and that every aspect of the race had to be considered. Sam described “taking off those rose coloured glasses.” The desert was to be an uncompromising and unforgiving environment. Tremaine said he wanted to find something that was simply on the “borderline of lunacy!” For many this may be regarded as ‘lunacy’ but what transpired were the deeply personal accounts of ‘their why.’ Goals (such as this one) give a sense of purpose – “a real sense of being” (Pink, 2009, p.137). Ricky said “there always has to be a purpose…. a really strong why.” For him one of the reasons was on his way to work, “it was walking the tube (London Underground) and being out of breath…..its’ like I am gonna make a change.” The other answers to this question were “as individual as the runners themselves (Ulrich, 2011, p.44). Andrea had been “enthralled” by the feats of Dean Karnazes, ultramarathon and desert runner. She initially wanted to volunteer on a desert race but was encouraged by a race organiser that she could complete one and recounted, “he was like listen, I can tell when people are ready and it’s not about how far you can run, its’ really about your mind-set.” Andrea had reached a point in her life when she wanted to see that “I could really do something” to test herself.
The challenge itself – extending boundaries and beyond a marathon
Initially what became evident was the runners reference to ‘the challenge’ itself, the test of oneself against the elements and to find the next step from the marathon. It seemed that they were all looking for the next step. Ultramarathon runner Ray Zahab (cited in Ulrich, 2011) believes that if you can run twenty six miles then your body can carry you further, “the only question is can your mind go the distance” (p.144).
All of those interviewed were drawn by the need to see what was within their grasp, physically and mentally and that the desert race offered up a chance to demand of them to reach a limit never previously realised. David had read about the race as he had been actively looking for “the next thing” and had sought out an extreme race event. For him it was “something ….you make a commitment to …and that means you make sacrifices.” Wellington (2012) refers to what the intensity of Ironman taught her, “our limits may not be where we think they are” (p.274) and this was echoed. The need to push their boundaries, to apply themselves, unaided (Tremaine, “it’s just you and the desert,” Marilena, “just the thought of being in the open, self-supported”) to take on something dramatic and this captured their imagination.
Ross, who had experienced physical hardship due to altitude sickness when climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in 2007, had a philosophy of “not if but how” when he was presented with the details of the race by David via an e-mail in early September 2009. He exhibited a clear determination that in order to succeed one had to embrace the sheer scale of the challenge and reach “that boundary of probably pushing yourself to the limit.” He went on to say “it’s not how fast you run but how much guts you have.” Murakimi (2009) believes it is the pain (and the inevitability of it) which is accepted and that it can give us a greater sense of being alive. Others agreed that there was something alluring about the pain.
Having watched previous desert race videos, Marilena was aware of the likely suffering and was not in any way deterred but drawn in even more to choose the desert as her ‘arena’. “I saw suffering, going up and down hills and I thought that hmm that’s a challenge, I can do that. So I wanted to prove to myself that I can do it.” She also had a connection with her first race as her youngest daughter had been born in Chile and the “beauty” of Atacama had been the deciding factor on the choice of race and location.
It was important that the choice of extreme running took Ricky away from normal marathon events because for him, “What makes people sit up and listen is something more extreme,” “everyone’s done a marathon…for me “its’ kind of lost a bit of its’ shine.” He believed the attraction of this next level was “….discipline….commitment ….. Accomplishment, that’s what captures people’s spirit.” This was echoed by Harvie (2010) who felt that with the marathon distance (26.2 miles) “anyone can run a marathon given enough time” (p.269). Powell (2011) and Ulrich (2011) recognise the attempt to accomplish something so few have done as a motivational aspect in ultramarathon races. It is the thrill and excitement of taking on such a “mission” (McConnell & Horsley, 2007, p.11).
