Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
In an environment of increasing connectivity due to the advent of 3G and 4G networks, and the increase in the number of users subscribing to social media platforms, it is an opportune time to utilize social media as an educational platform. With that being said, the goal of this project, the Sisterhood of Money (SOM), is to inform and educate women about essential financial topics. Using a variety of social media platforms such as Instagram, SOM intends to educate viewers with the help of aesthetically pleasing content that is engaging, informative, and easily digestible.
Based on research conducted on social media usage and fan identification, an online survey was created and distributed. Respondents who identified as NBA fans answered questions regarding social media usage, live sports TV viewership, and more questions regarding presumptive factors leading to NBA game TV viewership. Analysis of the responses found that loyalty to team was a bigger factor than loyalty to player in getting NBA fans to watch games on TV. Results also indicated that loyalty to team increased based on an increase in live sports TV viewership per week, loyalty to player increased based on an increase in national TV NBA game viewership, and die-hard fans are more likely to watch NBA games for their favorite team and players than casual fans. Based on these results, it is recommended that the NBA markets their games towards casual fans, with player-focused marketing for their national TV games.
Abstract
Noah Zweiback
The 21st century has brought significant changes to American consumers through technological advancements, social medias, and changing public sentiments. The sport industry in particular has been largely unable to capitalize on these changes due to the traditional nature of sports.
Keyball™ is the new 21st century sport specifically designed to have the greatest spectator appeal in this modern age. With focus on athleticism, parity, theatrical/emotional engagements, and community impact, Keyball™ aims to create a fan experience that is not achievable by other professional sports leagues. By design, there is high skillset carryover from other sports, ensuring tremendous talent will always be available, and fans of many different sports will find Keyball™ attractive to watch and follow.
The professional sports industry has been dominated by only a few players for the past century. Due to the traditional nature of sports, innovation is hard to implement in professional leagues. Tackle football is A. incredibly dangerous, causing broken bones, torn ligaments and tendons, and serious brain damage (concussions, CTE) at high rates. B. Football is low scoring and C. the pace of play is very slow. Basketball by nature A. overwhelmingly rewards height or verticality. It also B. lacks physicality and C. parity (NBA level). D. The foul system is flawed and easily exploited, dampening the end of games.
Keyball™ is positioned to A. be much more violent than basketball/soccer/baseball, while being significantly safer than tackle football. In addition, B. the speed of play is much faster than football, similar to a soccer/basketball live play style. C. Keyball™ is high scoring (like basketball, unlike football and soccer) and features much more dynamic/exciting scoring opportunities than traditional team sports. Keyball™ D. unifies the highly entertaining skillsets of soccer players (foot skill) with basketball/football players (explosiveness & hand coordination). E. Keyball™ has inherent double meaning that alludes to gambling (Keyball™ Wager) yet still promotes charity, selflessness, and American values (capitalism, sportsmanship, teamwork).
With the data gathered from this research, both endemic and non-endemic brands looking to enter the Esports sponsorship space will be able to make informed decisions on which marketing decisions make the most sense financially and demographically. Furthermore, brands will be able to use this data to ensure a clear and consistent message across all platforms in future marketing campaigns.