Last Blog: Comment on two students' blogs

Experiments have been widely conducted in the medical field. Tom Foley's blog talked about the severe injuries happening in football and what the NFL is doing to stop it. Football is known to be a violent contact sport, you have to be in good health with a fit or big body frame to play football and take the tackling. The NFl recently instated fines and even suspensions to players who hit above the waist. In order to see the affects of these hits, CSTE at the Boston University School of Medicine are researching the brains and spinal chords of NFL players after they have died. According to Foley the experimental research has not been done yet, but when it does happen it will be very beneficial to prevent such injuries. It will be interesting to hear more about this study in the future.


Andrew's blog was very interesting because it dealt with the equipment used during the sport. The article talked about the bat itself being the cause of injuries. The link to the article showed that they did numerous studies including studying the vibrations of the bat and the reaction time players have when a ball is hit. This study included actual scientific experimental research using physics. I wish Andrew would of went into more detail about the experiment itself. There were a lot of tabs and links under his article that would of expanded more on the experiment itself like any variables, groups, etc. Still, his topic was very interesting.

Experiment: The Effectiveness of Product Placement in Video Games

An experiment I found interesting included the effectiveness of product placing in a sports video game. For example seeing the athlete in the video game wearing Under Armor would make you like Under Armor more.

The participants were chosen randomly but it was by using e-mails delivered through the social networking site Facebook.com, 133 (77 male and 56 female) college students

These students were then given an online survey. The survey asked them to rank certain athletic brands like Nike and Under Armor, on a scale from 1-10. Some participants dropped out before the next step which is the actual experiment.

The actual study involves a television and a Xbox 360 gaming console. The participants were asked to play a sports related game. Some of the brands in the pretest survey were included in the game. For example, for the boxing game, the boxer had on Under Armor shorts.

After they'd played the game they retook the survey asking them to once again rate brands from 1-10. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of video game product placement on short-term brand attitudes.

The results of this study confirmed that when consumers have fun with a certain product, they are more likely to have positive feelings toward it. Thus, video game product placement represents an effective way to get consumers to "play" with advertised products and have fun doing it, before they even decide to purchase.

Chicago Cubs reach their fans through a survey on Nov 2, 2010

When a team wins a lot of games it draws a more positive image to the organization. From a public relations perspective, it is always easier to gain consumers/fans when the team you are working for is successful.

The Chicago Cubs are not known for having many winning seasons. They haven't won the World Series in 102 years; a longer championship drought than that of any other major North American professional sports team. Yet, despite their losing seasons, the Cubs have been very successful with fans. They are known as the "Lovable Losers" with the most loyal fans in the league. This is because of the connection they have drawn with their fans.

Last night, November 2, 2010, I received an email from MLB.com asking me to take a survey for the Chicago Cubs. Although I a a Yankee fan, I also listed myself as a Cubs fan online to get more information about them. The email redirected me to the Chicago Cubs website. The survey is an attempt from the Cubs organization to gain feedback from fans to determine ways to improve the fan experience at Wrigley Field. Instead of just building a new stadium like the Yankees and other teams have done, the Cubs are relying on its fans to tell them what improvements they should make on their stadium.

"...the Chicago Cubs would like to invite you to participate in an important research initiative to help the organization understand your customer experience and identify additional amenities that should be added to Wrigley Field."

They chose to survey their fans online. A survey on the Chicago Cub's website reaches more baseball fans. They can reach fans in other parts of the country not just limited to Chicago--they can collect a larger sample. They make the survey inviting and interactive, giving the fans a voice in the organization's decision-making. Not much initiative is needed for fans to take the survey since sports fans are known to be very devoted, and are happy to do things that involve their favorite sports team.

