The European Sponsorship Association (ESA) has revealed its shortlist for the 2014 ESA Excellence Awards following a 15-per-cent year-on-year increase in entries.
The shortlist includes brands such as Barclays, Citroën, Electric Ireland, ING, Mars, Ray-Ban and Vodafone, with campaigns from sport and entertainment through to culture. The shortlists were devised by a panel of 13 independent expert judges from across Europe. The second round of judging for the Awards is now underway and winners will be announced on January 29 at a ceremony in London.
KPN and Papa John’s campaigns were among those shortlisted for the Business to Consumer award while Johnnie Walker and Heineken were two of the four who reached the Multi-National category. In Business to Community, Budweiser and Cravendale went through to the second round. The newly introduced 2014 categories Business to Youth and Best Use of PR saw DB Mobility Logistics AG and Vauxhall, Jaguar and Multipower Sportsfood reaching the shortlist, respectively.
In the popular Social Media category, five entries were shortlisted including Orange and Western Union, while Standard Life Investments and Gas Natural Fenosa reached the shortlist for Business to Consumer/Business – Media. Elsewhere, An Post and Ulster Bank were both listed in the Business to Community – Low Budget category and One DLL and McDonald’s were included in Business to Employee. In the Consumer low budget category, Lexar and SJ were selected.
Meanwhile the ESA member-only Professional Development Award will be between three agencies – Carat Creative Solutions, Fuse and Sport @ WH. This special award, supported by f1 recruitment and with its own panel of judges, looks at an organisation’s education and training programme and investment in employee career development.
Helen Day, the ESA’s head of policy and the chairman of the judges, said: “It is great to see an increase in the number of entries. As always, there was a very diverse range, from major international high-profile sponsorships to local community campaigns. All of them demonstrated excellent sponsorship techniques, and it was hard for the judges to identify the best. However, those that have got through to the shortlist are worthy winners, and in a few cases, we have short-listed an extra finalist as the scores were so close.”
The full list of short-listed campaigns can be found at http://sponsorship.org/awards/shortlist/ and for more information about the Awards, visit: http://sponsorship.org/awards/ceremony/.