Aberdeen Asset Management, Audi AG, Evonik and Heathrow Express are the shortlisted brands in the Business-to-Business sponsorship category for the 2013 ESA Excellence Awards to be decided this month.
The ESA Excellence Awards, organised by the European Sponsorship Association, recognise excellence within the sponsorship industry across Europe.
The Business-to-Business nominees were entered for the following sponsorship projects: the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open golf tournament, the Audi Cup pre-season football tournament, Evonik’s sponsorship of German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund and Heathrow Express’s partnership in the travel category for the Sony World Photography Awards.
The winners of the 2013 ESA Excellence Awards, of which Sports Sponsorship Insider is a partner, will be announced at the Awards Ceremony and Dinner to be held in London on January 29, 2014.
Below, in the first of a series of sponsorship profiles across ten award categories, Sports Sponsorship Insider summarises the four Business-to-Business category contenders.
Project: Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open
Rights holder: The European Tour
Agency: WSM Communications
In 2012, global asset management group Aberdeen Asset Management announced its biggest golf sponsorship to date as title sponsor of the Scottish Open for an initial three-year term from 2012 to 2014. In 2013, Aberdeen extended the deal for another three years from 2015 to 2017.
The Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open extends Aberdeen’s support for golf – a sport which scores highly among its target audience of high net worth individuals – in Scotland. The international reach of the tournament, which includes live NBC broadcast coverage in the United States, is especially important to Aberdeen, as is the ability to create an attractive entertainment environment for invited guests.
Project: Audi Cup
Rights holder: Audi AG
Agency: brands and emotions GmbH (Lead agency)
The biennial Audi Cup pre-season football tournament at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, has developed over three editions from 2009 to 2013 into an international marketing platform for the carmaker.
Audi designs and manages the entire platform independently, ensuring the almost complete refinancing of the project though the sale of media rights.
The Audi Cup has a strong business-to-consumer rationale, but is also a valuable business-to-business tool. Of the 140,000 spectators attending the Audi Cup over two days last year, 15,500 were guests of the carmaker or its partners. The competing teams were Bayern Munich, Manchester City, AC Milan and Sao Paulo.
Project: Evonik Sponsorship of Borussia Dortmund
Rights holder: Borussia Dortmund
Agency: KNSK Werbeagentur GmbH
German industrial group Evonik was formed from the Essen-based RAG Group in 2007 and is a global leader in specialty chemicals. For the Evonik brand launch, the company became a jersey sponsor of Borussia Dortmund in 2007 to draw attention to a planned flotation on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
In addition to name recognition, the brand partnership generates positive image transfer and brand appeal for Evonik and positions the company nationally and internationally as a dependable partner among customers, suppliers and investors. Evonik’s sponsorship is by definition a business-to-business play since it does not have a consumer-facing operation.
Project: Heathrow Express meets World Photography Awards
Rights holder: World Photography Organisation
Agency: brandmeetsbrand
The World Photography Organisation, which promotes photography to a worldwide audience, appointed the sponsorship consultancy brandmeetsbrand to help build new partnerships. brandmeetsbrand approached Heathrow Express, the London to Heathrow Airport rail service, to become the presenting partner of the travel category for the Sony World Photography Awards.
Heathrow Express used images from the awards on board its trains used by 16,000 passengers per day. Passengers were invited to vote for their favourite images to win prizes. Employees and business travellers were also invited to enter images, which were curated into an exhibition by the WPO for Heathrow Express.