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Summary 1. Opportunities for using virtual communities by the Olympic Movement page 3
1. Opportunities for using virtual communities by the Olympic Movement Contributor : Guilherme de Moura Pinto Guimarães Family : NOC / America / BRA - Comitê Olímpico Brasileiro Original Language : EN Theme : The Digital Revolution Sub-theme : Communication with stakeholders in the digital age Title : Opportunities for using virtual communities by the Olympic Movement Summary : This article presents a literature review on virtual or online and brand communities. It illustrates the theory with practical cases that have occurred during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in the context of the Brazilian Olympic Committee. It is also puts forward some ideas with regards to marketing tools that the Olympic Family could use in its work. Text : INTRODUCTION This article presents a literature review on virtual or online (Kozinets, 2002) and brand communities (Muniz and O Guinn, 2001) and, based on it, illustrates the theory with a practical case that occurred during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. It is also an attempt to suggest some ideas that could be used by the Olympic Family in order to strengthen the bond around the Olympic Movement and its values. Therefore, it gives a summary of the best practices presented by the theory, which might generate insights on the usage of the internet as a key communication tool to reach young people nowadays. There is no intention of producing a success guide for virtual and brand communities, but to analyse how the theory may best serve the Olympic Movement. THEORY FRAMEWORK A lot has been written on virtual and brand communities since Muniz and O Guinn first introduced the term (Schau and Muniz, 2002, Cova and Pace, 2005, Mattar, 2003 and Luedicke, 2006). Probably, the main importance of virtual communities is the understanding that it is a strong tool to build brand loyalty since the community membership acts as an exit barrier to the consumers, due to the commitment they display to the product, brand and members (Holt, 2004, Elliot and Percy, 2007, O Reilly and Doherty, 2006, McAlexander et al., page 3
2003, Gommans et al., 2001 and Kozinets, 1999). Muniz and O Guinn (2001) identified three core components of community in virtual and brand communities. The first of them is consciousness of kind, which implies an intrinsic connection between the members and a sense of difference from non-members. The second element is the existence of rituals and traditions, which are used by the consumers to demonstrate legitimacy and authority. The third is a sense of moral responsibility, a feeling of obligation to the community and its members. McAlexander et al. (2002) acknowledged the correctness of the importance of the relationships between members, but went further to also include the customers relationship with their brand possessions, and with the marketing agent and organizations that manage and own the brand as important part of virtual and brand communities. McWilliam (2000) stated that brand communities can be formed spontaneously by the consumer or can be initiated by the company owning the brand. The author relates four key items for successful brand communities: 1. A forum for exchange of common interests; 2. A sense of place with codes of behaviour; 3. The development of congenial and stimulating dialogues leading to relationships based on trust; 4. Encouragement for active participation by more than an exclusive few. (p. 45) These four items will be used as a starting point for this case study. However, because they are basic elements, others will be added since more recent works on brand communities have added new successful practices to the field. THEORY AND PRACTICE 1. Acting as if you were part of the brand Most of the practices on virtual and brand communities can be described as initiatives to try to enhance and/or inculcate even more Muniz and O Guinn s (2001) core community components on the members. Others provide basic fundaments for the existence of the community, such as trust. These concepts were applied by the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) in an online strategy launched on July 2008 to promote the participation of the Brazilian athletes in Beijing 2008 and to strengthen the Brazilian Team brand. The idea was to show the team performance by giving voice to the athletes and to the fans. This led to a unique forum for exchange of common interests, a core component of virtual and brand communities page 4
(Kozinets, 2002 and Schau and Muniz, 2002). To reach a great number of users already familiarised with internet and virtual communities, the BOC established a partnership with Google Brazil. This association allowed the Committee to create its own YouTube channel, which displayed videos from the Committee and the users, and to provide Orkut users (the most popular social networking website in the country) a customised Brazilian Team screen skin (it was the first time Google Brazil offered their members a branded skin to customize their profiles). As a consequence, Brazilian Team fans could demonstrate all their passion to the Team and the event and also re-affirm their sense of belonging to that group (Maguire, 1999; Tomlinson and Young, 2006; Roche, 2007; Wilson, 2007). At that point, the fans not only acted as supporters, but were also part of the Brazilian Team. For a while, the Team s brand and the user s personal identity were mixed as one. Although there are still no numbers to demonstrate, it is evident that this helped the Committee strengthen its relationship with fans and between them and the Olympic Movement. According to Google Brazil, 8.9 million people used the Brazilian Team skin during the event, which represents 22% of internet users of the country (IBOPE/ NetRatings, 2008). 2. Encouragement to participate It is important to notice that, generally, the users chose their way of participation. Although the fans were invited by the athletes to send their own videos to the YouTube channel with questions or supporting messages and, whenever possible, the athletes would reply directly through the channel, the majority of the users did not feel comfortable on doing it. However, they were extremely keen on using the channel as a way to express their opinion about its content. As stated earlier, few people created their own videos, but all the videos posted were watched hundreds of thousands of times and thousands of users posted messages in the channel. According to Google, the channel had the highest audience among all YouTube partners during that period. CONCLUSION This case study demonstrates the power of virtual and brand communities to trigger involvement and to enhance relationships among brands, brand owners and consumers. Based on the BOC experience, we believe there is a strong opportunity for Olympic Movement as a whole to make more use of this powerful tool. NOTES This is a joint contribution by Alexandra Rohr and Guilherme de Moura Pinto Guimarães. page 5
Alexandra Rohr is the Internet Manager of The Brazilian Olympic Committee and she is currently on a leave to read for an MSc in Sport and Leisure Management at The University of Sheffield, UK. Guilherme de Moura Pinto Guimarães is currently the Sponsorship Supervisor of Rio 2016 Olympic Bid Marketing Department. He completed a MSc Degree in Sport and Leisure Management at the University of Sheffield, UK in 2008. Paper published: The formation, organisation and management of MyFootballClub some implications for marketing practice, Journal of Direct, Data & Digital Marketing Practice. page 6