Ben Conway

Sponsorship within the sports industry is an ever-increasing billion-dollar market, with countless organisations recognising its promotional supremacy (Meenaghan 2001). Organisations flocking to utilise sport sponsorship’s strong communicational properties has developed the phenomenon of multiple-sponsor environments. Despite it’s acknowledged growth the area remains comparatively undiscovered, especially cases regarding multiple-sponsorship. Through the use of the UEFA Champions League this… Show more

Sponsorship within the sports industry is an ever-increasing billion-dollar market, with countless organisations recognising its promotional supremacy (Meenaghan 2001). Organisations flocking to utilise sport sponsorship’s strong communicational properties has developed the phenomenon of multiple-sponsor environments. Despite it’s acknowledged growth the area remains comparatively undiscovered, especially cases regarding multiple-sponsorship. Through the use of the UEFA Champions League this study aimed to gain understanding of a sponsor’s ability to achieve positive brand image transfer and brand awareness in a multiple sponsored setting. Self-completion questionnaires were selected to gather quantitative information, with questions applying Gwinner and Eaton (1999) similarity testing for brand awareness and Aaker (1997) brand personality framework to investigate image transfer. The study, using a purposive sample secured insight into the perceived image of the UEFA Champions League, which was compared to sponsors through correlative data analysis. Brand awareness and image transfer correlation outcomes allowed the study to review how effective sponsors were in this unspecified, cluttered environment. Results concluded in the case of the UEFA Champions League all sponsors were able to achieve above majority (>50%) recall figures, supporting the claim that sponsors are still able to achieve this primary objective in a multiple-sponsor scenario. A convincing relationship between brand awareness and image transfer was realised, exhibiting the idea that sponsorship success could follow a systematic process. This relationship offered clear detection specific sponsors were accomplishing superior sponsorship effectiveness despite the equal sponsorship structure in place. Further investigation confirmed these sponsors success was consequence of a strong functional relationship between the brand and sponsored entity (Donahay and Rosenberger 2007). This study provides needed Show less