Fanalytics with Mike Lewis

One week after declaring March Madness "the greatest playoff system," Emory Professor Mike Lewis recants his opinion. With Mike's Illini out earlier than predicted, he and co-host Doug Battle discuss the inevitability of loss in sports and how disappointment affects fandom.

Don't miss our upcoming webinar with Sid and Ann Mashburn on Thursday, 3/25. We'll be discussing how brands can create fandom and much more. Register at fandomanalytics.com.

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Fanalytics is a part of the Professors.fm podcast network - making sense of the world with top scholars.

Check out more Fanalytics content at fandomanalytics.com and fanalytics.substack.com. 

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Emory Professor Mike Lewis is all in on March Madness this year as his Illini are among the teams with the best odds to win the tournament. In this episode, Mike shares why he thinks the NCAA Tournament is the best playoff system of all of sports. He and co-host Doug Battle then make predictions for the tournament as well as its ratings.

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Fanalytics is a part of the Professors.fm podcast network - making sense of the world with top scholars.

Check out more Fanalytics content at fandomanalytics.com and fanalytics.substack.com. 

And make sure to follow us on social! 

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Twitter: @fanalyticsmike

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This week, Fanalytics partnered with the Emory Marketing Analytics Center to continue our 2021 Webinar Speaker Series with Yahoo Sports Senior Writer and Earnhardt Nation author Jay Busbee.

Jay joined us to discuss the art of storytelling in sports as well as the state of sports in the COVID age.

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fanalyticsmike/message

Fanalytics is a part of the Professors.fm podcast network - making sense of the world with top scholars.

Check out more Fanalytics content at fandomanalytics.com and fanalytics.substack.com. 

And make sure to follow us on social! 

Instagram: @fanalyticsmikelewis

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Emory MBA students join this week's podcast to ask Professor Mike Lewis questions regarding the intersection of March Madness and analytics.

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Fanalytics is a part of the Professors.fm podcast network - making sense of the world with top scholars.

Check out more Fanalytics content at fandomanalytics.com and fanalytics.substack.com. 

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In this episode, Emory Marketing Professor Mike Lewis discusses his recently published NFL Fandom Rankings, the purpose of the upcoming NBA All Star Weekend, and how the Atlanta sports curse has continued into the pandemic.

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Fanalytics is a part of the Professors.fm podcast network - making sense of the world with top scholars.

Check out more Fanalytics content at fandomanalytics.com and fanalytics.substack.com. 

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Uniforms play a key role in fandom as the jerseys worn by players ultimately serve as packaging for the product fans consume. With every NBA franchise implementing at least one new uniform this season, a few teams/brands have generated enthusiasm among their fanbases while others have left much to be desired.

Which uniforms best enhance a franchise's overall brand? Which fail to do so? What common denominators can we observe in those that work well and those that do not? These are the questions Mike and I seek to answer in this podcast.

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Fanalytics is a part of the Professors.fm podcast network - making sense of the world with top scholars.

Check out more Fanalytics content at fandomanalytics.com and fanalytics.substack.com. 

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Following Super Bowl LV's disappointing ratings, one trend signals a potential problem for the NFL. Sure, there are a number of factors contributing to poor ratings across sports this year. A lack of gatherings clearly impacts events such as the Super Bowl. America's cultural divide drives some former viewers to "cancel" teams and leagues for their stances (or lack thereof). And of course, crowd-less competition generates less excitement as pre-COVID sporting events.

But even this a season of cultural turmoil and mass quarantine comes to a close, one problem promises to persist for the National Football League. In a quarterback-driven league, the biggest team brands in the biggest markets lack the biggest stars at the most important position. And whereas the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement / free agency model drives stars like LeBron James to teams like the Lakers, the NFL's infrastructure seems primed to keep a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City forever.

This league structure promises more parity. But it also gives way to Super Bowl matchups featuring markets like Kansas City and Tampa Bay rather than say Dallas and New York. With the league's next generation of quarterbacks (Mahomes, Jackson, Watson, Murray, Burrow, etc.) set to lead some of the brands that regularly rank amongst the bottom in Professor Mike Lewis's fandom rankings, the NFL has a decision to make. Does it adjust a system that brings about parity to incentivize its biggest stars to play for its biggest brands? Or does the league leave money on the table in this next generation to maintain a balanced competitive landscape.

