The sponsorship literature has only briefly examined the combined effects of leveraging activities with sponsorship. Although consumers' responses to sports sponsorship are expected to depend on the type of audience, no prior research has investigated the “driving” role of consumers' affiliation with the sponsored entity to explain the combined effects of leveraging activities with sponsorship. Drawing on social identity theory, this research – based on an experiment involving 2540 subjects – shows that a sponsor's sales-oriented leveraging activity (i.e. a promotional direct mail) containing an explicit statement of its sponsorship link with a sponsored sports entity, increases fans as well as non-fans' awareness of that link. However subsequent patronizing behaviors of the sponsor's stores and purchases in these stores are restricted to fans of the sponsored entity.