The Impact Of Online Sales And Marketing On Sports Events

Introduction and Rationale for Research

In the contemporary period, the global business and commercial scenario has developed and has experienced huge dynamics, much of which can be attributed to the international phenomena like that of Globalization, industrial revolution as well as trade liberalization in the major economies across the globe, which has helped in making the global commercial and business environment more integrated, inclusive and hugely diversified (Ferraro and Briody 2013). Along with these phenomena, the continuous and robust development of the global technological and infrastructural abilities and revolutionary innovations in these aspects have also played significant roles in building up a continually evolving business framework in the global framework, which in turn has been affecting both the demand and the supply side of almost all the industries across the globe (Botha, Kourie and Snyman 2014).

One of such aspects of huge importance in global business scenario, which has played crucial roles in bringing in huge changes in the operational frameworks of global business and marketing is that of the advent of online sales and marketing technologies in the contemporary period. With the increase in the usage of internet by almost all sectors of the population of the world, the online mediums are becoming an integral part of the lives of people in the contemporary period. In this context, the businesses are also incorporating the usage of online interfaces and internets in their operational framework (Anandarajan, Anandarajan and Srinivasan 2012). With the increasing integration of global businesses and with more businesses and events going global, internet and online mediums are being increasingly used by different businesses and industries for marketing and sales purpose, in order to attract a global clientele.

These increased online sales and marketing practices are found to have considerable impacts on different industries, businesses and events as a whole in the global framework. keeping this into consideration the concerned paper tries to analyze the impacts of the increasing practices of online sales and marketing, particularly on the different sports events, specifically emphasizing on the sports even held in one of the globally popular cities of London (Shank and Lyberger 2014). The paper specifically emphasizes on the particular lawn tennis sport event which is held at Wimbledon in London and tries to analyze and interpret the impact of the recently growing online sales and marketing activities on the same in the contemporary periods (Rudestam and Newton 2014).

The term digital marketing refers to the marketing of different commodities and services in front of the clientele, using non-traditional, digital technologies with the mediums being internet, mobile phones, digital display advertising, social networks and other digital mediums (Chaffey and Chadwik 2016). Over the years, the extent and magnitude of digital marketing in global businesses has increased substantially, owing to the increase in the usage of internet by all sectors of the population in the world as can be seen from the following figure:

Identification of Research Question and Objectives

Figure 1: Internet users across the globe as a percentage of total population over the years

(Source: Statista.com, 2018)

With the increase in the number of internet users across the world, over the years, the different businesses and commercial institutions across the globe have been incorporating online marketing and sales techniques in their operational framework, in order to reach to a much higher number of global clients and markets much faster and at a comparatively lesser cost (Witkemper, Lim and Waldburger 2012). The gradual shifts towards an increased preference of internet and online mediums amongst the businesses across the globe can be seen from the following figure:

Figure 2: Global advertisement expenditures across different mediums (2017) in US$M

(Source: Digitalstrategyconsulting.com, 2018)

As can be seen from the above figure, showing tremendous increase in the internet advertisements in the recent periods, these techniques of digital marketing and sales are being increasingly implemented in various industries and commercial domains which also evidently includes the sports industry. In this context, the term “Digital Sports Marketing” refers to the events which include the marketing of a club, a sports event, an athlete and sorting professionals (Ryan 2016).

The global sports industry has developed consistently over the years with the increasing number of sports, sport events as well as sport enthusiasts in the global framework. This in turn has led to an increase in the expanse and size of the global sports market, which can be seen from the following figure:

Figure 3: Increasing revenue of the Global Sports Market (2005-2017)

(Source: Statista 2018)

As is evident from the above figure, development in the revenue of global sports market has been upward for the most part over the last decade. According to a study by Statista (2017), total revenue of global sport market was 46.5 billion US dollar, the total revenue, which had been 78.2 billion dollars in 2012, increased to a considerably big amount of 90.9 billion US dollar, by the end of 2017.

Much of this increase in the revenue as well as in the market size of the global sports industry can be attributed to the increase in the level of enthusiasm among the population of the world as well as to the increase in the number of sports event, small as well as large, seasonal as well as regular ones, happening across the world, as can be seen from the following figure:

Figure 4: Share of global sporting events market by events

(Source: Williams 2017)

Thus, from the above figures, it is evident that the global sports industry has been growing significantly and the global sports market is currently worth of 700 billion USD with a growth rate faster than that of the global GDP. The sports industry in the United Kingdom, in this context, is itself one of the growing industries of the country with a worth of nearly 23.8 billion pounds and a provision of nearly 1 million employments.

Methodology for Data Collection and Analysis

With the increase in the domain of expansion of the global sports market as well as with the increase in the usage of internet and online business and marketing techniques across the world, the international sports market is also taking up these strategies of online marketing and sales. The primary benefit of usage of this form of marketing and selling techniques, especially in the global sport industry is the facility to reach to a global clientele, especially to the youth population of sport enthusiasts, very easily (Abeza, Reilly and Reid 2013). This has even been facilitated by the increased usage of social media platforms by a significant share of the population of the world.

