Summary
This case study describes a programme by the Mayor of Kazan, the largest city in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, to re-position Kazan as a sporting capital in Russia by contributing to the city's ability to host events, by attracting state and foreign investment and by promoting participation in sport among the local population. It outlines efforts to make sport more attractive to younger Russians and to support the creation of new sporting facilities in Kazan. As evidence of the success of its approach, this case cites Kazan's success in attracting leading sporting events, increased investment and increased levels of public participation.

Summary
This case study shows how the Tampa Bay Lightning, an ice hockey team from Florida, increased attendance for the 2011-12 American National Hockey League season. Its ticket sales were inconsistent and dependent on the team's win-loss record, so the Lightnings needed to generate greater loyalty. The insight was that people didn't feel like they had a stake in the local team. This led to the message that powerful fans are an essential element of a powerful team and called people to 'Be The Thunder'. The media strategy put the fans, rather than the players, at the centre and used television, social media, local newspaper, digital billboards and owned media, supported by a loyalty programme and giveaways. As a result, average home attendance saw a 7% increase, average TV viewership grew by 57% and overall season ticket sales doubled over the previous year.

Summary
This article puts forward three essential principles that need to be considered when practising community marketing. Research has shown that community-oriented marketing can be a powerful tool for branding relevant products and building relationships with community members. Using the action sports communities of inline skating, BMX and snowboarding as examples, the piece explains how some brands, such as Salomon and Monster and Red Bull energy drinks, have built highly successful community links where others have failed using a traditional marketing approach.

Summary
This campaign was designed around Procter & Gamble's (P&G) sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic Games; it was the household goods company's first ever global-scale program behind its Olympic sponsorship as well as the largest initiative in P&G's history. The campaign was designed to provide a heart-warming umbrella that would connect P&G, its individual brands and the Olympics movement together in the minds of consumers. The idea was to create a campaign that would resonate with consumers on a highly emotional level by bringing a universal insight to life that was linked to P&G and Olympic values: the 'Thank You Mom' campaign was created to honour the role mothers play helping their kids to reach their full potential. Ads featured the mothers of Olympic athletes, as well as the athletes themselves. P&G employed real-time optimisation to maximise effectiveness. The campaign's broader activation included 32 brands in over 50 countries; it recorded a 40% stronger brand equity performance than the 2010 P&G Olympic ads.

Summary
This campaign was developed to launch Spike TV's new weekly series Bellator MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) Live. The channel had won the rights to broadcast the sports show from MTV2 for the upcoming season. Seeking to elevate the status of MMA in the minds of viewers to the level of a full-fledged professional sport, the campaign's messaging points included the return of MMA to the network which first made the sport famous, the show's emphasis on the athletes as individuals, and the fact that Bellator MMA Live would use a more democratic, tournament-based structure to determine its champions. Media ranged from TV, to out-of-home, to digital. Targets included not just MMA fans, but also general sports fans. The premiere of Bellator MMA Live was the highest-rated and most-watched Bellator broadcast ever, with 400% more total viewers – and a 200% higher M18-49 rating – than the previous season's premiere.

Summary
This experimental study examined what is the optimal decision for a company whose brand is endorsed by a celebrity immersed in a scandal (revoking versus continuing the endorsement) as a function of brand/endorser fit (congruence versus incongruence) and of the veracity of the negative event created by the celebrity’s reaction (denying versus admitting the facts). In the case of congruence, revoking the endorsement is suboptimal with respect to brand attitude and purchase intention. Furthermore, denying lowered the endorser’s trustworthiness which, in turn, hampered attitude and intention. Managerial and theoretical implications, as well as directions for further research, were also considered.

Summary
This paper provides a general overview of sports sponsorship issues surrounding the 2012 Olympic Games held in London. It argues that, when brands buy the rights to the Olympic Games, they gain the opportunity to engage with the passions of at least half the world's population. But buying rights only gives sponsors the canvas for their campaign. Only through effective activation can they create a picture that truly engages their audience. The paper identifies six key learnings for brands that emerged from London 2012, the most important of which is the need for effective mobile integration.

Summary
Sprite, the soft drink, wanted to reach cricket fans in India so looked to advertise during the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament. However, cricket fans see advertisers as the enemy during the IPL, as they are bombarded by ads during TV coverage of the games. Also given the demand for ad space around the tournament, ad rates are expensive. To solve these problems, Sprite launched its new brand ideology (Freshology) in 2011 when adoption of digital media was growing fast. Cricket fans were beginning to discuss their sport on Twitter, which inspired the creation of #CRICKWIT - the world's first game of 'tweet-cricket'. Top scorers in the game were posted on Sprite's website and won prizes. This was also integrated with an online radio show, Pitch-Invasion, allowing fans to contribute to an alternative cricket commentary. #CRICKWIT owned more than 10.5% of the season's IPL-related Twitter chatter and 'Crickwitters' generated an average of 25 tweets and 29 re-tweets.

Summary
This summary from the Advertising Research Foundation offers an overview of recent research and debate related to the topic of sports sponsorship in the USA. This includes industry outlook, where sports and entertainment sponsorship grows at a faster rate than other types of partnerships. Guiding principles that can be used to make partnerships more robust and valuable include adopt more emotional messaging techniques, tell stories and embrace real-time opportunities.

Summary
Archenfield, a new-build golf club in Scotland, called a review of its brand identity following slow member take-up in the year following its launch. The design challenge was to create a clearly defined positioning and visual identity for the private members club whilst retaining the existing logo and to grow membership to 700 within five years. The resulting solution developed a clear identity and distinctive brand positioning - "We play a different game" - which was extended to direct mail, print items and the club website. The club has since grown from 35 to nearly 800 members, with each new member paying a debenture joining fee of £30,000 and an annual subscription that has risen from £1,100 to £1,950.