THREE ESSAYS ON UNDERSTANDING AND OPTIMIZING DIGITAL MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION

Abstract

The evolving nature of the sport industry coupled with continually advancing technologies make it increasingly important to research and understand digital marketing and communication. This dissertation includes three essays that investigate digital marketing in the sport industry by considering the sport organization, context, and user as well as their interactions. Essay One critically examines the current use of Uses and Gratifications (U&G) Theory by examining what consumers do with sport social media. Findings from a qualitative analysis result in a proposed augmentation to U&G Theory to reflect that not all social media consumption is purposeful in nature, while also identifying a core set of motivations driving social media use. Essay Two identifies determinants of social media engagement using data mining techniques to unearth insights that can be leveraged by organizations to optimize marketing and communication strategies. Results inform the development of an updated Sport Experience Design (SX) framework to capture the complex and dynamic nature of sport consumption contexts. Finally, Essay Three examines advertising in multi-screen environments when the advertisement (ad) appears on the second screen, specifically considering the impact of timing on ad memory due to limited cognitive processing capabilities of consumers. Collectively, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of digital marketing and communication in sport management. This research lays a foundation for a stream of future work that will consider the intersection of information systems, consumer behaviour, marketing, and sports management, specifically, digital marketing and exploring the optimization and usage of mediated tools and techniques by organizations.