Sponsorship-Linked Marketing: Opening the Black Box

Abstract

Sponsorship of sports, arts, and causes has become a mainstream marketing communications tool. A great deal of fieldwork has attempted to gauge the relative effectiveness of sponsorship in a marketing context, but these weakly controlled field studies contribute little to our understanding of how individuals process sponsorship-linked marketing communications. By considering possible underlying information-processing mechanics, individual-and group-level factors, market factors, and management factors, together with theorized sponsorship outcomes, this paper offers a model of consumer-focused sponsorship-linked marketing communications that summarizes and extends theoretical understanding of the topic.

Sponsorship-Linked Marketing: The Role of Articulation in Memory

“…In communications regarding sponsor-event pairings, mentioning competitors can produce memory interference and thereby reduce recall for the true sponsor (Johar and Pham 1999). Various individual factors such as involvement with the sponsored event can also influence recall (see Cornwell, Weeks, and Roy 2005); however, the variable most frequently researched in conjunction with memory for the sponsorship relationship has been congruency between the sponsor and event. Congruency is thus reviewed briefly.…”

Football clubs as mediators in sponsor-stakeholder relations

“…Furthermore, perceived alignment of sponsor and sponsored club is one central dimension in the "Brand Image Transfer" model proposed by Smith (2004). This strategic fit between the sponsor and sponsee has in a number of studies been shown to be an important dimension in generating a favourable attitude towards the sponsor (Becker-Olsen and Hill, 2006;Cornwell et al, 2005;Donlan, 2014;Grohs et al, 2004;Lacey and Close, 2013;Woisetschläger et al, 2017;Zaharia et al, 2016). A lack of fit, e.g.…”

“…The reason for this is an understanding that positive effects from a sponsorship are dependent on long-term rather than short-term objectives in brand management. Even though it has been shown that typical shirt sponsor programmes are based on expectations on short-term returns (Chadwick and Thwaites, 2006), sponsorships of team-based sports with a large fan base are most likely concerned with long-term brand identification (Cornwell et al, 2005). …”

Does sponsorship work in the same way in different sponsorship contexts?

“…The increased media coverage is also one reason that approximately two-thirds of all sponsorship spending is directed at sporting events, leagues, teams, and players (Crompton, 2004;Verity, 2002), although there is also increasing interest in cultural sponsorships (Irwin et al, 2003;Menon and Kahn, 2003;Polonsky and Wood, 2001;Quester and Thompson, 2001;Rifon et al, 2004;Ruth and Simonin, 2003;Simmons and Becker-Olsen, 2006). While sponsoring is an increasingly important communication tool, relatively few attempts have been made to measure and understand the effects of sponsorship (Cornwell, et al, 2005;Meenaghan, 2001;Quester and Thompson, 2001;Thjømøe et al, 2002).…”

“…brand or firm) providing cash and/or other compensation in exchange for access to an object's commercial potential (i.e. exposure and association with the cause, event, organization or individual related to a sport, cultural, and/or non-profit entity) (Cornwell et al, 2005). Annual world-wide spending on sponsorships has grown rapidly to an estimated $33+ billion (Akaoui, 2007), due in part to such factors as increasing restrictions on advertising, higher advertising costs, zapping, and increased media coverage of sponsored events (Quester and Thompson, 2001;Speed and Thompson, 2000;Verity, 2002).…”