For loved ones
Lucy and Tremaine provided extremely emotive reasons for entering such an event. They had both experienced the loss of family through cancer, Lucy’s father had passed away in 2007 and Tremaine’s partner, Carla, had lost her battle to the illness at the age of only 31 in 2009. Lucy wanted to find a race that was something slightly different in order to generate interest for those wishing to donate to the charity she was running for (“raising money was my drive”) and also the race would help her to “put everything into perspective” since her bereavement. Tremaine had wanted to give something back to those who had cared for Carla, to do something “dramatic” and subsequently raise sponsorship in order to support a palliative care centre. He regarded the people who worked there and had cared for her as “saints” and not only did he wish to raise money but that the race would be his way of grieving. “You know in the middle of the desert, you’ve got no-one to talk to.” Both had been clearly deeply affected by their tragedies and it was evident the races (Lucy and Tremaine were to compete in four desert marathons in the same year along with Sam and Ricky) would allow them to deal with this part of their life. Scott Jurek, one of the most renowned ultramarathon runners said, “I ran because overcoming the difficulties of ultramarathon reminded me that I could overcome the difficulties of life, that overcoming difficulties was life” (Jurek, 2012, p.6).
For Tremaine, after all the anguish following Carla’s death “everyone fell to pieces” the desert race became a place that allowed him the chance to sort out “my own affairs.” It was “the best time to sort out my issues is when I am demoralised and broken down.”
Experience of the run
The journey offered each runner a starting point, as highlighted, from their first step along the route to the race and now that same journey moved to the next phase. The race itself was the next area for questioning. It is where initial fears, an almost inevitable suffering, emotions and individual coping mechanisms would all be unearthed.
Escapism
Beyond the chance to endure this feat of endurance the races provide times of isolation and solitude. There were times when runners experienced this and the interview sought to question what feelings this provoked among them. It aimed to garner greater details from the runners as to their race experience in terms of greater connection with their thoughts and to any appreciation of the environment they found themselves in. Heather Reid, Professor of Philosophy at Morningside College in Iowa, speaks of running allowing freedom, escape from the norm of daily living and away from “the herd” (Reid, cited in Austin, 2007, p.119). It offers a freedom and a removal of obstacles that limit the chance to ‘escape’ into a world “free of briefcase, cell phone and car keys” (p.118). When these freedoms are experienced how do individuals respond? Austin (2007) believes it is here that one can reflect on our lives and what is important to us. The questioning aimed to find how that freedom was recognised, appreciated and articulated. It was here that the ‘escapism’ enabled them to recollect feelings that show a greater connection with what they were doing and where they were. This was an uninterrupted space, away from outside distractions and ones that are part of or ‘plague’ our lives. The escapism that is “near impossible when modern life is defined by interaction” (Harvie, 2011, p.211). In this case the runners referred to the technology of contemporary life that does not afford us enough moments of ‘silence’.
Sam, Lucy, David, and Andrea referred to the “escapism” offered by the race. This referred to being away from normal work routines and into a challenge without phones and computers that would lead Lucy to show how much this meant to her, “I loved turning my phone off that was just a joy”… Andrea, “it’s been the only time in the last decade I don’t obsessively check my phone,” and “I don’t think I understood how disconnected from the rest of the world I would really be.” Sam reflected on similar experiences, “I put myself in high paced environments…….my phone is with me 24/7 and I am constantly checking e-mails.” With this hectic lifestyle came the “reward” of the marathon challenges, away from a world where in work her life was “crazy.” The final reflection came from David, who enjoyed being away from a life which appeared sometimes one of being ‘bombarded’ with e-mails, the internet”
Coping strategies
Endurance races provide an undulating ‘emotional terrain’ for runners. Zahab (2007) developed a “tunnel vision” (p.173) when trying to ignore the pain in his feet in the Amazon jungle marathon and allowed the “pure adrenaline” (p.174) to carry him through. Fry (cited in Austin, 2007) believes that running for the dedicated “is form of ritual suffering” (p.67). Harvie (2012) describes the suffering that is experienced and throws many into a pain “beyond comprehension” (p.73). And yet they also experience feelings that put this pain into some kind of perspective and deal with it in their own unique way. “I would live entirely in the moment………There was only one mission of putting one foot in front of the other” (Karnazes, 2011). Often there is the acknowledgement of its short-lived nature.
