This paper looks at the effectiveness of event sponsorship and the role of ambush marketing, in the context of the FIFA World Cup held in Germany in 2006. The research found that whereas sponsorship was effective for Adidas, McDonalds and Coca-Cola, other sponsors only received low 'recall values' amongst the survey sample of 2,000 teenagers. However other companies, who were not official sponsors, were able to improve their recall and image values by ambush marketing. The implications are discussed.

Journal of Sponsorship, Vol 2 (3) pp241-249