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Promotion of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games on Chinese and Western social media

Simon Licen (Department of Educational Leadership and Sport Management, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA)
Nastja Cermelj (Faculty of Tourism Studies - Turistica, University of Primorska, Portoroz, Slovenia)

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship

ISSN: 1464-6668

Article publication date: 27 November 2024

44

Abstract

Purpose

The 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing were the first sporting mega-event held in a country that limits access to popular Western social networks. Since both domestic and international audiences were crucial for the organizers, the purpose of this study was to identify similarities and differences in content published and engagement generated on the event’s official social media accounts in the months preceding the Olympics.

Design/methodology/approach

For 1,200 consecutive original posts published on Facebook, Sina Weibo and Twitter, we coded the time of publication, motivation targeted by the message according to Raney’s typology of motivations for sport spectatorship, multimedia additions and number of likes/reactions, comments and shares.

Findings

All accounts were dominated by posts targeting cognitive motivations. The Weibo profile was much more active and followed. There, 71.5% of content conveyed learning, while the most engaging content provided entertainment. Content on Western networks was more varied but virtually duplicated across networks. The most engaging posts targeted euphoric stress, escape and aesthetic pleasure. Comparable content elicited different engagement on Chinese and Western social media. Graphics and video were the most engaging features on all networks; polls were the least engaging.

Research limitations/implications

Agenda-setting effects of social media content differ across cultures and are co-created by user comments.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first cross-cultural comparison of pre-event social media promotion by non-Western sporting mega-event hosts. Organizers diversified content strategies to cater to different audiences and pursue different policy goals. We proved cultural differences in content preference and engagement and showed the relevance of Raney’s typology of sport spectatorship for social media.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr Miha Lesjak from the Faculty of Tourism Studies – Turistica, University of Primorska for his help on an earlier version of this study. The authors also thank Laura Girardeau from the College of Education at Washington State University for her help editing the manuscript.

Citation

Licen, S. and Cermelj, N. (2024), "Promotion of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games on Chinese and Western social media", International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSMS-06-2024-0125

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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