A systematic review of sports sponsorship for public health and social marketing

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to provide a systematic review of evaluations of public health and social marketing campaigns reporting the use of sports sponsorship. Sports sponsorship is a key health promotion strategy, yet academic literature on the use of sponsorship in social marketing and public health is surprisingly limited. Design/methodology/approach Seventeen studies were identified following systematic literature review procedures. Findings Coupling of social marketing and public health sponsorship with changes in policies in sporting clubs and associations offers an effective means to achieve desired outcomes, e.g. behaviour change. Research limitations/implications The analysis presented in this review included information that was reported in the identified studies, which might be an incomplete representation of work undertaken but not reported. All of the studies identified in this review were conducted in English-speaking countries. Considerable opportunity for future research is apparent, and areas for future research are outlined. Practical implications Limited evidence was available, and additional research examining the effectiveness of sponsorship in attaining behavioural change is urgently needed. Future studies should assess the role, scope of involvement in, aims and benefits of non-government sponsors of public health and social marketing campaigns; use methods that do not rely on self-reporting, such as observations; and explore the influence of health sponsorship on attitudes, social norms and behaviours. Originality/value This is the first study to provide a systematic review of the use of sports sponsorship in public health and social marketing.

A state-wide audit of unhealthy sponsorship within junior sporting clubs in Victoria, Australia

“…Recent research has identified that healthy sponsorships have led to increased awareness of and preferences for healthy products while at the same time decreasing preferences for unhealthy products (38,39) . Furthermore, healthy sponsorships are likely to be mutually beneficial to business and sporting clubs (40) .…”

Parents’ reactions to unhealthy food v. pro-health sponsorship options for children’s sport: an experimental study

“…However, at present, few healthier food brands are leveraging junior sport sponsorship to strengthen their brand image (2) . Further, there are only a couple of examples in the literature of sponsorship of children's sporting activities being used to promote public health messages (25) . This missed opportunity could go some way to being remedied through the establishment and implementation of sponsorship guidelines in community sporting settings that encourage sporting organisations to pursue pro-health sponsorship options.…”

Engaging the Dog Owner Community in the Design of an Effective Koala Aversion Program

“…Theoretically, this article demonstrates how social marketing techniques can be used to inform environmental conservation. Social marketing has been proven effective in many health-related areas such as alcohol reduction, smoking caseation, physical activity, and healthy eating (Fujihira, Kubacki, Ronto, Pang, & Rundle-Thiele, 2015; Kubacki, Hurley, & Rundle-Thiele, 2018; Kubacki, Rundle-Thiele, Lahtinen, & Parkinson, 2015), but it is still underutilized in the environmental discipline. Few studies can be found to demonstrate whether and how social marketing can contribute to environmental conservation (see Salazar, Mills, & Veríssimo, 2018; Wilhelm-Rechmann, Cowling, & Difford, 2014).…”