The purpose of this study is to examine how a “paring” of a sponsoring brand with wellmatched products in a branded content (e.g., branded entertainment content and/or commercial) possibly leverages consumers’ attitude toward the sponsoring brand. For instance, to maximize the perceived benefit and desirability of their product, Guinness previously portrayed their product along with foods, such as oysters, steaks, and cheese, that would all be much better if consumers enjoyed it with a bottle of Guinness. We refer this type of practice as a “paring strategy,” another form of Leveraged Marketing Communications (LMC), and aim to explore how such paring practice successfully benefits the brand through association. In this context, this study shows a) a proportion of a sponsoring brand and a paring product portrayed in a content (e.g., 20/80 vs. 80/20), b), the attribute of the branded content (desirability vs. feasibility orientation), c) the demonstration natures of the paring strategy (integrated vs. sequential) creates association between a sponsoring brand and matching products, and amplify the perceived benefits of the sponsoring product. Finally, this study aims to explore the moderating role of consumer’s general tendency of processing style (holistic vs. analytic) in the effect of paring strategy.

• Sangdo Oh(Yonsei University, Republic of Korea)
• Yeonshin Kim(Myongji University, Republic of Korea)
• Tae Hyun Baek(University of Kentucky, USA)
• Hyejin Bang(University of Kansas, USA)
• Dongwon Choi(Kookmin University, Republic of Korea)