Sport Marketing and Sponsorship: Case of Turkish Airlines Corporation

In previous decades, sport activities were hold only in local and regional areas and they used to attract only a small group of people. These activities were mostly far from professionalism and mainly amateurish. Reaching many people took too much time. After the developments in technology and especially in mass communication systems, all sportive branches have started to reach much more people. Today, sport activities are followed by many people. The sport activities today are not only a sport but also a sector which run millions of dollars. Because of these developments, a concept called as “sport industry” has emerged. Especially football and other specific branches of sports such as basketball, volleyball and baseball have started to reach much more people. Male and female athletes in this industry have become well-known stars. Big companies have signed sponsorship agreements with world-famous stars and teams, and by this way they have started to market their products to the target consumers. Many of old and big companies have realized the positive effect of sport on the people. So, they have tried to introduce themselves in global market through some of sport clubs or organizations. Many old companies in the world have been applying this strategy for marketing. This strategy is getting more popular day by day. By developing technology and globalization, big Turkish companies have tended to provide sport sponsorships. As a typical example, Turkish Airlines Corporation has been trying to increase its brand familiarity and reliability through advertisement for 10 years. In this study in which the sponsorship activities of THY are examined, the explorational research type that is mostly used with case research, has been carried out by deepening the information collected from secondary data. Marketing and sponsorship activities which were used by THY have been analyzed, and material and immaterial values gained by THY by means of these activities have been thoroughly examined.