Evaluating sponsorship effectiveness: the Adelaide Festival of the Arts

Abstract

Using a quasi-experiment, the authors examined the returns achieved by three sponsors of the 1998 Adelaide Festival of the Arts. Using a Before-and-After design, a mail survey measured the change in attitudes to, and awareness of, three particular sponsors and their sponsorship efforts, by members of the audience who attended one of these sponsored events, and corresponding results for a non-attending Control Group. Results suggested that sponsorship effectiveness is directly related to the degree to which the sponsors are willing to leverage their investment with additional advertising, promotional activities and expenditure.