Designing immersive sports experiences: Multisensory stadium marketing, fan engagement and sponsor brand recall among young spectators in Ahmedabad

Abstract

Stadiums are no longer only places where matches are played. Their sensory environment shapes how spectators feel about an event and how they remember the brands around it. This study examines how the multisensory stadium experience relates to fan engagement and sponsor brand recall among young sports fans in Ahmedabad, India. It considers five sensory dimensions: visual, audio, olfactory, tactile and interactive technology. A structured online questionnaire collected 91 responses, and 54 valid responses from spectators aged 15 to 30 who had attended a live event at an Ahmedabad stadium were analysed. The analysis used Pearson and Spearman correlations, multiple linear regression and independent samples t tests. Multisensory stadium experience was positively associated with fan engagement (r = 0.611) and with perceived sponsor brand recall (r = 0.575), and fan engagement was positively associated with perceived brand recall (r = 0.573). The five sensory dimensions together explained 49 percent of the variance in fan engagement, and audio experience was the only significant individual predictor (β = 0.488). Differences by gender were not significant. Differences between frequent and infrequent visitors were not significant for perceived brand recall, and the difference for fan engagement was borderline (p = 0.055). Because of the small, single city sample and cross sectional design, the results show associations, not causal effects. The findings suggest that stadium operators and sponsors should give particular attention to sound and to well timed interactive brand activities during breaks in play.