The company you keep: Brand image transfer in concurrent event sponsorship

Abstract

Despite the ubiquity of concurrent sponsorship situations in practice, the interplay of simultaneously visible sponsors has received very little attention in the literature to date. Although the presence of concurrently visible brands is often seen as a threat to sponsors as they compete for consumers' attention, under certain conditions, brands may also stand to profit from their cosponsors. By using manipulated video treatments, this laboratory experiment is the first to recreate an incidental brand exposure environment typical for sponsorship. This allowed for natural perception and processing of sponsor brand information. The results provide evidence of a direct transfer of both brand attitudes and brand personality traits between concurrent event sponsors. Additionally, an indirect image transfer of personality traits via a mediated route through the image of the sponsored event could be observed.