Measuring the Marketing Communication Activations of a Professional Tennis Tournament^

The purpose of this study was to assess the marketing communication activations of a professional tennis tournament. Results indicate that respondents were satisfied with the marketing communications activations chosen by managers and marketers of the event. For example, most spectators (77%) learned of the event from television, which was their preferred media for becoming aware of the tournament. In addition, most spectators (94.6%) believed that it was good for companies, and specifically those based in Houston or Texas, to sponsor the tournament. The spectators also indicated that such support for the tournament was important in shaping their attitudes toward the sponsoring organization (61.7%) and their purchase decisions of sponsors' goods and services (54.9%). The post-tournament questionnaire also revealed that sponsorship recognition was high, as the least recognized sponsor was correctly identified by 65.4% of the respondents. Most spectators (78.4%) indicated that they intended to attend the tournament in 2004. Gregg Bennett, EdD, is an assistant professor of sport management and director of the Sport Marketing Lab at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on event marketing and the action sports industry. George B. Cunningham, EdD, is an assistant professor of sport management at Texas A&M University, where he also serves as the director of the Laboratory for Diversity in Sport. His research interests include diversity, group processes, and employee attitudes. Windy Dees is a doctoral candidate at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on the effectiveness of sport sponsorship. "The effectiveness of advertising an event is central, not only to the companies producing the event, hut to corporations sponsoring the event hecause of the emphasis on generating revenue." Measuring the Marketing Communication Activations of a Professional Tennis Tournament Marketing communications are the attempts of marketing firms or management groups to "inform, persuade, incite, and remind customers, directly or indirectly, about the brands they sell" (Keller, 2001, p. 819). There are several communication options available to marketing professionals that can facilitate this objective. These options are often clustered into larger communication categories, such as media advertising, direct response and interactive advertising, place advertising, trade promotions, event marketing and sponsorship, and personal selling (Keller, 2001). Marketing communication is transmitted through various mediums depending on the company, brand, or product being promoted, and is also tailored to suit the consumer segment being targeted. Marketing communication platforms are an integral facet of major sporting events. The focus of this study is on the marketing communication activation of a professional tennis tournament. Advertising Effectiveness Advertising campaigns provide consumers with important information on an event and sponsorships provide revenue that supports many of the costs of staging the event. The effectiveness of advertising an event is central, not only to the companies producing the event, but to corporations sponsoring the event because of the emphasis on generating revenue. Scholars who analyze the sports industry also strive to understand what makes an advertising campaign strategy effective. In order to better understand the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, corporations and Volume 15 • Number 2 • 2006 • Sport Marheting Quarteriy 91 scholars have made exhaustive efforts to examine consumers and investigate how advertising affects them and their decision-making. Research analyzing the effectiveness of advertising has been conducted for quite some time (see Vakratsas & Ambler, 1999). Scholars continue to provide theoretical foundations for understanding advertising effectiveness. One of the original theoretical frameworks posited over a century ago was Attention-InterestDesire-Action (AIDA), a hierarchical model developed by E. St. Elmo Lewis in 1898. This hierarchical model was used to describe the process consumers employ when making decisions based on an advertising message. AIDA succinctly depicts the order in which the consumer receives the advertising message, incorporates personal feelings and beliefs, decides how he or she will react to the message, and then behaves in a particular manner. Subsequently, a stream of research has developed on consumer attitudes toward advertising. Attitudes toward advertising represent the feelings, beliefs, and emotions that arise within the consumer when they are exposed to the marketing message. It has long been understood that consumers' attitude toward advertising in general (AG), the "learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner to advertising in general," (Lutz 1985, p. 53), influences the effectiveness of an advertisement (Greyser, 1972). Likewise, considerable literature has looked at attitude toward the advertisement (A^ ĵ), which has been operationalized as a "predisposition to respond in a favorable or unfavorable manner to a particular advertising stimulus during a particular exposure situation" (Mackenzie, Lutz, & Belch, 1986, p. 130). AG and A^j can impact the consumer's general idea of advertising, alter his or her viewpoint of a specific ad, and influence others factors such as brand attitude and purchase intentions (Brown & Stayman, 1992; Lutz, 1985; Mackenzie & Lutz, 1989; Mehta, 2000; Shimp, 1981). Further, both AG and  ^̂ may influence the advertising preferences of consumers, an important construct not often reported in sport marketing literature. Media & Advertising Preferences Most of the research efforts on media preferences have focused primarily on contrasting media (King, Reid, Tinkham, & Pokrywczynski, 1987; Larkin, 1979; O'Keefe, Nash, & Liu, 1981; Pasadeos, 1990). In regard to which media outlet provides more information, newspapers tend to rank higher than most sources for local advertising (King et al., 1987), while television ranks the highest for national advertising (King et al., 1987). Soley and Reid (1983) suggest that consumers prefer magazine advertising to television advertising