THE IMPLICATIONS OF RECENCY AND GENDER EFFECTS IN CONSUMER RESPONSE TO AMBUSH MARKETING

So-called ambush marketers, are companies that use clever advertising imagery (and/or ad placement) to link their brand(s) with a major even t, in the minds of its audience, without having to purchase the expens ive rights fees that event properties often charge for official sponso rship status. This study uses an experimental design to explore certai n effects of the ambush marketing strategy. Its focus is on the potent ial impact of recency (of ad exposure), as well as gender differences, on measures of memory, brand attitude, and behavioral intentions for brands perceived to be official sponsors. Respondents (n-215) were ran domly assigned to groups viewing Olympics programming intercut with ad vertising for either official sponsors or ambush marketers. No statist ically significant differences are observed between males and females in their pretest sponsor recall or recognition levels, whereas recency of ad exposure is found to be a significant influence on posttest spo nsor awareness in the aggregate. Significant gender differences are de tected, however, in attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions for two of three product categories investigated, as females have high er mean scores for those two measures. The implications of these resul ts are discussed and followed by recommendations for event promoters s eeking to preserve the value of event sponsorships, along with defensi ve advertising strategies to protect the investments of their official sponsors. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.