Online Sponsorship Advertising 線上贊助廣告

Online sponsorship has been acknowledged as one of the most popular internet advertising in the resent years. Unlike event sponsorships, online sponsorships has been extended from typically brief text advertisements with only sponsor’s brand and product to a form of websites, blogs, e-mails, online games, e-newspapers, or e-magazines. With a more comprehensive and detail context in sponsorship, readers are more likely to be confused with whether the information is a sponsorship or not, especially in digital publishing industry (Rodgers, 2007). Online sponsorship might increase the profit of e-newspapers and e-magazines, but it might decrease the credibility of journalistic standards as well. Therefore, how to structure online sponsorship for more persuasive influence is the one of the most concerned issues scholars and marketers discussing nowadays.

When sponsorship expended to the media of Internet, sponsors are able to integrate all the information on website and become part of the content. In the presence, there are no regulations in the implementation of sponsorship. Sponsor context and official information, such as news articles, might be distinguishable between each other. The feeling of confusion by audiences might lead to an unreliable, misunderstanding, and negative image of the sponsor brand, or even worse, some irritated audiences might exploit parody and sarcasm to distort the brand’s image. Even though sponsorship is referred to as the best way for increasing brand awareness by some scholars, sponsor companies must consider the long-term objectives and consequences of online sponsorship.

As websites become cramped by internet advertisements, it may become more difficult for online advertisers to obtain audiences’ attention. Rodgers (2003-2004) suggested that sponsoring valued content may be an effective to overcome these situations. The credibility of website is one of the linkage factors for a higher level of positive evaluations of relevant sponsors interpreted by audiences. Therefore, the sponsorship policies are needed, especially for the online publishing industries. Rodgers (2007) recommended that advertisements and news articles can be distinguished by different fronts and size or just a simple ruled line as the commercial content.

Therefore, most of leading digital news industries, such as Bloomberg, The New York Times, and The Guardian, distinguish the news article and sponsorship advertisement with separate space or significant segmentation, whilst the articles on internet fashion magazines are more ambiguous between sponsorship advertisement and professional narrative. One of the successful sponsorship cooperation on the Internet is the sponsorship of the Economist online. Their successful in sponsorship can be concluded in three elements which are congruent context, distinctive advertisement, and audience’s empowerment for the reaction. For example, they developed a topic in the debate platform for the sponsorship of Intel. During the debate, a conversation around the Intel brand was created. Brand value and visibility of Intel was increased by debate side, user-printed site pages, emails, in-book promotions, the post-debate PDF, and even a customised section with Intel positioning statement and interview of Intel executives. The debate was proved to be successful with the evidence of almost one million page views, more than forty thousand site visits, and more than 380 reader comments.

From the traditional event sponsorship to the modern online sponsorship, the more the collaboration among companies has been developed, the more the advertisement has been inserted. Especial for online publishing industry, it is controversial for the segmentation between article content and sponsorship advertisement. The congruity of the advertisement for sponsorship is also concerned by the readers. The congruity effect reflects the attitude of readers toward sponsor’s image and credibility (Rifon et al., 2004). As for the comprehensive presence of digital publishing industry, it is essential to create a thorough regulation and ethics in sponsorship advertising. Even though sponsorship is a relatively short-term collaboration among companies, it should be considered in terms of the long-term influence.