Sports marketing evolution: Emerging trends, challenges, and future directions

Sports marketing has evolved into a significant aspect of global business, demonstrating remarkable growth and resilience even against substantial disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturns. This growing prominence is particularly facilitated by its intrinsic connection with emotional marketing strategies, leveraging strong emotional ties that effectively shape consumer perceptions and behaviors. Despite growing attention and investment, critical questions remain regarding precisely how sports marketing efforts enhance brand perception, foster meaningful consumer engagement, and effectively amplify return on investment for corporate sponsors. Furthermore, emerging industry phenomena such as city branding through large-scale sporting events, changing patterns in fan engagement, increased leisure and sports tourism, the notable rise of competitive e-sports, and the growing prevalence of virtual sporting experiences present an evolving challenge for marketing professionals and researchers alike.

This Research Topic aims to present innovative, multidisciplinary research that addresses current gaps and generates advancements in both theoretical frameworks and practical applications within sports marketing. The primary objective is to enrich understanding regarding the efficacy of various sports marketing practices, including sponsorship impact, emotional and interactive engagement strategies, and the integration of cutting-edge technologies and data analytics. The exploration of novel methods to leverage sports as strategic tools for community resilience, stakeholder engagement, and cultural identity represents another fundamental goal.

To gather further insights within the interplay of emerging trends, methods, and theoretical developments, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
• Evaluation techniques measuring sports marketing effectiveness within advertising, sponsorship campaigns, and digital media contexts.
• Emotional, cognitive, and attitudinal dimensions of fan interactions with sports brands, athletes, and celebrity endorsers.
• Cross-disciplinary approaches in local sports tourism, emphasizing economic, psychological, geographic, and sociocultural perspectives.
• Practical application of big data analytics and emerging technologies in advancing sports marketing research methodologies.
• Innovative social marketing strategies aimed at enhancing event-based and participatory sport engagement.
• Comparative analyses and case studies of traditional versus emerging sports marketing and sponsorship strategies across various sporting events and nations/cultures

We invite original submissions, including empirical research, theoretical analyses, literature reviews, and conceptual studies, to facilitate diverse, comprehensive discussions advancing knowledge and practice in sports marketing.

Keywords: sports management, sports marketing, esports, sports tourism

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.