Comment on Katie and Whitney's Qualitative Research Blogs

Whitney's blog discusses an article that is encouraging small businesses to conduct focus groups in order to be more successful. The article gives ways small businesses can conduct an effective focus group and use the results to help them better their business. Whitney makes a good point by stating that a focus group can be a useful research method to any kind of business--big or small. Katie's blog focuses on non-profits coming up with more innovative ideas by using more qualitative research. She mentions how a lot of non-profits conduct surveys and other kinds of quantitative research so they can have an measurable result. However some non-profits are still struggling for funding and audience awareness. Katie includes an article that says that non-profits would become more successful if they got to know their audience more. According to the article the best way to do this is through Qualitative research--a study of the consumer's thoughts, insight, behaviors, etc. Katie also agrees that this will be a great solution to a non-profit's problem. By getting to know the audience you can know what methods actually work.

In both Whitney & Katie's blog, its interesting to see how small businesses and non-profits are now starting to use more qualitative research. Both kinds of organizations have a small budget and are competing with big corporations for consumer's attention. Small businesses especially have to find new, innovative and better ways to gain consumers because they have so much competition. Non-profits don't make a profit so they have to find economical and innovative ways to provide their services.

Sports Teams use Focus Groups

Professional sports teams such as the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers have conducted focus groups over this past year to get input on making modifications on their stadiums. It is interesting to read how Qualitative research, like focus groups, can be used for not only a product or good but also a service like a sporting event.
This shows that sports teams highly rely on their fans and consumers to make a profit. So why not have their input when making a big decisions such as expanding a new stadium. The consumers are the ones who are going to be spending money to enjoy the game. The articles below prove how qualitative research has proven to be very helpful in the long run.

The article on the Minnesota Vikings, included PDF files of the Focus group questions and guidelines. The questions started off with an icebreaker, speaking about the state of Minnesota then slowly progress into talking about the Minnesota Vikings and then finally the new stadium they wanted to build.



Using both sports fans and people not interested in sports. They were surprised to find that their results were very positive, and people seemed really interested in the new stadium.

With other teams having great success in decision-making using focus groups, the Green Bay Packers are also rumored to hold their own focus group in hopes to attract the community about their new stadium.

Even a team like the New York Yankees could benefit from doing such research.

This article shows a poor marketing decision by the New York Yankees. Maybe if they would have researched more they wouldn't have problem selling tickets in their new stadium.

The Yankees recently built a new stadium that opened for the 2009 season, and although they have had many success on the field, the Yankees have not been able to sell out games like they did in the old stadium. Why? Because by building the new stadium they have put themselves in a little bit of debt. Therefore they increased ticket prices to attend games, and now a lot of fans can not afford to go. If they have done more research, the Yankees organization would've been able to make the new stadium more appealing to the wants of the fans and consumers.

Commenting on Two Students Blogs

Social Media has become such a hot topic today in the Communications/Public Relations field. Everyone from celebrities, athletes, politicians and regular private people have partaken in some social media website. No wonder researchers may use social media to find out more about a person. So many people use it and put all kinds of information about themselves on these websites. We've seen a lot of athletes and celebrities get in trouble today because of what they have posted on the web. They don't realize that although they are connecting with fans and friends, they are also connecting with paparazzi and reporters. As stated in Devon's blog, whether or not it is ethical has been a huge question in unobtrusive research. He makes a good point that it depends on the situation, but when it comes to social media and unobtrusive research, the subject can decide how much information to put out there on these websites like twitter.

Kevin's blog also touches base on the importance of social media in the Public Relations field. "Social media has become such a prevailing tool in the world of Communications that it is becoming a necessary component of education." He goes on to write about an event at the graduate school at Quinnipiac, which will hold several times throughout the year, that teaches students and professionals about the uses and the importance of Social Media.

Social Media is a huge tool in the Public Relations field as it is a easier way to find information on someone that is already public and it is also a way to reach hundreds of people with just posting information online. Both students wrote very interesting blogs about the importance of social media to us students as PR majors.

