The Youth, Reality TV Show Sponsorship and Brand Patronage: Any Nexus?

Abstract

With increasing apathy to advertising by audience, especially the youth, and the need for orgnisations to look for way of positioning their products and services to attract new and retain old customers, organisations are turning to reality TV shows sponsorship. Reality TV shows have become one of the most popular shows on television this days. Reality TV programmes is define as programme that film real people as they live out events in their lives, contrived or otherwise, as they occur. With students of Redeemer’s university as its study population, the study adopts survey design, using questionnaire as data collection instrument. A sample of 240 respondents was randomly selected from the population and test instrument administered on them, only 235 pieces of questionnaire were returned and analysed, putting the response rate at 97.9%. The findings showed that brand sponsorship of reality shows does not have any influence on brand patronage. 56.5% of respondents indicated that the effect of brand sponsorship of reality shows on their patronage of the product is neither positive nor negative; rather, it is neutral or inconsequential. This finding showed that the sponsorship of reality TV shows is not solely responsible for the increased patronage of the sponsored brand. However, brand sponsorship of reality TV programmes contributes positively to image of the brand, which might ultimately lead to increase patronage. The researcher concludes that sponsorship of reality shows by major brands and organizations might influence people’s perception of the brand positively, but does not necessarily make them patronize the brand. In view of the research findings, it was recommended that organizations should not use sponsorship of reality shows as a strategy for  the purpose of increasing patronage, but use it if their aim is to boost their  brand image image.

Key words: Reality TV, Sponsorship, Patronage, Brand, Positioning