Michael Lewis
Professor of Marketing | Emory University, Goizueta Business School
Atlanta, GA, UNITED STATES
www.fandomanalytics.com All Things Fandom and Sports Analytics
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Biography
Mike Lewis’s work focuses on the intersection of sports analytics and sports marketing. He studies issues ranging from player performance analytics to brand equity in sports. This approach makes Professor Lewis a unique expert on fandom as his work addresses the complete process from success on the field to success at the box office. Representative research topics include Competitive Balance, Generation Z Fandom, Performance Analytics, Salary Market Inefficiencies, Athlete Star Power, Esports, and Influencer Marketing. He also spends an excessive amount of time thinking about team names and mascots. His sports analytics content can be heard at the Fanalytics with Mike Lewis podcast.
The foundation for Professor Lewis’ work is a deep background in statistics and optimization. These tools provide a data-driven approach to measurement and decision-making. He has published work related to loyalty programs, customer lifetime value, and dynamic pricing in addition to sports topics.
Professor Lewis’ background includes a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and engineering degrees from the University of Illinois. He has published in outlets such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Management Science, the Journal of Marketing, and the New York Times.
He can be reached at mike.lewis@emory.edu or www.fandomanalytics.com.
Education (4)
Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University: PhD, Marketing 2001
Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago: MBA, Marketing and Finance 1993
College of Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana: MS, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research 1990
College of Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana: BS, Industrial Engineering 1989
Areas of Expertise (5)
Revenue Management & Dynamic Pricing
Customer Relationship Management
Sports Analytics
Sports Marketing
Fandom
Publications (6)
Key Policy Considerations for Reducing Public Consumption of Vice Products
American Marketing Association2021 While the goal of marketing is usually to boost purchase rates and strengthen relationships between consumers and brands, counter-marketing is an increasingly common strategy for reducing the consumption of “vice” goods such as cigarettes ...
Enduring effects of goal achievement and failure within customer loyalty programs: A large-scale field experiment
Marketing Science2016 This research investigates whether there are enduring effects of goal achievement and failure within customer loyalty promotion programs. We collaborated with a major hotel chain to launch a large scale field experiment involving 95,532 existing loyalty customers ...
Incorporating dynamics in customer lifetime value models
Handbook of Research on Customer Equity in Marketing2015 Over the past two decades the marketing literature has increasingly adopted the perspective that customer relationships should be viewed and managed as economically valuable assets...
An exploratory analysis of cigarette price premium, market share and consumer loyalty in relation to continued consumption versus cessation in a national US panel
BMJ Open2015 Brand equity and consumer loyalty play a role in continued purchasing behaviour; however, this research has largely focused on non-addictive products without counter-marketing tactics. We examined the impact of brand equity ...
The Unintended Consequences of Countermarketing Strategies: How Particular Antismoking Measures May Shift Consumers to More Dangerous Cigarettes
Marketing Science2015 Countermarketing, or efforts to reduce consumption of certain products, has become common in categories such as tobacco, junk food, fossil fuels, and furs. Countermarketing has a particularly long history in the tobacco industry. Efforts to reduce smoking have ...
Customer portfolio composition and customer equity feedback effects: Student diversity and acquisition in educational communities
Marketing Letters2013 Researchers in marketing have long recognized that current populations of customers can influence the behavior of prospective customers. This paper draws on existing marketing theories to empirically examine how changes in student body ...
Research Spotlight
In the News (20)
The WNBA's Challenge: How to translate the Cailyn Clark hype into sustained growth for the league
AP News online
2024-05-15
The stars seemingly have aligned for the WNBA with Caitlyn Clark and Angel Reese joining the ranks of others.
Gen Z doesn't care about sports. That's part of a bigger problem.
USA Today online
2024-01-11
As Gen Z spends an increasing amount of time tuned into our digital lives, many of us lose sight of the traditional forms of community that previous generations relied on.
The Dodgers gave Shohei Ohtain $700 million to hit and pitch - but also because he can sell
AP News online
2023-12-11
Shohei Ohtani’s jaw-dropping $700 million, 10-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers has some similarities to other contracts for the world’s biggest sports stars.
Taylor Swift's 'open invitation' from the NFL: A Hail Mary pass to Gen Z and female fans
USA Today online
2023-09-30
It's an American love story that starts out like this: Two-time Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce invites global megastar and singer Taylor Swift to his football game to impress her.
New Commanders ownership has reignited the debate over the NFL team’s old name
The Associated Press online
2023-09-04
A day after assuming control of the Washington Commanders, Josh Harris beamed about taking over the NFL team he and co-owner Mitch Rales rooted for as kids.
From the Chargers to Bills: NFL teams are winning over Gen Z
ESPM online
2023-08-11
It's no longer a requirement to attend or watch games or don specific colors to be deemed a fan of a team. Now, fandom can come simply by following a team's account on social media. As fandom has changed, the way teams interact with fans has changed, too.
Can There Possibly Be Too Much Sports Coverage?
