Matthew Leopold
ESA Awards Chair of Judges
Every year I talk to brands, rights holders and agencies who’ve done genuinely brilliant sponsorship work. Then, they decide not to enter the work into the ESA Awards. Why, oh why not enter? Usually it’s because they’ve talked themselves out of it before they’ve even opened the entry form.
I hear the same handful of excuses, often from the people whose work most deserves recognition. Each one feels reasonable, but it is based on an assumption about the awards that hasn’t been true for years, if it was ever true at all. Here are six rubbish excuses that you need to ignore when deciding if you should enter the ESA Awards.
1. “We’re too small”
The ESA Awards celebrates the best of sponsorship – regardless of size and scale. So, budget isn’t scored. The 2025 and 2026 ESA Sponsorship of the Year titles went to arts and culture partnerships, not the biggest sport deals in the market. Judges reward strategy, creativity and execution.
1a. “We’re too big”
I have spent my entire career working for big corporates. I hear you! There is a perception that judges will come down hard on the bigger brands. That is exactly why I introduced a points-based mark scheme. If the evidence is there, the marks will be given. Most commonly, large brands fall over because they delegate the award writing downwards. The stronger the insights, the stronger the argument – the better the result.
2. “We won’t win”
OK – not much I can say to this. It is true that you might not win. But winning is only one reason to enter. You get benchmarking against the best work in Europe, credibility with clients and stakeholders and independent feedback from more than 100 senior judges who score every entry against published criteria. That feedback alone is worth more than most agencies charge for a strategy review. And you get to come to the Awards ceremony in London in March – which is the highlight of my year!
3. “There’s no category for us”
There are more than 18 categories, spanning sport, arts and culture, media, technology and more. For 2027 there’s a new Community & Grassroots Sponsorship category, built specifically for partnerships that make a real difference locally rather than at scale. If you haven’t looked recently, look again.
4. “We haven’t got time”
I will concede on this one. If you don’t have the time to enter properly, please don’t – you will just end up disappointed. But we have made a huge effort to make the entry process as painless and as quick as possible. An entry is a 250-word summary plus either a short 10-minute video or a written submission. That’s considerably less than most people assume, and far less than the effort that went into the sponsorship itself.
5. “Our video won’t look slick enough”
There are zero marks for production values. None. A polished agency video and a one-take recording from someone’s living room scores exactly the same. The only thing judges mark is the content you cover, not how it looks. I could say we would give extra marks for cute dogs in the background. But that would be a lie.
6. “Our English isn’t strong enough”
ESA is a pan-European body and builds that into how the ESA Awards is judged. Extra video-entry time is available if English isn’t your first language. You can present in your own language with subtitles. Or you can submit written entries instead, using online translation if you need to. Nobody should be disadvantaged for this reason.
Look back over that list and a pattern shows up quickly. None of these excuses is about the work you’ve done. It’s about what you tell yourself before you’ve even started the entry. Strip that internal argument away and you are left with a straightforward decision: back the work you’ve done or leave it in a drawer where nobody will appreciate and evaluate it. The hard work is already complete. All that’s left is to enter it.
- Entry for the 2027 ESA Awards is open until 16 October, with an early-bird entry deadline of 25 September. Enter now.
