Abstract:

The following paper - focussing mainly on Germany - aims to provide some insight and a better understanding about the effectiveness of sport sponsorships. Firstly, an outline about the status of the German sponsorship market is given in order to show the growing importance of this 'new' communication tool. By reference to several case studies, the second part will illustrate the effectiveness of different sponsorship activities. Here, focus will be on showing whether or not sponsorship activities work more effectively when integrated into the classical advertising strategy. Finally, the lessons learnt from the case studies will be summarized to some guidelines how to use sport sponsorship successfully.