'How the Anticipation Can Be as Great as the Experience : Explaining Event Sponsorship Exhibit Outcomes Via Affective Forecasting'

Via field surveys of attendees at a sporting event (n=1,739), the authors contribute a model showing that event attendees' participation in the title sponsors' main exhibit area at the event favorably influences their future intentions to purchase from the sponsor. Yet, there is an important difference between those attendees who already experienced the title sponsor's exhibit area versus attendees who planned to visit the exhibit areas later. Interestingly, attendees who have yet to attend the exhibit area feel more strongly that the event sponsorship enhanced their perceptions of the title sponsor. This finding may be explained by attendees' affective forecasting; that planned experiences will be more positive than perhaps the actual experience itself