How TV sponsorship can help television spot advertising

Purpose This paper aims to test TV sponsorship bumper effects, for the same brand, on 30-s TV spot advertising. Design/methodology/approach An experimental study tests sponsorship bumpers and 30-s TV spot ads for eight brands, four familiar and four unfamiliar, using realistic stimuli and a sample representative of the US population. Findings Sponsorship boosts ad effectiveness and is measured by ad awareness and ad liking. Both effects were stronger for unfamiliar brands. Research limitations/implications The results show that combining sponsorship with spot advertising has an additive effect. The study design did not allow tests for potential synergy (multiplicative) effects. Practical implications Advertisers can use the results to evaluate investing in sponsorship and advertising packages, which can help unfamiliar brands achieve familiar brand awareness. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to compare the effectiveness of sponsorship-boosted ads with sponsorship bumpers alone and with TV spot ads.