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The aim of this paper is to gain insights from a case study into how gamified loyalty programs enable and facilitate value co-creation and what underlying purpose organizations pursue when engaging with members in such a program.

A multimethod approach is deployed consisting of an observational and an explorative study. The authors collaborate with adidas, one of the leading (sports) retailers in the world. A five-month netnographic study is conducted on the adiClub, the online loyalty program of adidas. Based on the findings of this first study, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted in a second study with adidas managers from diverse backgrounds currently involved in projects and day-to-day work related to the adiClub. The exclusive interview data provide further insights and help interpret and validate the netnographic observations.

Most value co-creation studies on engagement platforms in marketing relate to social media, physical events or online forums. Based on the multimethod approach of this study, existing research is extended on how online loyalty programs enable and facilitate value co-creation. Furthermore, the authors identify the organizational purpose behind engaging in value co-creation practices along the social, economic and ecological dimensions.

This case study offers implications for organizations on how online loyalty programs enable and facilitate value co-creation through gamification. In addition, it connects the value co-creation practices with the respective purpose that organizations pursue with related activities. Hence, it further enhances the knowledge and repertoire of managers for setting up and running gamified online loyalty programs.

Increased gamification driven by the advances of digital transformation enables and facilitates value co-creation, which initiates unprecedented digital sales potential for service organizations. Research about the digital transformation of value co-creation remains scarce. The authors seek to address this research gap by focusing on value co-creating activities within online loyalty programs.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of sports sponsorship on brand equity using two managerially related outcomes: price premium and market share.

This study uses a best–worst discrete choice experiment (BWDCE) and compares the outcome with that of the purchase intention scale, an established probabilistic measure of purchase intention. The total sample consists of 409 fans of three soccer teams sponsored by three different competing brands: Nike, Adidas and Puma.

With sports sponsorship, fans were willing to pay more for the sponsor’s product, with the sponsoring brand obtaining the highest market share. Prominent brands generally performed better than less prominent brands. The best–worst scaling method was also 35% more accurate in predicting brand choice than a purchase intention scale.

Future research could use the same method to study other types of sponsors, such as title sponsors or other product categories.

Sponsorship managers can use this methodology to assess the return on investment in sponsorship engagement.

Prior sponsorship studies on brand equity tend to ignore market share or fans’ willingness to pay a price premium for a sponsor’s goods and services. However, these two measures are crucial in assessing the effectiveness of sponsorship. This study demonstrates how to conduct such an assessment using the BWDCE method. It provides a clearer picture of sponsorship in terms of its economic value, which is more managerially useful.

Sports fashion is marketed showing happiness, physical performance and self-care. Thus, sports fashion brands should see a good fit with sustainability: future orientation, self-care, care for others and going out for a physical experience, oftentimes in nature. On the other hand, sports fashion is regularly made of non-sustainable materials and produced under difficult work conditions. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issues.

The paper at hand seeks to investigate sports brands' approach to sustainability by examining their product portfolio and their annual report data, analyzing their status quo and sustainability strategy. A content analysis is conducted employing the brands' annual reports and their online shops as data sources to assess their status quo in terms of sustainability as well as future plans.

Results show that on the ecological side, brands unanimously focus on carbon reduction, organic cotton, recycled polyester, circularity-ready business model innovation and water and toxic waste management. The social aspect may be divided into the focal brand and the supply chain, including similar measures: equality and diversity, the promotion of ethnic and cultural minorities and increased safety and health for workers.

The paper derives development opportunities and pitfalls for sports fashion brands.

This paper aims to establish a fundamental and comprehensive understanding of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) by identifying and structuring common characteristics within a taxonomy. NFTs are hyped and increasingly marketed as essential building blocks of the Metaverse. However, the dynamic evolution of the NFT space has posed challenges for those seeking to develop a deep and comprehensive understanding of NFTs, their features and their capabilities.

Utilizing common guidelines for the creation of taxonomies, the authors developed (over 3 iterations), a multi-layer taxonomy based on workshops and interviews with 11 academic and 15 industry experts. Through an evaluation of 25 NFTs, the authors demonstrate the usefulness of the taxonomy.

The taxonomy has 4 layers, 14 dimensions and 42 characteristics, which describe NFTs in terms of reference object, token properties, token distribution and realizable value.

