Managerial mindsets and the symbiotic relationship between sponsorship and advertising

Both advertising and sponsorship are key areas of marketing communications activity, though the latter has acted as a somewhat “Cinderella” subject. In the heightened and increasing consumer‐oriented marketing communications world of the 1990s, this paper asks whether these two marketing communications methods exist in an uneasy alliance or strategic symbiosis. Given the press (both practitioner and academic) coverage concerning integrated marketing communications, it may seem self‐evident that the latter alternative is preferred, but a rationale behind this preferstment is advanced. Notably, the shared conventions of the two communications activities constitute the text of their interactions. This sharing, or as we have termed it, a symbiotic relationship, leads in turn to the what can be described as the unity of a marketing communications culture, or its objective (managerial) mind.