CBC STUDIES TELEVISION SPONSORSHIP
By Adnews Staff
The results from a study conducted for CBC Television by ASI Entertainment indicate that television program sponsorships capture an audience's attention and deliver increased awareness to sponsors, compared to regular TV commercials. The study used two videotapes created to test the effects of sponsorship, each 30 minutes in length and featuring the first inning of a Blue Jays baseball game and two musical segments from a Celine Dion special. Two hundred interviews were done with people randomly assigned to view each tape. The study found that sponsorship messages increased unaided viewer awareness of advertiser involvement over that provided by regular commercials. The unaided awareness of the sponsors increased by almost 50%. "This type of study is necessary to accommodate an increasing demand from advertisers who want to have a more effective advertising campaign beyond the traditional media spot buying," CBC's executive director of marketing Betty Chiu said. ASIE is an entertainment research firm in the United States with offices in California and Texas.