Moving Away from Category Exclusivity Deals to Sponsorship Activation Platforms: The Case of the Ryder Cup

As a biennial event, the Ryder Cup is men’s golf competition between teams from Europe and United States. Ernst & Young (EY) Standard Life Investments (SLI), who are in same business category (i.e., financial services), have served as official partners of event recent years. While two firms willing to move away traditional sponsorship practices exclusivity deals, both been able achieve significant success through their collaborative efforts activating sponsorships. This new, fascinating phenomenon concept practice. Through an exploratory inductive inquiry process, this study we conduct case analysis by examining activations EY SLI at 2014 held UK. The findings demonstrate that social media plays impactful role companies’ ability engage target audiences. used captain brand ambassador, embodied its theme leadership teamwork. focused on running advertising campaigns build company image increase awareness.