Abstract
Sponsorship activations—that is, the ancillary marketing communication actions purported to enhance the association between sponsees and sponsors—are what make sponsorships come to life. Activations are generally considered to be critical elements of a sponsorship strategy; for some, perhaps even more so than the sponsorship itself. The work of Quester and Thompson (2001) was a landmark contribution to the study of sponsorship activation on conceptual, empirical, and methodological grounds. It led the way to a host of studies and, to this day, still strongly influences sponsorship research. This chapter highlights why at the time Quester and Thompson (2001) was a significant leap forward in the context of the existing sponsorship literature, calling attention to the fact that this article presented the results of the first study to put to the test the common belief that increasing the intensity of sponsorship activation is beneficial for sponsors. This chapter also makes the point that the rigorous methodological approach of Quester and Thompson (2001), which cleverly addressed issues of both internal and external validity, enhanced the impact of their research in the field of sponsorship. Finally, the chapter discusses the research studies that followed up on Quester and Thompson’s (2001) study, the current research topics that echo its contribution today, as well as the future research directions that it suggests.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Amis J, Slack T, Berret T (1999) Sport sponsorship as distinctive competence. Eur J Mark 33(3−4):250−272
Bennett R (1999) Sport sponsorship, spectators recall and false consensus. Eur J Mark 34(3/4):291–313
Carrillat FA, Colbert F, Feigné M (2014a) Weapons of mass intrusion: The leveraging of ambush marketing strategies. Eur J Mark 48(1/2):314–335
Carrillat FA, d’Astous A (2012) The sponsorship-advertising interface: Is less better for sponsors? Eur J Mark 46(3/4):562−574
Carrillat FA, d’Astous A, Davoine V (2013) The sponsor-event geographical match as a dimension of event-sponsor fit: An investigation in Europe and North America. Australas Mark J 21(4):264−270
Carrillat FA, d’Astous A, Morisette Grégoire E (2014b) Event sponsorship activation in the social media: A facebook experiment. Internet Res 24(4):474−495
Carrillat FA, Lafferty BA, Harris EG (2005) Investigating sponsorships effectiveness: Do less familiar brands have an advantage over more familiar brands in single and multiple sponsorship arrangements? J Brand Manag 13(1):50–64
Chien PM, Cornwell TB, Pappu R (2011) Sponsorship portfolio as a brand-image creation strategy. J Bus Res 64(2):142–149
Coppetti C, Wentzel D, Tomczak T, Henkel S (2009) Improving incongruent sponsorships through articulation of the sponsorship and audience participation. J Mark Commun 15(1):17–34
Cornwell TB (1995) Sponsorship-linked marketing development. Sport Mark Q 4:13−24
Cornwell TB, Humphreys MS, Maguire AM, Weeks CS, Tellegen CL (2006) Sponsorship-linked marketing: The role of articulation in memory. J Consum Res 33(3):312–321
Cornwell TB, Maignan I, Irwin R (1997) Long-term recall of sponsorship sources: An empirical investigation of stadium and sport café audiences. Asia-Australia Mark J 5(1):45–57
Cornwell TB, Roy DP, EAS II (2001) Exploring managers’ perceptions of the impact of sponsorship on brand equity. J Advertising 30(2):41−51
Cornwell TB, Weeks CS, Roy DP (2005) Sponsorship-linked marketing: Opening the black box. J Advertising 34(2):21–42
Crimmins J, Horn M (1996) Sponsorship: From management ego trip to marketing success. J Advertising Res 36:11−21
d’Astous A, Bitz P (1995) Consumer evaluations of sponsorship programmes. Eur J Mark 29(12):6–22
d’Astous A, Colbert F, Parmentier MA (2005) Consumer perception of private versus public sponsorship of the arts. Int J Arts Manag 8(1):48−60
Fleck N, Quester P (2007) Birds of a feather flock together… definition, role and measure of congruence: An application to sponsorship. Psychol Mark 24(11):975−1000