The authors' framework is the first to systematically cover the emerging NFT phenomenon. This framework is concise yet extendible and presents many avenues for future research in a plethora of disciplines. The characteristics identified in the authors' taxonomy are useful for NFT- and Metaverse-related research in finance, marketing, law and information systems. Additionally, the taxonomy can serve as an information source for policymakers as they consider NFT regulation.

Social media has emerged as a prominent platform for marketers and brands to disseminate brand-related information. This study aims to investigate the impact of color congruence between themes and background on marketing effectiveness, focusing specifically on Instagram.

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate how color congruence between themes and background in brand posts influences flow and aesthetic experience, subsequently affecting marketing communication parameters such as brand attitude, visit intention, and eWOM on Instagram. Moreover, Adidas Originals was selected as the focal brand, and blue and white color was chosen as the primary color palette for the experimental material.

This study demonstrates that color congruence, regardless of brand layout or post, significantly influences flow and aesthetic experience, subsequently affecting marketing effectiveness.

This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of congruence theory and social media marketing, providing valuable insights for brands to enhance their communication through photographs and effectively manage their official Instagram accounts.

This study focuses on memorable customer shopping experience design in the sporting goods retail setting. It aims to identify the phygital customers' needs and expectations that are satisfied through in-store technologies and to detect the in-store strategies that use these technologies to make the store attractive and experiential.

This exploratory study adopted a qualitative research methodology, specifically a multiple-case study, by performing semi-structured interviews with sporting goods store managers.

Sporting goods retailers use various in-store technologies to create a phygital customer shopping experience, including devices, mobile apps, wireless communication technologies, in-store activations, support devices, intelligent stations, and sensors. To improve the phygital customer journey and the phygital shopping experience, retailers meet customers' needs for utilitarian, hedonic, social, and playfulness experiences. Purely physical or digital strategies, as well as phygital strategies, are identified. This research also proposes a model of in-store phygital customer shopping experience design for sporting goods retailers.

Sporting goods managers can invest in multiple technologies by designing a physical environment according to the customers' needs for utilitarian, hedonic, social, and playful experiences. In addition, they can improve the phygital customer shopping experience with specific push strategies that increase customer engagement and, in turn, brand and store loyalty.

This study highlights how the phygital customer experiential journey can be created through new technologies and improved with specific reference to the sporting goods stores.

This paper aims to explore consumer perception of “brand voice” authenticity, brand authenticity and brand attitude when the source of text is disclosed as either artificial intelligence (AI)-generated or human-written.

A 3 × 3 experimental design using Adidas marketing texts disclosed as either “AI” or “human”, or not disclosed was applied to data gathered online from 624 English-speaking students.

Text disclosed as AI-generated is not perceived as less authentic than that disclosed as human-written. No negative effect on brand voice authenticity and brand attitude results if an AI-source is disclosed.

Findings offer brand managers the potential for cost and time savings but emphasise the strong effect of AI technology on perceived brand authenticity and brand attitude.

Results show that brands can afford to be transparent in disclosing the use of AI to support brand voice as communicated in product description or specification or in chatbot text.

Branded merchandise and licensed apparel comprise a substantial portion of revenue for many organizations and public figures that choose to employ such an endeavor. Endorsement deals with apparel manufacturers have historically been utilized for athletes looking to supplement their salaries and establish greater brand awareness. However, as some athletes establish ownership of their logo and become less reliant on companies such as Nike and Adidas for merchandise distribution, assessing the influence of various entity's logos on the athlete brand has become worthy of analysis. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the influence that cobranded merchandise has on consumers when the athlete logo is displayed next to another team or manufacturer logo.

Using an online panel and survey, a final sample of 127 participants completed a questionnaire to examine their attitudes towards various athlete brand elements. ANCOVA's and MANCOVA's were utilized to assess significant findings, holding the variable of identification constant.

The results revealed that only the perceptions of merchandise quality significantly varied between an athlete brand and an apparel manufacturer (i.e. Nike) co-brand. The findings indicate that athletes should look to co-brand with high brand awareness manufacturers, and that there is no significant difference between consumers' perceptions of athlete brands when co-branding with team brands.

This is one of the first studies to evaluate the relationship between the athlete brand and external entities from a consumer perspective.