Sponsorship Relationships: A Qualitative Case Study of Identifying Success Factors in Sponsorship Relationships

Abstract: Background: Sponsoring is a marketing and communication tool that has had a major growth over the last two decades. Sponsoring is one of the fastest expanding ways for companies to communicate with their target audience. Despite this, there has been a lack of awareness considering the sponsorship relationships and how they evolved. Most of the research conducted up to now within the area of sponsorship has just been focusing on the sponsoring part as a separated unit, without considering the connection with the sponsee. Purpose: The purpose for this research is to investigate the relationship between a sponsee and its sponsors to identify success factors and how the parties act in order to ensure these success factors. Method: This qualitative research has been conducted by a deductive approach where interviews were held as data collection method. The research has been based on a descriptive design. Conclusions: This research shows that strong commitment and good frequent communication are key factors in order to have a successful sponsorship relationship. The research also shows the importance of having mutual goals in sponsorship relationships, since mutual goals have a tendency to increase the commitment from both parties in a sponsorship relationship.