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This study explores the relationship between brand image and brand equity in the context of sports sponsorship. Keller's (1993, 2003) customer-based brand equity models are the conceptual inspiration for the research, with Faircloth, Capella, and Alford's (2001) conceptual model – adapted from the work of Aaker (1991) and Keller (1993) – the primary conceptual model. The study focuses on the sponsorship relationship between the New Zealand All Blacks and their major sponsor and co-branding partner, adidas. The sporting context for the study was the 2003 Rugby World Cup held in Australia. Data were collected from two independent samples of 200 respondents, utilizing simple random sampling procedures. A bivariate correlation analysis was undertaken to test whether there was any correlation between changes in adidas' brand image and adidas' brand equity as a result of the All Blacks' performance in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Results support the view that Keller (1993, 2003) proposes that brand image is antecedent to the brand equity construct. Results are also consistent with the findings of Faircloth et al. (2001) that brand image directly impacts brand equity.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of sports sponsorship on brand equity using two managerially related outcomes: price premium and market share.

This study uses a best–worst discrete choice experiment (BWDCE) and compares the outcome with that of the purchase intention scale, an established probabilistic measure of purchase intention. The total sample consists of 409 fans of three soccer teams sponsored by three different competing brands: Nike, Adidas and Puma.

With sports sponsorship, fans were willing to pay more for the sponsor’s product, with the sponsoring brand obtaining the highest market share. Prominent brands generally performed better than less prominent brands. The best–worst scaling method was also 35% more accurate in predicting brand choice than a purchase intention scale.

Future research could use the same method to study other types of sponsors, such as title sponsors or other product categories.

Sponsorship managers can use this methodology to assess the return on investment in sponsorship engagement.

Prior sponsorship studies on brand equity tend to ignore market share or fans’ willingness to pay a price premium for a sponsor’s goods and services. However, these two measures are crucial in assessing the effectiveness of sponsorship. This study demonstrates how to conduct such an assessment using the BWDCE method. It provides a clearer picture of sponsorship in terms of its economic value, which is more managerially useful.

This study aims to empirically test how sponsored video customization (i.e. the degree to which a sponsored video is customized for a sponsoring brand) affects video shares differently depending on influencer characteristics (i.e. mega influencer and expert influencer) and brand characteristics (i.e. brand establishment and product involvement).

This study uses a unique real-world data set that combines coded variables (e.g. customization) and objective video performance (e.g. sharing) of 365 sponsored videos to test the hypotheses. A negative binomial model is used to analyze the data set.

This study finds that the effect of video customization on video shares varies across contexts. Video customization positively affects shares if they are made for well-established brands and high-involvement products but negatively influences shares if they are produced by mega and expert influencers.

This study extends the influencer marketing literature by focusing on a new media modality – sponsored video. Drawing on the multiple inference model and the persuasion knowledge theory, this study teases out different conditions under which video customization is more or less likely to foster audience engagement, which both influencers and brands care about. The chosen research setting may limit the generalizability of the findings of this study.

The findings suggest that mega and expert influencers need to consider if their endorsement would backfire on a highly customized video. Brands that aim to engage customers with highly-customized videos should gauge their decision by taking into consideration their years of establishment and product involvement. For video-sharing platforms, especially those that are planning to expand their businesses to include “matching-making services” for brands and influencers, the findings provide theory-based guidance on optimizing such matches.

This paper fulfills an urgent research need to study how brands and influencers should produce sponsored videos to achieve optimal outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to test the viability of comparative advertising in Chile.

Data were collected via controlled experimentation. The study employed a 3 (comparative advertising intensity: noncomparative, indirect comparative, and direct comparative)×2 (product category involvement: low, high)×2 (sponsor brand's relative market share: market leader, other brand) between‐subjects factorial design.

The results suggest that direct and indirect comparative advertisements are not more effective than noncomparative advertisements in Chile. Additionally, data do not support the idea that the effect of comparative advertising intensity is moderated by the product category involvement and/or by the sponsor brand's relative market share. Since comparative advertising was not shown to be more effective than noncomparative advertising, the authors hypothesize that it is due to cultural biases and the novelty of comparative advertising in Latin America, as expressed through negative message believability.

While experimental research is not sufficient to establish the generalized non‐superiority of comparative advertising in the region, the results support the idea that comparative advertising might not be more effective than noncomparative advertising for many marketing campaigns in Latin America.

