South Asian Journal of Marketing & Management Research

Event marketing as a persuasive communication mechanism has attracted a great deal of attention among industrial practitioners, whilst scholars have been investigating it using many concepts and related cases with various scopes. The concept of event marketing has been investigated in empirical studies utilizing different theories, including the social exchange theory. Some studies primarily emphasize the link between event marketing and relationship management. The significance of event marketing to many industries over traditional modes of marketing communications is noteworthy. Therefore, there is evidence in the literature explaining how event marketing is being applied by marketers as an integrated marketing communication tool. It has most often been examined in different industries with related tools including sponsorship, activation and relationship management activities. Prior studies argue that event marketing results in brand-related behaviors and performances though comprehensive and extended studies in this area are scant. This paper focuses on the concepts related to event marketing in order to provide a comprehensive review on the relationships between event marketing and related variables as the main niche of the study. The paper uses the literature review as the main research instrument and presents insights into the issue using empirical evidence. The authors paid special attention to Sri Lankan event marketing practices in the industry and discussed the applications of event marketing to different industrial sectors. The paper ends with the conclusion followed by some brief directions for future research.