Judges of the ESA Excellence Awards have little more than one month to go before they make their final choices in nine sponsorship award categories which have now reached the shortlist stage.
This year’s awards, of which Sports Sponsorship Insider is a partner, received a wealth of entries from sponsorship professionals across 11 European countries. The winners will be announced on January 29, 2014 at the ESA Excellence Awards Ceremony and Dinner in London. The shortlist includes a range of national and global brands including An Post, Aviva, Budweiser, British Gas, Danske Bank, Evonik and Liberty Insurance with campaigns from sport and entertainment through to culture.
BMW and O2 campaigns were among those short-listed for the Business to Consumer award while Audi and McDonald’s were two of the four who reached the Multi-national category. In Business to Community, Beazley and Genworth went through to the second round. In the popular Social Media category RBS and Volkswagen AG were among those reaching the shortlist for this award. Anchor (Arla Foods) and Morrisons reached the shortlist for Business to Consumer-Media. Elsewhere, Aberdeen Asset Management and Heathrow Express were both listed in the Business to Business category and British Gas and GE named in Business to Employee. In the Consumer low budget category, Hyde Park Wonderland was included in the shortlist.
Entries into the categories have been judged by a panel of 14 independent expert judges from across the continent including Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Holland, Ireland, Sweden and the UK. Full details about the shortlist can be found on the website – http://www.sponsorship.org/esa-excellence-awards/shortlist-2013.asp
Helen Day, ESA Head of Policy and Chairman of Judges said: “As always, there was a very diverse range of entries, 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 should be proud of their achievement, but will have to wait for the official dinner to know if they are going to be the overall winner of their category.” The evening event will also feature an ESA Members’ Professional Development Award, which is being supported by f1 recruitment and a presentation for the ESA Best of Europe Award. This prestigious award draws together national sponsorship award winners from seven European countries who will all compete to be crowned the very best of Europe for 2013.
The ESA Awards benefit from a number of important partnerships. As well as SportBusiness Group, the owner of Sports Sponsorship Insider, these include Action Images providing photography, trophy sponsor Awarded2U, media sponsors Sportcal, SPORTO magazine and ICON assisting with the branding. The categories for contention are: Business to Business; Business to Community; Business to Consumer and Business to Consumer (low budget); Business to Consumer-Media; Business to Employee; Social Media; the Rights Holder Award and the Multi-national Award. To find out more about the ESA Excellence Awards, visit the website at
http://www.sponsorship.org/ESA-Excellence-Awards/index.asp and to purchase tickets for the Awards Ceremony and Dinner, see http://www.sponsorship.org/ESA-Excellence-Awards/attend-ceremony.asp