Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of exposure-related and consumer-related factors on the return of sponsorship investment through their influence on viewers’ attention for sponsor signage.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through an experimental study (n=92) involving eye-tracking and a questionnaire, and were analyzed using regression analysis.
Findings
The results show that viewers’ attention for sponsor signage is affected by the signage color of concurrent sponsors, as well as viewers’ brand familiarity, and sport involvement. In particular, the findings reveal that viewers’ attention for sponsor signage increases with greater color contrast between concurrently visible sponsor signage. Further, signage receives more attention if viewers are familiar with the brand and less involved with the sponsored event. Given that attention is an important prerequisite for further processing of sponsorship information, these findings have important implications for managers seeking to evaluate the return on their sponsorship investment.
Practical implications
When assessing the return on a sponsorship investment, marketers should consider the characteristics of surrounding sponsor signage and the audience with regard to their impact on viewers’ attention for their own signage. Ideally, marketers should attempt to create a greater color contrast between their own signage and its surroundings in order to maximize viewer attention.
Originality/value
This paper provides valuable information on the importance of concurrently visible sponsor signage and audience characteristics for the return on investment of sponsorships through their impact on viewers’ attention.
Live sport broadcasts can evoke emotions in consumers and allow companies to reach their audience in environments that allow for automatic processing of brand messages. However, only few studies have applied psychophysiological methodologies to assess how the live nature of a competition and viewers' emotions affect the processing of sponsor messages, and prior research has mostly relied on ex‐post data. Therefore, to identify the interplay of game outcome uncertainty, viewers' emotions and attention to sponsor messages, this exploratory lab study tracks continuous viewer data during live sport broadcasts. Soccer fans' (n = 11) arousal, emotional valence, and visual attention to sponsors while watching live soccer broadcasts were measured using galvanic skin response, video‐based facial expressions, and infrared eye‐tracking. In‐play betting odds served as an indicator of outcome uncertainty. Multi‐level modeling reveals that greater outcome uncertainty increases arousal and the magnitude of emotional response. Further, the data reveal that low‐to‐moderate arousal and valence‐neutral emotional states increase viewer attention to sponsor messages. This study is the first to consider the dynamics of live sports experiences in the explanation of sponsorship effectiveness. It contributes to the literature by using continuous measurements involving psychophysiological data to investigate emotions and attention to sponsors.
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