In the May Marketing: Sports column on Media Post, SLRG President Jon Last reflects on how the sports fan audience is a most fertile target for viral marketing and consumer engagement.

Demonstrating accountability and ROI continue to be front and center among the demands placed on sports marketers in justifying their investments.

There's rampant conversation these days about the impact of potential work stoppages in the NFL and NBA, all replete with much speculation. As marketing researchers, we earn our keep by gauging the perspectives, opinions and reactions of various audiences, but I've tried to stay away from the prediction game. It's counter productive here, and I'm a more-than-half-full kind of guy.

One of my favorite movies is the old Peter Sellers classic, "Being There." Sellers plays Chance, an illiterate live-in gardener who, upon the death of his wealthy proprietor, is cast into a real world that he has been totally sheltered from. A comedy of events brings him inside the power circles of U.S. political might, where his literal musings about the coming "growth of the garden in Spring" are misinterpreted as brilliant metaphor for the future of the U.S. economy.

Full disclosure ... I'm writing this before the Super Bowl. So, chances are that by the time you read this, you've already consumed countless analyses on which of the $3 million, 30-second TV spots aired during the big game on Sunday were most compelling, funny, recalled, breakthrough, profligate and, on the other end of the spectrum ... actually effective at building the brands that invested in them.

Even Seinfeld didn't take it this far! Recalling Seinfeld's remark that in sports one is often "just rooting for a shirt", SPORTS & LEISURE RESEARCH GROUP President Jon Last in this January 11 column speaks to ways that sports marketers can leverage research to maximize the sale and ROO of their licensed merchandise.

So while others recall the best deals of the year, the most effective campaigns and those who made a difference, I'll take this opportunity to impart some of the more important life lessons that one can take into the coming year in sports marketing.

In a still-uncertain economic climate, sports marketers are rightfully putting greater emphasis on customer loyalty and fan experience.

We are still clawing our way out of an economy that has not fully righted itself, and the current consumer mindset brings significant implications for sports marketers. The prevailing attitude has become one of calculated rather than conspicuous consumption.

Jon Last reflects on the paradox of how our insatiable cultural appetite for constant and instant information conflicts with perceived time deprivation. He offers thoughts on how the sports and leisure industries must factor this into their internal and external communications.

I encouraged sports and media marketers to move beyond simply selling a product or property, and embrace the most unique sellable asset available access to an audience.

Most sports marketing research lacks the methodological rigor and sophistication that I've seen in other categories, but it certainly doesn't lack sizzle.

You undoubtedly possess an obsessive focus on the brands or properties that you represent, but that probably disqualifies you from having a true understanding of your customers.

In the March 9th Marketing: Sports SLRG President Jon Last speaks to the three most important things that marketers should think about when measuring or justifying sponsorship ROI.

by Jon Last, Tues, Feb 9, 2010. Long before TMZ discovered sports, and every gossip and media entity unilaterally decided that it was their rightful place to comment on the personal lives of athletes...

by Jon Last, Tues, Dec 8, 2009. It amazes me how many sports marketers remain addicted to a product rather than a consumer focus when positioning their properties. The typical sell for event sponsorships, or advertising

by Jon Last, Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009. It's bothersome that, for many, discounting appears to be the catch-all cure to attempt to win back consumers who have cut back on their sports-related spending.

by Jon Last, Tuesday, Aug 11, 2009, 11:15 AM. As sports property holders and their agencies face louder and more incessant demands from sponsors/partners to demonstrate return on their marketing investment

by Jon Last, Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 11:15 AM Our early 2009 consumer sentiment work with a representative sample of golfers suggests that this market, at least attitudinally, is looking for refuge from the pervasive negativity.