Sponsorship and advertising: a comparison of their effects

Although many companies now routinely sponsor events and groups as part of their promotional activities, sponsorship research remains without a clear theoretical base. This article outlines a behaviourist context for sponsorship and uses Ehrenberg's awareness-trial-reinforcement model to compare the effects of an advertising and sponsorship stimulus. While both stimuli evoked response patterns consistent with Ehrenberg's awareness-trial-reinforcement model, it appears that sponsorship may generate higher levels of awareness and may lead to the association of a wider range of attributes with the brand promoted. As expected, neither the sponsorship nor advertising stimulus increased the users' or non-users' purchase probabilities. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed.