9.6 Fan Theory

MILLIONS Vice President of Media Tyler Hosie completed his MBA thesis on sports fandom. Here are some of his findings that have impacted the strategies used by MILLIONS. While some relate to “team” fandom, they can be applied to individual Athletes too, as well as conceptualized where MILLIONS is an entity similar to a team.

• In a study of Australian Football League fans, team identification was the key determining variable observed in consumption behaviours. Team identification is the perceived oneness with the team, where parts of individual identity, the sense of self, are attached to the identity of the supported team.
• Drama and skill were the universal motivators for an AFL fan to engage with the sport regardless of their degree of identification with the team, level of positive attitude towards the club or consumption behaviours. Fans enjoy the sport because pleasure is derived from the unpredictability in every moment during play, the uncertainty of the outcome and the superior skill mastery displayed by professional athletes.
• Of the six motives studied in this research, Social, Escape and Knowledge showed statistically significant correlation with consumption behaviours.
  • Knowledge and Escape were associated with higher mobile media consumption as fans wanted to know more or stay updated with AFL news.
• For transactional products, AFL fans are willing to exchange monetary resources for products that provide social experiences and informative knowledge.
• An AFL fan can consume sports because the team is perceived as an extension of their personal identity and not just fulfilling an unmet need.
• The feelings of personal connectedness are key to a supporter transitioning into becoming a financial member.
• AFL fans want to feel like an active member and connected to their club; they are curious about their club and want to consume digital media about their club.
• Success in creating a sense of inclusiveness and connection with AFL fans will improve team identification. When combined with strategies that provide engaging AFL media content and campaigns that facilitate community through socialization, this important psychometric variable will improve consumption behaviour and attitudinal loyalty. This will improve the club’s revenue and profitability of each fan.
• Today’s fans want rewards for engagement, a hub of information and social profiles connected to their club, and a way to communicate with other fans and the team they support. Simply following a team’s social media account does not provide today’s fans with enough connectedness, even with the ability to comment on posts. Clubs need to provide their fans with information that is not readily accessible online and feels personalized, almost exclusive to the fans consuming it.
• Our research shows that for social media consumption, the online content of AFL clubs would need to consist of frequent snippets of AFL-related news or information that entices AFL fans.
• Organizational psychology forms the foundation of a sport’s experiential ecosystem that details how modern sports consumers are not merely spectators but are fans who feel like active members of an organization who also produce their own content (Singleton 2017).
• A rise in eSports participation has significantly impacted consumers’ expectations in terms of connectivity and the ability to shape the content they consume. Singleton (2017) defines a ‘Smart Fan’ as a contemporary, modish user who is always connected and always looking for more authentic media. Participation in the experience adds to their self-esteem, and they expect this to happen rapidly.
• The concept of a ‘Smart Fan’ builds on connectivity as a necessary consideration for organizations in today’s digital media environment and introduces the need to further assess the content itself and its distribution. The prevalence of technology and new patterns of digital media consumption result in social media playing a pivotal role in fans identifying with particular teams (Singleton 2017). Our study confirmed this with significantly higher social media use in those with higher identification levels.
• The more exposure a fan has to content from any particular organization that they identify with, the more important this organization becomes to the fan (Stevens and Rosenberger 2012). The challenge for sporting organizations resides in maintaining ‘conversations’ with their fans and leveraging their content to not only attract but also retain the interest of their fans (Dart 2014).
• Consumers now value experiences more than simple goods and services. This preference for experiences also extends beyond the result of the games themselves, with variables such as group membership, loyalty, interaction, etc, seemingly more important (Singleton 2017).
• Even non-sports fans can be motivated to consume sports content. This is driven by what sport can provide their identity and how it can act as a catalyst for social needs, i.e. group status (Singleton 2017).
• AFL clubs should use social media to provide more information about their club. Social media platforms can be utilized to provide an inside story on their players and even incorporate designated times when the players will be monitoring their social media accounts to answer questions from fans. Not only does this entertain fans, but it can also enhance their experience and feelings of inclusiveness and connectedness (Witkemper et al. 2012).
• Today’s sports consumers want engaging consumption experiences. They are also willing to pay for them, and their affiliated organization is ultimately the beneficiary of this additional spending. As noted repeatedly above; the higher the identification, the higher the fan’s purchase and consumption behaviour (Singleton 2017). Highly engaged fans also endorse their team’s corporate sponsors and affiliates.

“Fan Theory” by Tyler Hosie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.