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. It is also shown that sponsorsponsee congruence effects generalize to the online environment, and that the effects of sponsorship articulation on audience attitudes are moderated by the commerciality of the explanation for the sponsor-sponsee relationship. Importantly, the study reveals that attitudinal effects associated with variations in leveraging, congruence, and orientation of articulation may be sustained across time.

Leveraging sponsorships on the Internet: Activation, congruence, and articulation

Using the context of Rio Olympic games, the purpose of this paper is to investigate attitude toward sponsorship outcome as it relates to purchase behavior, gender, sponsor patronage, sports enthusiasm, and social media consumption.,Data were collected using an online survey of 265 participants. Questions regarding demographics, viewing habits, sports participation, enthusiasm, attitude toward Olympic events were included in the survey. The four sub-scales were sponsorship attitude, sponsor patronage, social media consumption, and sports enthusiasm.,The findings of the study showed that social media consumption is positively related to attitude toward event and sports patronage. There was a significant gender difference on attitude toward event, social media consumption, and sports enthusiasm. Predictors for making a purchase as a result of seeing a social media advertisement were gender, playing competitive sport, and social media consumption.,This study will add to the body of academic and practitioner research on sponsorship outcomes, and provides an opportunity for marketers to leverage social media networks for sponsorship communication.,As the use of social media networks has increased over the past few years, no previous study has investigated association of sports enthusiasm, gender, or social media consumption toward sponsor patronage which relates to consumers seeking out sponsors and being influenced to make a purchase as a result of marketing communication of sponsors.

Investigating social media consumption, sports enthusiasm, and gender on sponsorship outcomes in the context of Rio Olympics.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between sponsorship of professional sport teams and consumers' socially responsible perceptions of a sponsoring brand. More specifically, this research investigates if sponsorship of professional sport teams in itself leads consumers to perceive a sponsoring brand as socially responsible, and what factors may produce CSR perceptions and subsequent consumer response.,An experimental study was conducted to examine the impact of sponsorship of professional sport teams on consumers' CSR perceptions of a sponsoring brand. Further, a field study was used to explore the role of sponsorship fit in generating CSR perceptions.,The results from the experimental study indicated that brand sponsorship of professional sport teams contributes to the socially responsible image of that brand, and sponsorship fit induces consumers' CSR perceptions of a sponsoring brand. Additionally, the results from the field study identified CSR perceptions as an underlying process driving the effect of sponsorship fit on consumers’ behavioral intentions toward a sponsoring brand. Lastly, the role of team identification was shown as a boundary condition shaping the effects of sponsorship fit.,Brands specifically seeking to create a socially responsible image, thanks to sponsoring a sport team, should consider the importance of perceived fit between their brand and the sponsored sport team as it is a key predictor of CSR perceptions.,This paper provides empirical evidence for the sport sponsorship and CSR perceptions link and sheds light on important predictors for consumer response.

CSR in sport sponsorship consumers' perceptions of a sponsoring brand's CSR.

The benefits and problems associated with firm-generated content (FGC) as a key driver of sponsorship effectiveness demand more research attention. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to consider the effect of content marketing on sponsorship-response favorability in the South African energy drink market.,It is theorized that in an FGC environment, sponsor factors, sponsorship factors and event factors drive sponsorship favorability. This notion is tested using a structural equations model among 18- to 35-year-olds.,The results show acceptable model fit and confirm the usefulness of understanding the effects of content marketing on sponsorship favorability. The authors also offer directions for future research.,The results suggest that FGC which is well-designed, packaged and presented can enhance the views of individuals regarding a sponsor – even if the brand operates in a background position as opposed to the conventional foreground position common in promotional material.,The current study considers content marketing in contexts that have largely been avoided so far, or have only featured on a very limited scale in the literature. This study was conducted in an emerging market, business-to-consumer and sponsorship context for the application of a content marketing strategy.

