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The benefits and problems associated with firm-generated content (FGC) as a key driver of sponsorship effectiveness demand more research attention. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to consider the effect of content marketing on sponsorship-response favorability in the South African energy drink market.

It is theorized that in an FGC environment, sponsor factors, sponsorship factors and event factors drive sponsorship favorability. This notion is tested using a structural equations model among 18- to 35-year-olds.

The results show acceptable model fit and confirm the usefulness of understanding the effects of content marketing on sponsorship favorability. The authors also offer directions for future research.

The results suggest that FGC which is well-designed, packaged and presented can enhance the views of individuals regarding a sponsor – even if the brand operates in a background position as opposed to the conventional foreground position common in promotional material.

The current study considers content marketing in contexts that have largely been avoided so far, or have only featured on a very limited scale in the literature. This study was conducted in an emerging market, business-to-consumer and sponsorship context for the application of a content marketing strategy.

This study contributes to continuing work on the development of a conceptual framework to better understand sponsorship, consumer response towards sponsorship efforts, and the contribution of sponsorship to customer-based brand equity, by seeking to validate a set of consumer-related attitudes to sponsorship. In particular, the study focuses on establishing the properties of consumer-related attitudinal constructs in the context of sponsorship of an annual national sporting event, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union's National Provincial Championship. Such constructs and their embedded scales will enable sponsorship managers to assess and distinguish consumer reactions to the event itself, to the commercialisation of the event, and to identify the consumer behaviours likely to benefit the sponsor of the event.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of preventative counter-ambush marketing initiatives and rights protection strategies, providing an historical view of rights management and the International Olympic Committee’s sponsorship protection initiatives through ambush marketing’s formative years.

In examining the antecedents and implications of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s (COC) forward-thinking approach to ambush marketing protection, and to explore the development of preventative counter-ambush initiatives, an historical examination of IOC and COC policies and protocols regarding ambushing and sponsorship protection over a 30-year period was undertaken, informing the development of a proposed model of proactive commercial rights management.

The findings indicate that a progressive shift in the counter-ambush activities of major commercial rights holders may be underway: increasingly, the COC has stressed education and communication as key components of their commercial rights protection strategy, in lieu of enforcing the legal protection provided them by the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act of 2007. The resultant commercial rights management model proposed reflects this proactive approach, and illustrates the need for events and sponsorship stakeholders to Anticipate, (Re)Act and Advocate.

The study offers a contemporary perspective into counter-ambush strategies within the context of the COC’s brand protection measures and industry practice. The proactive approach to commercial rights management explored represents a significant step in ambush marketing prevention on the part of the COC.

Sports sponsorship is perceived as important in developing relationships with key clients. However, few companies set relationship marketing objectives when sponsoring sports. This paper aims to examine whether sports sponsors are pursuing the right objectives. It concludes that a deeper understanding of the sponsor's relationship marketing objectives could heighten the sponsor's success, thereby reinforcing and sustaining their own relationship with the sponsoring organisation.

Based on the increasing significance and proliferation of sports marketing and sponsorship, it is important to explore the state of sports marketing and sponsorship research, assess the development of sponsorship-related research, and grasp its future directions. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to help scholars understand future research directions to improve our knowledge of sports marketing and sponsorship.

This study used content analysis that incorporated three multidimensional measures and applied social network analysis in order to identify the knowledge structure of sponsorship research. The authors conducted content analysis to assess the status of the nature of sports marketing and sponsorship in the International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship (IJSMS). The authors coded 282 articles published in the IJSMS from 1999 through 2015 using three multidimensional measures.

Analyzing research trends in specific academic fields helps improve and provide understanding of research practices and future research directions to improve knowledge, in this case about sports marketing and sponsorship. This study is the most up-to-date research trend study regarding sports marketing and sponsorship (December 2015). Compared with previous trend studies that have focused on research purpose, research perspective, statistical method, and subject area, this study offers a more detailed analysis based on a wider set of concepts such as game types, individual authors, affiliated organizations, countries of origin, etc. Furthermore, social network analysis was used to identify the knowledge structure of sponsorship research in the IJSMS. The study provides valuable insight into the challenges marketers and scholars face as they implement a more market-centric business strategy.

