Strategic Implications of Attitude-Toward-the-Ad in Leveraging Event Sponsorships

Event sponsorship has become a multibillion dollar industry (Levin, 1993), yet little theory-driven research exists exploring sponsorship effects (Cunningham & Taylor, 1994), Keller (1993) noted that customer-based brand equity is the appropriate goal of all elements of the marketing mix, including promotions such as sponsorship. The effectiveness of these promotions may be observed through what Keller terms “direct measures pitting known brands against unknown or fictitious brands.” This study uses an experimental design employing attitude-toward-the-ad (AAD) as a direct measure of sponsorship support, advertising impact on attitude-toward-the-brand (AH), and purchase intention (PI) for official sponsors and ambush marketers in the fast food and credit card product categories of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games. Ambush marketers are those companies that use advertising to make it appear as if they are associated with the Games without purchasing official sponsorship rights (Sandier & Shani, 1989). Based on these results, there appeared to be no competitive advantage for official sponsors in terms of AAD's influence on PL These findings suggest that leveraging a sponsorship with advertising does not always ensure competitive advantage in terms of building customer-based brand equity.