In her interview, Marilena described just how ‘dark’ things could get, “my feet were horrible…….I lost nine toenails” but “at least my suffering will be temporary……..that kept me going for sure.” Almost as inevitable partners inextricably linked are the moments here described as ‘moments of light and dark’ where the pain can give way to a time when the runner experiences a vivid moment of excitement that encapsulates all that is the adventure, the race, the encounter. They press on towards the light, towards that end goal lifted by what they could become and what they could realise. Ultramarathon runner Francesca Conte notes that at the Arkansas 100 mile race, “I always want, in every race to take the time to look up at the sky at night, because remembering how lucky I am matters more than winning” (cited in Jameson, 2003, p.152).
Ricky had suffered with horrendous blisters on both feet and had been vomiting during one of the stages. “We (a fellow runner who was with him on day 3) were in a horrible shape – that was a bad day.” A day that would find him out on the course for over 6 hours as he battled to cross the line for the end of a stage of the race. So how do you overcome these factors that could leave a runner struggling to carry on? Ricky continued, “You pushed through it, the pride, the elation of getting through and finishing that stage” and his drive to prove to others he could do it. One of those was his former Baseball coach at University who was always critical of him and doubted his abilities and to whom Ricky directed his anger: “I keep him in the back of my head…..and I imagined him watching me run this race. I’m going to prove you wrong because he’s a bastard. I wish he was listening to this.”
It was clear that each of the interviewees had their own strategy for these dark moments. Andrea had a key word, one that she would use when she was “hitting my lows.” She would “super-charge it with good thoughts…….charge it with good memories” and when those low points were experienced “I’ll say it (the word) to myself.” It was a case of “shifting” her thought process and it helped her through moments as on the third day when she had run out of water with five kilometres still to go. Water on the race was rationed each day. As Dean Karnazes pointed out when he participated in his first desert race, “Why ration water? I guess the organisers wanted to make it as authentic as possible. This is a race across the desert after all” (Karnazes, 2011, p.156). But this too could be a danger and Andrea was frustrated and angry but had turned this anger into “fuel, like it’s something that can move you on.”
David appeared very clear about his ability to cope with the times when he felt low either through fatigue or the pain of his worsening blisters. “I was never really that negative because I knew that everybody has their ups and downs.” He was able to break down the day’s route into sections where his aims would be to use the checkpoints as progress markers and goals. “I know that this is gonna hurt for the next 10k, but you can split that down.” Ulrich (2011) similarly learned to “compartmentalise my physical anguish…….how to strategize my races” (p.19 & 20).
Sam had injured her ankle even before the race had started and still travelled to the race. She had raised money for charity and was sponsored by a University in Australia. It had been a goal, “an absolute dream” and yet this initially appeared to be one that would stay as just that due to her injury in training just before the race. Her ability to turn potential disaster into achieving that goal was one that was built on reviewing how she could best complete each day.
So I decided to just walk it. I’m just going to do whatever I can to walk and even if I can only walk for the first one day, two days, I’m just going to make the most of it. I’ve never been to South America, so that’s what’s important to me, to really make the most of every moment I think that moment’s been the reason why I’m still running today.
It was almost as though her ‘dark moments’ had occurred before the race had begun and it enabled Sam to completely rethink her approach to the event. The walking of each stage for the first few days allowed her to take in her surroundings, to see things others may have missed as they pressed on across the terrain. “I found it a beautiful race.”
I was just wanting to make the most of it…….I had committed so much financially and …. mentally to get to the start line that I wasn’t going to throw that away by holding onto this idea that I would be able to run the whole thing.
Ross reflected on the charity he was running for although to help fend off the difficult times he was experiencing he spoke of “a bit of bravado” where there is a bit of it that you can’t go home and say I didn’t finish…..unless your leg was hanging off!” However he had been “so focussed, personally…..just progressing and putting your energy into that, otherwise I think I’d fall over and not get up.” He was also able to recall a time when the race became for him a moment of humour.
