The Awards, organised by the European Sponsorship Association (ESA), are the only pan-European sponsorship awards that celebrate excellence across all sectors, including sport, culture, entertainment, media, community and corporate responsibility. For 2011, the ESA has added two new categories, with one targeted at rights holders and governing bodies and the second focusing on media sponsorship.
"There is an opportunity for everyone to be involved, no matter what the size of budget," said ESA chairman Karen Earl. "We have categories covering Business to Business, Business to Community, Business to Consumer, Business to Employee and the Rights Holder Award - the latter to reflect the success of their sponsor partnerships."
Earl added: "In addition, there is a multi-national award to celebrate the best campaign that has been activated in a minimum of three different countries, with at least one country being in Europe. Last year MasterCard was our multi-national winner for its outstanding UEFA Champions League sponsorship that reached numerous markets. We also saw a project from Latvia prove that a carefully thought out, creative sponsorship campaign executed on a small budget, can exceed the objectives set."
Award entries will be judged by an independent panel of European industry experts, and winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony in Amsterdam on November 22 as part of ESA's two-day annual conference, Future Sponsorship. The deadline for entries is September 19 and those submitted by September 5 will benefit from a special early-bird discount.
The 2010 ESA Awards attracted a host of entries from 10 European countries with brands such as AEGON, British Gas, BT, O2, Philips and MasterCard all being crowned winners. Full entry details are available at www.sponsorship.org.