Gardner MP, Shuman PJ (1987) Sponsorship: An important component of the promotions mix. J Advertising 16(1):11–17
Grohs R, Wagner U, Vsetecka S (2004) Assessing the effectiveness of sport sponsorships—An empirical examination. Schmalenbach Bus Rev. 56:119–138
Jagre E, Wilson JJ, Watson JG (2001) Sponsorship and congruity theory: A theoretical framework for explaining consumer attitude and recall of event sponsorship. In: Advances in Consumer Research, vol 28. Valdosta, GA
Mazodier M, Merunka D (2012) Achieving brand loyalty through sponsorship: The role of fit and self-congruity. J Acad Mark Sci 40(6):807–820
Mazodier M, Quester P (2014) The role of sponsorship fit for changing brand affect: A latent growth modeling approach. Int J Res Mark 31(1):16–29
Mazodier M, Quester PG, Chandon J-L (2012) Unmasking the ambusher: Conceptual framework and empirical evidence. Eur J Mark 46(1/2):192–214
Meenaghan T (1983) Commercial sponsorship. Eur J Mark 25(11):5–10
Meenaghan T (2001) Understanding sponsorship effects. Psychol Mark 18(2):95–121
Meenaghan T, Shipley D (1999) Media effect in commercial sponsorship. Eur J Mark 33(3/4):328–347
Olson EL (2010) Does sponsorship work in the same way in different sponsorship contexts? Eur J Mark 44(1/2):180–199
Olson EL, Thjømøe HM (2009) Sponsorship effect metric: Assessing the financial value of sponsoring by comparisons to television advertising. J Acad Mark Sci 37(4):504–515
Olson EL, Thjømøe HM (2011) Explaining and articulating the fit construct in sponsorship. J of Advertising 40(1):57–70
Otker T, Hayes P (1987) Judging the efficiency of sponsorship: Experience from the 1986 soccer world cup. Eur Res 15(4):3–8
Pham MT (1992) Effects of involvement, arousal, and pleasure on the recognition of sponsorship stimuli. Adv Consum Res 19:85–93
Quester P (1997) Awareness as a measure of sponsorship effectiveness—The Adelaide formula one grand prix. J Mark Commun 3(2):1–20
Quester P, Farrelly F (1998) Brand association and memory decay effects of sponsorship: The case of the australian formula one grand prix. J Prod Brand Manage 7(6):539–556
Quester PG, Thompson B (2001) Advertising and promotion leverage on arts sponsorship effectiveness. J Advertising Res 41:33−47
Ropo A, Sauer E (2003) Partnerships of orchestras: Towards shared leadership. Int J Arts Manag 44−55
Ruth JA, Simonin BL (2006) The power of numbers. J Advertising 35(4):7–20
Sandler DM, Shani D (1989) Olympic sponsorship versus “Ambush” marketing: Who gets the gold? J Advertising Res 29(9/14):38–43
Simmons CJ, Becker-Olsen KL (2006) Achieving marketing objectives through social sponsorships. J Mark 70:154–169
Sneath JZ, Finney RZ, Close AG (2005) An IMC approach to event marketing: The effect of sponsorship and experience on event attitude. J Advertising Res 45(4):373–381
Speed R, Thompson P (2000) Determinants of sports sponsorship response. J Acad Mark Sci 28(2):226–238
Walraven M, Bijmolt THA, Koning RH (2014) Dynamic effects of sponsoring: How sponsorship awareness develops over time. J Advertising 43(2):142−154
Weeks CS, Cornwell TB, Drennan JC (2008) Leveraging sponsorships on the internet: activation, congruence, and articulation. Psychol Mark 25(7):637–654
Woodside FM, Summers J (2012) The impact of sponsorship awareness in low involvement setting. Contemp Manag Res 8(3):205–228
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Carrillat, F.A., d’Astous, A. (2016). Leveraging Research on Activation: Quester and Thompson’s (2001) Impact on the Field of Sponsorship. In: Plewa, C., Conduit, J. (eds) Making a Difference Through Marketing. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0464-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0464-3_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0462-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0464-3
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)