Sponsorships

Abstract

There are two main purposes in commercial sponsorship. One is purely altruistic and expresses the desire to give something back to society. It may be anonymous, but usually the sponsorship is acknowledged and some kind of glory will probably result from it. There are various cultural Foundations, libraries, hospital wings and art galleries funded in this way. The sponsor is seen to be a do-gooder. The other, and more usual form of sponsorship, has a marketing communications objective of some kind. It may be a PR, advertising or marketing objective or a combination of two or three of them. Many sports sponsorships aim quite blatantly to gain TV coverage. Some advertisers find that the cost of TV advertising has been hiked so disproportionately that there is a point when cost-effectiveness ceases, and the rest of the spend is diverted into sponsorship.