Abstract

Organization should pay attention to sports events or sponsorship of individual athletes as one of the benefits of receiving options. In this article, the conception support means sponsorship, not marketing promotion. Many scientists and researchers have achieved in this area in global aspect, so it is appropriate to analyze the peculiarities of this process in Lithuania and to reveal the potential benefits of organizations. There were formulated following issues: what are the benefits of sports sponsorship from the theoretical point of view? What problems faced in assessing support for the benefits were derived by researchers? What are the benefits to the company and what it receives in Lithuania while supporting sports and athletes? The aim of the research was basing on theoretical knowledge about sports sponsorship benefits offered by the organization, to identify the real sports sponsorship benefits in the organization. Lithuanian investigators Čingienė (1998), Navickas and Malakauskaitė (2006 and 2007), Pilelienė and Šimkus (2009) analyzed the sponsorship process time and expediency, highlighting the benefits of the organization of the process value. Sports sponsorship as a benefit for the organization concept were examined in two aspects: organization aims to benefit in terms of diversity and the benefits of the evaluation approach. The article aims to analyze a theoretical classification of benefits that’s organization gets in the process of sponsorship sports events or individual athletes. Organizations integrated in the sports events sponsorship campaign, if they can understand the benefits of this process. Researchers Ferrand et al. (2007) and Meenaghan (2001), Wilcox et al. (2007), Shimp (2007) in their works identified the essence of the process of sponsorship, where an important role is played by the relations between owner and sponsor, the correct formulation of corporate objectives supporting the process. Other research directions related to the problems of assessing the benefits: the methods and criteria used in assessment process; calculating the return of investment, deciding on hiring external sources of evaluation. Detectable the complexity of evaluation process the benefits gets during sponsorship process. There were selected three companies that used sport sponsorship to support events, the study carried out in 2012. Three companies that sponsored sporting events belonged to three different areas of work and had a lot of experience. Structured interviews were employed to interviewed two executives and one marketing specialist, from which all or part of solutions depended. There were 66 SPORTO MOKSLAS changed company names and trademarks according to the request of the companies executive. Based on the results of an empirical study, this paper identified already experienced companies benefit by sponsorship sports events, distinguishes the essential elements formulation of goals in the process. The study led to formulating following conclusions: firstly, companies in sponsorship process always pursuing his own benefit. Sponsor’s fundraising success depends on the owner’s ability to offer a sponsor to meet their expectations and goals. Pope (1998) distinguishes four major sports sponsorship objectives: corporate, marketing, media and personal, which selectively implemented the company gets the benefit, really exists. But one must not forget the sponsorship process risks and drawbacks: large event sponsorship has high-cost, must compete with other many sponsors, it is difficult to calculate the benefits of efficiency and return on investment. Secondly, the researchers upholds the principle, although support gaining popularity every year, counting the sponsorship benefits is difficult. Researchers argue that evaluating whether sponsorship has been beneficial, the company’s marketing professionals must have three indicators: the communication objectives, basic data with which to compare the results obtained and indicators before and after the event in comparison to. As it is difficult to assess the benefits, it is recommended to hire an outside organization to the calculated return on investment promotion, but it costs 3-5 percent of the budget and is expensive, so this may be done only by companies that invest in sponsorship 0,5 million U.S. dollars. Thirdly, systematic empirical research results revealed that Lithuanian companies realize realistic benefits in sponsorship sporting events. It was found that in Lithuania known company relocates marketing and media objectives, in order to benefit from sponsorship of sports events, teams or individual athletes, but the lesser-known local company benefits getting links with the corporate and marketing objectives. The companies have a long experience in the field of sponsorship events, and they are an example how to receive substantial benefits from sponsorship. Verf.-Referat