Brand association and memory decay effects of sponsorship

Corporate managers often invest in sponsorship as a means of associating a firm, its name or its brands, with a particular sport or event. The strength of that association should therefore be a measure of sponsorship success. In this study, four consecutive years of data collected at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix were used to examine the issue, based on brand recall/association and memory decay as a surrogate indicator of the strength of association. From the literature, several factors were hypothesised to influence positively the strength of brand association and three out of four were confirmed as determinants of this performance indicator. The implications of these findings are considered in the light of sponsorship management practices.