Emotions and persuasion: an affective model of persuasion for sport sponsorship.

Abstract

Over the last 30 years, sport sponsorship has become a privileged tool for companies willing to add an extra bit of soul to their communication. In the meantime, a considerable body of academic knowledge has been produced to allow a better understanding of the persuasion process happening in a sponsorship context. Despite being described as a fundamentally affective persuasion process (Quester, 1996), most of the knowledge accumulated so far about sponsorship has mobilised a cognitive perspective. Notwithstanding the contribution of cognitions in explaining sponsorship outcomes, we suggest that a purely cognitive approach of sponsorship fails to consider what determine both the nature of the message and the context in which it is received: i.e. the emotions elicited by sports drama. A multi-disciplinary literature review (sponsorship, persuasion theory, psychology, neurosciences) helped us proposing an affective model of persuasion for sport sponsorship, placing spectators’ emotional reactions at the heart of the communication. We tested this model at two similar tennis events – Roland Garros (n = 437) and the Australian Open (n = 375) – for eight sponsors. Data supports the hypothesised universality of emotional reactions amongst spectators of sporting events. Data also support that the dimensions of emotional intensity and valence affect cognitive (sponsors recognition), attitudinal (attitude toward the event, attitude toward the sponsor) and behavioural (purchase intent) outcomes of sponsorship. Finally, data supports the centrality of the concept of attitude toward the event in our affective model of persuasion.