ESA Excellence Awards - Winners Announced

Global and national brands Arla Foods, BMW, Cisco, GAA, Lloyds Banking Group, Mars, MasterCard and O2 were all crowned winners at the 2012 ESA Excellence Awards in London yesterday evening, 31^st January.
 
 
The European Sponsorship Association’s (ESA) annual awards attracted entries from 13 countries and were assessed by an independent panel of expert judges from across the continent.
 
On the international front, MasterCard’s Disney sponsorship won the ESA Multi-National Campaign, ahead of Allianz Football for Life, the McDonald’s EURO Cup and SAP’s Extreme Sailing Team & Extreme Sailing Series.
 
Mars claimed the Business to Consumer Award for its ‘Work, Rest, Play your part for England’ campaign in a large category which attracted the highest ever number of entries and of an exceptionally high quality. Aviva, Dankse Opbakning, Gordon’s and Vauxhall were all short-listed. Emirates Air Line’s involvement in a new London urban cable car and P&G’s ‘Thank you, Mum’ campaigns both received a Highly Commended accolade. Bird’s Eye’s The Great Food Journey won the prize for Business to Consumer Low Budget.
 
Sponsorship campaigns focusing on the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games did well during the evening. Cisco scooped top prize for Business to Business, with UPS receiving Highly Commended. The Lloyds Banking Group received the top award for Business to Community and also went on to win a second award for its Business to Employee programme during the Games.
 
The Social Media Activation category saw BMW with its ‘Golden BWM’ campaign take first prize with Highly Commended awarded to the O2 Academy programme. For the more traditional media category, Arla Food’s Cravendale and the Muppets campaign collected the Business to Consumer-Media Award.
 
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) scooped the ESA Rights Holder Award for its successful partnership with Kellogg’s Cúl Camps, beating off competition from Serious Events’ partnership with BT River of Music and The National Concert Hall of Ireland with ESB Live 2012.
 
New for the year, ESA member companies Carat Sponsorship, MEC Access and Synergy were short-listed for the Professional Development Award. All three organisations demonstrated an excellent commitment to professional and career development for their staff through training and education and Synergy clinched the prize.
 
The finale of the evening saw trophies awarded to the top three Best of Europe nominees for outstanding national campaigns in their respective countries during 2012. All seven nominees were national sponsorship winners and entered by their national sponsorship association or award organiser.
 
The Marketing Institute of Ireland’s winner, SuperValu, sponsor of the GAA Football All Ireland Championship, achieved third place. The Swedish Sponsorship & Events Awards’ winning campaign Dream Hack by TELIA, collected the trophy for second and the UK’s Hollis Sponsorship Awards winners, the O2 Academy Sponsorship, claimed the prestigious top prize.
 
For full details of the Winners and Highly Commended campaigns, visit the ESA website (click) and see comments on Twitter #esaawards