The effect of content marketing on sponsorship favorability

The concept of benefaction, as shaped in the pre-industrial society, has been altered and replaced by the modern term of sponsoring. The verbal transformation emerges from a deep cultural shift. Focusing on the dipole of benefactionsponsoring, we examine the cultural transition from the traditional communities of long duration to the modern societies of consumption, taking the Greek mountainous regions as an example. We investigate the cultural shift that generates the metastasis from the communities of benefaction to the modern brandplaces that consume their own cultural heritage, mainly, at the altar of the tourism industry. Modern society has adopted the concept of sponsoring, for the grace of which, culture has to prove evidence of economic value, in order to survive. In the extremely competitive frame of the free-market economy, mountain regions appear vulnerable. The selling and buying of their culture are tempting and attractive under a constantly shrinking welfare-state and narrowing development opportunities. It depends on local and national society to rediscover and regenerate those social mechanisms able to create culture or let the modern consumption-oriented forces prevail. However, authentic principles of benefaction may form an alternative perspective for social reorganization.

Social transformations of cultural heritage: from benefaction to sponsoring: Evidence from mountain regions in Greece

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute understanding of sponsorship by examining the impacts of team attachment, perceived fit, perceived sincerity and sport team focussed social media consumption on attitudes toward sponsor and intentions to purchase products of sponsor. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through survey method. The questionnaires were completed by 310 fans in the arena before the beginning of a professional football game in Istanbul, Turkey. The hypothesized model was tested by using structural equation modeling. Findings – The results reveal that sport consumers who see a fit between the sponsor and sport team are more likely to believe that the sponsor’s motives are sincere and sincerity perceptions, in turn, positively influence attitudes toward sponsor and intentions to purchase sponsor’s products. The research also provides empirical evidence for the direct impacts of perceived fit and fans’ usage of social media for receiving team-related information on...

The impacts of fans' sincerity perceptions and social media usage on attitude toward sponsor.

Corporate investment in sponsorship has increased dramatically in recent decades and growth rate in sponsorship has exceeded any other marketing communications tool. Although spending on sponsorship is expected to increase more in the future and sport dominates the pie of sponsorship revenue, the relationship between sponsorship and purchase intentions of consumers is still vague and needs elaborate research. Current study is an attempt to contribute understanding of sponsorship in sport context and aims to evaluate sport sponsorship effectiveness by investigating antecedents of attitudes towards sponsor and purchase intentions. A conceptual model was developed to examine the effects of factors such as perceived sincerity, perceived fit between the sponsor and sport team and team attachment on attitude towards sponsor and intentions to purchase sponsor’s products. The measurement model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and hypothesized model was tested by using Structural equation modeling (SEM). The data were collected from spectators of a Turkish basketball game in the arena before the start of game. The results suggest that perceived fit and team attachment have positive influence on sincerity perceptions which in turn create positive attitudes toward sponsor and greater purchase intentions for products of sponsor. Findings of the study have important implications for sponsors and future research.

https://www.atiner.gr/journals/sports/2014-1-3-3-Demirel.pdf

Corporate Investment in Sport Sponsorship and its Evaluation

Urban growth and population increase have been major driving forces for cities, combined with an expanding heterogeneous sociocultural structure. The growing trends in urbanization pose massive challenges of inequalities and exclusions, primarily observed in housing. While housing was initially a sociocultural product involving users, it has transformed into a more standardized and financialized entity in the twentieth century, resulting in the abstraction of users from the production process. Against these exclusionary housing trends, it is the role of designers to redefine the place of users in housing for more inclusive results. So, this paper aims to investigate the potential of participatory approaches in housing to achieve more inclusive outcomes. Accordingly, accumulated knowledge on participation in housing starting in the 1960s is chronologically and interrelatedly discussed and mapped through prominent publications. Then, the benefits of specific participatory approaches in the inclusivity of housing are evaluated regarding three design phases to form a framework for future practices: i) design/predesign, ii) implementation, and iii) (post) occupancy. The study showed that participatory approaches at various phases and levels contribute to creating inclusive housing by increasing users’ representation in decision-making, demystifying professional tools, and allowing alternative and dynamic appropriation of living.

Abdullah Demirel

Papers

The impacts of fans' sincerity perceptions and social media usage on attitude toward sponsor.

Corporate Investment in Sport Sponsorship and its Evaluation

Evaluating the Role of Participation in Different Design Phases for More Inclusive Housing

ATINER's Conference Paper Series SPO2014-0926