Figure 5: Youth Football fans involved in different media activities

(Source: Sportsmarketanalytics.com 2018)

With the advent of social media and increased usage of the same, the level of awareness and enthusiasm among the population regarding the different sports event have been increasing and in the contemporary period social media and sport events go hand in hand (Royle and Laing 2014). Several trends in the current sports domain asserts the impact of online mediums, especially social media on the sports viewing tendencies, which are as follows:

• Nearly 61% of the global sports viewers are online follower of sports
• Almost all the sports events and clubs have robust presence in all the different social media
• Almost 40% increase occurred in sharing of sports video clips online in 2016 (Digitalstrategyconsulting.com 2018)

Keeping this paradigm shifts in the preferences and behaviours of the demand side participants in the sports industry, the different sports companies, businesses, sports clubs, events as well as sport merchandise and apparel producers have taken the strategies of increasing their marketing and selling operations using online individual websites, portals as well as different social media platforms. It is seen that various sports have been developed to new markets all around the world. Interests of public have been increased to sports. As a result, the health of sports industry has been improved. It is also expected that there is a significant role of online sales and marketing in the impressive scheme of effects regarding the last 10 years (Ryan 2016). Sponsors try to build new relationship with popular players and leagues, in order to increase their commercial profits and sustainability.

The strategy of social media is focused towards the engagement of the user. Awareness of sports events is promoted. Sports related questions are asked and the vital information about the sports is shared to enhance the brand awareness. Clubs across a diversity of special sports have used blogging as an immense approach to display the reasons of supporting a particular club.

These digital marketing strategies and selling adopted by the businesses in the sport industry as a whole, are also seen to be increasingly incorporated in the sports industry of UK in general and London as whole (Tiago and Verissimo 2014). London being one of the primary global cities in the contemporary period is also one of the eminent sport enthusiastic cities across the world, hosting one of the immensely popular sport even known as the Championships, Wimbledon, which is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world.

Presentation and Interpretation of Findings

Figure 6: Revenue of different Grand Slam Tournaments

(Source: Statista 2018)

As is evident from the above figure, Wimbledon, being one of the top four global tennis tournaments, have huge share of revenue earned over the years. The recent increase in the online marketing and selling of tickets and other online activities in the sports industry as a whole is expected to have considerable impact on the specific tennis tournament itself, which the concerned study tries to analyse and interpret, especially focussing on the Lawn Tennis Sport Event held in the Wimbledon in London.

As discussed in the above section, the innovative concept of digital marketing and selling has been developing considerably over the years and is also an evident component of the global sports industry in the contemporary period. There remain immense scopes for the sports industry in the aspect of increasing the digital operational activities, with the increasing online platforms, which help in sharing content, offers, marketing of products, events or services on these companies and businesses through online websites, dedicated portals, P2P technologies, live video streaming, podcasts and many other social media activities (Stephen 2016).

The consumer’s patterns and demand trends in the sport industry have also changes considerably with the increase in the usage of internet and online platforms. On one hand while this has led to the increase in the number of options and information among the consumers, on the other hand, it has also led to the increase in their level of enthusiasm and interests regarding the different sports event, thereby increasing the prospects of such sports events (Stone and Woodcock 2014). The recent activities of the sports industries like online ticket selling, marketing of clubs, tournaments, players (often endorsed by different linked brands), sharing of trivia and marketing of different club or sport related customized merchandise and the increased demand of the same has also resulted in considerable implications on the sports industry as a whole.

These indicates towards the presence of significant impacts of the digital marketing and selling activities with that of the prospects and operations of the sports industry as a whole and the businesses in particular. However, the nature and magnitude of linkage between the same and the areas in which these online activities influence the sports industry and sport events are the arenas where there are immense scopes of exploration (Shank and Lyberger 2014). Thus, the research problem of the concerned study is primarily of that of exploration of the impacts of the digital sales and marketing on the sport events, specifically in London, with primary emphasis on the city’s most popular and globally known tournament of Wimbledon.

Implications of Research

The primary objectives of the concerned research include analysis and interpretation of how the increasing activities of digital marketing in the sports industry, by the different sports companies influence the different sports events and their profitability and sustainability. The arena being hugely widespread, the concerned research primarily aims to see the effects of digital marketing activities in the sport industry of London and the effects of the same in the demand and supply dynamics of the sport events held in the city, specifically emphasizing on the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

Keeping into consideration the objectives of the concerned research, the primary research question formed and analyzed in the concerned study is as follows:

How do the digital marketing and selling activities in the sport industry affect the sport events in London as a whole and Wimbledon in specific?

Keeping this as the primary research question, the secondary questions the study intends to explore are as follows:

1. How has digital marketing developed in the sports industry globally as well as in London?
2. Which are the shares of population of London who are influenced by the increasing digital marketing in the sports industry?
3. Which areas of sports marketing are digital marketing techniques specifically employed to?
4. How digital marketing and sales have influenced the dynamics in the Wimbledon tournament over the years?

The research thesis is comprised of the following parts:

Introduction: This chapter provides an outline of the thesis. The background of the field of study has been discussed in this part, which involves the research aim, objectives and the research questions were clearly mentioned in this chapter.

Literature Review: This chapter conducts an extensive review of the theories and concepts as well as empirical evidences present in the exiting literary evidences. This chapter also discusses the previous research works of various researchers over the years concerning the sports marketing and social media, thereby trying to find the gap which exists in this aspect in the current literary evidences.

Methodology: The most important chapter of the research work is that of the research methodology. A mixed method of research has been used to conduct the research. Both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies are essential for the research. This section of the thesis highlights the research techniques, methods and samples which have been taken into consideration for the concerned study.

Results: All the results of the research are arranged, analyzed and interpreted in this chapter, highlighting the key observations and major findings were indicated in this chapter.

Conclusion: An appropriate conclusion has been provided at the end of the research. The conclusion has been drawn after comprehensively analyzing and understanding every above mention chapter. An understandable indication of what has been learned in the research is mentioned in this chapter along with the research limitations. Recommendations for future research on this particular topic regarding professional and personal purposes have also provided.