for obtaining information on products. Pasadeos, Key, Hall, and Morillo (1987) reported that consumers believe newspaper advertisements to be more informative than television commercials and magazine advertisements. If consumers are presented with choosing a single news and information source, electronic media (i.e., television and radio) wins out (Gaziano & McGrath, 1986). Still, according to Gaziano and McGrath (1986), newspapers obtain higher credibility scores than electronic media among consumers. It is important to understand the media preferences of sport consumers as it allows companies to communicate their message more effectively with the targeted market. Therefore, the following research questions regarding media preferences were analyzed: Rl: What was the most effective media activation for making event attendees aware of the tennis tournament? R2: What was the preferred media outlet of event attendees for obtaining information about the tennis tournament? "It is important to understand the media preferences of sport consumers as it allows companies to communicate their message more effectively with the targeted market." The manner in which consumers become aware of an event is very important to marketing campaigns. Making consumers aware of an event is a critical and primary objective of such campaigns since it can influence attendance and produce revenue. Television advertising can be a powerful medium for creating awareness among and providing information to consumers regarding a sporting event. Tournament organizers of the event under investigation in this study paid for a commercial that aired during the 2003 Super Bowl broadcast in an effort to create awareness, provide information, and drive attendance at the professional tennis tournament. The tournament organizers chose to air the commercial during the Super Bowl because the event attracts an international audience of sports consumers similar to the targeted audience of the professional tennis tournament. Therefore, an international broadcast audience was exposed to the tournament through the commercial. While the Super Bowl attracts much attention, the commercials are costly. Therefore, the tournament organizers were also interested in determining the effect that the advertisement had on the Super Bowl viewers in terms of piquing their interest in the tournament. Based upon the importance of measuring the effectiveness of this 92 Volume 15 • Number 2 • 2006 • Sport MarHeting Quarterly marketing communication strategy, the following research questions were analyzed. R3: Did the tennis tournament advertisement broadcast during the Super Bowl create awareness of the professional tennis tournament among respondents? R4: Did the tennis tournament advertisement broadcast during the Super Bowl influence respondents to attend the event? "Today, sporting event production and execution virtually necessitates the sale of commercial sponsorships. Sponsorships generate much-needed revenue to produce the event, create awareness of the activity, and aid in its promotion." Sponsorship Effectiveness Gommercial sponsorship (CS) is one of the most widely utilized forms of marketing communication because it allows corporations to advertise to a large audience using a more subtle approach than other forms of advertising. GS is deflned as "an investment, in cash or in kind, in an activity, in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with that activity" (Madrigal, 2001, p. 147; Meenaghan, 1991, p.36). Meenaghan (2001) suggests sponsorship effectiveness direcfly affects a consumer's purchase intentions and behaviors. Variables such as awareness and attitudes toward sponsorship may produce significant affects on the outcome of the marketing message and its effectiveness with regard to the consumer. GS has become quite important to many corporations who allocate large sums of their advertising budget to attract sports consumers to their respective brands. In the United States alone, GS spending increased from $850 million in 1985 to $8.7 billion in the year 2000 to $10.2 billion in 2003 (Events and Sponsorships, 2004; International Event Group, 2000). According to the 2004 IEG Sponsorship Report, sponsorship spending by companies in North America will increase by 6.2% to $11.14 billion (International Event Group, 2004; see also Events and Sponsorships, 2004; Millward, 2004; Saxton, 2004). These investments have proven extremely profitable and, therefore, GS has become an invaluable strategy for companies seeking to expand in an economic sports market. One reason for utilizing GS versus traditional advertising is to connect with the target market in a setting that promotes positive feelings and excitement. It is often the expectation of the sponsors that this positive outlook instilled in the consumers, via the event medium, will transfer to their company and brands, resulting in increased purchase intentions and behaviors (Madrigal, 2001). If a sponsor is successful in creating this connection, and the consumer purchases products and services from the company, then the end result is called a Return on Investment (ROI), or the amount of proflt as a percentage of the initial investment (Daniels & Radebaugh, 1998). ROI is an essential objective of GS because corporations want to not only facilitate the event and access the target market, but also ultimately generate sales and produce revenue from their original investment. Today, sporting event production and execution virtually necessitates the sale of commercial sponsorships. Sponsorships generate much-needed revenue to produce the event, create awareness of the activity, and aid in its promotion. Sport sponsorships can also benefit corporations by facilitating brand awareness, brand image, and product sales (Lee, Sandier, & Shani, 1997; Shanklin & Kuzma, 1992). Ideally, sponsors want to support a specific sporting event, while simultaneously promoting and selling their products and services. The sponsorship process, in its entirety, presents many unique opportunities for needed research, especially within specific event contexts. Sponsors of the event are interested in consumers' level of brand awareness, attitude toward the sponsorship, purchase intentions, and the overall effectiveness of