Congruity is silver, incongruity is gold?

As a result of mixed perspectives on the impact congruity in sport sponsorships, the aim of this study is to provide a clear understanding of the effects of sponsorship congruity on consumers’ cognitive and affective responses. Furthermore, this study investigated the influence of consumers’ persuasion knowledge while processing different levels of congruity in sport sponsorships. An online experiment with 149 participants tested three levels of sponsorship congruity (extreme incongruent, moderate incongruent, complete congruent) and showed that extreme incongruity between the sponsor brand and the event yielded a significant better effect on consumers’ cognitive responses in the form of brand recall, but not on brand recognition. With respect to the affective responses, the hypothesis that a moderate incongruent sponsorship resulted in the strongest brand image transfer was only marginal supported. In addition, the study demonstrated that persuasion knowledge plays a significant role in the relationship between sponsorship congruity and brand image transfer. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.