Ideas with Impact
UNB Faculty of Management

Companies often receive sponsorship requests and see them as opportunities to showcase their products, services and community support. By assisting non-profits, sports teams, entertainers, artists, and community initiatives, they aim to capture consumer attention and build a positive brand image; however, managers frequently question which sponsorships will enhance consumer perceptions and often seek guidelines for effective and authentic sponsorships.

Two professors with UNB’s faculty of management, Drs. Hsin-Chen Lin and Patrick Bruning, along with their co-authors, recently published two studies that provide practical help to companies thinking about sponsorships.

The first study was published in the Journal of Advertising (2025) and provides insights on successful sponsorships; and the second study, published in the journal Business Horizons (2024), provides practical advice to organizations considering sponsorships.

The Journal of Advertising paper, “Quality and intention signaling: A meta-analysis of how sponsorship relates to consumer responses according to content, observability, credibility, and national culture” analyzed data collected from 139 research studies that involved 52,125 participants from 25 different countries. The findings showed that:

• On average, sponsorships positively relate to consumers’ attention, attitudes and behaviors.
• Sponsorships of sports, entertainment, and arts entities are related to more positive consumer attention and attitudes than sponsorships of prosocial cause entities.
• Sponsorships that have more familiar sponsors relate to greater consumer attention but also relate to less positive consumer attitudes.
• Sponsorships are related to more positive consumer attitudes when they have a better “fit” with the sponsee and when they involve longer-term entities (e.g., teams, leagues, or programs) rather than events.
• Sponsorship fit and sponsoring longer-term entities are especially important for cause sponsorships.

In summary, the results suggest that sponsorships can positively influence consumer responses, but sponsorships of causes that benefit society may require clearer and more committed connections between the sponsor and the recipient to be successful.

Canadian examples of this, says Dr. Lin, “… include Purina CA sponsoring Humane Canada, an organization promoting animal welfare; and STIHL, a producer of chainsaws and other handheld power tools, supporting the World Logging Championships.

The second paper, published in Business Horizons and entitled “Guidelines for sponsorship signaling within socially complex markets,” offers practical advice by explaining how sponsorships can influence consumers to perceive the company as community-supportive and its products and services as high-quality. The authors provide five guidelines for managing authentic and effective sponsorships, as follows:

1. Make authentic fit a core principle.

• Select a sponsee that has a good fit with your organization.
• Work to develop the relationship in an authentic way.

2. Provide committed investments into the relationship.

• These investments are best when they are tangible and authentic. They should align with the values and identities your organization shares with the sponsee.

3. Make the sponsorship more observable.

• Communicate the sponsorship through public relations messaging and social media marketing.
• Present the information in ways that are suitable for different audiences.

4. Develop the credibility of the sponsorship and its message.

• Align the message with the organization’s capabilities and competencies.
• Develop the connection with the sponsee/audience incrementally over time.
• Convey values that align with the sponsee and their audience.
• Ensure consistency in messaging over time.

5. Assess audience reactions to the sponsorship and adapt to feedback.

• Conduct pre-launch assessments to understand intended and unintended audiences.
• Conduct post-launch assessments.
• Adapt to feedback.

Dr. Lin is a member of the marketing area in the faculty of management and teaches courses in marketing management, global marketing, and social media marketing. Dr. Bruning is a member of the business administration area and teaches courses in organization behaviour, motivation and leadership.

Their recent studies will assist organizations in creating more meaningful and effective sponsorships, suggests Dr. Lin. “The results from the Journal of Advertising paper can be applied by organizations planning sponsorships, especially those involving a prosocial cause, by demonstrating the importance of fit and credibility.” The practical guidelines from the Business Horizons paper will help organizations make their sponsorships more credible and effective.

Photo: Drs. Hsin-Chen Lin and Patrick Bruning with UNB’s Faculty of Management recently published two studies that provide practical help to companies thinking about sponsorships.

Learn more about UNB’s Faculty of Management.

Media contact:
Liz Lemon-Mitchell
Lizabeth.Lemonmitchell@unb.ca