We were going across the salt flats where it was really rough, and it was a hazy heat, three sixty degrees and I just started cracking up. And I was just like this is …… bonkers like could not get further from reality, not reality, because it was reality, but from your day-to-day reality, and yeah I thought it was brilliant. Like couldn’t see another person and it was just like you know, that’s what you do it for.
Tremaine and Lucy had other emotions that influenced their coping strategy. Their recollections took on a very different slant. After her father’s death, Lucy and her sister, Camilla, entered the Sahara Desert Marathon and they had to split up midway as only Lucy was able to continue. At a checkpoint, one of the race doctors handed her a note passed to him earlier by Camilla. It had been written a while ago by their father, “I remember sitting quietly at the side of the camp…..bawling my eyes out because I was so tired.” The emotion, “the tears, the tiredness, I mean the whole thing was horrendous.” But this also enabled her to reflect upon why she was there and to change her thoughts “don’t be ridiculous, you’re raising money for people who are a lot worse off than you and that’s what kept me going.”
Tremaine experienced a great deal of reflection in the times of isolation in the race when “who do you talk to……your mind and soul has to dig up some serious questions.” The questions of regret related to being away from home when he was in Iraq and spending more time with his family surfaced when he was given that time to think “have a word with yourself.” And yet also occupying his thoughts were “you know she would be proud of me and what I’m doing you know.”
The impact of the race.
After all the miles, all the previously untapped thoughts and feelings, the physical peaks and troughs, the terrain and the temperature extremes it was all over but had it changed them? For the participants in the study at least this was the end of one journey and the start of another.
Friendships
One of the most significant changes for the participants was new and some enduring friendships, the connection with other runners from around the world and in one case, friendships that helped to change opinions. For Marilena, “I loved the way you mixed with so many nationalities, there were beautiful people; never seen them before and maybe you will never see again, but that week they were your closest friends and there was that rapport.” Tremaine had changed his views on those he had met away from his life in the military and from one that he felt instilled stereotypes of those in civilian life. He had experienced so much and identified so many things that had changed for him. Twenty two years serving in the military had left him ‘disconnected’ to civilians and now “I wasn’t a hate civvies kind of soldier that I used to be.” He highlighted what others identified as a camaraderie and respect among his fellow competitors: “No one judges you, the fit ones respect the slower ones, the slower ones respect the fit ones. It’s just like an aura around people.
Ross acknowledged it was “…..the friends that you make and the memories that you create there…..I don’t think it changed my life, but it’s certainly made it a lot richer.” With all the wealth of memories that arose Sam highlighted “what I take away from it (the race), from the journey of running, particularly in those early day races, were just the friendships I made”. Andrea found “one of the unexpected treasures of the experience” was “that you had to like earnestly connect with people in a way that you don’t get to in your life.” Murakami (2009) commented that one of the real pleasures of running has been the people he has met and who have encouraged him along the way.
New self-belief and new challenges
Six of the eight ventured back into other deserts to race and run across – these were Ricky, Lucy, Sam, Marilena, David, and Tremaine. For them the challenge had given them a change in their self-belief through this first accomplishment in an extreme endurance event. Lucy, “I do take on challenges slightly head-on now, because I, you know I‘ve put my body through some extreme situations.” The interview had taken place two weeks after she had summited Aconcagua in Argentina, which is just less than 7,000m high. “I think, I know I can, I know I can do with, like physically I can do more.” She continued to reflect on her thoughts to what lay ahead.
I’d never thought of running a hundred miles around Mont Blanc or round Mount Fuji…….now it’s perfectly normal that I am doing that at the end of April. It’s just ….you live in a tent and you get used to….a sleeping bag for three and a half weeks on a mountain or a week in the desert with ten other people, and that’s perfectly normal and you don’t bat an eyelid.
Jurek (2012) believes that runners are transformed by these challenges and that they can “illuminate the path leading to something larger than ourselves” (p.227). It was evident that the race had a transformational and profound effect on all the interviewees both during and after the race. Marilena had “always tried to challenge (herself)” and now
So when I crossed the line, ah, it’s just amazing, you look back and think wow, I did that 250 kilometres, six days and you did that. It shows what you can do if you put your mind to it.
