Sport Sponsorship Effectiveness – Polish Volleyball Case Study

While reflecting on sport sponsorship, it is crucial to consider that it is an investment in promotion from the sponsor's perspective. The idea of each investment, including that in sport sponsorship, is to commit money or capital with an expectation of profitable future returns or benefits. Thus, it is essential to undertake actions that enabling sponsors to establish whether a given sponsoring campaign was effective, i.e. whether it generated more benefits than expenses. This article presents the possibility of using Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) to evaluate sport sponsorship effectiveness. Research conducted among Polish volleyball clubs aimed at recognizing factors considered by sponsors while evaluating results of engaging in sport sponsorship. The results and conclusions are presented in the content of the article. Additionally, there were introduced levels of AVE obtained by the most frequently displayed sponsors' branches of Plus Liga Kobiet and clubs participating in it in the seasons of 2008/2009, 2009/2010, and 2010/2011..