Abstract
The use of Web 2.0 tools has been significantly transforming the interaction among companies and their clients, especially in the corporate communication of sectors such as the sport industry. Fans are generating and sharing contents concerning their favorite teams along with the web spaces but even if the process has been widely acknowledged, there are just a few studies that have been specifically devoted to this topic. The paper analyzes the online presence of sport brands through contents that are generated by sport clubs and their fans on YouTube. The analysis is devoted to the videos contents that have been posted online by the supporters of the football teams competing the Italian A and B leagues. After a description and classification of videos contents, this study examines the factors that influence success of videos - expressed as videos views - and the main features that generate an active behavior among the supporters such as comments or bookmarking. In order to carry out that analysis, 125 YouTube channels have been considered for a total amount of 375 videos strictly related to football clubs. The results coming from a regression analysis show that contents generated directly by football clubs are viewed more than the video posted by users/fans. Moreover, the results show that videos success depends on: the number of people that bookmark the video, the clicks that video enjoys having been embedded to other websites and the video content. Then, a robust logistic regression model has been estimated to verify whether the category the video belongs to is likely to stimulate an active feedback from users; results highlights that if the video displays a passive/informative content, the chance of getting an active behavior from the users tends to decrease. These findings help sport clubs to manage their online presence in a better way.