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Sporting involvement and alcohol sponsorshipDiageo, owner of many sponsoring brands, helps todevelop educational materials on alcohol awareness(Diageo, 2007); UK alcohol websites now drawattention to the fact that alcohol should be usedresponsibly and is only appropriate for adults; andmany alcohol companies contribute to the DrinkawareTrust, whose mission is “campaigning and educatingto reduce alcohol harm” (Drinkaware Trust, 2007).Product category effects frommarketing communicationsWhile no previous studies have investigated therelationships between sponsorship awareness andalcohol use, many of the arguments put forward in thedebate on tobacco sponsorship are relevant. Tobaccomarketers also refuted links between their advertisingand sponsorship and young people’s smoking, statingthat the tobacco market was mature and thatpromotional activities only encouraged brandswitching. Hastings and Aitken (1995) pointed out thekey flaw in that argument – that the tobacco marketwas not a single market but several, one being themarket of young smokers, which had to be continuallyreplenished in order for the industry to survive. Thesame applies to the alcohol market – the alcoholindustry needs young people to take up drinking, andin a highly competitive market, each company wantsthem to drink their brands. Even if no young persondrank illegally, a pragmatic marketer would ensurefamiliarity with brands aimed at the 18-24 marketbefore young people reached that age.Ledwith (1984) found that secondary schoolchildrenwere most aware of cigarette brands which wereassociated with sponsorship of televised sport, whileAitken et al (1986a) found that around a third of lateprimary schoolchildren and more than half ofsecondary schoolchildren were aware of cigarettebrand sports sponsorships. However, the latter foundno significant differences between smokers and nonsmokers.This would indicate that sponsorship doesraise the brand profile, but does not provide evidenceto link this awareness to use of either the brand or theproduct category. In contrast, studies investigatingchildren’s perceptions of tobacco advertising (DiFranzaet al 1991; Aitken et al, 1986b; Alexander et al,1983) found that non-smoking children with a morefavourable view of cigarette advertising were morelikely to become smokers. Thus there may be somedifference between the effects of advertising andsponsorship – young people exposed to alcoholsponsorship without associated persuasive advertisingmay not be drawn towards alcohol.Kelly et al (2002) found that image advertising(advertising with visuals, as opposed to text only) fortobacco and alcohol brands positively influencedyoung people’s views about the attractiveness of theproduct category. As sponsorship only consists ofshowing the name and possibly brand logo, it couldbe thought of as analogous to a text advertisementand thus non-influencing; however, visual cuesprovided by the context (e.g. attractive or admiredsportsperson wearing the sponsor’s shirt; sponsorname on fast, sleek racing car) might produce apositive image which could then be transferred to theproduct category.Evidence for a link between sponsorship awarenessand behaviour comes from Charlton et al (1998),who investigated the sporting preferences, cigarettebrand knowledge and smoking status of 12-13 yearold boys, and found that those who named motorracing as their favourite televised sport weresignificantly more likely to name the sponsoringbrands Marlboro and Camel. A year later, the boyswere again asked about their smoking status; asignificantly greater percentage of those who preferredmotor racing had become regular smokers (12.8% asagainst 7.0% of others).Turning to the current debate on food advertising tochildren, Ambler (2006) concluded, after reviewingstudies commissioned by the UK Food StandardsAuthority and the UK Advertising Authority’s FoodAdvertising Unit, that the promotion of particular foodbrands to children does not have any effect on productcategory consumption or on overall diet.It can thus be seen that the evidence for productcategory effects, particularly those related toRESEARCH PAPER● OCTOBER 2009 ● International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship29
Sporting involvement and alcohol sponsorshipRESEARCH PAPERsponsorship, is limited and inconclusive. The currentstudy specifically considers product category effectsrelated to alcohol sponsorship of sport. Beforedescribing the research, the next section of this paperexplains why so many alcohol brands are involved insuch sponsorships in the UK.Alcohol, sport and sponsorshipA main objective of sponsorship is to enhance theimage of the sponsoring brand (Cornwell & Maignan,1998), through association with an activity, individual,team or event towards which the target market alreadyhas a favourable attitude and from which a desirableimage may be transferred to the brand. Meenaghanand Shipley (1999) found that sports sponsorship ingeneral was associated with the values “healthy,young, energetic, fast, vibrant, [and] masculine”; theseare useful associations to have for an alcohol brand,counteracting the negative links of alcohol to antisocialbehaviour and addiction.One of the key determinants of effective transfer ofimage and positive consumer response to sponsorshipis perceived fit or synergy between sponsored propertyand sponsoring brand (Speed & Thompson, 2000;Gwinner & Eaton, 1999; Kinney & McDaniel, 1996;Koo et al, 2006). In the case of alcohol and sport, thisis provided by the long history of cultural linksbetween the two in the UK (Collins & Vamplew,2002); even before the Industrial Revolution, pubsand their grounds were used as sporting venues andmany brewers were active sportsmen who supportedcommunity sport in a spirit of social responsibility. Thepub and sport also share a tradition of masculineculture, and both sport and alcohol are associatedwith release from work, relaxation and letting go ofinhibitions (Collins & Vamplew, 2002). The massiverise in televised sport has provided additionalopportunities for pubs and clubs, who can attractsupporters to watch important matches in a sociableatmosphere (Eastman & Land, 1997).It is not surprising, therefore, that alcohol marketerssee sports teams and events as ideal sponsorshipproperties, and that 33 alcohol companies areinvolved in a total of 61 sponsorship deals withvarious UK sports (Mintel, 2006). Regulation ofalcohol advertising, which prohibits association ofalcohol with youth culture, sexual success,attractiveness, daring or toughness, also increases theprimacy of image transfer through sponsorship indeveloping a positive image for alcohol brands.Research questionsIf sponsorship of sport by alcohol companiesinfluences young people towards drinking alcohol,then it is to be expected that, in the absence of anyother relevant influences, those who are more awareof sports sponsorship are more likely to drink alcohol.However, if sponsors are sending out a clear messageon underage drinking, this may deter young peoplefrom consuming alcohol. Even if they do drink onoccasion, they may respond to responsible drinkingmessages and therefore be less likely to drink toexcess.To be exposed to alcohol sports sponsorship, ayoung person must have some interest in orinvolvement with sport, and even before sponsorshipis considered, cultural influences towards drinkingalcohol after playing sport and while watching sportmay lead young sportspeople and sports fans towardsdrinking. As the sporting involvement precedesexposure to sponsorship, it seems logical that theresearch should investigate first whether this is thecase, before testing for the influence of sponsorship.Our first two research hypotheses are therefore:H1: Young people who are more involved insport are more likely to drink alcohol.H2: Young people who are more involved insport are more likely to drink to excess.The next question is whether exposure to alcoholsponsorship in the sporting context has an effect ondrinking behaviour, additional to any effect found to be30 International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship ● OCTOBER 2009 ●
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