Sports marketing traces back to the mid-1800 when the first paid athletic event was held. The world of sport attracted a good audience, and marketing strategies were laid out to ensure a large audience was achieved. In 1870 tobacco cards were used to promote sports. Inserts displaying famous athletes were put in cigarette packets. In 1936 Adidas utilized sports to sell his merchandise when he gave Jesse Owens a shoe as a strategy to advertise the shoe. This proved that athletes influenced people who, in return, wanted to acquire items that connected them with the athletes. In the 1980s, television screens played a more significant role in increasing the audience athletes.
The dawn of internet brought a different era where personalization was introduced. Personalization is the marking of specific items to a particular person ( Sunikka& Bragget 2008) . The moment brands learnt how to utilize the internet ranging ten years back they found their way online. The internet brought together people from all geographical locations, making the whole world look like one village. From this perspective, the audience of sports grew more extensive, and the interaction increased. Unlike before, when people enjoyed sports occasionally, things were different, and all types of games were watched through the internet.
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The internet allowed Sport firms to make money by giving their audience a personalized experience. Websites were, therefore, created to send merchandise online. This merchandise was personalized to belong to particular athletes. Followers of these athletes would buy the merchandise or enroll to membership activities as a result of loyalty to their athletes. An example is the Rice recreation and wellness center. Under the Rice Athletic team the university enrolls individuals to pay for recreational and fitness activities. Over the years, this strategy has grown since sports companies make a lot of money from their personalized merchandise (Sheridan, 2020) . The merchandise may include clothes with brands of athletes, Paid streaming stations, and membership sites.
In an interview with David Pillen, Assistant Director of Marketing in Rice athletics, he says that “it's become a deal where everything is personalized” . He explains that different sports teams and brands have different values and wants. Therefore they create experiences for the audience that supports and follows their values. Personalized marketing strategies are supposed to make their fans feel useful and special. Through social media platforms, they can unique experiences that attract their followers to any merchandise they are linked to. Moreover, to ensure a continuous connection between sports companies and their audiences, athletes use digital platforms and videos. It is out of these connections that personalized marketing becomes very efficient.
The unique terms of experiences are used to explore how important athletes’ fans are in the business sector of the sports industries. Sports teams are currently the most prominent brands since they have millions of followers ( Sunikka& Bragget 2008) . An example is the Dallas Cowboys, whose net worth is five billion. For example, they have an online shop that sells clothes for kids, adults, and teenagers. Individual athletes are also used in personalized marketing; for instance, Nike in 2010 used a personalized advertisement approach to attract customers. In his ads Soccer superstars, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo were featured. Therefore the fans of the superstar plays would feel intrigued and buy the products.
In conclusion, the 21 st century has a big impact as marketing and sales of materials efficient personalization has made the business sector more competitive and profitable. Despite the fact that many firms still partner with sports teams to market their products, the emergence of personalization in marketing has a more significant impact. However, despite the advantages of personalization, it is a challenge for businesses to handle global fans’ needs. More personalized brands continue making their online presence since the internet is present, unlike ten years ago.
References
Sheridan, A. (2020). Engaging sports fans through personalization and perpetual recruitment. From now on , p. 1. Retrieved 25 October 2020, from https://from-now-on.com/blog/2019/3/26/engaging-sports-fans-through-personalization-and-perpetual-recruitment
Sunikka, A., & Bragge, J. (2008, January). What, who and where: insights into personalization. In Proceedings of the 41st annual Hawaii international conference on system sciences (HICSS 2008) (pp. 283-283). IEEE.
