Congruence Effects on the Effectiveness of Sponsorship of Sport Event Websites: An Experimental Approach

Abstract

Emerging online marketing strategies are an opportunity for the sport sponsorship industry as a way of complementing traditional methods. However, in-depth attention has not been given to the study of congruence effects on the effectiveness of sponsorship of sport event websites, and specifically to study the role and effects of sponsor logos. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the congruence effect of sponsor brands featured on the website of a sports event on sponsorship effectiveness in visual, attitude-related and behavioural terms, using an eye-tracker to monitor memory activation and changes in attitudes and intentions. In study 1, the role of congruence on website sponsorship was analysed, using real brands sponsoring the ninth edition of the “Mallorca 312” Cycletourist Tour (42 participants). In study 2, the congruence of fictitious brands was analysed on the effects of website sponsorship of the 37th edition of the MAPFRE (competitions brand name) Copa del Rey regatta (101 participants). Congruence is preferable to incongruence in sponsor brands, except when the sponsorship aims to boost a recall of new market brands. The results validate the importance of managing congruence levels in the online sponsorship of sports events due to the influence on sponsorship effectiveness and its impact on cognitive processing.

Brands talking on events? Brand personification in real-time marketing tweets to drive consumer engagement

“…About the second question, what real-time events are best for brands to respond to in their real-time marketing, this study considers brand-event congruence or the fit between the attributes of a brand and those of an event (McDaniel, 1999), as an important condition to consider. Brand-event congruence has been studied in brand-event sponsorship (Alonso- Dos-Santos et al, 2019;Fleck and Quester, 2007) and event marketing (Aguil o-Lemoine et al, 2020) literature as an important variable impacting marketing effectiveness. For example, high levels of brand-event congruence have been found to reduce consumer confusion (Park and Inou, 2018) and positively influence consumer attitudes toward a brand (Lee and Cho, 2009;Park and Inou, 2018).…”

Sustainable Communication; Perceived Motivation and Nature of the Commitment

“…On the other hand, profit-driven societal acts reflect behavior that results from economic rather than moral reasoning [33]. As a result, consumers may be outraged by the introduction of this profitseeking interest in the context of societal initiatives that must be based primarily on values [35,36].…”

Enhancing Spectator Engagement in E-sports Events

“…The shift towards offline events allows spectators to engage with their favorite e-sports teams or athletes, experience the atmosphere within the events, and have the opportunity to receive rewards from activities within events (Cumming et al, 2022;McCauley et al, 2020). Additionally, these events serve as opportunities for related businesses, such as e-sports merchandise retailers, internet service providers, and others, to advertise their brands as event sponsors (Aguiló-Lemoine et al, 2020;Carrillat & d'Astous, 2012). However, in the role of event organizers, achieving success remains challenging, particularly in attracting a large audience (Carvalho et al, 2021;Fotiadis, 2020).…”