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The academic literature debates the desirability of sponsoring alcohol products at sporting events, a discussion that increases as major sporting events approach. This study aims to examine the influence that sponsorship of an alcoholic product such as beer has on the sports spectator, and the level of efficacy with respect to congruent, alcohol, and incongruent sponsorship.

The experiment was performed on 180 subjects considering three variables 3 × 3 × 2 (congruency type vs alcohol; sport discipline; placement). The experiment consisted of exposure to sponsored sports posters. Visual attention was recorded through eye tracking and then a self-reported questionnaire.

Through an experiment using eye tracking the results showed that the recall variable is higher among alcohol sponsorships and incongruent sponsorship, but it cannot be concluded either that the intention to buy or the attitude toward the brand differ among the sponsorships analyzed.

Alcohol brand is perceived as an incongruous brand in the context of sports sponsorship. Congruent sponsors attract more attention and recall, but no differences in terms of intention to buy. If purchase intent and consumption does not increase, perhaps sports sponsorship by alcohol brands should be reconsidered.

This research makes at least three relevant contributions to the scientific literature. (1) It examines the response to sponsorship in the media of the sports poster. (2) It analyses the consumer's response using neurophysiological means and provides new indicators in this area and (3) It compares performance indicators such as purchase intent, recall and brand attitude for alcoholic and non-alcoholic brand sponsors. These contributions could introduce new information about sponsorship performance.

Concerns about underage drinking have led to calls for a UK ban on alcohol sponsorship of sport. Such a ban would have severe financial consequences for many sports, so should not be implemented without thorough consideration of its likely effectiveness. This study investigating the alcohol consumption intentions of 14 and 15 year olds showed that boys who were involved in sport were more likely both to drink alcohol and to get drunk, with awareness of sponsorship enhancing the likelihood of these behaviours. Girls involved in sport, however, showed more negative attitudes than their peers towards alcohol. It is argued that boys involved in sport are socialised into a traditional masculine alcohol and sports culture, which is reinforced by sponsorship. Evidence from studies on tobacco sponsorship suggests that health-related marketing communications and the use of low-alcohol or non-alcohol brands for sports sponsorship could be more effective than a ban in changing the culture.

Alcohol sponsorship of sport is common in Australia, with much debate about the appropriateness of linking sport with alcohol advertising and promotion. This paper provides examples of such sponsorships to appreciate the extent and nature of the complex relationship between sport and alcohol sponsors. The public health and policy implications of alcohol sponsorship of sport extending to creating a sporting competition purely to promote an alcohol brand are considered.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to gain insight into fans' perceptions, attitudes and behavioural responses toward their favourite college football team in the context of a new beer sponsorship agreement. Specifically, the chapter examines differences in fans' attitudes and behaviours based on their gender, team identification and drinking habits.

Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was employed. The sample was comprised of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers who self-identified as college football fans. A hypothetical scenario was used as a manipulation, whereby participants were asked to imagine their favourite college football team had entered into a new alcohol sponsorship agreement while completing a questionnaire.

Findings: Highly identified fans exhibited more positive attitudes and behaviours after being presented with the hypothetical scenario than less identified fans. In terms of gender, female fans had increased attitudes toward sponsorship compared to males, and highly identified females had the most positive attitudes and behavioural intentions toward their favourite teams of any of the four subgroups in the study.

Research limitations/implications: The small sample sizes of some fan subgroups affected statistical power, which may have led to falsely insignificant findings. The range of favourite teams among the participants (50 universities) meant there was likely a high degree of variation between fans' previous experiences with beer/alcohol at college sport venues.

Originality/value: The study offers valuable insight into the intersection of sport fandom and gender in the context of alcohol sponsorship in US college sport, and is also among the first investigations of the effects of team identification on perceptions toward alcohol sponsorship.

Two studies were undertaken with the aim of determining the nature and prevalence of exposure to alcohol sponsorship communications associated with sport. Study 1 reports a content analysis of alcohol sponsors' leveraging across popular sporting events. Study 2 examines alcohol sponsors' activation in social media. A high proportion of alcohol sponsorship messages containing content appealing to young adult drinkers are revealed across multiple media. Events and policy implications are addressed.

The marketing of alcohol and tobacco products and their related public policy implications have become controversial issues worldwide, due mainly to health‐related issues. Uses a telephone survey methodology to compare attitudes toward Olympic sponsorship by a leading US brewer with general attitudes toward the use of sports sponsorship to promote tobacco products. Results suggest that respondents have significantly different attitudes towards the two product categories and their use of sponsorship, accepting more readily the use of the Olympics to promote beer. Respondents’ self‐interest is also found to significantly affect the level of acceptance for the use of sport to promote alcohol or tobacco products, although in slightly different ways. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research, along with their managerial implications.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of alcohol sponsorship-linked advertising through esports upon young gaming audiences and how gaming behaviours affect advertising response.