Increasing Importance of Digital Marketing in the Global Sports Industry

Purpose of the study

The current section concentrates on current knowledge counting substantive findings along with theoretical together with methodological contributions to the topic under consideration. As such, the study explicates in detail online marketing and sales aspects, comprehends specific phenomena for gaining insights regarding the topic under consideration. 

Online sales and marketing can be said to have become a widely discussed topic in every sector, and gradually plays a significant role in multi-channel marketing stratagem in any business concern (Armstrong et al. 2015). This makes use of the internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to various consumers. Essentially, businesses are already aware of marketing strategies in this regard that counts email marketing, social media marketing, marketing using search engine, diverse types of display advertising (counting advertising using web banner) along with mobile advertising. Li and Kannan (2014) suggest that like other media of advertising, online advertising regularly includes both a publisher as well as an advertiser. Publisher assimilates advertisements into online content and an advertisement delivers advertisements that have the need to be displayed on the content of the publisher. However, other prospective participants comprise of advertising agencies that aid in the process of generation and positioning of a copy of the advertisement and a server of ad who technically delivers the ad and monitors statistics and advertising affiliates who carry out independent promotional work for advertisers (Cobb et al. 2015).

There are different tools of online marketing and businesses are conscious of these tools, their advantages and disadvantages. These include the following:

Display Advertising: As rightly indicated by Kladou and Mavragani (2015), display advertising expresses the advertising message visually utilizing text, photographs, graphics, videos, animations as well as logos among many others. Essentially, display advertising regularly target users with specific traits to enhance the impact of the ad.

Web Banner Advertising: Web banners or else banner advertisements typically are graphical presentation of advertisements that are displayed within a specific web page. Banner advertisements can utilize rich media to assimilate video, audio, buttons, forms or else other interactive components utilizing Java applets, Adobe Flash, HTML along with other programs (Van Noort et al. 2015).

Frame Advertisement: Frame Advertisements were the first outline of web banners. Particularly, the colloquial usage of mainly banner advertisement time and again indicates towards traditional frame advertisements. Basically, website publishers assimilate frame advertisement by setting aside a specific space on the web page (Leff et al. 2014).

Growing Significance of Online Sales and Marketing in the Sports Industry

Pop-ups: Leff et al. (2014) suggest that a pop-up advertisement is demonstrated in a novel web browser window that necessarily opens above browser window of the visitor of the website. Particularly, a pop-under necessarily opens a novel a specific browser under a browser window of the website.

Floating advertisement: A floating advertisement or else overlay advertisement can be regarded as a type of rich media advertisement that seems to be superimposed over the applied content of the website (Van Noort et al. 2015). In essence, floating advertisements might disappear else wise become less obtrusive after a predetermined time period.

Expanding advertisement: An expanding advertisement is a significant media frame ad that alters dimensions upon a predefined condition, namely a preset time period a visitor spends on a certain webpage, the click of the users on the advertisement, or else the mouse movement over the advertisement (Jayanetti et al. 2017). Expansion of advertisement permits advertisers to add more amount of information into a restricted advertisement space.

Interstitial ad: Jayanetti et al. (2017) suggest that an interstitial ad expresses before a specific user and can access applied content, sometimes whilst the user is waiting for loading of the content. In essence, interstitial ads are necessarily a specific form of interruption marketing.

Text Ads: As rightly put forward by Jankowski et al. (2016), a text ad expresses text based hyperlinks and this might express separately from a primary content of a web page else wise they can be embedded by a particular hyperlinked worlds or else phrase to the websites of advertisers. In essence text ads might also be provided by means of email marketing or else text message marketing.

Search engine marketing: Search engine marketing is formulated to enhance visibility of website in specific search engine pages (SERP). In essence, search engine also delivers sponsored outcomes along with organic outcomes founded on query of web searcher (Kotler 2015).

Search Engine Optimization: Essentially, search engine optimization (SEO) intends to enhance search ranking of a specific website in SERP by enhancing relevance of the content of the website.

Sponsored search: Again, sponsored search permits advertisers to be counted in the sponsored outcomes of a specific search for selected key words (Keller and Kotler 2016). 

Social media marketing: Social media marketing can be referred to as commercial promotion that is undertaken by means of social media websites (Keller and Kotler 2016)

Mobile advertising: Mobile advertising can be regarded to be ad copy that is delivered by means of wireless devices of mobile, various feature phones else wise tablet computers (Armstrong et al. 2015). Essentially, mobile advertising might possibly be static or rich media display ads, short message service (SMS), mobile search ads, ads within mobile websites, mobile search ads and many others.

Impact of Social Media on the Sports Industry

Email Advertising: Email advertising is necessarily an ad copy consisting of an entire email otherwise a specific part of an email. Essentially, email marketing might perhaps be unsolicited where the sender might possibly provide the recipient an alternative to opt out of upcoming emails, otherwise it might be sent with the prior consent of the recipient (Keller and Kotler 2016).

Sports Marketing

As rightly put forward by Armstrong et al. (2015), sports marketing is a social as well as managerial procedure by which different individuals along with groups acquire what they desire by means of generating and exchange of products along with value with one another. Particularly, in the context of sports, sport marketing is necessarily about social and managerial procedures by which fans, Sports units along with other corporations get associated to sport. For example, media along with technology corporations generate and exchange products/services with one another, increasingly by means of digital media namely set top boxes, diverse mobile devices, and social media along with live sports events. The chief sources of revenue from specifically sports market include ticketing, merchandising, sponsorship, rights management in broadcast (Chernev 2018). Looking at arrangement of sports market, one of the characterising features of sports industry is that it has multi-tier framework. International Variances in online markets explains that sports can be considered to be worldwide phenomenon and athletes have the necessity to address significant regional differences in terms of interests and behaviour.

