A History of Marketing / Episode 16

Tune into any major sporting event, and corporate sponsorship saturate the screen. Colossal logos sprawl across stadium rooftops. They adorn the smallest patch on a player's jersey. From pre-game shows to post-game analysis, from breakfast cereal to beer cans, from charitable causes to gambling apps, sponsorships are inseparable from sports.

Sports and sponsorship are so interwoven, it’s easy to think it was always this way. But it’s a relatively new phenomenon. It doesn’t happen naturally either. Behind the scenes marketers, brands, teams, and athletes navigate complex sponsorship-linked marketing arrangements that aim to benefit all parties involved.

My guest is T. Bettina Cornwell, a leading expert on sports and sponsorship. She is the Philip H. Knight Chair and Head of the Department of Marketing at the University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business.

Professor Cornwell literally wrote the book on the subject. It's called Sponsorship in Marketing and the 3rd edition of it comes out today. I read an earlier edition to prepare for our interview, and I really enjoyed it. So, if you like our conversation, I recommend checking it out.

Our discussion was an absolute blast. We cover some of the best-known successes and revealing failures in the world of sports and sponsorship.

Now, here it is – my conversation with Bettina Cornwell.Find more: marketinghistory.org

Hosted by Andrew Mitrak