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Purpose: Framed by nostalgia marketing, this research draws upon lessons from ParticipACTION, a Canadian non-profit health promotion organization, to examine one of their most well-known campaigns, Body Break with ParticipACTION, in order to assess the potential role for nostalgia-based marketing campaigns in sport participation across generational cohorts. Design/methodology/approach: Exploratory sequential mixed methods involving two studies were completed on behalf of ParticipACTION, with the authors developing the research instruments and the collection of the data undertaken by research agencies. Study 1 was the secondary analysis of qualitative data from five focus groups with different demographic compositions that followed a common question guide. Study 2 was a secondary data analysis of a pan-Canadian online survey with a sample (n = 1,475) representative of the overall adult population that assessed awareness of, and attitudes toward, ParticipACTION, Body Break, physical activity and sport participation. Path analysis tested a proposed model that was based on previous research on attitudes, brand and loyalty. Further, multi-group path analyses were conducted to compare younger generations with older ones. Findings: The results provide direction and understanding of the importance of nostalgia in marketing sport participation programs across generational cohorts. For instance, in the four parent-adult focus groups, unaided references as well as frequent and detailed comments regarding Body Break were observed. Similarly, Millennials reported that Body Break was memorable, Canadian and nostalgic, with a mix of positive and negative comments. The importance of nostalgia was supported sequentially via results from the national survey. For example, while 54.1% of the 40–54 age-group associated ParticipACTION positively with Body Break, so did 49.8% of the 25–39-year age group, most of whom were not born when the promotion ran. Further, brand resonance was found to explain 4% more variance in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), the proxy for sport participation, for younger people compared to older people. Practical implications: Results provide direction to brands, properties and agencies around the use of nostalgia in sport marketing campaigns and sponsorship efforts. For brands seeking to sponsor sport properties to alter their image with potential consumers in a new market, associating with a sport property that many view as nostalgic could improve the impact of the campaign. On the sport property side, event managers and marketers should both identify existing assets that members or fans are nostalgic about, as well as consider building nostalgia into current and new properties they develop. Originality/value: This research is valuable to the sport marketing and sponsorship literature through several contributions. First, the use of nostalgia marketing, and nostalgia in general, is novel in the sport marketing and sponsorship literature, with future research in nostalgia and sponsorship recommended. Second, the potential to adopt or adapt Body Break to other sport participation and physical activity properties is empirically supported. Finally, the finding that very effective promotions can have a long-lasting effect, both on those who experienced the campaigns as well as younger populations who only heard about it, is notable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting an integrative literature review approach, this study synthesized sport relationship marketing (SRM) articles to gain insight into how relationship marketing in sport-related studies is presently understood, interpreted, and utilized. Informed by two decades of SRM literature, we synthesized our findings into a conceptual model that presents the systematic dimensions of SRM. This model transforms the theoretical contributions of the field's scholars into actionable insights for both scholars and practitioners' use. The work concludes by identifying specific future research to test and refine the proposed SRM model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an investigation of racial-ethnic congruency among professional sport teams and their local markets. The study empirically tested the relationship between racial-ethnic team-market congruence and market support. Results of the research provide some support for the relevance of team and market congruency in the marketing of professional sport. Although varying by city, by North American professional sport league, and by racial-ethnic community, the results demonstrate that consumers have noticed and used their own reflections in professional baseball teams to influence their level of team support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mega-special-event properties (sponsees) have the ability to attain significant resources through sponsorship by offering exclusive promotional opportunities that target sizeable consumer markets and attract sponsors. The Super Bowl, one of the most watched television programs in the world, was selected as the megaspecial- event for this study as it provides a rare environment where a portion of the television audience tunes in specifically for the purpose of watching new and entertaining commercials. A longitudinal analysis of consumer opinion related to the 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 Super Bowls provides empirical evidence that questions the ability of Super Bowl sponsorship to influence the sales of sponsor offerings. Results pertaining to consumers' intent to purchase sponsors' products—one of the most sought after metrics in relating sponsorship effectiveness to sales—demonstrate that levels of intent-to-purchase inspired by sponsorship of the Super Bowl is relatively low and, most importantly, that increases are not being achieved over time. These findings have implications for both mega-sponsees and their sponsors as well as media enterprise diffusing mega-special-events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Title: CEO, London 2012 Summer Olympic Games (London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games-LOCOG) Education: Trinity College, Cambridge Career: European Chief Operating Officer, Goldman Sachs Interview conducted by Rick Burton, [...]