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Fanalytics is a part of the Professors.fm podcast network - making sense of the world with top scholars.

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A few injuries to the Kansas City Chiefs offensive line may have robbed football fans of the Brady-Mahomes duel they envisioned going into Super Bowl LV... Especially with one starting offensive lineman out on the front line fighting COVID-19 (no, really).

But nevertheless, the biggest night in American sports provided the all-around entertainment package fans have come to expect on the first Sunday of each February.

Tom Brady masterfully dissected the Kansas City defense while Todd Bowles's Tampa Bay defense stifled the Chiefs' heralded passing attack. Brands like Doritos and State Farm came to play, while Mountain Dew attempted to change the game entirely. And viewers were divided not only by the teams they rooted for or the ads they preferred, but also the sociopolitical elements surrounding the Super Bowl.

As we wrap up this first year of pandemic football, Professor Mike Lewis and I discuss the game that we witnessed on Sunday, the ads that stood out, and why viewers were bound to find something problematic in this year's Super Bowl.

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Fanalytics is a part of the Professors.fm podcast network - making sense of the world with top scholars.

Check out more Fanalytics content at fandomanalytics.com and fanalytics.substack.com. 

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Why are so many major brands sitting out America's greatest marketing holiday this year? And what can football fans expect from advertisers during Super Bowl LV?

Super Bowl LV comes with more unknowns than any Super Bowl in history - especially off the field. Sports viewership has been down amidst a global pandemic, and there's no telling how Sunday's viewership will compare to Super Bowls of the past... Not to mention how different the experience will be for audiences watching in isolation rather than at parties.

But COVID-19 is not the only 2020 storyline affecting Super Bowl LV. With advertisers planning, casting, and filming ads far in advance of Super Bowl Sunday, the year's unpredictable nature has added complexity for brands seeking to strike an agreeable tone amidst a delicate time. We saw how unpredictability can add complexity for advertisers just a year ago when Genesis altered their ad the week of its airing out of sensitivity to those mourning the then-recent loss of Kobe Bryant.

In this week's podcast, Emory Marketing Professor Mike Lewis discusses what he expects from advertisers in Super Bowl LV as well as his predictions for the game.

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fanalyticsmike/message

Fanalytics is a part of the Professors.fm podcast network - making sense of the world with top scholars.

Check out more Fanalytics content at fandomanalytics.com and fanalytics.substack.com. 

And make sure to follow us on social! 

Instagram: @fanalyticsmikelewis

Twitter: @fanalyticsmike

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A matchup between the faces of the NFL's past and present makes for one of the most riveting Super Bowl matchups in recent memory. As the classic pocket quarterback Tom Brady looks to further cement his status as "GOAT," the more electric and unorthodox Patrick Mahomes seeks to assert himself as the league's most feared signal-caller from this day forward.

This Super Bowl matchup serves as a microcosm of a league awaiting a passing of the guard - a league with players such as Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson, Kyler Murray, and Joe Burrow primed to overtake Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, and Ben Roethlisberger.

But one factor differentiates this young crop of quarterbacks from their predecessors. While Brady and company played for powerhouse franchises such as the Patriots, Packers, and Steelers, each of the next generation's greatest quarterbacks plays before a fandom that ranks in the bottom half of the league.

Will football fans see a fandom transformation in which Kansas City, Buffalo, Baltimore, Cincinnati, etc. become top-earners amongst the league's historic brands? Or will the league see more quarterbacks follow in Tom Brady's footsteps by taking advantage of free agency to attain a situation that best suits their personal brand at their contract's expiration?

With Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford potentially on the move this offseason and a fresh batch of incoming quarterbacks primed to make their mark on the league, this offseason will be telling.

We discuss in this episode.

We also discuss Connor McGregor's loss to Dustin Poirier as well as Eminem's "Higher" music video that serves as a crossover between the worlds of sports and entertainment.

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fanalyticsmike/message

Fanalytics is a part of the Professors.fm podcast network - making sense of the world with top scholars.

Check out more Fanalytics content at fandomanalytics.com and fanalytics.substack.com. 

And make sure to follow us on social! 

Instagram: @fanalyticsmikelewis

Twitter: @fanalyticsmike

YouTube: @fanalyticsmike

TikTok: @fanalyticspodcast