Sports Sponsorship is considered to be one of the most effective tools in marketing. However, in order to assess the effectiveness of sponsoring activities in customer’s mind, science and business practice often refer to explicit measures such as self-reports or focus interviews. Such aligned conventional measurement approach is missing mental processes which run without awareness, so-called implicit processes, taking place and activity hidden in the unconscious mind. Against that background, the goal of the current work is to shed further light on the impact of athlete sponsorship on dual processes underlying customer’s associations toward a brand.

• Steffen Schmidt(Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany)
• Matthias Limbach(Dr. Buhmann Schule gGmbH, Germany)
• Sascha Langner(Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany)
• Philipp Reiter(eye square GmbH, Germany)