This case study presents seven challenges regarding the implementation of a National Sport Organization (NSO) loyalty program. Drawing on relationship marketing and sponsorship, the case traces the evolution of the Club Hockey Canada loyalty program, managed by Hockey Canada, a large and successful NSO. The case describes the following seven challenges for managers: resource allocation, process management, branding, rules and regulations for a key element of the program (i.e., Puck Bucks), risk management, sponsorship, and cost recovery. Targeted to upper year undergraduate and graduate students in sport finance or sport marketing, the case is based on information provided by Hockey Canada and secondary research. In completing the case, students will be able to learn about the seven challenges in building a successful loyalty program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Olympic Games are well established as a global event with vast marketing benefit. Two major benefits from the Olympics derive from sponsorship and tourism. In terms of sponsorship, The Olympic Partner (TOP) sponsorship programme is widely recognized as one of the most successful, profitable and effective sponsorship arrangements, if not marketing relationships in general. The purpose of this research is to explore these special TOP sponsor–International Olympic Committee relationships, as a case study, to explore the ‘sponsor–mega-event’ relationship as an example of a business-to-business (B2B) tourism marketing relationship. Indeed, a variety of perspectives on key attributes of the relationship are explored, including the nature of the relationship, key elements of the sponsorship (e.g. evaluation) and the specific location (e.g. the impact of the location of the host city/country of the Olympic Games). As exploratory research into a new area, the paper reviews relevant literature and reports on an expert interview with a TOP sponsor to support conceptual and empirical development of the concept. Results of the interview are assessed in to the context of existing literature and summarized in a proposed B2B marketing relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the past 30 years, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has adopted marketing as a key focus of its operations. In turn, the organisation has developed a variety of sophisticated and widely acclaimed marketing practices such as its TOP programme. It has also supported a large number of studies on Olympic marketing. One important observation resulting from these studies is that corporate managers' and consumers' perceptions of the Olympic brand differ from each other's views on a number of areas. The current research seeks to understand this dichotomy and to provide the Olympic brand with insightful direction. We offer specific recommendations to the IOC and their partners, as well as suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of the relevancy of business education has been a topic of ongoing discussion since the late 1980s (Porter and McKibbon, 1988). At the time, business educators also began to recognise the value of experiential learning as a teaching method to increase the knowledge and skill development among graduates (Slavin, 1988). Beginning in 1982, the Sport Administration Program (SPAD) at Laurentian University adopted a 4th Year 'Field Trip' course as the capstone to its applied programme. This experiential learning based course involved students working in teams on Client-Based Projects (CBPs). This paper presents four mini-cases of these field trips over the past 20 years to illustrate the considerable benefits realised by all stakeholders. Key conclusions are drawn to create a proposed model for a CBP-based capstone course for sports management, a model for use by both practitioners and researchers in the development of the future workers the industry desires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a research paper that examines the status of sponsorship in the marketing strategy. A study was conducted in KMAC, a sports marketing agency specializing in sponsorship, to analyze sponsorship as a subset of advertising and as a distinct member of the promotional mix. It has been found that sponsorship is a legitimate member of the promotional mix, both in terms of marketing theory and business practice.

Based on the work of Parent (2008) on mega sports events, this paper explores the relationships among events stakeholders in Olympic Games host/bid city marketing. It outlines research questions, identifies a theoretical framework to better understand Olympic city marketing, presents four essays related to issues within this framework, and provides conclusions and suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large-sample survey of general public consumers in Canada, France and the United States during the 2000 Olympic Games supports previous research on ambush marketing, provides evidence that purchase decisions are affected by ambush marketing reducing the value of sponsorship partnerships, and purports that the International Olympic Committee and its partners need to develop specific strategies to combat ambush marketing country by country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]