Corporate sponsorships of sports, arts, and cultural events have gained acceptance in recent years. An increasing percentage of the total marketing budget flows into this promotion tool. In particular, the Olympic Games has attracted major international corporations spending an enormous amount of money to be associated with this event.

The purpose of this study is threefold. First, it investigates the goals and objectives of the 10 worldwide sponsors (TOP) and the 10 Centennial Olympic Games Partners to become sponsors of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Second and mainly, the study looks at the means by which these organizations evaluate the success and effectiveness of their sponsorship. Finally, the impact of “ambush marketing” on the evaluation process is addressed.

IBM was both a TOP sponsor and a Centennial Partner, therefore, only 19 corporations were surveyed. Eleven questionnaires were returned for a response rate of 57.9%. Out of the 11 corporations that participated in this study, 6 came from the first category (TOP) of sponsors and 5 from the second category (Centennial Partners) of sponsors. The responses were analyzed utilizing descriptive statistics.

The findings provide additional support for other research (Gardner & Shuman, 1987; Lough, 1996; Schiavone & Stipp, 1996; Turco, 1994), which indicated the high relevance corporate sponsors assign to two objectives: increasing public awareness and supporting company or product image. However, the most important objective for sponsors of the 1996 Olympic Games was having exclusive sponsorship rights in their product categories. The respondents emphasized their concerns about exclusivity with comments pertaining to the “anti-ambush marketing” campaign of the International Olympic Committee and the Atlanta Committee of the Olympic Games. They also pointed out their own proactive measures that they took to prevent any opportunities for competitors becoming involved in an ambush marketing strategy.

The study further indicates that companies utilize a set of criteria and assign different weights to each criterion when evaluating the outcome of their association with the Olympic Games. The results of this study point to four aspects that are taken into consideration when determining the success of their sponsorship: (a) hospitality opportunities, (b) sales, (c) media coverage, and (d) image and public perception. Surprisingly, sponsorship awareness ranks the lowest among all evaluation criteria.

The criteria were evaluated either in-house or through outside agencies. Those criteria for which the organization had the information already on file were usually measured and evaluated by their internal staff. If additional research was required the companies preferred that external agencies do the evaluation.

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The Evolution of Media Reporting of Ambush Marketing

Objectives and Evaluation Processes Utilized by Sponsors of the 1996 Olympic Games