Marketers are interested in the first buyers of new products, given their important role in driving wider community adoption. This is especially the case for new entertainment products, like new or relocated sports teams, who must quickly build fan connections and loyalty given the importance of crowds and social networks in adding value to the entertainment experience. Fans choose to connect with sports teams for numerous reasons; however, fan development in the context of a new team has rarely been examined. This paper examines the diversity and similarity among inaugural fans of an expansion team. A large sample (n = 1,724) was classified into five segments revealing how each varies in their brand associations, satisfaction, identification, and involvement. By analysing key dimensions (relationship identifiers) that characterise how consumers connect with a new team, the authors provide new insights about the nature of consumers in the context of a new sports team. Furthermore, the five segments were found to be distinct cohorts, with sufficient variation between them to warrant variant marketing approaches to achieve the outcome of committed, long-term fans. Segmenting initial fans of a new team: A taxonomy of sport early adopters One of the primary tactics for professional sport league growth is the addition of new teams. This increases distribution of the product (sport) through an increase in the number of fixtures (live and broadcast matches) and by making live attendance accessible to more consumers. As with most product line expansions, league growth can lead to the capture of consumers from existing teams. To minimise such cannibalisation and increase the rate of market acceptance, the new team (product) should convey a distinctive identity, based on a strong regional connection or a close relationship with local consumers (Sharp, 2010).Examples of such teams include the New York City Football Club in America, Western Sydney Wanderers in Australia, and Ottawa Redblacks in Canada.Guidance on how a new or relocated team creates and develops a fan base in the early years remains limited. This paper addresses a gap in existing knowledge of how new teams create a consumer base, by profiling the early adopters that embrace such teams. A segmentation procedure was employed to gain a deeper understanding of how and why people attach themselves to new teams. Knowledge about first adopters is always useful to marketers, but improved information about how fans are 'born' is particularly important to sports managers. New teams need to build fan connection and loyalty quickly -or face empty stadiums. This is particularly the case in new markets where there is little brand equity for the sport, league or team. If a new team fails to gain traction in the marketplace in its early years, there is evidence that growth is difficult thereafter (McDonald & Alpert, 2007). Sport spectator segmentation modelsThere have been a number of theoretical and practical approaches to classifying fan types:[Insert Table 1 abo...

Social media platforms are increasingly used to disseminate social marketing messages about mental health and wellbeing. This study presents a range of message appeals used in social media enabled mental health promotion and stigma reduction messages. Furthermore, it examines the relationship between the type of message appeals and audience engagement. A content analysis of 65 organisation-generated YouTube videos about depression and anxiety and stigma reduction was conducted. The most utilised message appeal was Sorrow, followed by Affiliation, Ease/Convenience, Hope, Humour, Guilt/Shame, Heroic/Successful, and Fear. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between the type of message appeals and audience engagement in terms of the number of likes, comments, and shares. The analysis revealed that Sorrow is the most useful message appeal for generating audience comments. However, Sorrow is negatively associated with the number of likes and shares. The results suggest that mental health promotion messages may engage a larger audience through Affiliation and Hope as they have a positive impact on the number of shares. This could, in effect, turn audiences into vocal advocates for mental health promotion and stigma reduction messages.

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