This paper presents a narrative review of celebrity endorsement research. The review identifies six areas of research on celebrity endorsements (celebrity prevalence, campaign management, financial effects, celebrity persuasion, non-evaluative meaning transfer, and brand-to-celebrity transfer). A review of the research in each area identifies key findings, conflicting results, and research gaps. In addition, this paper reviews the celebrity endorsement literature with a focus on the psychological processes underlying celebrity endorsement effects that has been put forward in the literature. Based on the review an agenda for future research is offered.

Celebrity endorsements: a literature review and research agenda

This is a stock-taking paper in the area of sponsorship-linked marketing. First offered is a summary of the development of sponsorship as a mainstay of marketing communications. Arguments for the entrenchment of sponsorship in a new evolving indirect marketing mix are made. Progress in understanding the art of management and the science of communications measurement are then examined. Finally, a brief research agenda is described.

State of Art and Science in Sponsorship-Linked Marketing

Corporate sponsorship of events contributes significantly to marketing aims, including brand awareness as measured by recall and recognition of sponsor‐event pairings. Unfortunately, resultant advantages accrue disproportionately to brands having a natural or congruent fit with the available sponsorship properties. In three cued‐recall experiments, the effect of articulation of sponsorship fit on memory for sponsor‐event pairings is examined. While congruent sponsors have a natural memory advantage, results demonstrate that memory improvements via articulation are possible for incongruent sponsor‐event pairings. These improvements are, however, affected by the presence of competitor brands and the way in which memory is accessed.

Sponsorship-linked marketing: The role of articulation in memory

Sponsorship studies have generally been focused on attitudinal measures of fan loyalty to understand the reactions to abstract sponsors. This study examines the relationships between both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty with sponsorship awareness, attitude toward two actual sponsors, and purchase intentions. Data were collected among fans of a professional soccer team, and the results of a structural equation model provide evidence that attitudinal loyalty impacts the attitude toward both sponsors and purchase intentions. Behavioral loyalty influences sponsorship awareness, and impacts differently the attitude and purchase intentions toward each sponsor. Sponsorship awareness influences significantly the attitude toward both sponsors, while the attitude toward the sponsor was the strongest predictor of purchase intentions. These findings highlight the importance of examining actual sponsors and suggest managerial implications, such as the need for sponsors to help attract fans to the stadium and to des...

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Sport sponsorship: The relationship between team loyalty, sponsorship awareness, attitude toward the sponsor, and purchase intentions

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

This study considers the effectiveness of the Internet as a medium through which sponsorship investments can be leveraged. It considers the variables of sponsor-sponsee congruence,articulation, and the extent to which a sponsorship is leveraged via sponsor websites, in relation
to consumer attitudes toward brand and company level variables across time. Results show that,consumer attitudes are more favourable for congruent sponsorships, those that are not articulated in commercially-oriented terms, and those that are leveraged via sponsor websites. Additionally,
after a seven-day delay, leveraged sponsorships display sustained positive attitudes whereas those not leveraged display a decline in attitudes.

T Cornwell

Papers

Sponsorship-linked marketing: The role of articulation in memory

Using the Internet to leverage sponsorships