Blog Post for Portfolio !

1. While watching TV, you notice your favorite player and see him promoting a
new pair of Nike shoes. The commercial is inviting, and you know you want
them, and the price isn’t too bad. After the game, you go and buy the shoes.
You come home and must tell your significant other why you bought them.
Now the question is why do you buy them? How did the company entice you
to do it?
The thought of Sports marketing goes back to the late 1800s in which they
used tobacco cards and athletes. This helped spark both loyalties from the
athlete and the customer to help bring in business. That transitioned later in
the 1900s to bubble gum, baseball cards, etc. However, the 1st real
marketing in the sports world happened in Boston at Fenway Park. Using
billboards on the outfield wall, they started working with different
organizations to promote businesses. Fast forward to 1934 and you have
cereal with their 1st athlete in Lou Gehrig on a Wheaties box. Wheaties
continues today as the alpha in signing athletes to promote their cereal.
Speaking of athletes and advertising, I talked earlier about those Nikes you
went and got at the store. In 1936, Adidas was the 1st to give free
merchandise to athletes to promote their brand. It happened in Berlin during
the Olympics in which Jesse Owens was given a pair of Adidas shoes to
advertise his fast feet. During this time era, there became a league known
as the AAGPBL or the All-American Women’s Baseball League. In the early
’40s, Mr. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, wanted to help the families at
home by having this league. It consisted of females to help drive in business
for sports. (Made famous by the popular movie A League of their Own). It
fell short as the war was ending and men came home to start going back to
playing sports.
Sports marketing evolution has grown so much from the late 1940s to the
’80s. 1964 was the birth of Nike and sports partnering. Though it didn’t
become as big until the mid-1980s when the most iconic athlete of all-time
Michael Jordan had branded them. This became a boom for the shoe world,
Nike most importantly. This era also was the debut of now the most iconic
sports channel ESPN. Their motto was and still is simple. “All sports, all the
time.” They have partnered with every professional sports market out in the
world and as of today broadcasts in over 200 countries.
Now we are in the 21st century. The ways we’ve changed sports marketing
in the last 140 years are truly revolutionary. To think that it was sticks of
gum to now using every social media facet to promote your brand. Athletes
use everything from Instagram (i.e., Tom Brady) to Tiktok (i.e., Bronny
James). However, it isn’t just the regular sports marketing world that is
cashing into this phenomenon. The boom in the 2010s has promoted the

2. world to e-sports/gaming. Kids and adults love gaming and studies have
shown that there will be an estimated 29M people either watching or
participating in e-gaming this year. YouTube has started with working with
the top followers to help them grow and many have come from Twitch to
join in the fun. There's a full market awaiting. I for one am working to have
a non-profit organization for young teens looking to go to college and get a
degree in e-gaming. Colleges are partaking in this as well. All in all, the
evolution of sports marketing is just a scratch off the surface for years to
come. Follow for more at spennington1982.wordpress.com for more blogs in
sports marketing and e-gaming/e-sports.