The 2014 ESA Excellence Awards shortlist has been released, following a wealth of entries received from sponsorship professionals across Europe.
The organiser, the European Sponsorship Association (ESA), is delighted to report a tremendously high quality of entries have been received with many campaigns’ scores positioned neck to neck. A 15% increase in entries has further boosted the Awards’ standing.
The shortlist includes a range of national and global brands including Barclays, Citroën, Electric Ireland, ING, Mars, Ray-Ban and Vodafone with campaigns from sport and entertainment through to culture.
KPN and Papa John’s campaigns were among those short-listed for the Business to Consumer award while Johnnie Walker and Heineken were two of the four who reached the Multi-National category. In Business to Community, Budweiser and Cravendale went through to the second round.
The newly introduced 2014 categories Business to Youth and Best Use of PR saw DB Mobility Logistics AG and Vauxhall, Jaguar and Multipower Sportsfood, reaching the shortlist respectively.
In the popular Social Media category five entries were shortlisted including Orange and Western Union, while Standard Life Investments and Gas Natural Fenosa reached the shortlist for Business to Consumer/Business – Media.
Elsewhere, An Post and Ulster Bank were both listed in the Business to Community – Low Budget category and One DLL and McDonald’s included in Business to Employee. In the Consumer low budget category, Lexar and SJ were selected.
Entries into the categories have been judged by a panel of 13 independent expert judges from across the continent including Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Holland, Ireland, Sweden and the UK.
The ESA member-only Professional Development Award saw three member agencies reach the shortlist – Carat Creative Solutions, Fuse and Sport @ WH. This special award, supported by f1 recruitment and with its own panel of judges, looks at an organisation’s education and training programme and investment in employee career development.
The second round of judging for the Awards is now underway and winners will be announced on the 29th January 2015 at the ESA Excellence Awards Ceremony and Dinner being held at 155 Bishopsgate in London. The full list of short-listed campaigns can be found on the website – http://sponsorship.org/awards/shortlist/
Helen Day, ESA Head of Policy and Chairman of Judges said: “It is great to see an increase in the number of entries. As always, there was a very diverse range, from major international high-profile sponsorships to local community campaigns. All of them demonstrated excellent sponsorship techniques, and it was hard for the judges to identify the best.
“However, those that have got through to the shortlist are worthy winners, and in a few cases, we have short-listed an extra finalist as the scores were so close. They should all be proud of their achievement, but will have to wait for the official dinner to know the overall category winners.”
The evening event will also feature a presentation for the ESA Best of Europe Award. This prestigious award draws together national sponsorship award winners from a host of European countries including Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia and the UK, who will all compete to be crowned the very best of Europe for 2014.
The ESA Awards benefit from a number of important partnerships including Tom Shaw Photography, trophy sponsor Awarded2U, media sponsors Sportcal, the SportBusiness Group and SPORTO magazine, and with ICON providing the branding.
To find out more about the ESA Excellence Awards, visit the website http://sponsorship.org/awards/ceremony/ and to purchase tickets for the Awards Ceremony and Dinner, see https://2014esaawardsceremony.eventbrite.co.uk
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For further press information about the ESA Excellence Awards, please contact Helen Lamb on +44 (0)20 8390 3311, or via email at esaoffice@sponsorship.org
Note to the Editor:
The categories for contention are: Best Use of Public Relations, Best Use of Social Media Business, Business to Community and Business to Community (low budget), Business to Consumer and Business to Consumer (low budget); Business to Consumer/Business – Media; Business to Employee; Business to Youth and the Multi-National Award.
The panel of judges is: Helen Day, Head of European Policy, ESA; Karen Earl, ESA Chairman; Matthew Glendinning, Editor of Sports Sponsorship Insider; Kristoffer Hammer, Head of Business Development at Clearcast; Lili Kassay, a specialist in media and sports marketing; Mike Laflin, CEO of Sportcal, a news and information service; Tony Meenaghan, Professor of Marketing at the Smurfit Graduate School of Business, University College Dublin; Paul Meulendijk, sponsorship specialist; Conor Murray, Head of Regulatory and Public at egta, the association of television and radio sales houses; Cecilia Perlind, research specialist in sponsorship and advertising; Diana Spiegelberg, Director of Kensington & Chelsea Foundation; Peter Strahlendorf, Publisher and Editor of New Business Verlag GmbH & Co. KG and Frank van den Wall Bake, renowned Dutch sponsorship consultant.
For their profiles and those of the other judging panels (Professional Development and Best of Europe Awards), visit http://sponsorship.org/awards/judges/