Introduction
Public relations and marketing professionals have long relied on promotions as a go-to marketing tactic. Interacting with companies and sharing experiences allows audiences to get deeply emotionally involved and more engaged with brands if done correctly. The organization and its critical promotional events are almost inseparable from promotion-dependent industries like sports (Shajie et al., 2020). A public-based relations campaign’s emotional and physical environment might be shaped by a promotion. Promotions could be designed to generate positive emotional attachments, promote attendee-brand contact, and increase match attendance by sports organizations.
Discussion
However, there seems to be an overall significant amount of research-based study conducted on attendance figures from a general economic standpoint; little has yet been achieved under effective communication. Moreover, marketers require a better grasp of the factors that influence consumer attendance or engagement and proper atmosphere. This study aims to examine Major League Baseball’s (MLB) atmosphere and attendance through the prism of public-based relations (Martinson, Schneider, & McCullough, 2015). The findings will benefit sports communication professionals in choosing and scheduling match promotions to boost attendance, fan engagement, and atmosphere, which will ultimately help the sport. Due to the apparent season schedule of professional baseball and the history of fluctuating attendance figures, this particular research focuses on the baseball sport. Although this study is limited to Major League Baseball, its conclusions may apply to several other sports and activities. MLB teams engage in 81 home-based games per season, most of America’s significant professional-based sports leagues. It is necessary to conduct additional research to improve team attendance, atmosphere, and participation. Although specific teams have regularly strong attendance, upwards of 50% of the MLB struggled to hit 70% of the entire ballpark’s maximum seating in 2014.
Throughout the sporting world, game-day promotional strategies assist organizations in achieving various objectives, ranging from initiating positive media attention to increasing overall game attendance and betterment of the atmosphere. Despite this, little research has been conducted on the overall effects of promotions on audience engagement or attendance. Various sources highlight the impact of a brand’s shared experiences through marketing strategy and the financial factors influencing attendance. However, schemes for preparing promotions to increase fan engagement and betterment the atmosphere are not investigated and studied to the degree they merit throughout the literary works. This research gives practitioners suggestions on the importance of planning successful promotional offers as an integrated element of achieving other corporate strategy marketing and communication-based objectives.
Based on this well-synthesized research presented, there is widespread support for integrating match promotions within a communications plan, particularly when these promotions attract more consumers who would not otherwise attend a match. Additionally, this particular research is limited to Major League Baseball (MLB) because the distinctive features of professional-based baseball are impactful and compelling to customers and enthusiasts. Furthermore, Major League Baseball teams require more effective methods of increasing attendance and facilitating fan engagement through promotions. Remember that Major League Baseball is regarded as a vibrant and continually changing sector. However, preliminary studies are useful for comprehending trend lines and constraints throughout sports information exchange and long-term planning. Thus, it is critical to foresee and prepare for drastic changes in how individuals acquire and analyze information and data. As a result, this particular formulation of literature aims to establish parameters based on what has already been known regarding promotions and overall engagement to look forward to most on the frontier of MLB match attendance-driving powers to establish parameters for future research.
Promotions increase attendance and create a better environment by communicating essential messages to people. Brands attempt to communicate messages to their target audience where they spot the audience. Thus a day-to-day activity performs a decent opportunity for teams to engage with a lot of people who are of the same caliber such as sports organizations (Schwartz). Because “their efficiency is linked or related to a personal emotional reaction, to the impact of certain other communication systems, like advertising and also in a broader social perspective or context,” and the past experiences and preconceptions of every attendee or observer, teams cannot simply sit around and wait in vain for their promotional messages to become effective (Lee, Gipson, & Barnhill, 2017). Thus, they should be strategic in their approach. Additionally, customers have a high “demand for innovation, uniqueness, and strategic benefits,” which could not be met by a lack of foresight in the planning process.
Since many individuals are informed, marketing needs or requires several different components to function properly and become successful. Promotions are among the most important of these elements. Promotions are essential for grabbing clients in any industry, and sports, notably professional-based sports, are no exception (Browning, & DeBolt, 2022). Among the many goals that promotions can achieve are sales increment, new products adoption, brand image development, attendance increase, better atmosphere and positioning within the market, competitive retribution, and the development of a company’s identity (Cornwell et al., 2018). When it comes to sports promotions, a few of these mentioned aims are desirable, but the majority of the time since they are intended to increase audience engagement or connection. Sports organizations promote their products and services through online advertisements and promotions, special events, sponsored prize events, giveaways, discounts, and sweepstakes. With all that in view, various sports organizations like the NBA, Major League Baseball, and the National Football League and the kind of promotional campaigns they run—some involve traditional, while others are out of the left field.
