Alcohol sponsorship - Corporate philanthropy or
self-interest?
Patrick Kenny
School of Marketing
Dublin Institute of Technology
Pat.Kenny@dit.ie
Overview
• The (commercial) nature of sponsorship
• Sources of evidence on alcohol sponsorship and drinking
behaviour
Sponsorship is growing at
approx. 5% per year
Equivalent sums needed to
leverage the sponsorship
Sponsorship
promotional spend ratio
Ambush marketing
Integrated marketing
communications
• Marketing is more than
advertising and promotion
• Wider marketing mix
• Each element is integrated
and mutually reinforcing
• Other marketing mix
elements support
sponsorship - higher number
of alcohol ads around
sponsored sports events.
Sponsorship is not philanthropy...
• But sponsors benefit from the perception that it might
be…
Advertising versus Sponsorship: A halo of
goodwill
• Attitude: Selfish versus Generous
• Influence: Direct & forceful versus Indirect & subtle
• Persuasive intention: Overt versus Disguised
• Defence mechanisms: High versus Low
• Perceptions actively cultivated and reinforced by the
industry
Meeting consumers
in their passion
• Advertising perceived
as an interference
• Sponsorship captures
consumers where they
are passionate
• Attempt to align image
of event/sport to the
brand
• Sport and
masculinity
Attitudes associated with sports sponsorship
• Sports sponsors more likely to be perceived as healthy,
young, energetic, fast, vibrant and masculine.
• Attractive positioning when targeting young males
Relationship between alcohol and sponsorship:
Background
• Most research on advertising, not sponsorship
• Extremely difficult to isolate sponsorship and measure the
impact
• Tendency to focus on brand level rather than product
level
What can we learn from marketing in general?
• The relationship between exposure to marketing (of all
types) and alcohol consumption is increasingly clear
• Greater awareness of, and engagement with, marketing
(including sponsorship) is related to increased
consumption
• Alcohol-related merchandise strongly associated with
consumption
• Relationship especially strong amongst the young
What can we learn from tobacco sponsorship?
• Some evidence from tobacco - 12/13 year olds who liked
motor racing were more aware of its tobacco sponsors
and were significantly more likely to commence smoking
over time (Charlton et al 1998).
• Young people aware of cricket tobacco sponsorship
were more likely to experiment with smoking (Vaidya et
al, 1996)
What can we learn from alcohol sponsorship
studies?
• 14/15 year olds involved in sport more likely to drink and
get drunk; sponsorship enhanced these effects (Davies,
2009).
• Australian and New Zealand sports players sponsored
by alcohol companies were considerably more likely to
abuse alcohol (O'Brien et al, 2008 & 2011).
• Australian children aware of alcohol sponsors and had
favourable attitudes towards them (Jones et al 2009).
What can we learn from internal industry
documents ?
• Carling: (Young men) think about 4 things, we brew 1
and sponsor 2 of them.
• The aim of Carling's music sponsorship: Build the image
of the brand and recruit young male drinkers.
• Ultimately, the band are the heroes at the venue and
Carling should use them to 'piggy back' and engage
customers emotions
What can we learn from social norms theory?
• Perceptions of what is common and of what is socially
acceptable
• Scores of studies show that social norms have a much
greater influence on behaviour than almost all other
factors
• But where do social norm perceptions themselves come
from?
The pervasive nature
of marketing
communicates
normative messages
The extent of branding and sponsorship in sport
• Tournament
• Stadium names
• Pitch hoardings
• Teams
• Other supporters
• Merchandise
• Consumption on site
Impact on social norms
• Marketing, and sponsorship, normalise alcohol
consumption
• Evidence that one can be indirectly influenced by the
drinking culture in sport even if one is not explicitly aware
of sponsorship
The evidence base
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Studies on alcohol marketing in general
Tobacco sponsorship studies
Alcohol sponsorship studies
Industry documents
Social norms theory
• We know about as much about alcohol sponsorship
as we did about tobacco sponsorship when it was
banned.