Observing Fan Behavior

After having numerous incidents involving fans at sporting events, many teams across the world of sports have taken manners in to their own hands. The NFL Code of Conduct went into effect after HBO's "Real Sports" program aired a segment that featured scenes of drunken and unruly behavior by football fans. Among the highlights: Redskins fans getting falling-down drunk in the parking lot, and a crowd of New York Jets fans at Giants Stadium chanting at women to take their tops off.
The National Basketball League instituted a code in 2005, after a fight between fans and players broke out at an Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons game. Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League do not have leaguewide policies, but fan behavior is discussed and monitored by the individual clubs.
Major League Soccer is known to have the rudest and loudest fans. The league has also recently enstated a fan code of conduct. These codes of conduct are rules on how to behave when attending the sports game. There are serve consequences like fines and jail time for those who don't comply.

Some professional sports teams have more security cameras to monitor incidents, they do not need consent to video tape people since they are out in a public, televised event. This is one way to unobtrusively keep an eye on fans and fan interaction. They want to see how they can create a family-friendly atmosphere. Some idea included having seats divded into section: loud, very loud, quiet, etc.
Since they can’t observe the thousands of fans at the games, they have a system where fans can do the unobtrusive observing for them.
They are urging fans, who are bothered by other fans, to send an anonymous text message to team security. The security members will stop by the seats and handle the situation. This motivates fans in a way to observe eachother. They can tell security annonymous what people are being disruptive and security can immediately remove the subject without them knowing they were being watch by other fans.


Is this TOO extreme? Well this ESPN article shows the consequences of some bad-behaving fans.
The only way to research and know what is going on at big games is unobtrusively, without the fans knowing. You want them to enjoy the game and not worry about being hurt at a game. The team has to observe and study the behavior of fans to avoid someone getting serverly hurt.

Comment on Two Students Blogs

The hardest part in Sports PR is to maintain a good reputation for the sports team-- in order to gain more fans and get more people to the games. For a PR person this doesn't only mean to look promote things on the field, like the games and awards the team has won, but to also promote activities off the field, like community service players have done, etc.

So when things like what happened with the Oregon Ducks according to Greg Covelle's blog. It is hard to create a good image for the athletic program, with so much negative press.

"The Oregon Ducks have been out of the papers and headlines recently which has brought nothing but glee to everyone working over at the school. The school over the past two years has had athletic director changes, heisman canidates suspended for the majority of seasons, and all star quaterbacks forced to transfer after getting involved with crime off the field. Just as the school begins to really make some noise on the field, it starts making a lot more noise off of the field."

This is true crisis management for a PR team. How do you change the image of the Oregon Ducks? Now that their activities off the field have a huge impact on their image as athletes. This relates to my second blog post when I talked about how people are more concerned with the personal lives of athletes rather than their performance on the field. Athletes, even at the college level, are looked at like celebrities.

This also brings me to Laura's blog dealing with the ethics in celebrity privacy. I agree that there is, it seems, no privacy at all. The same can be said about the privacy of athletes, especially those in college. They are just students, do they have the right to privacy or has their status as a college athlete the same as a celebrity, so they have no choice because they are in the public eye? Should PR professionals deal with an athlete in a image crisis the same way you would a celebrity.

NFL Research results in the start of Monday Night Football

One of the biggest football games played so far was this past Monday between the Superbowl Champs the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco 49ers. This game alone average 15.1 million viewers.

This many people watching a game on television on a Monday night?

Apparently the start of Monday Night Football began as a research project.

The sport grew around the media outlets. The big name channels such as NBC, CBS and ABC, determined how many games could be watched, so from the start the success of the national football was dependent on television viewers.

During the 1960s, then NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle wanted to know how to get more people to watch football. He wanted to have more days of football to increase there very low ratings they had.Through research he eliminated almost every weekday, except Monday.

Rozelle decided to experiment with the concept of playing on Monday night, scheduling the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions for a game on September 28, 1964. While the game was not televised, it drew a sellout crowd of 59,203 to Tiger Stadium, the largest crowd ever to watch a professional football game in Detroit up to that point. He believed that if this many people would show up to the game, imagine how many people would watch it on television. Networks were hesitant at first to compete with soap operas and other entertainment shows.