The business along with social procedures that connect these diverse groups and individuals in diverse tiers can be defined in terms of communication, flows of information between diverse entities. The process of sharing of information either in form of video, news articles, sporting events, chat rooms, social networking is supposed to be at the heart of the way fans interact with the market of sports and with one another (Watrobski et al. 2016). Thus, it is important to understand the influence that these changes in media exert on exchange procedure and understand influences of web 2.0 and social media on sports marketing.

A particular way of reflecting a wide range of corporations, groups along with individuals engaging in sports and associating to one another is by means of notions of an ecosystem. The figure below represents sales of sports together with marketing ecosystem model.

Figure 7: Sales in sports and the marketing ecosystem model

(Source: Watrobski et al. 2016)

The objective of sports marketing is to develop specific brand and consciousness regarding sport, comprehending interests and viewpoints of fans, generation of awareness of particular events else wise product, concentration on sales of ticket and sales of subscription, augmented digital experience and development of ties with different individuals and fan networks. The social media tactics primarily includes development of CRM stratagems for making customized offers along with promotions to fans, utilization of digital media counting internet, mobile as well as social media to augment experience of fans (Chen and Wu 2016). Furthermore, there is also need for online promotions that have the need to include diverse paid search, email, and affiliate marketing along with internet advertising by means of social media. The strategies also include listening to specific discussions and taking part for developing techniques to detect the most influential websites.

Adoption of Digital Marketing Strategies in the Sports Industry of London

Evaluation of social media worldwide plays an important role in easy as well as fast processes of communication. This can link one business to another, finding misplaced ones, chatting, sharing pictures as well as videos to the entire world. Most importantly, it has been a necessary tool in creation of job and improving economy of many nations (Li and Kannan 2014). The current research replicates the fact that social media is an effectual tool that makes methodological use of marketing along with other technological notions and techniques to attain particular goals for corporations, personal or else even corporations. Essentially, this can be illustrated

As correctly mentioned by Riasi and Pourmiri (2015), there are diverse types of social media that can be utilized effectually at the time of organizing as well as marketing a specific event. These include podcasting, blogging as well as social networking.

Podcasting

As rightly indicated by Jones and Jones (2014), podcasting can be considered as the lease utilized network by corporations when executing their social media stratagem. Nevertheless, podcasting can be regarded to be essential in developing an on air promotional instrument as they are very comparable to photo as well as video sharing.

Blogging

Blogging is not always an exercise by marketers as they do not view it as a specific marketing solution. However, the real truth is that it is necessarily a solution if applied into process of planning and can be utilized to interact with customers, ask pertinent questions and deal with subsisting problems of customers. Li and Kannan (2014) say that blogging presents different ways of assisting core sections of what makes a corporation successful.

– Decent thoughts

– Innovative product

– Visibility

Social Networking

As correctly mentioned by Dobele et al. (2015), in the article, it can be observed that over the past decade communication through social network has developed where there are millions of users. Riasi and Pourmiri (2015) suggest that social network delivers great opportunity for business and this eliminates online marketing costs. Majority of the solution takes in Facebook as well as Twitter. In essence, the media delivers opportunity for interacting with individuals as well as customers as it enables different mechanisms of generating an association with customers and developing an observable brand.

Opinions regarding social media

The social media has developed a lucrative innovating thought that the internet world has experiences since its inception. Most of the users acknowledge the potential as well as value of social media but majority of the users have personally carried out research concerning the challenges along with disadvantages that come along with it. As correctly mentioned by Shank and Lyberger (2014), the most vicious threat encountered at the time of utilizing social media is planning. Utilizing social media is normally not just a ball game although it is a 24 hours service. However, planning is an important part of becoming successful and achieving objectives.

Case-Study: The Impact of Online Sales and Marketing on Wimbledon in London

As correctly mentioned by Jones and Jones (2014), another challenge encountered for new users is that most effectual characteristics are only available for different premium users. Again, inadequate investment from companies on utilization of social media makes it very difficult for firms to navigate ways into successful paths. This is because most of desired targets are necessarily premium users.

Verhoef et al. (2015) mentions that majority of users of social media nowadays has the inclination to maintain crucial information or detailed information in private. The marketers might have the need to revere by all costs in case if there are attentions of a targeted person. Nevertheless, there are numerous ways in which violations can be properly determined. As rightly indicated by Li and Kannan (2014), transparency is necessary and a marketer needs to be transparent in getting pertinent information and carrying out marketing duties by respecting privacy of the customers. As suggested by Riasi and Pourmiri (2015), social media is diverse when it comes to geography, religion and nations that can occur as backlash as majority of marketers utilizing this platform come across diverse people from different works of life. 

As rightly indicated by Akhter (2015), the increased use of internet, counting conventional websites, social media and web 2.0 generates both threats along with opportunities for diverse sports federation in context of transforming consumer behaviour, social network of fans, new entrants in the form of technology corporations and new patterns of strategic behaviour by several media corporations. The social media generates new structure of power founded on specific shared communication amongst fans and between different members of the entire ecosystem. Especially, novel technology media giants are also entering into market of sports namely Google TV and Apple. Again, media companies can also be analysed as there is aggressive expansion of media corporations from TV to Internet. In addition to this, apps and mobile devices develop new patterns of consumption and generate opportunities to develop associations with fans and stretch the period of time of various sporting events (Strauss 2016). The marketing stratagem also has the market expectations that replicates about different sections concerning disbursements for internet content. Furthermore, internet distribution also needs to be evaluated for assessment of online marketing for sports events.

