Social media branding with sportainment: a case study of Burnley F.C.’s creative player announcement videos on X

Purpose In this case-based research, we empirically examine whether integrating entertainment, pop culture content into creative advertising on social media can effectively influence various sport consumers’ brand awareness and brand attitudes toward the Burnley F.C. team brand. Design/methodology/approach Sport consumers’ brand awareness and attitude after exposure to different types of videos are compared with pre-exposure using t-test. Adopting a 3 × 5 between-subjects experimental design, we then perform a two-way MANOVA to assess the effects of the sport consumer group and video condition on brand awareness and attitude. Findings Both sportainment and traditional player announcement videos can enhance consumers’ brand awareness and attitudes. Traditional videos yield slightly higher brand awareness overall, while sportainment videos are better at improving sport consumers’ attitudes toward a team brand. These effects are also contingent upon specific categorizations of sport consumers. Originality/value Our research sheds light on how sport teams can leverage sportainment initiatives in designing and implementing innovative marketing practices to construct and polish an idiosyncratic team brand, fulfilling specific financial conditions, needs and long-term sustainability.