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This study aimed to investigate the ecological validity of sponsorship effectiveness by examining the visual attention paid to sponsorship at a live sporting event and the subsequent impact of that attention on cognitive outcomes using eye tracking in a natural, real-world environment.

Two logistic regression analyses (i.e. sponsor recall and sponsor recognition) were conducted to evaluate the impact of sponsorship exposure time, fixation duration and fixation frequency on viewer attention.

The preliminary investigation unveiled that longer exposure, strategic placement and brand repetition led to more frequent and extended fixations. The statistical examination demonstrated that a greater fixation frequency yielded a higher probability of explicit memory. However, the amount of time did not appear to influence viewers’ explicit memory. Further, females exhibited a higher probability of explicit memory compared to their male counterparts. Finally, age emerged as a significant determinant of explicit memory.

The significance of conducting eye-tracking studies within an authentic sport environment enhances ecological validity, leading to the development of practical and realistic approaches to boost consumers' explicit memory of sponsors. Further, the tangible evidence of how sponsorship information is processed can inform and modify sport marketing strategies to enhance the effectiveness of sponsorships.