David has since completed the Sahara Desert Marathon in 2012 and one where he felt this experience helped him in his approach. He finished tenth overall in his second desert race, in Atacama he placed outside the top fifty. “I think you definitely come back with a different mind-set, just on your own ability to take on a challenge and achieve it I think.” He has actively “sought out more” events like this because “your outlook changes.” Since 2010 Ross has continued to seek out running challenges and in 2012 completed the 100 mile footrace called the Centurion in just over 24 hours. Sam had reached a new “physical barrier” in terms of how hard she was able to push herself. This was one aspect identified by many of the runners before the race. “We’d never at home, would have considered doing a third marathon (of an eventual six)……that’s quite amazing.”
Sir Steve Redgrave, five time Olympic Gold medallist, asked himself the question upon retirement if he would go through all the sacrifices and training again; he felt he would.
“It was a privilege, a quest. It was a challenge and I have always been inspired by a challenge” (Redgrave, 2009, p.300). For those who did not draw a line at the end of their first extreme challenge, these words seemed to reflect what subsequently happened as they chose to confront another test of human endurance.
A chance to reflect
For all the runners the race had changed their thoughts about how they viewed life as well as themselves. For Andrea “it just made me think, well you might as well try more things” and was “less afraid to fail.” Since the Atacama she had been able to take more risks in her life and had moved to Tahoe from San Francisco “I would have probably never have made that decision if I wasn’t there (in the desert).” Ricky, who has since become a motivational speaker, working with charities and young children as a direct result of his completion of four desert marathons in the same year believed that “Nothing ever happens to you by saying no…..the world has just opened up by saying yeah I’m gonna do that race and its changed my life and (with it) from many different….perspectives.” There was a greater appreciation of certain aspects of life from both David, “I don’t think you worry so much about the bits and pieces, the things that can sort of clog up and take up your time, don’t actually matter or mean anything!” And Marilena, who was able to take a step back and appreciate her surroundings, her environment, “I see every beauty, I see a tree and I see the colours of the tree that maybe other people don’t see.”
Tremaine had come to terms with the loss of his partner Carla and was looking to the future. “I’ve come out the other end.” He was thankful for the race experiences in many ways and that “it’s finding my footing, and I would have never achieved that because I could have quite easily have been bitter.” Despite injury forcing him to abandon the Sahara Desert marathon he was able to complete two further races in the Gobi and Antarctica. “What I did discover on that first desert race was my respect for humanity and I really found some people that you know actually give a damn about everyone else apart from themselves.”
Work can deprive people of challenging experiences which give “effort a greater meaning to life” (p.120) and ones that provide a greater personal engagement (Pink, 2009) If this is to be achieved then it was through something providing a very different form of accomplishment. For Andrea, “I did it for nothing but the sheer aspect of seeing like that my life was really monotonous at the time. I‘d wanted to see if I have almost nothing for a week. Really what’s it gonna feel like for me and how I am, what does that actually change about me.” With Ross, the experience and “the adventure more than the race” was very different from his life as a graphic designer in London, “I sit in a studio looking at a screen for sixteen, eighteen hours, you know some days.” Sam’s achievements gained through running have led her to share those experiences in her role as an inspirational speaker. With future races she now tries to; “Align them with charitable causes, which is what I am most passionate about to be honest, probably even more than the running itself. …the capacity for it to you know really affect others and influence change.”
Final thoughts
The interviews concluded and an opportunity for the eight runners to describe what they would say to those contemplating taking part in, what has been described as. One of the toughest endurance races on earth. Words that they felt would help to prepare someone for the ‘experience’ they had all shared.
For Ross “just know that anything is achievable…..you’ve got two feet, heart, and lungs and off you go.” Lucy felt similarly that “go for it one hundred percent……it’s an incredible experience.” David wanted to highlight that this was not an exclusive challenge for elite runners. The race contained “people from all walks of life…….you can’t judge a book by its cover.” Ricky enthused “the race was epic man that was absolutely epic.” Andrea considered the experience of challenging herself and realising her potential to “see how far I could really push it” had made her feel the race “was very special, very special to have done that.”
