50 Most Marketable Athletes<\/a> (50MM) that qualitative research has been integrated with quantitative metrics to determine the final ranking. Doing so has allowed us to continue to raise the bar on providing the most comprehensive understanding of an athlete\u2019s marketability.<\/strong><\/p>The integration of qualitative research into our 50MM athlete marketability model was always part of NorthStar\u2019s vision upon partnering with SportsPro in 2022, when we set out to reimagine and construct the most complete picture of athlete marketability in the sports industry. It has now become a reality in the second year of our long-term partnership.<\/p>
Through qualitative research, we\u2019ve been able to obtain a rich, storytelling understanding of what athletes are saying or expressing on a variety of topics essential to measuring athlete marketability that can\u2019t be captured in quantitative measurements or through automated processes.<\/p>
There are several types of qualitative research, each with its own processes, methodologies, and applications, such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, and open-ended survey questions. The qualitative research method we integrated into the model for this year\u2019s 50MM was a social media ethnography, which captured the athletes\u2019 organic, unfiltered conversations shared about themselves on social media.<\/p>
The social media ethnography consisted of the following approach:<\/p>
- We first captured a statistically representative sample of athletes\u2019 opinions, perspectives and expressions over a 12-month period, as conveyed on YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.<\/li>
- We then applied traditional qualitative market research methods of manually coding or categorising the nuanced and context-rich opinions, thoughts and expressions about each athlete considered into themes with near 100 per cent accuracy.<\/li>
- We then analysed the patterns and insights derived from the quantified themes.<\/li><\/ul>
We applied this social media qualitative approach to four of the 14 drivers listed below in our 50MM model. Each of these four drivers is weighted and thus affects an athlete\u2019s overall ‘Athlete Marketability Score’ (which is the sum of three pillars: athlete brand strength, total addressable market, and economics).<\/p>
The four drivers on which we conducted qualitative research along with their respective definitions are as follows:<\/p>
- Athlete authenticity<\/strong>:<\/strong> Refers to the genuine and honest representation of an athlete\u2019s true self, both on and off the field.<\/li>
- Athlete\u2019s purpose, mission and values (PMV)<\/strong>: Refers to the following as defined by its separate components: (1) Purpose: The extent to which an athlete sees their role in inspiring society beyond how they excel in their sport; (2) Mission: An athlete’s long-term goals and aspirations to positively impact society beyond the sport in which they play; and (3) Values: The set of core values that guide the actions and decisions of an athlete both on and off the field of play.<\/li>
- Social return on investment (ROI)<\/strong>: Refers to the assessment and quantification of the social and community benefits that an athlete generates through their actions, influence and engagement, both within and outside their respective sport.<\/li>
- Environmental return on objective (ROO)<\/strong>: Refers to the measurable outcomes or achievements related to an athlete’s efforts or initiatives in the realm of environmental conservation, sustainability, or advocacy.<\/li><\/ol>
Let\u2019s bring this qualitative social media ethnography approach to life through one of the four drivers above: athlete authenticity.<\/p>
There were 17 themes identified for this metric including an athlete\u2019s activities, hobbies and interests; personal and professional challenges; and friends, familial and pet relationships. Every time an athlete mentioned or expressed one of these themes on YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, based on their statistically representative sample of mentions, we quantified it.<\/p>
We thus could not only see patterns developing for each of these themes for any of the athletes but also how an athlete\u2019s themes compared to those of other athletes.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t