Online marketing communication is observed to move towards interaction between different individual recipients as well as consumers in place of being directed from a marketing corporation to the entire masses of consumers. The social networking that permits the quick and easy dissemination of information is partially a product of alterations in online communication channels, but these communication channels are partially enabled by particularly social networking (Strauss 2016). The emergence along with popularity of social networking websites along with social media has made things easy for a specific individual to communicate in specifically real time basis with thousands of strangers with single close friends.

Conclusion and Summary of Findings

User generated content contains online blogs, wiki contributions, comments in specific forums, and pictures along with status updates on diverse social networking sites. This is also known as media generated by media, media created by consumer and this can be considered to be an important element of the so-called second-generation web or else Web 2.0. As per the viewpoint of Armstrong et al. (2015), the structure of power has transformed owing to the fact that consumers have obtained access to specific information

The administration of Wimbledon expressed that they are actively exploring various ways of working with various commercial partners to boost and promote the food as well as beverage served by the brand. Wimbledon already lures large number of audiences and expects to celebrate diverse reasons behind brand connections with wide range of fans along with viewers. By means of currently launched and introduced Wimbledon Foundation, it is important to participate in regional community and provide opportunities (Li and Kannan 2014). Furthermore, this is not essential to become “year-round” proposition. Again, tennis is necessarily the most significant aspect about Wimbledon. The club basically looks towards persistent enhancement in all things they undertake. The administration mentions that they essentially do not have large budgets, and Wimbledon is lucky to possess 60 broadcasters that can cover “The Championships” around the entire world to aid spreading the message along with official partners together with the players.

Several academic scholars have explored online marketing and the effect of online marketing on specific events conducted by business units/institutions or any other units. However, there are few studies that concentrate on effect of online marketing on specific sports events in London. Therefore, considerable amount of focus can be laid on specific challenges in sports marketing (Van Noort et al. 2015). In effect, internet distribution threatens the overall value of live broadcasting owing to internet piracy and altering habits of consumers for particularly consumption of sports that might make different live events appealing to different broadcasters. However, there the Internet is also said to generate new possibilities for various minority sports that are not adequate to lure considerable amount of revenue from different mainstream television broadcasting. Based on prior literature it can be hereby be mentioned that content value is not properly understood and there is ambiguity regarding the way new deals of broadcasting need to be handled. Therefore, it can be said that there is need for further research in this particular area. Also, another area overlooked includes internet rights counted in agreements of television broadcasting.

Recommendations for Future Research

Introduction

This section of the thesis tries to highlight the research framework which is used in the concerned study in order to analyze and interpret the impacts of digital sales and marketing on the sports events in London, especially on that of Wimbledon.

The research design shows the overall construct in which the research is conducted and also shows the overall course followed by the research. Usually there are three broad types of research designs, namely explanatory, exploratory and descriptive.

Figure 8: Types of research design

(Source: As created by the author)

While explanatory design helps in identification of different types of incidents and their relevance with the research topic, exploratory design aims to explore specific areas and aspects of a research topic. Descriptive design on the other hand, helps in enhancing the in-depth information accumulation about the same (Meyers, Gamst and Guarino 2016). Keeping this into consideration, the concerned study adopts an explanatory design in order to identify and interpret the different impacts of digital marketing on the sports event taken into consideration.

The research philosophy, showing the overall nature and guidelines followed by the researchers are usually of three types:

Figure 9: Types of research philosophy

(Source: As created by the author)

Positivism allows the researchers to form several hypotheses at the initiation of research work and test the feasibility of the same in the light of the evidences collected or studied, in a highly structured research framework. Realism philosophy, however, helps in performing both qualitative as well as quantitative researches, with the methods aligned to the research matter. On the other hand, interpretivism helps in analyzing in depth a small sample to explore the issues in consideration. In the concerned research, realism philosophy is applied keeping into mind the application of a mixed method for analysis.

There are broadly two types of approach which are implemented in the contemporary research framework, which are as follows:

Figure 10:  Types of research approach

(Source: As created by the author)

The inductive approach involves analysis of empirical and other evidences in order to generate untested conclusions. On the other hand, the deductive approach involves formation of hypotheses first and then testing their viability in the light of the empirical evidences (Myers, Well and Lorch Jr 2013). As the concerned research tries to analyze the impacts of the digital marketing on the sports events, which can be open ended and untested, so the inductive approach is taken where no former assumptions are formed.

There usually remain two types of data sources for conducting researches, which are primary and secondary.

References

Figure 11: Types of data sources

(Source: As created by the author)

While primary data includes those collected by the researcher himself or herself and are more authentic and unbiased, collection of same is a time taking and costly process. However, the secondary data sources, though comparatively cheaper and time efficient, have the risks of biasedness and inferior qualities (McDaniel and Gates 2013). Keeping this into consideration, the concerned study collects primary data in the form of interviews with 50 related personnel in the sports industry of London.

The data analysis techniques are primarily quantitative and qualitative.  The quantitative analysis techniques help in analyzing numerical data and are generally capable of dealing with a large sample size. However, there often remains several abstract aspects which cannot be cardinally measured but have considerable relevance with the research issues. For incorporating these attributes qualitative techniques are incorporated (Johnston 2017).

Keeping this into consideration, the concerned research adopts a mixed method involving both qualitative and quantitative techniques.

As discussed above, a total sample size of 50 is taken into consideration for the concerned research, the members of the sample include the demand side as well as the supply side members in the sports industry, including sport enthusiasts as well as employees at the managerial levels of several sport clubs, companies and events in London.

