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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sports Management, Marketing, and Economics
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1415382
This article is part of the Research Topic Sport Practice and Physical Activity - The Social Function of Sport in Contemporary Societies View all articles

Perceptions of celebrity athletes involved in social cause endorsement

Provisionally accepted
Manuela Biz Manuela Biz 1Mathias Schubert Mathias Schubert 2*
  • 1 KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
  • 2 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Due to their ability to evoke unique associations in people's minds, professional athletes are considered prime ambassadors for companies, brands or organisations to add intangible values, credibility and awareness to their products or services. Based on that premise, using celebrity athletes for supporting social causes has also become a frequent practice over the past years. Empirical knowledge on how such activities are being perceived by involved athletes is scarce. Little is known about what they consider to be relevant attributes of their personal brand that make them suitable for endorsing social causes. Based on semi-structured interviews with (n=12) current and recently retired professional athletes from four different continents, we explore the most prominent attributes of athlete brands as well as other important features in that regard. Our results indicate that, in contrast to product endorsement, on-field attributes of the athlete brand are considered more important in relation to social causes. Our study is useful for a variety of stakeholders, such as athletes or organisations considering getting involved in social cause endorsement.

    Keywords: Athlete brand, cause marketing, brand image, Laureus, Ambassador

    Received: 10 Apr 2024; Accepted: 07 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Biz and Schubert. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mathias Schubert, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.