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Sport Marketing Expert Studies Impact of Japanese ads in American Stadiums

Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009

Contact:
Yosuke Tsuji, WSU College of Education, 509-335-7720, ytsuji@wsu.edu;
Julie Titone, WSU College of Education, 509-335-6850, jtitone@wsu.edu

Japanese companies advertise when

Mariners star Ichiro Suzuki bats.

Photo credit: Ben Van Houten, Seattle Mariners.

PULLMAN, Wash.—American sports fans might lift their ball caps and scratch their heads over Japanese-language ads in baseball stadiums. But when Yosuke Tsuji saw such a sign in Yankee Stadium, he knew it was aimed at people in his native Japan who follow Japanese players fielded by American teams.

Tsuji, an assistant professor of sport management at Washington State University who specializes in sport marketing, found out that the language ads actually have an impact with their intended audience.

An estimated 300 U.S. games a year are broadcast in Japan, said Tsuji. He noted that the Seattle Mariners, which have a Japanese-language fan pages on the Web, are courting the Japanese market because of players Ichiro Suzuki and Kenji Jojima.

Major Japanese stadium advertisers include Yomiuri Shimbun, the country’s leading newspaper; Dandy House, an exclusive men’s day spa; and Nintendo, the video game maker. Tsuji and four colleagues in Japan looked specifically at the impact of Dandy House ads, which were behind the home plate and easily visible in game broadcasts.

The researchers’ first step was to recruit Japanese college students to watch broadcasts of American baseball. Not a problem.

Yosuke Tsuji

“Ever since Hideo Nomo came to play in the U.S. in 1995, there’s been an influx of Japanese players and the popularity of major league baseball grew in Japan,” said Tsuji, who moved to the U.S. in 2001 for graduate school.

After watching the broadcasts, the students were quizzed about stadium advertising. About 25 percent could remember seeing the Dandy House ad, Tsuji said.

“Their recall/recognition rates were comparable to what’s been found in previous sport marketing studies for sports sponsorship effectiveness,” said Tsuji.

Tsuji and his colleagues presented their findings, “Exploring the effects of Japanese sponsorship at foreign stadiums,” at the Japan Society of Sports Industry’s annual conference in July in Shizuoka. During his summer visit to Japan, Tsuji lectured on sport management in the U.S. at Keio University, Biwakio Seikei Sport College, and Waseda University. At WSU, where he joined the College of Education faculty in 2008, he teaches sport marketing and sport finance.

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