When incorporating economics, demographics, and games appeal, there are high chances of promoting attendance in sports. Prior work on fan attendance and better atmosphere at sporting events could be divided into three groups: economics, demography, and game appeal. Thus, economic factors are the most studied of the four classifications. The utilization of regression models is often employed to study the overall effects of financial indicators on fan attendance in various levels of athletic competition, including colleges, major leagues, and minor leagues (Team, 2019). These factors include the price of tickets, the average household wage, and the number of people in the general population. Several research studies have considered demographics, economics, and beauty (Browning, & DeBolt, 2022). Until recently, most research did not consider aspects that sports-based marketers might control. Non-paid and paid promotions and pre-event promotions have been studied, investigating organizationally controllable elements.
Focusing on promotions and attendance, the MLB utilizes this chance in various ways to develop a proper atmosphere for its audience and increase attendance by offering gifts and free game slots. Promotions in Major League Baseball range from theme-based nights, events, and overall coupon codes on merchandise available throughout the parks to match day freebies. An excellent illustration of a theme-based night is viewed as the UCLA night at Dodger Stadium every year. Not only does the college encourage UCLA former students to attend this event, but they also provide attendees with Dodgers merchandise that has a UCLA overall theme (Creators, 2022). Thus, giveaways would be funded by both national and local businesses on match day. Beach towels, hats, posters, canvas bags, and perhaps the most recognizable: the well-known bobblehead — are among the items given away. According to Creators (2022), any upcoming major league campaign will contain 121 days wherein one bobblehead will be given for free to fans.
Conclusion
Various organizations with various degrees of professional-based baseball should be studied further in future research. The overall promotion should also be examined in terms of whether the enthusiasts were aware of it before they attended the match or not. For sporting events marketing firms, understanding the attitudes and motivations of fans can help them find the best solution channels to promote games and offer promotions that benefit both the organization and its corporate partners. The overwhelming majority of promotional efforts by baseball-based organizations at every level should focus on offering non-price incentives to their patrons. Additional restrictions should be placed on the number of games offered by price promotions. Non-paid promotions are used by marketers to entice supporters back into the entire ballpark time and again because they increase the overall entertainment growth and achieve a more thrilling atmosphere for both fans and players. It is impossible for promoting departments to influence attendance-increasing variables like game times and location, the strength of the overall ballpark (including renovation of historical past, rich history, ease of access, and institution operational processes), or if any fan-favorite gets injured or is part of the selected starting lineup, among other things. An individual’s decision to join a Major League Baseball game is influenced by various factors, including the overall weather and preconceived viewpoints regarding a particular team. Thus, many customers do not want to participate in or televise a sporting event whenever a team seems to have a significant winning edge over the whole competition. Thus, to make it easier to watch the match in an interesting and overall entertaining stance, there must be a definite level of variability, referred to by sporting events economic experts as the ambiguity of outcome-based hypothesis.
References
Aaron Browning, M.S., R., & DeBolt, Ph.D., L. (2022). The Effects of Promotions on Attendance in Professional Baseball.
Cornwell, T. B., Jahn, S., Xie, H., & Suh, W. S. (2018). In-group feeling at a sponsored sporting event: Links to memory and future attendance. Journal of Sport Management, 32(5).
Creators, C. (2022). Promotions in Sports.
Lee, H. W., Gipson, C., & Barnhill, C. (2017). Experience of spectator flow and perceived stadium atmosphere: Moderating role of team identification. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 26(2).
Martinson, D., Schneider, R., & McCullough, B. (2015). An analysis of the factors and marketing techniques affects NCAA Division I women’s basketball games attendance. The Journal of Sport, 4(2).
MBA Skool Team. (2019). MLB Major League Baseball Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps) | MBA Skool.
Schwartz, L. (n.d). Jackie changed face of sports. ESPN.
Shajie, K., Talebpour, M., Azimzadeh, S. M., Keshtidar, M., &JabbariNooghabi, H. (2020). Spectators on the run: Factors affecting football attendance in Iranian football matches.Annals of Applied Sport Science, 8(1).