Brand, Identity and Reputation: Exploring, Creating New Realities ...

Importance of Country Image to Mega-event Sponsorship Brands: Comparison of Vancouver Winter Olympics
and South Africa FIFA World Cup
John Nadeau, Nipissing University, Canada
Louise Heslop, Carleton University, Canada
Norm O‘Reilly, University of Ottawa, Canada
Sonja Verwey, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Anahit Armenakyan, Carleton University, Canada
Erdinç Çakmak, NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
Introduction
Mega-events are an elite category of events that are characterized by the extraordinarily large presence, reach and
audience of the event (Florek, Breitbarth and Conejo, 2008). For corporate sponsor/marketers they represent a
communications channel to broadly engage customers and potential customers on the values and meanings of their
brands. Indeed, mega-events sponsorship revenues indicate the perceived marketing value of the opportunity. For
example, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics generated CDN$756 million in sponsorship revenues (Seguin et al.,
2010).
Beyond the sheer size and reach of mega-events, they are often described in the context of their host country. The
rotational hosting nature of many of these events (e.g. Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, Commonwealth Games, etc.)
means that different countries create the backdrop for the event itself. A leading motivation for host locations is to
enhance the image of the country at home and abroad (Heslop et al. 2010). While the views of residents of the host
country towards mega-events have been investigated previously, little research appears to examine resident views at the
intersection of host country, mega-events and sponsor images.
Attribution theory provides an explanation as to how people draw inferences about an actor based on character or
situational information (Kelley and Michela, 1980). This theory can be applied to understand the evaluations that
people make about an event based on their views of the host country and its people, even in the absence of direct or
substantive experiences (e.g. stereotypes). Indeed, character-based information is often favoured over circumstance in
influencing behaviour (Heine and Buchtel, 2009).
The purpose of this paper is to compare the pattern of relationships among the images that host country residents hold
about the host country, the mega-event and a major sponsor for the event in the context of two different mega-events --
the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Comparing across megaevents
may allow some initial insight into the variable of sponsor associations and branding opportunities arising from
mega-event sponsorship.
Study 1 – Vancouver Winter Olympics
The Olympic Games are a premier athletic event where countries send their top athletes to participate in sporting
competitions for national pride and personal ambition. The Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternate every two
years. Both events meet the definition of a mega-event with sprawling facilities required to host the event, large
number of participating countries, and enormous attention by spectators worldwide (Majid et al., 2007). This study
explores the pattern of relationships among country, mega-event, and sponsor evaluative images in the context of the
Winter Olympic Games that were hosted by Canada in Vancouver during 2010.
The data for this study was collected during the Vancouver Olympic Games and as part of a larger multi-wave, Canadawide,
panel-based study; therefore, only a portion of the data is reflected here. The questionnaire collected views about
the host country, the Olympic Games and Coca-Cola as a TOP Olympic sponsor. The total sample size for this wave of
data was 970 respondents, including 57.4% males with a median age in the 31-50 years range, and 55% having obtained
a college diploma or less.
Respondents‘ evaluations on a scale of 1 (least favourable) to 7 (most favourable) for the host/home country and people,
the Olympic Games, and the top sponsor are presented in Table 1. The highest evaluations were reported about the host
country followed evaluations of the event itself and, finally, the evaluations of the event sponsor. It is not surprising
that the evaluations of sponsor are lower than the mega-event or the host country evaluations given the prominence of
the event and country and the associative nature of sponsorship.
To assess the patterns of relationships, a structural equation model (SEM) was tested using LISREL. The results are
presented in Figure 1 and demonstrate a relational pathway exists whereby the image of the host country and people is
related to the image evaluation of the mega-event sponsor through the evaluation of the mega-event itself. The model
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