Attitudes Toward Sponsorship at a State Sports Festival

Abstract

Sponsorships generate much needed revenue to produce the event, create awareness of the activity, and aid in its promotion. Because sponsorship is such an important facet of event production and execution, further investigation regarding the effectiveness of such activations on event consumers (attendees) seems justified. The purpose of this study was to assess consumers' affective and behavioral responses to commercial sponsors at a state sports festival. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three distinct factors: attitude toward event, attitude toward commercialization, and attitude toward behavioral intent. Regression analysis indicated that attitude toward commercialization and attitude toward event were both significant (p < 0.001) predictors of consumer purchase intentions at this state sports festival. Overall, the study revealed favorable findings for this state sports festival and its constituents. Marketing implications and future research directions are discussed.