This correlation would be proven true, when he finally convinced television networks to air the first Monday Night Football game in 1970. Due to his research and experiment results, Monday Night Football is now one of the most watch sporting programs.

Quote from an article about the History of Monday Night Football:

"The idea of football in primetime certainly worked. Demographics show that nearly 40 percent of Monday Night Football viewers are women, breaking the long-held belief that sports could not compete successfully in primetime against entertainment. The series' success was immediate. The schedule of 13 Monday night games shocked the critics, who predicted the series would achieve no better than a 24 percent share of the audience, by drawing 31 percent of America's viewers. The current schedule has grown to 20 Mondays (17 regular season, 3 preseason), all in primetime."

Researching Ethics- Athletes losing their right to privacy

There have been ethical issues dealing with sports athletes for sometime. Ever since investigative journalism evolved, they have been in the spotlight more and more. When researching athletes for a report, ad or press release, should we research their sports performance or their private lives?

Since athletes have become more like celebrities, people are more concerned with what happens off the field than how well they're performing at their particular sport. For example, Tiger Woods has been all the news this past year. Not for winning a golf tournament, but for matters involving his personal life. There was once a time when athletes had two separate lives. Sports agents and publicists would only focus on researching the game stats and how well the athlete did in the game, now as PR people we must research what things are being said involving his or her life off the field. There are areas in Sports PR that are becoming more and more like Entertainment PR. Even sports networks, like ESPN, have reported on athletes' personal lives.



In just the last few years, really, this has changed dramatically.
There are more stories of all manner of high-profile athletes involved in affairs, rape allegations, steroids scandals, and speeding tickets.

Do we have the right to research these athletes' personal lives and make things public? What if these stories are inaccurate and thus damage the name and credibility of the athlete? Should we focus more on researching their performance on the field?

Another example can be what if a PR person wants to do focus groups or interviews using athletes and finds out something during their research that can harm the players reputation. Do you as a PR person still use them in your research report? According to PR research ethics they have a right to privacy, but does this change since their lives are so public?

Businesses research Sports Fans

Most sporting events today are more than just a game that is being played. Behind the scenes there are groups of PR/ Marketing researching the team they are working for, the fan interaction, and the game sponsors. Research is important in order to find out the expectations of fans and to heighten their satisfaction with a certain team or event. Not only does the team want to satisfy the fans but now the advertisers also want to satisfy sports fans.

  

Businesses and companies play in big role in sporting events. Companies research what teams or sporting events they should sponsor. For example, in an effort to promote their healthier food choices, McDonald’s is now a sponsor of both the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. Some companies such as Dunkin Donuts sponsor Major League baseball teams, because although they are known for their coffee and doughnuts, their new campaign includes Iced Coffee and Iced Coolatas, and iced drinks are big in the summer. However it doesn’t have to be a huge sporting event like the World Cup. If there is a new local business, they might want to sponsor a local team to reach within their own community.

Companies are now realizing the impact sports has on American culture.

 This year alone, the Super bowl drew in over 106 million viewers. The Super Bowl is among the most watched sporting event in the world. Reaching that many people, it is no wonder that the PR and Ad industry buzz near the end of the football season.

Even Americans who don’t follow football watch the Super Bowl, waiting for the new creative ads, businesses put out.

For :30 seconds alone an ad during the game can cost around $2.5 million. The price seems outrageous but some say it’s worth it. Such a big investment like this requires a ton of research. Companies have to do extensive research to find out whether they would be losing or making money in buying this expensive ad space.

Is it worth is? Think of it this way, not only do you reach 106 million viewers, there is also the word of mouth that comes with it. The day after the Super Bowl, the most talk about subject is not who won or lost the game, it is the commercials that stand out. 

Fan Characterstics and Sporting Event Attendance

Super Bowl Ads Sales as Economic Indicator