A quantitative interview has been conducted with these 50 participants, in order to analyze the cardinal impacts of digital marketing on the sport events including that of Wimbledon. On the other hand, to take into account the non-cardinal impacts of the same, 6 of the participant have been selected on the basis of random sampling and an in depth qualitative interview has been conducted with them, inclusive of several crucial open-ended questions.

The quantitative data collected is analyzed using the statistical platform, SPSS and correlation, regression and other statistical analysis have been performed in order to study the impacts of the independent variable (digital marketing and selling techniques) on the dependent variable (sales, revenues, popularity and sustainability of the sports events) (Cozby 2012). Statistical analysis like correlation, regression and ANOVA tests have been conducted on the collected primary data to see the impacts of the digitalization and online marketing on the Wimbledon Sports event. On the other hand, thematic analysis is done with the help of the qualitative data collected in order to analyze and highlight the ordinal aspects of digital marketing and its impact on the sports even concerned in London and in order to take into account the perceptions of the concerned participants regarding this aspect (Nardi 2018).

For any research to be robust and insightful, it is of immense importance for the research to follow an ethical framework, because taking unethical means can demean as well as influence the results of the research negatively, thereby creating bias or making the research less fruitful for future prospects. Keeping this into consideration and to make the concerned research insightful, the ethical parameters have been taken into consideration (Singh 2012). The interviews have been conducted with the selected participants only after receiving their consent in written form and confidentiality has been maintained in terms of their identity to preserve their dignity. The research activities have been performed only after approval from the ethical board of the esteemed institutions and the results of the analysis have been unbiasedly presented in the concerned thesis.

The concerned research, however, has several limitations, the primary one of which is that the concerned study focusses on a very targeted sector of the sport industry of London, specifically emphasizing on the Wimbledon tennis tournament, thereby leaving the other sport arenas of the country as well as of other countries unexplored. This limits the application of the outcome of the research and its viability in the global scenario.

As has been discussed in the above section, in this section, the quantitative data is analyzed and interpreted with the help of the SPSS statistical platform, where correlation and regression analysis have been done. The results and their analysis and interpretation are as follows.

Descriptive Statistics

The nature of the responses and the frequency of distribution of the same, collected from 50 selected respondents are as follows:

How often is Wimbledon Tournaments watched by the respondents?

Table 1: Frequency of watching Wimbledon Tournaments

	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Almost Always	11	22.0	22.0	22.0
Often	11	22.0	22.0	44.0
Sometimes	13	26.0	26.0	70.0
Seldom	12	24.0	24.0	94.0
Never	3	6.0	6.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

As is evident from the above table, nearly 26% (13 out of 50 respondents) watch Wimbledon Tournaments sometimes, while 24% (12 out of 50) watch the same seldom. Equal percentages (22%) of the sample size can be seen to watch the tournaments almost always and often. Only 3 of the respondents do not watch the tournament, which in turn implies that the tournament is quite famous at least among the sample of people randomly selected.

How often the tournament is watched online?

Table 2: Frequency of online viewing of Wimbledon Tournament

	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Almost Always	15	30.0	30.0	30.0
Often	16	32.0	32.0	62.0
Sometimes	11	22.0	22.0	84.0
Seldom	3	6.0	6.0	90.0
Never	5	10.0	10.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

Of the selected participants, 32% and 30% can be seen to be watching the tournament often and almost always respectively, followed by 22% (11 out of 50 respondents) who watch the games online sometimes. Cumulatively, the total percentage of respondents who watch the tournaments online at least seldom or more than that is 90% which significantly implies the increasing popularity of the online tournament viewing of Wimbledon.

How often are merchandises bought from the Wimbledon online stores?

Table 3: Frequency of online shopping from Wimbledon online stores

	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Frequently	12	24.0	24.0	24.0
Occasionally	20	40.0	40.0	64.0
Rarely	9	18.0	18.0	82.0
Very Rarely	5	10.0	10.0	92.0
Never	4	8.0	8.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

As is evident from the above figure, that 20 out of 50 respondents (40%) forms the largest group of respondents who occasionally purchase from the merchandises from the online shop of Wimbledon. 12 out of 50 respondents (24%) buys frequently from the online shops of Wimbledon. Only 8% of the total population reported that they do not use online shopping platform of Wimbledon, which in turn implies that the awareness as well as online purchase of Wimbledon merchandises have been increasing (Weiss and Weiss 2012).

How often are tickets for Wimbledon tournaments bought online?

Table 4: Frequency of online purchase of Wimbledon tournament tickets

	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Almost Always	12	24.0	24.0	24.0
Often	12	24.0	24.0	48.0
Sometimes	15	30.0	30.0	78.0
Seldom	7	14.0	14.0	92.0
Never	4	8.0	8.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

The above table signifies that nearly 92% of the total sample have used the online tickets buying facility of the concerned tournament, of which the biggest cartel is that of the ones who buy tickets of Wimbledon online sometimes, the percentage being 30%. followed by the groups who buy online tickets online almost always or often, which indicates towards popularity of online ticket buying of Wimbledon.

Satisfaction of online ticket booking and purchasing of Wimbledon tournaments

Table 5: Level of satisfaction from online marketing

	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Very Satisfied	15	30.0	30.0	30.0
Satisfied	22	44.0	44.0	74.0
Neither	6	12.0	12.0	86.0
Dissatisfied	5	10.0	10.0	96.0
Extremely dissatisfied	2	4.0	4.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

From the above table the overall level of satisfaction of usage of online marketing websites of Wimbledon, in the aspect of buying tournament tickers or Wimbledon merchandises are quite high, as only 14% of the total sample reported to be dissatisfied with the concerned facilities.

Is the online experience of watching Wimbledon and buying Wimbledon merchandise better than the offline experience?