Several recent studies have investigated international differences in advertising practices. Most of these address advertising in general, leaving the transferability of comparative advertising practices largely unexplored (White Nye et al.). Analyzing the case of Latin America is highly relevant due to the limited development that exists with respect to comparative advertising in the region.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer attitudes towards ambush marketing and official event sponsorship through the lens of sentiment analysis, and to examine social media users' ethical responses to digital event marketing campaigns during the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The study employed a sentiment analysis, examining Twitter users’ utilization of sponsor and non-sponsor promotional hashtags. Statistical modelling programme R was used to access Twitter’s API, enabling the analysis and coding of user tweets pertaining to six marketing campaigns. The valence of each tweet – as well as the apparent user motivation underlying each post – was assessed, providing insight into Twitter users’ ethical impressions of sponsor and ambush marketer activities on social media and online engagement with social media marketing.

The study’s findings indicate that consumer attitudes towards ambush marketing may be significantly more positive than previously thought. Users’ attitudes towards ambush marketing appear significantly more positive than previously assumed, as users of social media emerged as highly responsive to creative and value-added non-sponsor campaigns.

The findings affirm that sentiment analysis may afford scholars and practitioners a viable means of assessing consumer attitudes towards social marketing activations, dependent upon campaign objectives and strategy. The study provides a new and invaluable context to consumer affect and ambush ethics research, advancing sponsorship and ambush marketing delivery and social sponsorship analytical practice.

The purpose of this paper is to assess, by providing a case study of flagship brand, Rothmans, why Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. (RBH), Canada's second largest tobacco firm, has historically lost ground to industry leader, Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited (ITL).

The paper utilizes data from internal corporate documents, made public from litigation, as well as trade press and promotional materials accessed from advertising archives. More specifically, the tobacco industry documents reviewed were made public from two Canadian trials: the 1989 Canadian trial to decide the constitutionality of the Tobacco Products Control Act; and the 2002 Quebec Superior Court trial in which Canada's three major tobacco firms challenged the constitutionality of the Tobacco Act.

The declining market share of Rothmans is largely explained by the brand's inability to appeal to the highly valued youth or “health concerned” segments. RBH failed to link the cigarette brand consistently with segment‐appropriate imagery during a time when legislation prompted a shift in promotional spending by the Canadian tobacco industry towards sponsorship communications. Unlike ITL, RBH failed to capitalize on the potential of sponsorship to contemporize the Rothmans brand and make it relevant to younger smokers. Moreover, RBH was slow to introduce a so‐called “light” line extension, which would appeal to existing smokers with health concerns.

This study should particularly interest researchers and practitioners interested in marketing and public policy, in which insight is provided about unique challenges to marketing in Canada on the basis of government regulation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate occurrences of confirmation bias existing for sponsors whose brand is congruent to a sport. More specifically, this research investigates: if confirmation biases for congruent brands occur in the absence of exposure, the impact audience segmentation has on sponsorship evaluations by comparing highly identified fans to non-fans, and if congruent sponsors are recalled more often than incongruent sponsors after exposure.

An experiment was conducted to measure how exposure, type of sponsor, and fan identification impacts recognition, attitude, and purchase intention.

The results confirm sport-congruent brands are more likely to be falsely recognized as a sponsor than non-congruent sponsors in the absence of sponsorship participation. Sport consumers’ confirmation biases yield positive attitudes and purchase intentions for congruent brands even in the absence of immediate exposure. Lastly, exposure has no impact on recall or sponsor outcomes, suggesting the need for articulating the brand’s connection prior to the event to build stronger memory traces.

Congruent brands should carefully consider investment costs and expected return on investment, noting benefits of participation might be marginal as a result of confirmation biases. Potential sponsors should also understand cognitive benefits begin before exposure to the sponsorship occurs, and therefore need to articulate a connection to the event prior to exposure by consumers.

The findings suggest the importance of confirmation biases when attempting to reach sport consumers. Some brands may be able to increase recall and recognition even in the absence of exposure, thus helping decision makers when managing budgets.

Naming rights sponsorships of sport facilities are among the most highly visible marketing agreements in the world. However, factors that may lead one sponsorship to persist for decades, while others end after just a few years, have yet to be investigated. Thus, this study examines the decision-making of brand marketers by investigating the predictors of a sponsoring brand's decision to either continue or dissolve such agreements.

Utilizing a global data set of 219 naming rights agreements, an empirical approach is utilized to isolate whether a variety of factors increase or decrease the probability of sponsorship dissolution.

Results indicate that agreements entered into with new, as of yet-unnamed facilities lead to a reduction in the probability of dissolution, with a high level of brand equity also reducing the probability of dissolution. Agency conflicts may also play a role, as the sponsoring firm being headquartered in the same metropolitan area as the facility also contributes to the persistence of such agreements.

These results are intended to assist both sides of what is ideally a long-term relationship in better understanding the factors that may either contribute to or inhibit longer-term partnerships.