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Sponsorship Strategies that Brands can Leverage

The vast choice of sponsorships can by tempting for any company, especially if you assess each one in a vacuum. It’s easy for a sponsor to feel like a kid in a candy shop when so many options abound, but the wrong choice can lead to a scattered portfolio. Such an approach can sometimes yield positive results for a sponsor, but a well-structured selection can enhance your performance tenfold. Here we’ve broken down the strategies successfully leveraged by major brands, and drawn a few important conclusions. Here are six sponsorship strategies worth taking note of:

1. Vertical integration

Common in the sporting world, a vertical strategy is used to associate a brand with a specific market. For example, if a company sponsors a professional team within a given sport, it will also partner with a variety of amateur and recreational teams and leagues, or it will sponsor various elements associated with the professional team, such as the league, the stadium, the team and the athletes.

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Leveraging Sponsorship: The Activation Ratio

Abstract

The accelerated growth of sponsorship has brought increased attention and scrutiny to this relatively new area of marketing and communications strategy. In turn, researchers have focused on defining, understanding and measuring the various aspects of sponsorship. However, detailed research related to the ‘how’ of sponsorship implementation remains limited. A key aspect of implementation is known as activation, which refers to the investment by the sponsor above and beyond the fee required to acquire the official rights to that sponsorship. Activation is normally referred to as a ratio of the additional investment to the cost of the rights fees. Previous studies have offered recommended activation ratios ranging from 1:1 to as high as 8:1 in order to fully reap the rewards of sponsorship. This research seeks to enhance our understanding of sponsorship activation via an in-depth case study, a typical method for exploratory research of this nature. Specifically, we ask (i) what drives activation, (ii) what are the best methods of activation, and (iii) how much...

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An Examination Of Professional Niche Sport Sponsorship : Sponsors’ Objectives And Selection Criteria.

ABSTRACT

NICHE SPORT SPONSORSHIP

Gregory P. Greenhalgh July 29,2010

Sport organizations face tremendous pressure to secure sponsorship support (Copland et aI., 1996). Professional niche sports face even greater pressure as sponsorship support often determines whether an event can even take place (Sutton, 2009). Kuzma et al. (1993) stated the number one principle in selling sponsorships is establishing a close match between sponsor objectives and event characteristics. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the objectives sponsors aim to achieve through niche sport sponsorship as well as understand the selection criteria used to screen niche sport sponsorship opportunities. A survey of 352 sport sponsorship decision-makers, yielding a response rate of 25.3% (N = 89) with 32 usable professional niche sport sponsor responses revealed many interesting findings. Respondents indicated the most important objectives they aim to achieve through niche sport sponsorship include:

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Communication Effects in Sponsorships: : An Assessment Of How Different Communication Strategies Can Enhance Incongruent Sponsorships

Abstract

Collateral communication of sponsorships is considered a prerequisite for sponsorship success. Sponsorship is a communication form that is passive and indirect by nature and is therefore increasingly leveraged with additional communication effort through more active channels.

This dissertation focuses on traditional advertising as a sponsorship leverage tool.

Compared to sponsorship, advertising offers a more controlled communication environment. Thus, communicating a sponsorship through advertising means that the sponsorship message appears as more direct, explicit, and persuasive. In general, little is known about how consumers process sponsorship information, and even less about how sponsorships are processed when they are presented through controlled communication channels. Based on the commonly held notion that fit between sponsor and sponsee is associated with positive consumer responses, the dissertation proposes that communication may improve incongruent sponsorships through the ability to enhance perceptions of fit. By suggesting that strategic communication can influence fit perceptions, the dissertation adapts to the conceptualization of fit as a malleable construct.

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A Model Of Fan Identification: Antecedents And Sponsorship Outcomes

Modern sponsorship has moved from primarily a philanthropic activity to mutually advantageous business arrangements between sponsors and the sponsored (Abratt et al., 1987). The objectives being sought by sponsoring organizations are focusing more and more on exploitable commercial potential and bottom-line results (Cornwell, 1995; Hoek et al., 1993; 1997; Irwin and Sutton, 1994; Marshall and Cook, 1992; Wilson, 1997), and less on altruism or a sense of social responsibility without expectation of return. With this recognition comes an increased significance on identifying attitudinal and tangible behavioral outcomes to sponsorship efforts (Hoek et al., 1993). Despite the growth and recognized importance of sponsorship activities, academic research in this area has to date been limited (Cornwell and Maignan, 1998; Speed and Thompson, 2000). Sport is a natural area for sponsorship as it can carry very strong images,

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Sponsorships on the Internet: Activation,Congruence, and Articulation

ABSTRACT

This paper considers how the Internet can be used to leverage commercial sponsorships to enhance audience attitudes toward the sponsor. Definitions are offered that distinguish the terms leverage and activation with respect to sponsorship linked marketing; leveraging encompasses all marketing communications collateral to the sponsorship investment, whereas activation relates to those communications that encourage interaction with the sponsor.

Although activation in many instances may be limited to the immediate event-based audience, leveraging sponsorships via sponsors’ Web sites enables activation at the mass-media audience level. Results of a Web site navigation experiment demonstrate that activational sponsor Web sites promote more favorable attitudes than do nonactivational Web sites.

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The Influence Of Brand Preference On Brand Image Transfer: A Research On Brand Event Congruity In Sponsorships

ABSTRACT

Despite the growing attention for sponsorships, few studies have focussed on brand image issues. This article reports findings of an experimental research in which participants assessed the degree to which an event’s image associations were transferred to a brand through event sponsorships.

Results indicated that congruent sponsorships enhance image transfer, as opposed to incongruent sponsorships. This interaction effect was moderated by brand preferences. Participants with weak brand preferences ranked highest on brand image transfer in the incongruent condition, whereas participants with strong brand preferences were more likely to engage in image transfer when they were exposed to congruent brand – event sponsorship. The latter group ranked lowest on brand image transfer in the incongruent condition. The research utilizes a 2 x 2 factorial design where two variations of brand –

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Managing A Sponsored Brand

Abstract The congruence or fit between a sponsored brand and sponsoring firm is a central tenet of sponsorship research. The influence of such congruence on the sponsored brand however, has received scant attention. This question is important because the strength of a sponsored organisation’s brand equity is the basis for many sponsorship alliances. The two experiments undertaken in this paper empirically evaluate the dynamic effect sponsor portfolio congruence has on perceptions of the sponsored organisation’s brand equity. The results of Study 1 indicate sponsor incongruence is particularly detrimental to the brand equity of the sponsored organisation at the title sponsor level. Study 2 shows this adverse effect can be attenuated by increasing the number of congruent sponsors at the presenting level. The second study also provides support for nationality as a salient congruence dimension in an international sporting context. Implications of these findings are discussed.

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