I Spy a Sponsor: The Effects of Sponsorship Level, Prominence, Relatedness and Cueing on Recall Accuracy

There is no doubt that sponsorships provide value to sponsor-ing firms; however, that value is often contingent upon the firm’s relative commitment to reaching its objectives. Title or anchor level sponsorships tend to come with high price tags commensurate with superior visibility and high levels of integration with the event. Thus, depending on the specific objectives of the sponsorship program, various levels of corporate commitment are required. Intuitively, we expect that higher levels of sponsorship provide greater firm benefits, yet there is no empirical evidence that such a relationship exists. In this study we provide a field test of sponsorship recall across three sponsorship levels that represent typical sponsorship pack-ages. In a similar venue-based communication context we examine the effects of processing heuristics (prominence and relatedness) that individuals employ. Further, we compare the efficacy of using these heuristics for those who are cued to consider the level of sponsorship versus those who are not so cued. Sponsorship Recall Current research on sponsorship identifies four key factors that influence sponsorship recall