The Sponsorship and Event Typicality Paradox: How to Engage Without Annoying?
(A2025-125979)

AUTHORS

Marc Mazodier, ESSEC Business School; Wenze ZHAO, ESSEC Business School

ABSTRACT

In a crowded market, brands increasingly turn to sponsorship as an effective communication strategy to enhance visibility and foster audience engagement. While previous discussions on sponsorship value have often lacked empirical evidence, this research, which includes real-world data and a lab experiment, demonstrates how sponsorship can drive deeper engagement and deliver brand value to sponsors. Furthermore, we examine the interactive effects between sponsorship and event typicality, which refers to adapting commercials to the event. Both studies indicate sponsorship elicits more engagement (i.e., likes and comments) and favorable attitudes toward the brand. The combination of sponsorship and event typicality is never optimal. The experiment indicates that consumers view sponsorship as more altruistic than event typicality or their combination, leading to more positive reactions to sponsor videos.