Leveraging sponsorship to achieve consumer relationship objectives through the creation of ‘marketing spaces’: An exploratory study

This paper explores the emergence of sponsorship-linked events as a strategy to leverage relational outcomes through sponsorship investment. The growing use of sponsorship-linked events reinforces the need to understand the potential of such leverage strategies, thus the findings contribute to the body of literature on effective sponsorship practices. Findings from semi-structured interviews with Sponsorship and Marketing Managers suggest a shifting orientation among sponsors towards the pursuit of relational objectives. The privileged access to consumers afforded through sponsorship allows sponsors to manufacture opportunities to create intimacy with customers through sponsorship-linked events in relaxed, comfortable environments; thus sponsorship-linked events are positioned as a rich environment to add value to consumer–brand interactions and achieve relational objectives. Hosting specifically designed events affords sponsors an increased modicum of control over consumer–brand experiences in sponsorship environments characterised by a lack of control over sponsored property actions. However, this control may be eroded by social media technologies, which facilitate consumer–consumer communication around sponsorship-linked events. Social media, however, is proposed as a useful tool to elicit consumer feedback, addressing the misalignment between current sponsorship evaluation practices and emergent relational objectives revealed in the empirical findings. Therefore, successfully activating the sponsorship-linked marketing space demands an integrated and strategic approach

Marketing and public policy: Transformative research in developing markets

Developing markets are a challenge for researchers who study them and for governments, business leaders, and citizens who strive to improve the quality of life in them. The limitations of the dominant development paradigm coupled with the need to focus on consumers provide tremendous opportunities to engage in truly transformative research. Toward this outcome, several interactive forces must be understood and addressed during research design, management, and implementation. The purpose of this essay is to provide a synthesis-that is, a framework in the form of a conceptual model-with practical applications to transformative research in developing markets and, ultimately, with the broader objective to stimulate new conceptualizations, research, and best practices to transform consumer well-being. © 2012, American Marketing Association

Cashing in on crashing via brand placement in computer games: The effects of experience and flow on memory

The practice of placing brand names, logos and products into computer games is becoming increasingly popular. Recent research has focused on movies and television, with little research considering computer game placements. This study explores the effectiveness of different banners, in terms of recall and recognition, as well as the effects of computer game experience on participants’ memories of banners. The study used a self-selected sample of 46 males and found that banners high in spatial prominence led to higher recall and recognition levels; however, subtle banners related to the actions of the players were also able to influence memory. The concept of flow was also hypothesized to impact on memory, but this was not supported

Experienced presence within computer mediated communications: Initial explorations on the effects of gender with respect to empathy and immersion

The concept of presence has generated much discussion over the past few years. There is a consensus that presence exists and that it can be experienced as a reaction to environmental stimuli. However, less has been written on the psychological mechanisms of engaging in presence. We argue that presence is closely linked to empathy and that strong empathic tendencies will lead to high levels of experienced presence. In this study we investigate the relationship between presence, empathy, and gender. A 2×2 experimental design was administered to participants who interacted with a flight simulator. Our results indicate that men and women engage in presence in different ways. Men appear to engage in presence via the interaction afforded by the virtual environment, whereas women appear to engage in presence via watching the environment. Both men and women appear to use empathic ability as a means of engaging in presence. Implications and directions for future research are discussed