the activation. Sponsorship Awareness Awareness of an ad or sponsorship communication requires consumers to recall (unaided) or recognize (aided recall) the sponsors of the event by providing the names of the companies from memory or identifying them from a list. A consumer's recall level is a strong indicator as to whether or not the message created substantial meaningfulness or brand awareness (Wells, 2000). Recall analyzes the ability of a research subject to remember sponsors of events through pure recollection, a construct that is often termed "top of mind" by practitioners (Bennett, Henson, & Zhang, 2002; Johar & Pham, 1999). Unlike recall, which is unaided, recognition provides the consumer with cues before asking them to identify the event's sponsors. Recognition, also termed "aided recall," provides the respondents with a list of commercial sponsors from the event, some correct and incorrect, and asks them to select the actual sponsors (Bennett, et al. 2002). According to Lardinoit and Derbaix (2001), consumers access information from memory to differentiate the various sponsors. If the person is able to correctly identify the sponsors, this indicates they have a considerable interest in the message or event (Wells, 2000). Given the importance companies place on the ability of consumers to remember their sponsorship of an event and the continued use of this type of measure by scholars, the following research question regarding the ability of Volume 15 • Number 2 • 2006 • Sport Marketing Quarterly 93 consumers to recognize sponsors of the tennis tournament was examined. R5: Will attendees at a professional tennis tournament be able to correctly identify tournament sponsors a majority of the time from a listing (recognition/aided recall) of correct and incorrect sponsors? "... efforts should be made to encourage group activity at the event, such as special group rates, seating for groups, and the like." Attitude toward Sponsorship (A^p) Individual consumer attitudes toward sponsorship are a very important facet of marketing communication. Gonsumer attitudes toward advertising have been operationalized by several scholars, yet it seems that few have succinctly defined attitude toward sponsorship. This may be due to the fact that sponsorship is widely accepted as being a form of advertising, or that sponsorship research is relatively underdeveloped (Grompton, 2004). Since it has been suggested that consumers can form positive or negative opinions regarding sponsorship (Reid & Soley, 1982), it is imperative that companies not only focus on brand awareness, but also continually determine if their marketing message is creating a favorable disposition among consumers. An oft-cited objective of the sponsorship experience for firms is to produce positive feelings among consumers of the sponsoring brands and facilitate the intention to purchase sponsors products. It appears that there is a justification to theoretically operationalize and empirically investigate consumer attitude toward sponsorship. While limited research has been conducted on attitudinal constructs in sponsorship. Lee et al. (1997) have identified three constructs central to understanding the relationship between consumer attitudes and sponsorship. Lee et al. (1997) suggested that the three constructs of attitude towards the event, attitude towards commercialization, and attitude towards behavioral intent are critical to understanding the consumer perspective on sponsorship. Gonsumer attitude toward the event "reflects consistently favourable or unfavourable response to an event," and consumer attitude toward commercialization indicates the reaction of consumers to increased sponsor-related activity surrounding an event which "may be affecting consumer attitude towards events and their sponsors" (Lee et al., 1997, p. 167). Based upon the importance of consumer attitudes toward event sponsorships the following research question regarding the attitudes of event attendees at a professional tennis tournament was analyzed. R6: What were the reported attitudes of attendees at a professional tennis tournament toward sponsors of the event? Purchase Intent Based Upon Sponsorship There are myriad studies in the literature analyzing consumers' awareness of sponsors using recall and recognition measures (Bennett et al. 2002; Grimmins & Horn, 1996; Easton & Mackie, 1998; Hitchen, 1998; Kraak & Oliver, 1997; Meenaghan, 1996; Nicholls, Roslow, & Dublish, 1999; Otker & Hayes, 1987; Parker, 1991; Quester, 1997; Stotlar, 1993). However, there is a relative paucity with regard to sponsorship effectiveness and its relationship to purchasing behaviors (Lee et al., 1997; Meenaghan, 2001). While aided and unaided recall measures provide some indication of consumers' involvement with and memory of sporting event sponsors, they often fail to provide significant evidence regarding consumers' satisfaction with the event and their intent to purchase products or services from commercial sponsors. Some scholars contest that recall rates reveal merely the consumers' relatedness to the event, as opposed to their attitudes and behaviors regarding the commercial sponsors and advertising (Johar & Pham, 1999). Highly involved consumers, however, relate to teams and sporting events on a much deeper level, and their attitudes and behaviors toward commercial sponsorships are often indicative of this commitment. A highly involved consumer may prefer a certain brand due to its association with their favored activity (Bennett, 1999; Eilander, 1992; Kohl & Otker, 1985; Meenaghan, 2001). Lee et al. (1997, p. 164) labeled this construct as attitude towards behavioral intent, and consumer attitude toward behavioral intent translates "to consumer willingness to purchase sponsored products and/or pay more attention to sponsors promotional activities." Gertainly, corporate sponsors are interested in influencing consumers via sponsorships to purchase the products activated through the sponsorship. Since the creation of new and continued consumers is an objective of GS, the following research question regarding the purchase intentions of event attendees was tested. R7: Were the future purchase intentions of attendees at a professional tennis tournament influenced by event sponsorships?