Pat Kenny, lecturer in the School of Marketing, Dublin Institute of Technology, talks about alcohol sponsorship of sports and the arts at Alcohol Action Ireland's conference "Time Please... For Change"
3. Sponsorship is growing at
approx. 5% per year
Equivalent sums needed
to leverage the
sponsorship
4. Sponsorship
Ambush marketing
promotional spend
ratio
5. Integrated
marketing
communications
• Marketing is more than
advertising and promotion
• Wider marketing mix
• Each element is integrated
and mutually reinforcing
• Other marketing mix
elements support
sponsorship - higher number
of alcohol ads around
sponsored sports events.
6. Sponsorship is not philanthropy...
• But sponsors benefit from the perception that it
might be…
7. Advertising versus Sponsorship: A halo of
goodwill
• Attitude: Selfish versus Generous
• Influence: Direct & forceful versus Indirect & subtle
• Persuasive intention: Overt versus Disguised
• Defence mechanisms: High versus Low
• Perceptions actively cultivated and reinforced by
the industry
8. Meeting
consumers in their
passion
•Advertising perceived
as an interference
•Sponsorship captures
consumers where they
are passionate
•Attempt to align image
of event/sport to the
brand
•Sport and
masculinity
9. Attitudes associated with sports
sponsorship
• Sports sponsors more likely to be perceived as
healthy, young, energetic, fast, vibrant and
masculine.
• Attractive positioning when targeting young males
10. Relationship between alcohol and
sponsorship:
Background
• Most research on advertising, not sponsorship
• Extremely difficult to isolate sponsorship and
measure the impact
• Tendency to focus on brand level rather than
product level
11. What can we learn from marketing in
general?
• The relationship between exposure to marketing
(of all types) and alcohol consumption is
increasingly clear
• Greater awareness of, and engagement with,
marketing (including sponsorship) is related to
increased consumption
• Alcohol-related merchandise strongly associated
with consumption
• Relationship especially strong amongst the young
12. What can we learn from tobacco
sponsorship?
• Some evidence from tobacco - 12/13 year olds
who liked motor racing were more aware of its
tobacco sponsors and were significantly more
likely to commence smoking over time (Charlton
et al 1998).
• Young people aware of cricket tobacco
sponsorship were more likely to experiment with
smoking (Vaidya et al, 1996)
13. What can we learn from alcohol sponsorship
studies?
• 14/15 year olds involved in sport more likely to
drink and get drunk; sponsorship enhanced these
effects (Davies, 2009).
• Australian and New Zealand sports players
sponsored by alcohol companies were
considerably more likely to abuse alcohol (O'Brien
et al, 2008 & 2011).
• Australian children aware of alcohol sponsors and
had favourable attitudes towards them (Jones et
al 2009).
14. What can we learn from internal industry
documents ?
• Carling: (Young men) think about 4 things, we
brew 1 and sponsor 2 of them.
• The aim of Carling's music sponsorship: Build the
image of the brand and recruit young male
drinkers.
• Ultimately, the band are the heroes at the venue
and Carling should use them to 'piggy back' and
engage customers emotions
15. What can we learn from social norms
theory?
• Perceptions of what is common and of what is
socially acceptable
• Scores of studies show that social norms have a
much greater influence on behaviour than almost
all other factors
• But where do social norm perceptions themselves
come from?
17. The extent of branding and sponsorship in
sport
• Tournament
• Stadium names
• Pitch hoardings
• Teams
• Other supporters
• Merchandise
• Consumption on site
18. Impact on social norms
• Marketing, and sponsorship, normalise alcohol
consumption
• Evidence that one can be indirectly influenced by
the drinking culture in sport even if one is not
explicitly aware of sponsorship
19. The evidence base
• Studies on alcohol marketing in general
• Tobacco sponsorship studies
• Alcohol sponsorship studies
• Industry documents
• Social norms theory
• We know about as much about
alcohol sponsorship as we did
about tobacco sponsorship when it
was banned.