ESA Awards - Winners Announced

Global and national brands Arla, Aviva, Barclays, Compeed, McDonald’s, Nintendo, UniCredit, Telefónica and The Lawn Tennis Association were crowned winners at the 2011 ESA European Sponsorship Awards last night.

On the international front, Compeed’s ATP World Tour sponsorship clinched the ESA Multinational Award, ahead of Aviva and National Theatre Live, Heineken Global UEFA Champions League, and Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010, who received Highly Commended for its global campaign.

Telefónica Ireland Ltd - The O2 Dublin claimed the coveted Business to Consumer Award, beating strong competition from Aviva (athletics), British Gas (swimming) and Guinness (International rugby). Arla Foods’ educational campaign won the prize for Business to Consumer Low Budget.

In the new 2011 category, Business to Consumer - Media, where campaigns are activated predominantly through a media or digital channel, the Nintendo Telegraph campaign received the top accolade ahead of Heineken Star Player, Xperia™ X10 mini FIFA World Cup, and Specsavers TV Book Club, which was Highly Commended.

Barclays Cycle Hire scooped the top Business to Community Award while UniCredit’s Pass It On! sponsorship received the accolade for best Business to Community Low Budget.

This year saw the introduction of a new Rights Holder Award. The category recognises how rights holders can achieve their own objectives by partnering with an appropriate and responsive sponsor. The Lawn Tennis Association was awarded the trophy for their achievements with sponsor, AEGON and ParalympicsGB received Highly Commended for its partnership with sponsor, BT.

In the Business to Business category, Aviva Premiership Rugby won the top award while in the Business to Employee category, The McDonald’s Cup scooped the prize.

Entries were received from 10 European countries and assessed by an independent panel of expert judges from across the continent. The standard of entries was extremely high for the nine categories and the judges’ discretionary ‘Highly Commended’ awards were presented to five campaigns.

Winning the Highly Commended accolades were: NYSE Euronext European Champions Fantasy League (Business to Business), MAOAM meets SNO!ZONE (Business to Consumer Low Budget), Specsavers TV Book Club (Business to Consumer – Media), ParalympicsGB (Rights Holder Award) and Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010 (Multi-national Award).

For full details of the Winners and Highly Commended campaigns, visit the ESA website – www.sponsorship.org