Measurement of Sponsorship Consciousness in an Event B2B

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the sponsorship awareness, in order to see how participants remember sponsors’ brands after an event in the business-to-business environment, based on Meenaghan and O'Sullivan (2013). Using content analysis and descriptive statistics, this exploratory descriptive research found significant levels of sponsorship awareness among the respondents. It is noteworthy that, in the case of the main sponsor, a semantic association process that linked the event theme to the sponsor’s brand (a company that develops business management software), can explain the high level of awareness. At the same time, this strong association may have diminished attention to and memory of other sponsors. It was also found that the ambushing (an association that an individual makes between an event and a brand that is not in fact sponsoring the event) attended sharply in the measurement of prompted memory compared to unprompted memory. These results highlight the importance of sponsorship comprehensive management, by promoters and event sponsors, given its importance as a strategic marketing action to leverage new business, retain customers and increase the value of their brands.