When happiness rhymes with sponsorship effectiveness: An investigation into how emotional valence influences sponsor memorisation

Abstract

Facing the limits of a fully cognitively-based approach of the sponsorship persuasion process, scholars have progressively introduced affective variables to investigate the way sponsorship works. However, if most recognize the emotional content elicited by every sport event, less is known about whether and how it affects sponsorship effectiveness. This study addresses this gap by using the processing efficiency principle to explain how emotional valence affects sponsor memorisation. Data from a pilot study (N=143), undertaken during the Australian Open 2008, confirm that positive emotional response leads to more accurate sponsor memorisation.