| dc.description.abstract | Sport sponsorship has grown enormously over the past 30 years. In Norway the expenditure of sponsorships was more than $US 520 million in 2009. 71% was sports sponsorships (Sponsor Insight, 2011). The growth on expenditures within the sport sponsorship market has resulted in more empirical investigation in the field of sport sponsorship business. Despite the increasing number of research studies on sport sponsorship further empirical research is required in order to establish an overview of corporations’ sponsorship motives as well as attractiveness characteristics of a sport sponsorship object, and, further, a link which couple these two sponsorship elements. By mapping corporations’ sponsoring motives and sponsorship objects’ attractiveness characteristics, and thereby connect them together, this study seeks a theoretical contribution as it add to the increasing number of research within the field of sport sponsorship. Additionally this paper has a practical contribution to corporations’ marketing managers and entities’ sport organizers as this study provides an understanding of what it takes to establish a successful sponsorship.
The aim of this article was to present a “sponsorship motives/attractiveness” overview, linking corporations’ sponsorship motives and attractiveness characteristics by sport sponsorship objects, which provides an understanding for how minor sports associations can increase their attractiveness as a sponsorship prospect. Thus, the theoretical approach was to review the literature on sponsorship motives and sponsorship object attractiveness. The corporations’ sponsorship motives were summarized in Table 1: “map of sponsorship motives”, which is presented in three categories; external, internal, and hospitality. Next, the theory on attractiveness characteristics by sport sponsorship objects is presented. This study is based on thirteen qualitative open-ended interviews, which were conducted from; The Norwegian Football Association (NFF); The Norwegian Association of Orienteering (NOF); seven of the NFFs and the NOFs sponsors; one additional sponsor; and three different media. The sample was chosen to provide a wide range of respondents. The findings in this research study are outlined here through a comparative analysis of similar and dissimilar attractiveness characteristics between The Norwegian Football Association and The Norwegian Association of Orienteering as one minor and one major sponsorship object. The results suggest that corporations that are focusing on external motives for sponsoring, such as sales increase, brand awareness, and image enhancement, are likely to gain from sponsoring major sport associations as they provide media exposure and public interest. Corporations that have internal motives for sport sponsorship, such as employee motivation and involvement, are likely to gain from sponsoring major sport association, as it leads to emotional attachment and pride among employees. For hospitality motives for sport sponsorship corporations gain from sponsoring major sport associations, as the major sport associations most often have proper arenas for corporate hospitality. Minor sports associations attract sponsorship interest when their values are perceived as unique and brand differentiating to prospective sponsors. | |
