Global and national brands AG BARR, An Post, Citroën and Jaguar and were among those crowned winners at the prestigious 2014 ESA Excellence Awards held in London this evening, 29th January.
Organised by the European Sponsorship Association (ESA), the Awards Ceremony took place at 155 Bishopsgate and was hosted by Oli Barrett MBE. The event attracted guests from across the Continent, Ireland and the UK.
The Award entries were received from many countries and these were assessed by an independent panel of expert judges from Europe.
Starting off the evening’s proceedings, the ESA award for a member company excelling in Professional Development, a closely contested category, saw Fuse Sport + Entertainment clinching the trophy from those short-listed – The Story Lab and Sport @ WH.
On the international front, a strong line-up with Heineken, Johnnie Walker, McDonald’s and Standard Life Investments was short-listed for the Multi-National Award which saw the trophy presented to Heineken #ShareTheSofa campaign for the UEFA Champions League.
AG BARR, soft drink sponsor of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games won the coveted Business to Consumer Award in a tight category where KPN, Mars, Papa John’s & The Football League and SSE were short-listed. Electric Ireland GAA Minor Championships won the Consumer Low Budget Award.
Also closely fought was the Social Media Award category with Heineken’s #ShareTheSofa clinching a second trophy. McDonald’s FryFutbol campaign was highly commended. For the more traditional media category, the trophy went to Citroën #DrivenByBeauty.
In the new Business to Youth category, Kellogg’s Krave beat off competition from DB Mobility Logistics AG, McDonald’s, Vauxhall and Vodafone. In the new PR category, Multipower Sportsfood, ING and Electric Ireland were short-listed but the trophy went to Jaguar for its ‘Keep on Pushing’ campaign.
Against strong contenders in Business to Employee including One DLL, Standard Life Investments and The Big Lunch, supported by Halifax, The McDonald’s EURO Cup 2014 scooped top prize.
For the popular Business to Community Award, 1% FairShare® was presented with a Commendation for Innovation and Cravendale’s campaign for Sport Relief won the trophy. For Community Low Budget, An Post Cycle Series was the winner over Barclays, The Big Positive Weekend and Ulster Bank.
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 10 nominees were national sponsorship winners and entered by their national sponsorship association or award organiser.
The inaugural Belgian Sponsorship Awards’ winner AB Inbev Jupiler & Red Devils ‘We Are Ready’ World Cup campaign, achieved third place. The All Ireland Marketing Awards’ winner, Liberty Insurance’s sponsorship of the GAA All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, collected the trophy for second position and the Dutch SponsorRingen Awards’ winner, KPN for its Olympic speed skating campaign 2014, claimed the prestigious top prize, being crowned the ESA Best of Europe winner.
For full details of the Winners and Commended campaigns, visit the ESA website
The ESA Excellence Awards are supported by f1 recruitment for the Professional Development Award, Tom Shaw for photography, Awarded2U for the trophies, ICON for branding, and the SportBusiness Group, SPORTO Magazine and Sportcal as media partners.
–ENDS–
For further information about the ESA Excellence Awards, contact Helen Lamb on +44 (0) 20 8390 3311, or by email via helenlamb@sponsorship.org
Note to the Editor:
The ESA Excellence Awards are held annually to celebrate sponsorship excellence across Europe. The categories for contention are: Best Use of PR, Best Use of Social Media, Business to Community, and Business to Community Low Budget, Business to Consumer, Business to Consumer Low Budget, Business to Consumer/Business-Media, Business to Employee, Business to Youth and the Multi-National Award. Whilst the latter is designed to recognise excellence in campaigns that have reached a minimum of three European countries, the others are open to all projects, provided there is a focus within at least one European market.
The expert judges are drawn from across the Continent including Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands and the UK.
The ESA Professional Development Award is presented to the winning ESA member company.
The ESA Best of Europe Award is developed in partnership with national sponsorship associations and national sponsorship award organisers. Both this category and the Professional Development Award have a separate and specialist panel of judges. See the ESA website for more.