Abstract
As a biennial event, the Ryder Cup is a men’s golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. Ernst & Young (EY) and Standard Life Investments (SLI), who are in same business category (i.e., financial services), have served as official partners of the event in recent years. While the two firms are willing to move away from the traditional sponsorship practices of category exclusivity deals, both have been able to achieve significant success through their collaborative efforts in activating their sponsorships. This is a new, fascinating phenomenon in both sponsorship concept and practice. Through an exploratory inductive inquiry process, in this study we conduct a case analysis by examining the sponsorship activations of EY and SLI at the 2014 Ryder Cup event held in the UK. The findings demonstrate that social media plays an impactful role in the companies’ ability to engage target audiences. EY used the Ryder Cup captain as a brand ambassador, who embodied its sponsorship theme of leadership and teamwork. SLI focused on running advertising campaigns to build company image and increase brand awareness.
Highlights
A growing number of sponsoring companies are enthusiastic about sporting events because they provide a platform to establish brand relationships with target markets [1]
Using an in-depth qualitative research approach, we conducted a single case study to investigate how sponsorship activations for a recent Ryder Cup event held in Scotland, United Kingdom (UK), contributed to the sponsor’s brand strategy and how opportunities and tensions emerged during sponsorship activation
We focused on two official partners of the event (i.e., Standard Life Investments (SLI) and Ernst & Young (EY))
Summary
A growing number of sponsoring companies are enthusiastic about sporting events because they provide a platform to establish brand relationships with target markets [1]. Sponsorship is an important marketing and communication strategy that establishes mutually beneficial relationships between sponsors and fans of the event [2]. Event sponsorship enhances brand recognition among consumers [4]. According to Cornwell et al, an effectively managed sponsorship can help differentiate a brand from its competitors [6]. In this way, sponsorship is a strategic approach to increasing brand awareness and stimulating financial growth [7]
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