Title sponsorship of cause-related sport events
Sport, Business and Management
ISSN: 2042-678X
Article publication date: 2 May 2019
Issue publication date: 20 May 2019
Abstract
Purpose
Corporations often benefit from associating their brand(s) with a sports property; in some cases, the property is owned or supported by a not-for-profit organization (NFP) championing a cause. Title sponsorship of such a sport event has received limited research attention but is important to a NFP for raising funds and in-kind contributions to support their cause. The purpose of this paper is to investigate title sponsorship of cause-related sport events.
Design/methodology/approach
This research examines the title sponsorship of a cause-related sport event and its effectiveness in relation to the event, the organization, the cause and other sponsors of the NFP. Specifically, this study examines these questions in the context of a specific annual event, Sports Day in Canada organized by ParticipACTION, a national Canadian NFP and whose title sponsor is Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).
Findings
Results show that title sponsorship has significant potential value for the sponsor and the cause, perhaps to the detriment of other (lower tier) sponsors of the event and the NFP.
Originality/value
This research has value to sponsors and cause-related sport events alike. In the case of sponsors, it provides insight into the value of title sponsorship vs other categories of sponsorship, for a brand considering sponsorship of cause-related sport property. For cause-related sport events, the research informs about the importance and possible revenue generation opportunity linked to the title sponsor category.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Elio Antunes and Tala Chulak-Bozzer for their support to this research. Guy Faulkner holds a Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Public Health Agency of Canada (CIHR-PHAC) Chair in Applied Public Health. Amy Latimer-Cheung receives support from the Canada Research Chairs Program.
Citation
O’Reilly, N., Deshpande, S., Faulkner, G., Latimer, A., Leblanc, A., Rhodes, R.E., Tremblay, M. and Werman, M. (2019), "Title sponsorship of cause-related sport events", Sport, Business and Management, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 185-200. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBM-04-2018-0034
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited