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Corporate logos showing NASCAR team sponsors.

To sponsor something is to support an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. A sponsor is the individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor.

Definition[link]

Sponsorship^[1] is a cash and/or in-kind fee paid to a property (typically in sports, arts, entertainment or causes) in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with that property, according to IEG.

While the sponsee (property being sponsored) may be nonprofit, unlike philanthropy, sponsorship is done with the expectation of a commercial return.

While sponsorship can deliver increased awareness, brand building and propensity to purchase, it is different to advertising. Unlike advertising, sponsorship can not communicate specific product attributes. Nor can it stand alone. Sponsorship requires support elements. And, while advertising messages are controlled by the advertiser, sponsors do not control the message that is communicated. Consumers decide what a sponsorship means.

Theories of Sponsorship[link]

A range of psychological and communications theories have been used to explain how commercial sponsorship works to impact consumer audiences. Most use the notion that a brand (sponsor) and event (sponsee) become linked in memory through the sponsorship and as a result, thinking of the brand can trigger event-linked associations, while thinking of the event can come to trigger brand-linked associations. Cornwell, Weeks and Roy (2005)^[2] have published an extensive review of the theories so far used to explain commercial sponsorship effects.

One of the most pervasive findings in sponsorship is that the best effects are achieved where there is a logical match between the sponsor and sponsee, such as a sports brand sponsoring a sports event. Work by Cornwell and colleagues^[3] however, has shown that brands that don't have a logical match can still benefit, at least in terms of memory effects, if the sponsors articulates some rationale for the sponsorship to the audience.

Size and Growth of the Sponsorship Market in North America[link]

IEG Sponsorship Report, which has conducted primary research on sponsorship spending annually since 1984, projects $18.2 billion will be spent by companies in North America on rights fees in 2011, up 5.2 percent over 2010. Sponsorship expenditures by North American companies grew 3.9 percent in 2010 to $17.2 billion.

As it has in most years over the past two-plus decades, sponsorship’s growth rate will be ahead of the pace experienced by advertising and sales promotion, according to IEG. North American media spending, which rose two percent in 2010, is projected to increase 3.9% in 2011, according to the worldwide media and marketing forecast produced by GroupM, the global media investment management operation of WPP Group plc. (GroupM is the parent company of IEG SR publisher IEG, LLC.)

Consumer and business-to-business promotional spending did not increase in 2010, declining for the second year in a row—although the drop of 3.3 percent was an improvement from the decrease of 7.1 percent in 2009, according to the Communications Industry Forecast 2010-2014 published by private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson. VSS projects that promotion spending will be flat in 2011 compared to 2010

North American corporate spending on cause sponsorships grew at the highest rate of the six major property sectors in 2010—6.7 percent—as marketers sought to earn goodwill from consumers and other stakeholders still recovering from the recessionary economy, according to IEG research.

The largest segment—sports—grew 3.4 percent in 2010, as a 7.6 percent jump in spending on the four major U.S. pro sports leagues and their teams was dragged down by little or no growth among other types of sports, including auto racing. For 2011, continued interest in major sports properties should drive category spending enough to make it the fastest-growing segment, as cause spending cools down to a still respectable growth rate of five percent.

The category that grew the least in 2010, the arts at just 2.7 percent—should improve in 2011 to a 5.1 percent increase, as its two largest sponsor categories—automotive and financial services—continue to see improved overall fortunes and turn the sponsorship spigot back on.

The Global Sponsorship Market[link]

IEG projects spending on sponsorship globally to grow 5.2 percent in 2011 to $46.3 billion. Subtracting expenditures by North American companies, the rest of the world’s sponsors spent $29.1 billion on partnerships in 2010 and IEG projects that sum to increase 4.8 percent to $30.5 billion in 2011.

Europe will remain the largest source of sponsorship spending apart from North America, followed by the Asia Pacific region. Growth in Central and South America during 2010 did not materialize to the extent projected—3.8 percent versus a forecast of 5.7 percent—despite the FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games in Brazil in 2014 and 2016, respectively. With the 2010 World Cup concluded, sponsorship activity should begin to heat up, thus the region is projected to be the fastest-growing source of sponsorship dollars outside of North America, with a forecast growth rate of 5.6 percent for 2011.

Sponsorship in Germany[link]

Recently, the sponsorship industry has been under scrutiny for compliance issues, among others the alleged channeling of funds ("kickbacks"),^[4] invitations to lobbyists/politicians and taxation of benefits such as free admission tickets and hospitality.

The German initiative S20^[5] has been established in 2007 in order to define a stable framework for the sponsorship industry in Germany.

Selling sponsorship[link]

The sales cycle for selling sponsors is often a lengthy process that consists of researching prospects, creating tailored proposals based on a company's business objectives, finding the right contacts at a company, getting buy-in from multiple constituencies and finally negotiating benefits/price. Some sales can take up to a year and sellers report spending anywhere between 1–5 hours researching each company that is viewed as a potential prospect for sponsorship.^[6]

Leveraging Sponsorships and Activation[link]

These are the terms used by many sponsorship professionals which refer to how a sponsor uses the benefits they are allocated under the terms of a sponsorship agreement. Leveraging has been defined by Weeks, Cornwell and Drennan (2008) as "the act of using collateral marketing communications to exploit the commercial potential of the association between a sponsor and sponsee" while activation has been defined as those "communications that promote the engagement, involvement, or participation of the sponsorship audience with the sponsor."^[7] Money spent on activation is over and above the rights fee paid to the sponsored property and is often far greater than the cost of the rights fee.^[8]

See also[link]

• Marketing
• Advertising
• Donation
• Cause marketing
• Ambush marketing
• Naming rights
• Sports marketing
• Sustaining program
• European Sponsorship Association
• Sponsorship broker
• List of sponsored sports stadiums
• List of sponsored teams
• SponsorPitch

References[link]

Look up sponsor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Sponsor or sponsorship may refer to:

• Sponsor (commercial), supporter of an event, activity, or person
• Sponsor (legislative), a person who introduces a bill
• "Sponsor" (song), a song by Teairra Marí
• Child sponsorship, form of charitable giving
• Sponsor of ship naming and launching
• Sponsor of baptism
• Sponsorship in a twelve-step program
• Sponsorship, a key concept in Self-relations Psychotherapy

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Look up commercial in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Commercial may refer to:

• Advertising, paid classified messages in newspapers, magazines, flyers, billboards, and paid announcements over radio and television to sell a product, item or service
  • Radio advertisement, paid announcements over the radio to sell a product, item or service
  • Television advertisement, paid announcements over the television to sell a product, item or service.
• Commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services to the market
  • Trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money
• Commercial agriculture, the large-scale production of crops for sale
• Commercial bank, a type of bank specializing in checking accounts and short-term loans
• Commercial broadcasting, the practice of airing radio and television advertisements for profit
• Commercial district, a part of a city where the primary use of property is for business, commerce and trade
• Commercial Drive, Vancouver, a roadway in the city of Vancouver
• Commercial law, the legal regulations governing transactions and related matters in business, commerce and trade
• Commercial software, a software that is licensed for a fee
• Commercial Solutions, a company in Edmonton
• Commercial Township, New Jersey, in Cumberland County, New Jersey
• Commercial vehicle, a type of vehicle for hire to transport goods or passengers
• Strictly Commercial, a compilation album by Frank Zappa.

See also[link]

• Comercial (disambiguation), Spanish word for the same thing
• Commercialism

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

The word asshole, a variant of arsehole, which is still prevalent in British and Australian English, is a vulgar to describe the anus, often pejoratively used to refer to people.

History[link]

The word arse in English derives from the Germanic root *arsaz, which originated from the Proto-Indo-European root *ors — meaning buttocks or backside.^[1] The combined form arsehole is first attested from 1500 in its literal use to refer to the anus. The metaphorical use of the word to refer to the worst place in a region, e.g., "the arsehole of the world") is first attested in print in 1865; the use to refer to a contemptible person is first attested in 1933.^[2] In the ninth chapter of his 1945 autobiography, Black Boy, Richard Wright quotes a snippet of verse that uses the term: "All these white folks dressed so fine / Their ass-holes smell just like mine ...". Its first appearance as an insult term in a newspaper indexed by Google News is in 1965.^[3] As with other vulgarities, these uses of the word may have been common in oral speech for some time before their first print appearances. By the 1970s, Hustler magazine featured people they did not like as "Asshole of the Month."^[4] In 1972, Jonathan Richman's Modern Lovers recorded his song "Pablo Picasso," which includes the line "Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole."

Until the early 1990s, the word was considered one of a number of words that could not be uttered on commercial television in the United States. Comedian Andrew Dice Clay caused a major shock when he uttered the word during a televised MTV awards show in 1989.^[5] However, there were PG-13 and R rated films in the 1980s that featured use of the word, such as the R-rated The Terminator (1984), the PG-13-rated National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), and the PG-rated Back to the Future (1985). By 1994, however, vulgarity had become more acceptable, and the word was featured in dialog on the long-running television series NYPD Blue, though it has yet to become anything close to commonplace on network TV. In some broadcast edits (such as the syndication airings of South Park), the word is partially bleeped out — ironically, as "assh—", with the profane half of the word intact.

