Sponsorship Announcements: Timing and Detail Matter for Consumer Attitudes

What is it about?

This study investigated the effects of the informativeness (level of detail) and temporal distance (timing) of a sponsorship announcement on consumer response, applying Construal Level Theory (CLT). Two experiments found that providing a concrete (detailed) level of informativeness was generally optimal. For individuals naturally inclined toward abstract thinking (high personal level of construal, or PLC), detailed information led to more favorable attitudes and higher purchase intentions toward the sponsor than abstract information. This "mismatch" effect is attributed to enhanced elaboration (cognitive processing) stimulated by the concrete details. Furthermore, when announcing sponsorships for temporally distant events (abstract mindset), concrete informativeness led to superior outcomes compared to abstract information, which supports announcing agreements well in advance with adequate detail. Managers should prioritize providing contextualized, concrete information to maximize the effectiveness of sponsorship communication.

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Photo by Pietro Rampazzo on Unsplash

Photo by Pietro Rampazzo on Unsplash