Marilena recalled an “amazing journey….the whole journey was an amazing experience, you don’t need much in life……being with yourself sometimes and (with) nature.” Sam was able to put thoughts into a context of the ‘challenge’ by reflecting on her family background to put it into more perspective. Her father had polio as a child and her mother had “never run in her life” and so she wanted to recognise that “I had done an incredibly physical challenge….I succeeded more because of my mental capacities than my physical capacities.” The immediate impact for Sam when she finished her first desert race was evident, “I was just so happy, I felt so blessed to have finished it. “I was elated….it’s like my body was healed.” This absolute optimism and positivity……feeling fortunate to be there, I was definitely a stronger person when I finished the race.”
The final words were from Tremaine who wanted to ensure that people knew the risks and not to do it “off a whim/” The real question is “…what’s your fundamental reason? You know if it’s for fame and glory, don’t bother. The only race you have is to challenge yourself.”
Discussion
The race journey showed from starting out on this adventure the ‘line in the sand’ at the finish was merely a part of a tapestry of riches and rewards for each of the desert runners. Austin (2007) refers to runners experiencing self-discovery, a time where solitude allows reflection and that “we learn something about ourselves” (p.xii). Their learning was something that they all identified in the conversations and each was as individual and personal as the reasons they had set out on the path to adventure in the first place. The path they followed was transformational not only after but at points along the 250 kilometres of desert trail. Their stories highlighted what can be achieved when mind and body act in unison to surpass what has gone before in our lives in one of the most demanding of arenas.
There was a changed belief about themselves and having such a purpose in the race provided them with a fulfilling activity that gave them their own reward. Pink (2009) discusses a relationship between a challenge that is neither too easy and yet too difficult. With that step being beyond one’s current capability which “stretched the body and mind in a way that made the effort itself the most delicious reward” (p.115). The effort in each of their stories, proved worthwhile in many ways from the charities that they ran for to the people they met and the places they saw. Their ability to recall such vivid moments even when time had passed (nearly three years) since they finished the race, highlighted the impact of the race. These vivid recollections showed such detail that, one could argue, the journey had a deep and profound effect. Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University believes “the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life, your mind-set” (Dweck, 2006). It is clear the race affected each of the runners in terms of how differently they viewed themselves, if not openly in the interview but by the directions their lives took after leaving the desert.
Conclusion
If running is to be a metaphor for life as Whalley (2012) comments, then in this case the desert was to provide that stage. Running in “straight lines along city streets bears little resemblance to life” but venture away from these and the trails will reflect the “life twists and turns” (p.266, 267). When one takes the leap of faith away from the confinement those streets impose into the unpredictable twisting and tortuous routes that desert running is, then this truly reflects what living is really about. Roll (2012) believed that when deciding to test ourselves there is a “new path waiting for (us)” and dare to “take that first step and then (it will) show us who we really are” (p.125).
Some have continued to run, others have found a peace in the accomplishment and so the desert was hardly to be a desert at all. It was to be a treasure trove of memories, of new and life-long friendships and greater self-belief. “Our past makes us” (Jurek, 2012, p.264) and for these runners the past has shaped their future.
Applications in Sport
The heightened interest in extreme endurance events over recent years has made it possible for many people to achieve success in events they otherwise thought impossible. An insight into the experiences of a few of these who chose to venture into such unknowns can create an awareness of the impact such events can have on individuals. This study aimed to explore outside physiological and psychological research parameters and provide those considering embarking on a similar journey with simple narratives that could inspire them to realise what is possible and what can be realised.
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank the eight participants who willingly shared their stories with me so openly and honestly. They not only provided me with their experiences but also proved inspirational. I should also like to thank colleagues for their interest and encouragement throughout this research process as well as the University of Winchester for the financial support with this project. Finally, I should like to thank my patient family who recognised how important this research was for me.
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