Newswise — Marla Royne Stafford — a UNLV Lee Business School professor, researcher, and advertising and marketing expert — is available for interviews on Olympians' potential as social marketing stars.

Dr. Stafford led a study which dissected 27,000 tweets of Summer Olympians to explore how medal status impacts their clout and authenticity in engagement, and ultimately their potential as social media influencers.

Her research team found that Olympic gold and silver — but not so much bronze — translated to social media clout and sponsorships. 

The results, published in the Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, revealed that sponsored tweets by all Olympians were judged as less authentic. Interestingly, though, the clout that gold and silver medalists gained from their success in competition overshadowed the lack of authenticity in sponsored tweets and led to more engagement.
 
And bronze winners? Despite being the third-best in the world at what they do, their clout didn’t make up for the lack of authenticity in sponsored posts and their influence, as measured by engagement, suffered.

Dr. Stafford is happy to expound on the findings. Interested media should contact Keyonna Summers, UNLV Media Relations, at [email protected].

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