Table 6: Comparison between online and offline experiences

	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Much Better	10	20.0	20.0	20.0
Better	27	54.0	54.0	74.0
Same	8	16.0	16.0	90.0
Worse	3	6.0	6.0	96.0
Much Worse	2	4.0	4.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

Nearly 27 out of 50 respondents assert that their new online experience of watching tournaments or buying from online shopping interface of the same has been much better than the previous offline experience. Only 10% of the total respondents were of view that their online experience has been worse than their offline experience.

Correlation Analysis of the variables

Keeping this into consideration, the correlation of the different variables taken into consideration for the concerned research can be seen as follows:

Table 7: Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients for the concerned variables

The value of the Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient can vary between -1 to +1. While the value of the coefficients from 0 to +1 implies positive correlation, the values between 0 to -1 signifies negative correlation (Eisinga, Te Grotenhuis and Pelzer 2013).

Values between ±1 to ±0.7 implies strong correlation

Values between ±0.7 to ±0.4 implies moderate correlation

Values between ±0.4 to ±0.1 implies weak correlation

Value equal to 0 means no correlation

As is evident from the above table, there exists in general moderate positive correlations between all the variables taken into consideration, which indicates towards positive and direct linkages among the variables. The correlations are also found to be significant, some at 0.01 level of confidence and others at 0.05 level of confidence. This in turn implies that with the increase in one of the variables leads to an increase in the others, in case of the impacts of online marketing on Wimbledon Sports Event.

While the correlation analysis shows the overall relationship between the different variables which are taken into consideration, it does not show the cause and effect direction of the relationship of the concerned variables. To take this into account, the regression analysis is done which shows the impacts of the independent variables of an analysis on the dependent variable of the same (Draper and Smith 2014).

In this context, the concerned research conducts a regression analysis by taking the variables as follows:

Dependent Variable- The magnitude of superiority of online experiences over the offline experiences

Independent Variables:

• Level of satisfaction from online marketing and ticket booking facilities
• Frequency of buying merchandises from online shopping portal of Wimbledon
• Frequency of buying online tickets for Wimbledon
• Frequency of watching Wimbledon tournaments online
• Frequency of watching Wimbledon tournaments

The model summary can be seen as follows:

Table 8: Model Summary

Model	R	R Square	Adjusted R Square	Std. Error of the Estimate
1	.632a	.399	.330	.79280

As is evident from the above table, the value of R Square is 0.399 which is approximately equivalent to 0.4. This in turn signifies that nearly 40% of the variability in the dependent variable can be explained by the independent variables considered, which is considerably robust for the concerned scenario.

The significance of this variability is shown with the help of the ANOVA Test, the result of which can be seen as follows:

Table 9: ANOVA Test Results

Model	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
1	Regression	18.345	5	3.669	5.837	.000b
Residual	27.655	44	.629
Total	46.000	49

The value of significance being 0.000, it can be asserted that the variability is strongly significant.

The coefficients of regression can be seen as follows:

Table 10: Coefficients of regression

Based on the above values the equation for the concerned model can be constructed as follows:

0.879 + 0.408(Frequency of watching tournaments) – 0.027(Frequency of watching online) –0.092(Online shopping) -0.138(Frequency of buying tickets online) + 0.4(Level of satisfaction with online tickets buying and shopping facilities) = Magnitude by which the online experience is better than the offline experience

Table 11: Level of Significance

Model	Sig.
(Constant)	.015
How often do you watch Wimbledon tournaments?	.002
How often do you watch the tournaments online?	.803
How often do you buy merchandises from Wimbledon online shopping website?	.412
How often do you buy tickets for Wimbledon tournaments online?	.280
How satisfied are you with these online marketing and ticket booking facilities?	.001

As is evident from the above table, only the values of coefficients for watching Wimbledon tournaments and level of satisfaction from the online marketing and ticket buying facilities are found to be significant (Montgomery, Peck and Vining 2012).

Thus, it can be concluded that the negative relation between the magnitude of superiority of online experience over offline experience and the variables like frequency of watching online tournament, of buying merchandises online and buying tickets online, although being striking is not significant, while the positive relation between the dependent variable taken into consideration and independent variables like watching tournaments and level of satisfaction form online marketing facilities are found to be significant.

To analyse and interpret the qualitative data collected, the thematic method or the cluster method has been applied. Using the constructionist ways, four primary themes have been constructed in the aspect of how the digital marketing techniques influence the Wimbledon Tournament as a whole and the responses are analysed under these themes, which are as follows (Sgier 2012).

Theme 1: Increasing enthusiasm and information dissemination

As can be seen from the qualitative responses collected, a major share of people admitted to the fact that the online facilities of match watching and buying Wimbledon merchandises online as well as online ticket booking systems have led to an increase among their enthusiasm about the tournament as a whole as they tend to see the matches more at the time of their convenience, much of which can be attributed to the access to smart phones and cheap internet packages. This in turn implies that the digital facilities help in increasing the awareness and enthusiasm among the viewers.

Theme 2: Customer Satisfaction

There have been mixed views regarding the same. While some of the respondents have strongly asserted that there has been an increase in the convenience level of watching matches and also in the aspects of buying different merchandises and buying match tickets, there have also been several responses which pointed out towards the fact that the conventional ways of watching the matches live are far more exciting and satisfying than the new age digitalized facilities.

Theme 3: Revenue Generation

As is evident from the above discussion, many of the concerned respondents use the online facilities to purchase tickets for the matches as well as for buying different products and merchandises from the Wimbledon online shops, which being previously not present, is expected to increase the revenue generation of the same considerably.

