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Complimentary Downloads�2014 PGA Show Golf Market Outlook; Winter Sports Omnibus Findings now available at Sportsandleisureresearch.com

"SLRG’s 2014 Golf Market Outlook" was once again presented to a standing room only audience at Sports Illustrated Golf Group’s January 22 annual breakfast at the recent PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. The presentation examines attitudinal, perceptual and consumption/participation trends from a January 2014 study of over 1,500 golfers, and also includes highlights from a multi-phase study on golfer media usage, conducted on behalf of SI Golf Group. You can download a complimentary .pdf of the presentation, right here to learn more about what lies ahead for the golf industry in 2014�from the consumer’s mindset.

SLRG’s 2014 Winter Sports Omnibus is also available for download, and contains the perspectives of over 1,500 avid sports fans on a wide variety of topics, including:

How fans view "polarizing" athletes across sports.
Trends and attitudes on contemporary issues in each of the major sports.
Which sports are gaining and declining in popularity.
Fan attitudes on topical aspects such as NCAA and NHL conference realignment, the increased use of instant replay in MLB and a growing perception of competitive imbalance in the NBA.
How issues like the potential for a European based franchise and the impact of concussions sit with NFL fans.
How shifts in perspectives on the US economy will impact sports fan behavior over the coming months.

You can find it here.

Recent SLRG Research of Interest

SLRG Research Looks at Advertising Impact�Resonance and Relevance

How does a brand truly measure the impact of specific ad executions in a word of media message innovation? What type of brand messaging will demonstrate the greatest resonance and relevance for activating sports marketers? These two related questions have been central to several recent SLRG engagements. Both fall within the realm of advertising effectiveness testing, which continues to suffer from the insufficiency of many tried and true methodologies.

To the first question, SLRG has frequently recommended and deployed experimental design for clients seeking to measure the relative impact of different activation tactics on target markets. The key to gaining a true reading lies in isolating relative exposures against sample cells that are otherwise identical in their make-up. It’s easier said than done, but depending upon the utilized mediums, SLRG has created a number of in market and simulated tests that have gotten at this tricky question.

SLRG has also been working with clients recently to pre-test a number of advertising executions, seeking an early read on those message elements most likely to break through with various target audiences. Again, our methodological approach typically adheres to an experimental design that simulates the actual advertising environment, and obfuscates the test brand messaging with that of competitors, yielding greater insight on the ability of new creative to evoke a differentiated positioning.

Let us know how we can help optimize your creative messaging through sports. Contact us.

Media Post’s Marketing Sports: Breaking through amidst the Avalanche

In the February 11, 2014 Media Post: Marketing Sports, SLRG President Jon Last offers some insights from recent research on sports fan media usage that has somewhat counter-intuitive implications for brands activating through sports. You can read the piece, as well as previous columns here.

Media Post’s Marketing Sports: What Sports Marketers Should be Thinking about in 2014

January’s Media Post: Marketing Sports, speaks to a number of trends and developments that will affect the sports marketing landscape in the year ahead and revisits some issues raised a year ago. You can read the piece, as well as previous columns here. Jon’s columns post regularly on the second Tuesday of each month. You can find them on the SLRG website or receive immediate notifications on Twitter, by following him, here.

Research Industry Predictions for 2014

Developments in media consumption research, mobile data collection and mixed mode projects are among the trends explored in RFL Communications’ Research Business Report Predictions issue. You can read SLRG’s Jon Last’s comments, here.