The study aims to highlight the knowledge structure of sports marketing and sponsorship using social networking analysis. In order to highlight specific research area trends, the process of development should be explored together with the intellectual structure of sports marketing and sponsorship research using “Author Co-citation Analysis”. Such an analysis would provide the advantage of incorporating the development process into sports marketing and sponsorship research.

Marketers and researchers have long explored the effects of sponsorship, an alternative marketing strategy to commercial advertising that involves placement of brand images and logos on athletes’ uniform and equipment as well as on structural elements of sports venues. Sponsoring the Olympic Games or the World Cup enables marketers to leverage the exposure made possible at a global sporting event, producing favorable responses to sponsoring companies. From a marketing communication perspective, this study makes a valuable contribution to the literature by reviewing the diversity of articles and the knowledge structure of those articles. The results should benefit marketing studies by offering crucial strategic implications for marketers seeking to adopt future sponsorship strategies.

The results provide valuable insights that can improve the understanding of the knowledge structure of sports marketing and sponsorship and suggest planning and directions for research on similar topics. This study’s findings provide insight into the challenges marketers and managers of corporate sports marketing firms face as they implement a more market-centric business strategy.

This paper reports findings from a qualitative study that analyzed use of traditional and targeted sponsorship approaches by eight companies involved in the 1998-99 Canadian Hockey Association women's corporate support program. The study found the sponsors used methods from direct and relationship marketing to support corporate goals of sales, advertising, community-involvement and brand image and awareness. Several factors are discussed that would improve the sponsorships' effectiveness in the women's market.

This study examined the effects of event sponsorship, in the context of the two most recent FIFA World Cup (FWC) events hosted in Europe (France 1998 and Germany 2006). More than 4,000 teenagers were incorporated into the sample in order to measure recall and image values for official FWC sponsors. The comparative findings suggest that it is nearly impossible to generalise about whether sponsoring the FWC is effective or not as a communication tool. For some companies it definitely is effective; for others the effects are limited. Ambush marketing, however, seems to be an effective alternative.

To date, research on sponsorship in general, and sport sponsorship in particular, has focused on sponsorship effects (Business-to-Consumer) and the managerial uses of sponsorship. This paper addresses a gap in the sport sponsorship literature by examining sport sponsorship from a Business-to-Business (B2B) perspective, and the use of sport sponsorship as a Critical Sales Event to help the B2B sales force move customers through the relationship life cycle stages proposed by Dwyer, Shurr and Oh (1987). The authors propose and discuss a framework for implementing Critical Sales Events into the relationship marketing life cycle using sport sponsorship; discuss how sport sponsorship can impact buyer-seller relations at pertinent stages of the life cycle; and provide recommendations for future research.

This paper examines ambush marketing activities and their effects upon UK football-oriented consumers. It questions previous definitions of ambush marketing and proposes one more relevant for today. The research focuses upon the identification of 'event-connected brand recognition' achieved by sponsor versus ambush brands and the role of 'event involvement' as a driver of this. The research employs a pre- and post-event design that aims to track consumer recognition of predesignated brands. Results give initial indications that consumers can discern differences between the two forms of activity and that high event involvement increases recognition. This paper contributes towards the debate about a change in the definition of ambush marketing against the backdrop of increasing media saturation surrounding major sporting events, and suggests that a more relevant descriptor would be 'parallel event marketing'.

Sponsorship's ability to help a company achieve its corporate and marketing objectives has enabled the communication tool to climb to the top of a marketer's promotional consideration set. This paper sets out to review the industry's current understanding of sponsorship as a promotional mechanism. As the medium's underlying principles are identified, marketing practitioners are provided with examples and strategic guidelines so that they are able to maximise their sponsorship investments.