Inside Hook online
2023-08-09
If you’ve watched any live television lately, there’s a solid chance you consumed some sports while doing so. I know this because live sports broadcasts accounted for 94 of the top-100 most-watched programs in 2022 — a new record.
As schools face calls to drop Native American mascots, some could lose state money
NPR online
2023-04-19
It was at a high school baseball game in 2019 that Becky Gaither's quiet resentment was transformed into action. The mother of three, who grew up in the Seattle area and traces her ancestry to the Cowichan tribe of the Pacific Northwest, was there to see her son on the field for South Point High in Belmont, N.C., "Home of the Red Raiders."
Love him or loathe him, Colin Kaepernick is the most influential athlete of the 21st century
Yahoo! Sports online
2021-08-26
“It’s interesting to see how quickly the NFL evolved, from ‘these are not the values of our audience’ to ‘these are our values, and our audience needs to adjust,’ ” says Dr. Mike Lewis of Emory University's Marketing Analytics Center. “It’s fascinating how quickly the NFL has reversed course.”
Economists estimate $100M loss in revenue with All-Star Game leaving Georgia
FOX8 online
2021-07-13
Mike Lewis, Marketing Professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School said “I think there are direct economic impacts. You lose the hotel business, the revenue business. I’ve seen folks put a number of $100M but the long term is more questionable and more dangerous. If the state of Georgia starts to lose films, if Major League baseball starts to lose fans.”
How Atlanta Hawks’ Playoff Success Is Bolstering The Team’s Brand – Locally And Nationally
WABE-FM (NPR) online
2021-06-03
“The playoffs are where the moments happen,” said Mike Lewis who teaches sports marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. “And moments are really what makes sports. It’s the shared moments that create, you know, frankly, the legends and the stories that fan bases have.”
Cowboys, Patriots fans are best in the NFL; Chiefs, Los Angeles lagging: study
Yahoo! Sports online
2019-06-24
Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business has released its latest NFL Fandom Report, ranking the relative fan strengths of the 32 NFL franchises, and once again, the Dallas Cowboys lead the pack. Right behind them: the Patriots, Eagles, Giants and Steelers.
Cowboys, Patriots, Eagles have NFL's best fans, study finds
Yahoo! online
2018-06-26
Which team has the best fans in the NFL? Why, yours, of course, because they’ve got you. But if we go on more than gut feelings, there are some statistical and economic models that can tell us exactly which fanbases claim the title of Best in the NFL. Emory University has released its latest ranking of NFL fans, and the results are certain to enrage you … unless you’re a Dallas fan. Let’s dig in.
Does negative political advertising actually work?
phys.org online
2018-06-04
The study "A Border Strategy Analysis of Ad Source and Message Tone in Senatorial Campaigns," which will be published in the June edition of INFORMS journal Marketing Science, is co-authored by Yanwen Wang of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver; Michael Lewis of Emory University in Atlanta; and David A. Schweidel of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
To Bolster KLM’s Identity, a ‘Charmingly Clueless Approach’ to Humor
New York Times online
2016-08-29
Humor in advertising is appealing because “the entertainment aspect is the hook to get people to watch,” thus giving legitimacy to a brand that’s less familiar.
When it comes to Twitter, @Packers among best
Green Bay Press Gazette
2016-07-17
The analysis was developed by Michael Lewis and Manish Tripathi of the Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta. Their research focuses on how sports organizations create brand equity and customer loyalty. They also developed analytics for such items as Fan Equity Rankings (the @Packers are seventh) and Social Media Based Personality...
Bears Fan Base More Loyal Than Packers: Study
Chicago Patch
2016-07-14
Dr. Michael Lewis of the Atlanta university’s Goizueta School of Business used a formula combining each team’s sales and social media following to find the “Dynamic Fan Equity,” a number based on the team’s fans willingness to spend, miles traveled to see the team play and following on social media...
Study ranks Eagles supporters as fifth-best fan base in the NFL
Philly.com
2016-07-12
Conducted by Dr. Michael Lewis of Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business, the study analyzed four years of social media data and 15 years of attendance data for NFL teams’ fan bases. Lewis then ranked teams based on their “Dynamic Fan Equity,” which is calculated using their “Fan Equity” (fans’ willingness to spend) and “Social Media Equity” (fans’ willingness to share) scores...
Washington has everything to lose
ESPN
2014-09-02
Now there's new evidence that shows Snyder is actively hurting his team by clinging to its offensive moniker. Michael Lewis and Manish Tripathi, marketing professors at Emory University, calculate what they call fan equity, which is how much money fans are willing to invest in their teams once you control for how well a club does on the field and for how big and rich its market is. The professors have found that Washington's pull is declining. "We see the Redskins coming in the bottom half of the league," says Lewis. "But what's really key is the change." Specifically, the team has fallen from first in the NFL to 20th over the past decade...
‘Redskins’ Is Bad Business
The New York Times
2014-06-24
The moral arguments against the Washington Redskins’ team name, which is considered offensive to American Indians, are by now well known, especially in the wake of last week’s decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to strip the team of trademark protections...
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