Semantics[link]

The word is mainly used as a vulgarity, generally to describe people who are viewed as stupid or incompetent or detestable.^[6]

This word or its literal translation is found in colloquial speech in a number of cultures (in both English and other languages).^[7] This is because it describes an organ of elimination that is considered a taboo region (since it belongs to the intimate parts) of the body in many societies.^[8]

The English word ass (meaning donkey, a cognate of its zoological name Equus asinus) may also be used as a term of contempt, referring to a silly or stupid person. In the United States, and, to a lesser degree, in Canada, the words arse and ass have become synonymous; however, in the rest of the English-speaking world, ass still only refers to the donkey, rather than the arse (buttocks). It is worth noting that speakers of some varieties of English "drop their Rs" before consonants, leading to a pronunciation of arse that is quite similar to ass.^[9]

Political usage[link]

In 2000, during a Labor Day event, then candidate George W. Bush made an off-hand remark to his running mate, Dick Cheney, that New York Times reporter Adam Clymer was a "major league asshole." The gaffe was caught on microphone and led to a political advertisement chiding Bush for "using expletives ... in front of a crowd of families," produced for Democratic opponent Al Gore.^[10]

In February 2004, American media reported that during a rally of supporters, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Bush "an asshole" for believing his aides in supporting a coup against Chavez in 2002.^[11] The word in the original Spanish was "pendejo", and in news coverage the word was widely, though incorrectly, translated as "asshole"; the meaning of the word varies substantially in Latin America, and in Venezuela its meaning is closer to "fool".^[12] The following year, in September, Nightline host Ted Koppel said to Chavez on national television, "I'm going to perhaps shock you a little, but these are your words. You called President Bush an asshole," to which Chavez replied, "I've said various things about him. I don't know if I actually used that word."^[13]

See also[link]

• Arse
• The No Asshole Rule
• Sexual Slang
• Profanity

References[link]

Edwin G. Short (1920 — 1984) was an American professional baseball front office executive. Short worked for the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball for over 20 years, including nine seasons as the team's general manager — from August 26, 1961, through September 2, 1970.^[1] The White Sox were frequent contenders for the American League pennant during the first six seasons of his administration, but the last three years of Short's tenure saw the team lose 95, 98 and 106 games and play some of its home games in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, because of falling attendance at Comiskey Park.

Short served in the United States Army during World War II, attaining the rank of captain, and was a radio broadcaster after the war, serving as sports director of WJJD-AM, Chicago.^[2] He joined the White Sox in 1950 as publicity director, and later was named the club's traveling secretary. Despite his having served in administrative positions, rather than in baseball operations, he was promoted to succeed Hank Greenberg as the Chisox' general manager late in the 1961 season. But, as a GM, Short was noted for his bold moves.

Rebuilding the White Sox[link]

In his first off-season, he traded aging White Sox stars Billy Pierce, Minnie Miñoso and Roy Sievers to the National League for younger players. After the 1962 campaign, Short swung one of the biggest deals of the off-season, sending future Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio and outfielder Al Smith to the Baltimore Orioles for Aparicio's Baltimore counterpart, Ron Hansen, young third baseman Pete Ward, power-hitting outfielder Dave Nicholson and future Hall of Fame knuckleball pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm. Hansen, Ward and Nicholson became regulars in 1963. Wilhelm would be Chicago's bullpen ace for six seasons (1963–1968) and compile an earned run average of 1.92 in 361 games and 675⅔ innings pitched in a White Sox uniform. Short also would trade another veteran star and future Hall of Famer, Nellie Fox, after the 1963 campaign. The White Sox were serious pennant contenders in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1967.

However, Short believed that the best trade he ever made happened in January 1965, a three-way deal also involving the Kansas City Athletics and Cleveland Indians.^[3] In that transaction, the White Sox acquired ace left-handed starting pitcher Tommy John and centerfielder Tommie Agee.

Swift decline after 1967 pennant race[link]

The White Sox of the mid-1960s relied on pitching, speed and defense. In addition to Wilhelm, and, later, John, the team's pitchers also included starters Gary Peters, Juan Pizarro and Joel Horlen. But after competing for the 1967 pennant into the last week of the season, the 1968 White Sox started poorly and signaled the beginning of three years of desperate struggle at the gate and on the field. In 1968 and 1969, the White Sox played one game against every other AL opponent at Milwaukee County Stadium, which was wooing an expansion or relocated MLB team —such as the White Sox — at the time. At Comiskey, the Chisox drew an average of only 7,493 (1968), 6,633 (1969) and 6,115 (1970) fans per game.^[4] Finally, in early September 1970, after an ownership transition between two brothers, Arthur and John Allyn, Short was released in a general housecleaning of White Sox management.

In his final job in professional sports, Short served as general manager of the Chicago Cougars of the World Hockey Association.

He died in Skokie, Illinois, aged 64, on July 16, 1984.

References[link]