Entries are now in for the European Sponsorship Association’s 2013 ESA Excellence Awards – the most prestigious pan-European awards for the sponsorship industry. The Awards shortlist will be announced on 5 December 2013.
This year’s awards, of which SportBusiness Group are a partner, will continue the mission of “raising industry standards and highlighting awareness of the Association, sponsorship and its practitioners across Europe”, said ESA Chairman Karen Earl.
One of the founders of the association, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in October, Earl has been a continuous presence within the organisation and a driving force behind the awards which launched in 2007.
At first a largely Anglo-Irish affair, the awards have made great strides over the last five years reaching out to national sponsorship associations and countries in Europe that don’t have associations.
“We find we are now getting a lot of traction in Europe,” she told Sports Sponsorship Insider. “Countries with their own sponsorship associations can now put forward their national sponsorship award winners for the Best of Europe Award. And in those countries where there are no associations, ESA is the only real way of getting a European platform to show what they can do.”
The Best of Europe Award, the culmination of last year’s awards ceremony was won in its inaugural year by the O2 Academy sponsorship. “O2 have to be celebrated for what they’ve done,” said Earl. “They have taken sponsorship to the level of being about delivery to consumers, not just what the sponsorship does for the brand."
Click here to find out more about the ESA Excellence Awards
Some of the most successful campaigns over the period have also been pan-European, said Earl, as represented by the Multi-National Campaign award. Earl pointed to MasterCard’s Uefa Champions League campaign – “a huge investment done brilliantly” – which was honored with that award when the ceremony was staged in Amsterdam in 2010.
“The brilliant thing was that they used the association with football to benefit consumers. They gave consumers a choice. If you use MasterCard you get more and are more prized. The results were staggeringly good.”
Results are key to the awards in a sector that hasn’t always been able to prove its return on investment. “A lot of campaigns are excellent and have the best ideas, but if you can’t prove it works there’s something missing. Our award winners always share the same thing. They understand about clear objectives and a clear strategy and get results."
Inevitably, the award categories have expanded over the years to reflect changing trends.
In 2011, the Rights Holder Award was introduced to celebrate those that work well with their sponsors. And In 2012, two new categories were introduced to cover social media and professional development.
In terms of the former, said Earl, expectations were initially perhaps too high. “The whole industry was galvanised by social media. People believed they had to do social media to be a success, which may not always be the case. For example, it may not reach the right audience. Things are a bit more rational now and it’s recognised as one of many platforms to deliver a sponsorship."
In 2012, BMW won the award for its “Golden BMW” campaign around the London 2012 Torch Relay. “It was well structured, well segmented and caught the imagination in the build-up to the Olympics when everyone was trying to grab attention.”
As for the first Professional Development Awards, open to ESA members only, Earl said it was probably an omission not to have recognised training and education back in 2007. "It’s open to companies that are members and to encourage our members to train and to educate, which was part of our initial remit.
“The first award went to my old agency [Synergy Sponsorship] where they really prize their employees. With Synergy being part of a bigger group, this means that employees can widen their learnings.”
The sponsorship of this year’s awards by SportBusiness Group, along with the partnership of sister publication Sports Sponsorship Insider with the ESA Diploma, reflects the journey travelled by these organizations.
“I think our partnership with SportBusiness is a great one,” Earl said. “We stand for similar standards and ethics and have changed in recent years to reflect this position of authority in the industry. Everything evolves and we recognise that consumers today want a myriad of different things. We can’t just comment on the industry, we have to be ahead of the curve.”
The Awards Ceremony and Dinner will be held in London on January 29, 2014.