Generalizing across generations, or not? A comparative study of sport sponsorship outcomes across generational cohorts
Master thesis

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Date
2019Metadata
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- Master of Science [1822]
Abstract
Millennials are the ‘new shiny thing’ - everyone seems to want a piece of the largest
consumer segment in history. However, alarmingly for sports businesses,
Millennials do not seem to be consuming sport. TV viewership is falling, and to
make matters worse, the Millennials who do consume sport are believed to have low
sponsorship responsiveness. This threatens the ability of the sport to score lucrative
sponsorships since the size, attractiveness and responsiveness of the sport’s audience
is a key determinant of sponsorship value. The resultant situation is highly
concerning as without sponsorship revenues, the sport would financially bleed.
Despite this alarming context, the hard facts are missing. No comprehensive
research exists across the three main cohorts (Millennials, Generation Xers and
Boomers) to investigate how the cohorts differ on key sponsorship outcomes. This
research gap forms the basis of our study. Our study uses Formula 1 as a case study
and is based on highly identified fans of the sport. Using the communication
hierarchy as a framework, we studied six key sponsorship outcomes (starting from
sports consumption up to sponsorship influence on purchase ) across cohorts.
The findings revealed that Millennials were on par with Gen Xers and Boomers for
every sponsorship outcome - in essence, there was no evidence to show that
Millennial consumers were less responsive to sponsorship. We also noticed that the
sports consumption habits of Millennials and Gen Xers are converging, and that
sports businesses would be well served to expand their measures of sport
consumption to include digital platforms. Further, we developed models to predict
sponsorship outcomes overall and by cohort for involvement, sponsorship awareness
and sponsorship influence on purchase - as well as identified their key drivers.
Our research helps sports businesses understand / adapt to ongoing changes in the
sporting landscape with respect to Millennials - and also gives them the tools to
make a strong business case for sponsorship. For sponsors, our findings can
contribute to better sponsorship selection, valuation, design and effectiveness.
Description
Masteroppgave(MSc) in Master of Science in Strategic Marketing Management - Handelshøyskolen BI, 2019