The 2014 ESA Excellence Awards are officially open and campaign entries from sponsorship professionals across Europe can be received.
Now in their eighth year, these are the only Awards to recognise excellence within the European sponsorship industry.
Organised by the European Sponsorship Association (ESA), the Awards celebrate campaigns in all sectors – sport, culture, entertainment, media, community and corporate responsibility.
Two new categories have been introduced this year – the Best Use of Public Relations and Business to Youth – to cover the increased attention of sponsors targeting youth.
Karen Earl, Chairman of the European Sponsorship Association said that the Awards are firmly established as recognising and celebrating best practice within the industry across Europe.
"The awards have been growing year on year. We’ve established stronger ties with our partners across Europe and are delighted to have so many countries participating. Our strong line-up of independent expert judges from ten countries underlines the significance and reach of the Awards.
Sponsors, rights holders and agencies are all invited to enter their most successful campaigns in a bid to be judged the best in Europe.
The ESA Excellence Awards assess the business objectives, the target audience and the results of sponsorship campaigns, with categories covering Business to Business, Business to Community, Business to Consumer (for event sponsorship, media sponsorship and low budgets), Business to Employee, Social Media and a Multi-national Award for campaigns activated in at least three different countries.
A Rights Holder Award recognises the importance of sponsorship to the business of a sporting or cultural organisation. The Professional Development Award applauds companies committed to professional and career development of their staff through training and education.
Karen added that there are opportunities for everyone from across Europe to be involved, no matter what the size of sponsorship budget. The judges look at creativity, a campaign meeting its business objectives and having clearly-measured and evaluated results to prove their case.
"Our Awards don’t cater only for those campaigns with the largest budgets but give smaller community, consumer and employee sponsorship campaigns the opportunity to be recognised as contributing to the success of a business".
A highlight of the Awards Ceremony evening will be the ESA Best of Europe Award which sees 2014 national sponsorship winners from 10 countries compete against each other. Their winning campaigns are judged by a special panel of European experts to determine which will be crowned the Best of Europe. The Irish entry by Electric Ireland claimed Gold at the 2013 award. Full details of previous winners can be viewed on the ESA Awards website – http://sponsorship.org/awards-home/
The 2013 ESA Excellence Awards attracted entries from 10 countries with global and national brands Aberdeen Asset Management, British Athletics, British Gas, Genworth, Hypo Alpe Adria, Liberty Insurance, Morrisons, McDonald’s, RBS, SAP and Sky, scooping trophies.
The ESA Excellence Awards Ceremony will take place at 155 Bishopsgate, London on the 29th January 2015.
Full entry details are available online via http://sponsorship.org/awards/how-to-enter/
For further information about the Awards, contact the ESA office, Tel +44 (0) 208 390 3311 or email awards@sponsorship.org
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For further Press information, contact the ESA Office on +44 (0) 208 390 3311 or via esaoffice@sponsorship.org
About ESA
The European Sponsorship Association (ESA) represents the interests of the sponsorship industry in Europe. As a membership organisation, its members comprise sponsors, rights holders, agencies, professional advisors and suppliers who operate at a global, pan-European and national level across Europe.
The Association works to raise standards within the industry through dissemination of information, education and training (ESA Knowledge; ESA Diploma) and to promote and protect the industry through its lobbying at national and European level.