Moving Away from Category Exclusivity Deals to Sponsorship Activation Platforms: The Case of the Ryder Cup

Yunchao Bai, Brian H. Yim, John Breedlove and James J. Zhang
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Yunchao Bai: Sports Business School, Beijing Sports University, Beijing 100084, China
Brian H. Yim: School of Foundations, Leadership, and Administration, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44202, USA
John Breedlove: Department of Kinesiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
James J. Zhang: Department of Kinesiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-21

Abstract: As a biennial event, the Ryder Cup is a men’s golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. Ernst & Young (EY) and Standard Life Investments (SLI), who are in same business category (i.e., financial services), have served as official partners of the event in recent years. While the two firms are willing to move away from the traditional sponsorship practices of category exclusivity deals, both have been able to achieve significant success through their collaborative efforts in activating their sponsorships. This is a new, fascinating phenomenon in both sponsorship concept and practice. Through an exploratory inductive inquiry process, in this study we conduct a case analysis by examining the sponsorship activations of EY and SLI at the 2014 Ryder Cup event held in the UK. The findings demonstrate that social media plays an impactful role in the companies’ ability to engage target audiences. EY used the Ryder Cup captain as a brand ambassador, who embodied its sponsorship theme of leadership and teamwork. SLI focused on running advertising campaigns to build company image and increase brand awareness.

Keywords: sponsorship platform; golf; brand awareness; rights exclusivity; sponsorship sustainability; financial return; brand image; social media; fan community (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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