The sponsorship‐advertising interface: is less better for sponsors?

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this article is to explore the general idea that there is a limit to the extent to which consumers make goodwill assumptions when sponsorship is used in combination with advertising.

Design/methodology/approach

An experiment was conducted where the number of different sponsorship activities by the same sponsor (i.e. one or two) in a sport event was varied in the context of an ongoing advertising campaign.

Findings

The results show that when brand advertising is used during a sport event, it is more beneficial for the brand to either be the official sponsor of the event or to be the official provider of products that are integrated in the event than to apply these two sponsorship strategies at the same time.

Research limitations/implications

Future studies should be conducted with representative samples of consumers and a larger array of sponsored entities such as different sports events, art events, athletes, and cultural organizations. In addition, these studies should incorporate the measurement of consumers' inferences during exposure to marketing communication stimuli.

Originality/value

The study is the first to explore the sponsorship‐advertising interface in order to provide insights on the conditions under which the combination of these two forms of marketing communication will lead to optimal benefits in terms of brand equity.

Citation

Carrillat, F.A. and d'Astous, A. (2012), "The sponsorship‐advertising interface: is less better for sponsors?", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 46 No. 3/4, pp. 562-574. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090561211202611