By William Fenton, ESA Board Director in Brussels.
We’ve been busy so far this year, meeting and consulting with a range of organisations and ESA members over in Brussels. The main crux of our discussions have revolved around sponsorship and policy in the worlds of gambling; access of news organisations to sporting events; and self-regulation of sponsorship by beer and spirits sponsors.
There has been much preparation for an important meeting of the EU Alcohol and Health Forum coming up. Here, ESA stands alongside The World Federation of Advertisers in the Responsible Marketing Pact, which has made concrete commitments, and taken relevant actions, with regards to the marketing of alcohol.
Alcohol is currently the hottest topic that we deal with, spurred in part by some high profile sponsorships in football and Formula One. A paper detailing the main arguments, some case studies (some from ESA members) and research on the topic carried out by ESA can be found on our website. We will continue to be a valuable source of knowledge about sponsorship to the WFA in many future meetings.
Most of our work in policy is about self-regulation, and this extends to ESA being a member of a forum set up by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology. This is a forum for best practice on self-regulation that helps keep us up to date on any issues affecting members.
ESA’s expertise in this field is also aided by membership of the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA). One tangible output from this relationship is a formal complaints procedure for any European sponsorship activity that might cause objections.
ESA has also had recent meetings with the Sport Department of the European Commission to discuss ESA’s potential partnership of the European Week of Sport in September 2015.
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