A cross-sectional survey study was employed to examine the prevalence and nature of alcohol advertising in esports, and the impact of esports participation upon young audiences' consumption and preferences concerning alcohol. Survey data were collected from 976 young Australian gamers aged between 16 and 34 years (58.9% male) using online questionnaires.

Results revealed a vulnerability to alcohol sponsorship and advertising among 25 to 34-year-old and heavy gamer cohorts. As predicted, heavy gamers were more receptive to alcohol advertising in terms of awareness, preference and consumption while gaming than casual gamers.

This research advances theories of consumer behaviour and advertising exposure situated in a new landscape of converging virtual and real experiential marketing. It also provides much-needed evidence to guide marketing strategy to the next-generation audiences and regulation of new and burgeoning digital platforms. Our research also highlights a need for policy to address the burgeoning, largely unregulated nature of online gaming.

This research provides the first empirical evidence of the impacts of alcohol-linked sponsorship in esports upon young playing and streaming audiences. It informs marketing strategy and policy in relation to the rapidly growing, potentially vulnerable online competitive gaming audience.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it examines the communication strategies pursued by firms related to alcohol beverages in Spain during a decade with major changes in alcohol marketing regulations. Second, it analyzes the relationship between these strategies and underage alcohol consumption before and after 2007.

Panel data methodology is implemented using data from ESTUDES national survey (average sample size 26,000 interviews, 2004-2010) and INFOADEX (nationwide advertising expenditure, 1999-2013).

The results show that, under a restrictive alcohol marketing framework, firms related to alcohol beverages adapt their communication strategies: budget deviation from advertising to sponsorship. Regarding alcohol quantity and frequency models, the relationship between alcohol advertising expenditure and underage alcohol consumption after 2007 is very small but still positive and significant. However, contrary to expectations, in the case of alcohol sponsorship, the relationship between expenditure and underage alcohol consumption has not been affected by the observed budget deviation from advertising to sponsorship after 2007.

Changes in alcohol advertising and sponsorship regulation lead firms related to alcohol beverages to change their communication strategies to overcome new regulatory restrictions and to reach their target group. Overall, despite the relationships between both advertising and sponsorship expenditure and underage alcohol consumption diminish between periods, they still remain positive and significant. Closer and updated monitoring of alcohol communication strategies pursued by firm is needed to keep controlling the alcohol advertising and sponsorship exposure to under age people.

This is a pioneer study in analyzing communication strategies within the Spanish alcohol beverages sector and in proposing a model to analyze the dynamic effect of such strategies on underage alcohol consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature, frequency, and duration of alcohol-related promotions and crowd alcohol consumption during major sports events broadcasted on the SKY Sport network between September 2011 and February 2012.

Content analyses for various categories of alcohol-related images were conducted, including a novel inclusion of analysing crowd alcohol consumption.

The results provide empirical evidence that sponsorship and activation-related activities of alcohol brands subvert national regulations that ban alcohol advertising during daytime television programming.

The results serve to sensitise researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and regulators to the prevalence of incidental alcohol promotional material within the overall televised alcohol advertising mix and the broader societal exposure to such images. This research also informs readers that alcohol companies and media outlets produce alcohol-related marketing that may not be in-line with the meaning and/or intent of laws.

The purpose of this paper is to report exploratory research into UK music festival attendees awareness of, and attitude towards, brands that sponsor music festivals. Sponsorship is an important revenue stream for music festivals, and, conversely brands perceive music festivals to be an effective channel through which to reach young target audiences. Further, there have been concerns expressed about the impact of alcohol sponsorship on drinking and health, but very little research has been conducted in this area.

A questionnaire was used as the primary method of data collection in order to investigate brand recall, brand awareness, brand use, brand attitude and any concerns about the potentially negative impacts of sponsorship, and specifically alcohol sponsorship.

There is evidence to suggest that brand sponsorship of music festivals has an impact on brand recall, awareness and attitude to the brand, but little evidence of impact on brand use. On the other hand, there are variations between brands and festivals. The values associated with sponsoring brands are largely positive. Some respondents indicated concerns about the consequences of sponsorship, particularly in relation to alcohol sponsorship.

This exploratory study has started a long overdue investigation into music festival attendees views on sponsorship. There is considerable scope for a larger scale study to investigate the impact of sponsorship over a larger number of brands and festivals, and to learn more about the sponsorship arrangements that have the most impact.