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This paper expands upon existing sports sponsorship 'match-up' research by offering an interview-driven, empirically-grounded, 'thick' description of the decision-making processes of sports organisations in developing athlete-sponsor-team relationships. By focusing on a particular NASCAR (The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) organisation (BAM Racing), the study offers an in-depth interpretation of the sometimes 'messy' methods employed by executives in grafting an effective, synergistic match-up. The paper concludes with a discussion on the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Much of the existing research in sports sponsorship is applied in nature and devoid of serious theoretical insight regarding its role from a marketing communication effects standpoint. In this study, Taylor & Crocker's (1981) schema theory is used to interpret the phenomenon that sponsoring events exhibiting a good image fit with the brand can strengthen brand awareness. Since consumers' perceptions of the FIFA World Cup/official partners image fit enhance the brand awareness of sponsoring brands, the results have implications for the FIFA World Cup marketing parties using sports sponsorship as a strategic marketing tool.

This study seeks to investigate the relationship among attractiveness of female athlete endorsers, product/service match‐up, and consumers' purchase intention within the context of China.

A 3×2×2 between‐subject experimental design enabled a 12‐scenario study depicting a purchase experience manipulated by endorser attractiveness levels (high/middle/low), endorser‐product match‐up (high/low), and two different product types (to prevent single‐product bias). Differences between female and male samples are also compared.

In terms of the generation of purchase intent, there is no difference between a middle attractive female athlete endorser and a low‐attractive one when both are in a low match‐up condition. While the use of middle attractive female athlete endorsers works only in a high match‐up condition with female consumers, it is certain that high attractiveness always works better than low attractiveness. In total, the results suggest that female athlete endorsers' attractiveness affects Chinese consumers' purchase intention more than match‐up.

The results not only compare the relationships between attractiveness and match‐up, but also push traditional endorser theories one step farther by examining the concept of middle level attractiveness and by probing the effect of a middle‐attractive female endorser. The cultural influence of Chinese traditional philosophy, The Doctrine of the Mean, on Chinese consumers is discussed and considered. The influence of middle attractiveness endorsers on study subjects of different genders is also discussed.

This paper recounts how the Mexican National Sports Commission approached the creation and development of an Olympic sponsorship programme (CIMA). The lessons garnered are organised following Cornwell's (1995) model of sponsorship development. This paper provides a linkage between theory and practice and is written from the perspective of the sponsored entity; it thus provides both theoretical support for sponsorships as well as a case study that is contrasted to sponsorship theory.

Recent research into consumer responses to sponsorships has examined the role of sponsor‐event fit on cognitive and affective responses. However, influences on sponsor‐event fit have received little consideration. In this study, a sponsor’s brand equity is evaluated as a facilitator of sponsor‐event fit. Six sponsors (three high equity/three low equity) were paired with six events. Results of hypothesis testing indicated that sponsors with high brand equity were perceived as more congruent sponsors than sponsors with low brand equity even though the events sponsored were identical. Also, a positive relationship was found between sponsor‐event congruence and favorable attitudes toward the sponsor. Results of this study suggest that consumers’ attitudes toward sponsors are comprised of associations other than the sponsor‐event association. While lesser known brands can use sponsorship as a brand‐building vehicle, they may not attain the same level of results as their high equity counterparts.

Recent literature identifies the importance of influencer-brand fit, a congruence between the narrative of the social media influencer (SMI) and the branded product being reviewed, on purchase intentions. In creating brand-related content, SMIs can post content that can be either sponsored by the brand or unsponsored. This research merges these literature streams to examine how influencer-brand fit impacts purchase decisions and whether sponsorship status moderates this relationship.

Using a 2 (poor vs good influencer-brand fit) × 2 (sponsored vs unsponsored post) experimental design (n = 198), the relationship between influencer-brand fit and purchase intention, the mediating role of SMI trust and the moderating role of perceived sponsorship are tested. The PROCESS macro was used to analyze direct and indirect paths.

The results demonstrate that influencer trust mediates the relationship between influencer-brand fit and purchase intention, highlighting the importance of a congruent influencer and brand image in both increasing influencer trust and purchase intentions. Surprisingly, despite the reductions in purchase intentions from conducting a poor-fitting review, purchase intentions are the same between a poor-fitting unsponsored review and a good fitting sponsored review.

Decision-makers of both corporations and SMI personal brands should consider influencer-brand fit when selecting SMI partners to sponsor and brands to work with, respectively, and should aim for good fit between both parties. SMIs should avoid conducting sponsored, poor-fitting product reviews to limit reductions in trust. Influencers seeking to branch out of their area of expertise can initially consider unsponsored content before venturing into sponsored partnerships. Companies seeking to widen their reach through poor-fitting SMIs should consider alternative strategies to sponsorship.

As sponsored content is common, it is necessary to merge the influencer-brand fit and influencer sponsorship literature. Additionally, this study considers the mediating role of influencer trust, an important variable in predicating purchase intentions as well as helping SMI grow their audience.

This empirical study examines the psychometric comparability of Aaker's Brand Personality Scale (Aaker, 1997) in sponsorship matching. It employs a structural validation protocol - the congenerity test (Ohanion, 1990) - to investigate the extent to which sports events and sponsors can be psychometrically matched. The results show that sports events and sponsors are comparable only in terms of limited numbers of the dimensions of the a priori scale. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This paper critically examines the processes of meaning creation and transfer in sports celebrity endorsements. It uses findings from a qualitative case study that investigated how Canadian journalists covered Simon Whitfield's gold medal win in the inaugural men's triathlon Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, and how sponsors subsequently capitalised on his media image. The results highlight key factors that influence Olympic sports reporting and their implications for leveraging an Olympic athlete's media image as part of a product endorsement strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between attractiveness of athlete endorsers, match‐up, and consumers' purchase intention embedded in the China context.

The authors used a 3×2×2 between‐subject experimental design. Specifically, in this 12‐scenario study depicting a purchase experience they manipulated endorser attractiveness levels (high/middle/low), endorser‐product match‐up (high/low), and product type (to prevent single product bias).

The results showed that no matter whether the attractiveness is high, middle, or low, the high endorser‐product match‐up could produce higher purchase intention than the low endorser‐product match‐up could. Moreover, the purchase intention generated by the high‐attractive endorser with low match‐up would be higher than that generated by low‐attractive endorser with high match‐up.

This research demonstrates that endorsers' attractiveness, even compared to match‐up factor, and could affect consumers' purchase intention more significantly in China sport market. Practically speaking, the result suggests the companies which are related to sports should try their best to choose a highly attractive athlete endorser with outstanding performance and good morality in order to increase consumers' purchase intention.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between image congruence, tourist satisfaction and intention to revisit in marathon tourism. The results show that both affective image congruence (AIC) and cognitive image congruence (CIC) have a positive influence on tourist satisfaction and intention to revisit in the context of marathon tourism. The results also reveal that demographic and behavioural characteristics have a significant impact on revisiting intentions; and past experience of marathon tourism controls the relationship between image congruence and tourist satisfaction.