Global and national brands Aberdeen Asset Management, British Gas, Liberty Insurance and SAP were among those crowned winners at the prestigious 2013 ESA Excellence Awards held in London yesterday evening, 29th January.
The Awards Ceremony took place at the stunning Plaisterers’ Hall and was hosted by Steve Parry, UK Radio/TV presenter and former Olympic swimmer. The sold-out event attracted a record number of guests.
The European Sponsorship Association’s (ESA) annual awards received entries from 11 countries which were assessed by an independent panel of expert judges from across the continent. The Awards enjoy the patronage of Mrs Androulla Vassiliou, Member of the European Commission.
On the international front, a strong line-up with Audi, McDonald’s, SAP and Standard Chartered short-listed for the Multi-National Award saw the trophy presented to McDonald’s for its EURO 2012 Player Escort Programme. The Standard Chartered Trophy campaign was highly commended.
Liberty Insurance and the GAA claimed the Business to Consumer Award in a tight category where BMW, Budweiser and The O2 were short-listed. SAP at Kieler Woche won the Consumer Low Budget Award with highly commended being given to Little Mix/Schwarzkopf.
In the Business to Business category, Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open fought off competition from Audi Cup, Evonik and Borussia Dortmund, and Heathrow Express to take the trophy.
The strong contenders for the Social Media Award – Aviva, Kellogg’s Krave, RaboDirect and Volkswagen lost out to winners, RBS 6 Nations. For the more traditional media category, the trophy went to Morrisons – Ant & Dec Bring Out The Talent, with Anchor being highly commended.
AEG Global Partnerships and What Car? were short-listed for the Rights Holder Award but the trophy went to British Athletics for its partnership with Sainsbury’s.
Against strong contenders in Business to Employee including GE and Audi – British Gas SwimsBritain campaign scooped top prize with Prudential RideLondon highly commended.
The ESA award for a member company excelling in Professional Development was closely contested with Carat Sponsorship, Synergy and WH Sport narrowly losing out to MEC Access.
The finale of the evening saw trophies awarded to the top three Best of Europe nominees for outstanding national campaigns in their respective countries during the year. All seven nominees were national sponsorship winners and entered by their national sponsorship association or award organiser. The UK Sponsorship Awards’ winner Sky’s Sponsorship of the Great Britain Cycling Team, achieved third place. The Slovenian SPORTO Awards’ winner Hypo Alpe Adria – Basket of Services EuroBasket 2013, collected the trophy for second and the All Ireland Marketing Awards’ winner, Electric Ireland’s Sponsorship of Team Ireland in London Olympics 2012, claimed the prestigious top prize.
For full details of the Winners and Highly Commended campaigns, visit the ESA website – http://www.sponsorship.org/ESA-Excellence-Awards/index.asp The ESA Excellence Awards are supported by f1 recruitment for the Professional Development Award, Action Images for photography, Awarded2U for the trophies, ICON for branding, and the SportBusiness Group, SPORTO Magazine and Sportcal as media partners. –ENDS–