For sponsors of teams in a global market, fan isolation by living out-of-market increases sponsor brand recall, more favorable consumer attitudes, higher purchase intentions, higher word of mouth, and greater likelihood to choose the brand sponsor over a competitor. However, this is only true for strong fans. Isolation harms sponsorship performance for weak fans, who desert the team. A class exercise is included.

1. From:From:
 Globalization and technology have
expanded sports teams’ reach
 80% of Premier League fans live
outside the United Kingdom
 Out-of-market fans account for the
majority of team merchandise
revenue
 Sponsorship allows brands to
engage with fans everywhere
 Chevrolet spent $560 million to
sponsor Manchester United in
order to reach the team’s global
fans
 $65B total global sponsorship
brand expenditures, growing faster
than advertising
 Marketing question: How does fan
isolation shape sponsorship
effectiveness?
Sponsorship in a Global Context
Mazodier, Henderson and Beck (2018)

2. From:From:
Affiliation Theory of Sponsorship
Mazodier, Henderson and Beck (2018)
 When fans live outside of the home market, they might feel isolated.
 When isolated, people who strongly identify as being a fan tend to
actively seek any connection with the team community (doubling down
effect)
 However, people who are weaker fans try to suppress their fan identity
when they feel isolated by actively avoiding team-linked content
(desertion effect)

3. From:From:
 Findings show that strong fans who feel
isolated recall jersey sponsor more than
any other fans (see the figure to the right).
 Across several studies, researchers found
that isolation leads to 38% more favorable
consumer attitudes, 39% higher purchase
intentions, 43% higher WOM, and 91%
greater likelihood to choose the brand
sponsor over a competitor.
 But, those results are for strong fans,
isolation harms sponsorship performance
for weak fans who desert the team when
isolated.
When Fan Isolation and Identification
Boost Sponsorship Performance
Mazodier, Henderson and Beck (2018)

4. From:From:
 Marketers are able to identify
strong fans online and to
geolocate them in real time.
 Therefore, brands should promote
sponsorship based on audience
location and interests.
 For instance, a large-scale
Facebook study showed that strong,
isolated fans are 8% more likely to
click a brand sponsor’s
advertisement.
Implications
Mazodier, Henderson and Beck (2018)

5. From:From:
Class Exercise
Mazodier, Henderson and Beck (2018)
 Exercise: Create a mock FB page and
create a mock ad campaign targeting
distant fans
 If a brand wants to reach isolated fans,
which teams in each sport would be
the best target?