Sponsorship Portfolio : Empirical study of the decision process

Abstract: Background/Problem: Sponsorship has grown a lot for the past twenty years, to become a part of the marketing activities not to say a full-fledged tool. Being now a major marketing tool, it is crucial to understand how the whole sponsorship process works, in order to control it perfectly. Purpose: To offer an overview of the whole sponsorship process, from the sponsoring side. Theory: In the theory part is a literature review about sponsorship. First a definition of sponsorship is presented. Then the different motivations to start a sponsorship activity are discussed, followed by the selection criteria. Finally, the evaluation methods of the activity are reviewed. Research questions: How do companies select their events and manage their portfolio? Which are the factors influencing the future decisions of continuing a sponsorship? Method: In order to identify what are the most relevant elements in the whole sponsorship-decision process, a quantitative approach was used. An online survey was created online in order to collect data that has been analysed through SPSS. Conclusion: Our results show that the selection of the event and the evaluation of the sponsorship activity are very important for the portfolio, although if there is a lack of evaluation among the companies.