Theme 4: Customer Relation Management

As can be seen from the evidences collected, the match updates and live podcasting have been convenient options. The online shopping websites also have options where the customers can provide their feedbacks about the commodities and what can be improved or rectified. This in turn indicates towards the fact that customer relation can be more interactively and appropriately managed in the digital marketing system.

From the above qualitative as well as quantitative analysis, it can be seen that the digital marketing and management of the Wimbledon sports events as well as the online shopping website of Wimbledon has led to significant shift in the pattern of habits of a major share of the sports enthusiastic people. As is evident from the increasing number of online viewers, increased online views of tournaments, increased revenue generation from the selling of different merchandise to the customers with the help of the shopping websites. The level of satisfaction from these activities can be seen to be directly and significantly influencing the notion of superiority of online activities than the offline ones. However, this is seen to decrease with the increase in the extent of shopping and online match viewing which is also augmented by the qualitative analysis, which indicates towards the fact that many of the respondents perceive live watching matches in the stadiums much more exciting than online viewing and only substitute the former with the latter for time and cost issues. However, these negative relations are not found to be significant. The increasing purchasing habits (both tickets and merchandises) indicate towards the increased revenue generation scopes for the concerned event. In general, the model is found to be robust and insightful and there remains huge scopes of further expansion and exploration of the same.

From the above discussion and analysis of the impacts of online sales and marketing on Wimbledon Sports events, it can be in general commented that the same has led to a considerable shift in the nature of the customer activities, which in turn is expected to have considerable implications on the event as well. As the literature review suggests, the impacts of digitalization and especially increased popularity of social media on the sports event in general are huge. The same can also be seen to be happening in the concerned case as can be seen from the results of the analysis of both the qualitative as well as quantitative data collected in the concerned research.

The analysis of the quantitative data collected, shows that considerable share of the sample selected are regular viewers of Wimbledon and most of them in the contemporary period have started to use the online media to watch the tournaments. The reason behind this comes out from the qualitative analysis which shows that most of them adopt this method as it is cost saving as well as time convenient being highly portable and flexible. The increase in the purchase of the products from the online shop, as can be seen from the quantitative analysis can be augmented by the qualitative analysis which attributes the same to the increased availability of varieties goods which in turn attracts a targeted clientele. The availability of online ticket booking facility is also seen to be contributing positively in increasing the appeal of online sales and marketing of Wimbledon to the customers, thereby benefiting the organizations.

In spite of the presence of negative cause and affect relation between the frequency of online purchasing of goods and tickets with that of the magnitude of superiority of online interfaces over that of offline ones, the values are not found to be significant, whereas the positive relation between level of satisfaction of usage of online interfaces with that of the dependent variables is found to be significant. Together, these results indicate towards the fact that there exist significant implications of digital marketing and sales on the sports events, specifically on that of the Wimbledon tournaments and events, in terms of greater revenue generation, greater popularity and enthusiasm, more views and changes in the customer satisfaction and customer relation management as there are significant qualitative as well as quantitative evidences in favour of the same.

However, the research can be seen to be constricted only within the geographical region of London and specifically emphasizes on the Wimbledon tennis tournaments which in spite of being globally popular, has a targeted audience. There may be many other factors and occurrences in other sports domains and in other geographical regions, in the aspect of digitalization of the same and its impacts which may have considerable impacts on the events as a whole. These aspects have not been taken into consideration in the concerned research, which may in turn explain the moderate value of R square (0.4), thus leaving considerable future scopes of expansion of the research in this domain, in a more inclusive framework.

In the contemporary period, with the expansion of the global business scenarios and with changes in the nature of industrial dynamics over the years, new domains of industries have been developing. Event management is one such new and innovative stream, developing over the last few years as a separate and lucrative industry itself and personally as a student of the same course, I feel extremely excited, eager and hopeful in the aspects of my skill development, knowledge and overall maturity to organize, create, develop and manage large scale real life events in the future.

The course, being to some extent academic, some extent corporate and to a huge extent being that of professional development of an individual’s life as a whole, has been a learning experience of immense significance for me. Throughout the course, I learnt a variety of things, which have implications in developing both my theoretical knowledge and my insights regarding practical applications of the same in the professional domain. The reputed course, particularly focusses on the development of specific skills among the eager students, which primarily includes time management, multi-tasking, professional handling of situations and insightful decision making at times of crisis or demanding scenarios.

Personally, the first thing which I learnt in the course was how to remain calm and composed in any kind of situation and how to work and multi-task in high pressure situations. My analytical skills have developed significantly along with my sense of judging situations and taking decisions efficiently and I have also started to be aware of global events and occurrences taking place, which are of relevance and immense significance for developing my professional career.

One of the most beneficial aspects of the concerned course, which I felt can be of huge benefit for the development of my future career in this domain is that the course has given me enough exposure to real life events and chances to gain experience by viewing how the companies and professionals in my domain operate. However, apart from these abstract aspects of direct linkage with my professional career, several activities and assignments have also been performed by me, which also include the concerned research which I have done.

In this project, I have analysed and explored the impacts of digitalization as a whole and also of the new and increasing practices of online sales and marketing on the sports industry in the contemporary period. This project has taught me a lot in the aspects of development of my analytical and research skills. I have learned to explore data and as well as abstract attributes regarding my topic of concern and have also learnt to interpret the trends and the causation of such trends. My investigative skills have also developed along with my ability to work systematically, patience with failures and attitude of thriving for success. However, I still need to work on my statistical analytical skills and also in the aspects of decisive attitudes as I personally felt that I get confused when I work with big data or evidences. I also need to improve my multitasking skills, which given the domain where I aim to step in my professional life in future.

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