Sky Wins Hollis Sponsorship Of The Year As Industry Awards Celebrates Its 19th Annual Event In Style

Sky’s ground-breaking partnership with British Cycling has been named Sponsorship Of The Year at the 19th Hollis Sponsorship Awards, held in front of a capacity crowd at the London Marriott Hotel on Tuesday, March 26 2013.

The media firm also won the Sport and Grass Root Sports Categories to complete a hat-trick of wins. In doing so it beat off tough competition from Lloyds Bank Group, BT and BA, all of which won Awards for their London 2012 campaigns.

The addition of two Olympic Categories to celebrate London 2012 was a key factor in the increased level of entries to the Awards. BT won one Olympic Category and the other went to delivery service UPS. Lloyds’ win came in the Brand category while BA triumphed in the innovation section.

Commenting on the results, Sponsorship Awards organiser Rosemary Sarginson said: “The quality of this year’s entries was superb, which I think is a testament to the effort that went into activating London 2012 or, for non-rights holders, finding a way of competing with the noise it created. While the Olympics was a superb showcase for sponsors, I’m also thrilled to see so many new names winning Awards for non-Olympic activity. Wins for brands like Marks & Spencer, McCoys, Cravendale and Wickes show just how far the sponsorship industry has come since these Awards were launched. They’re also a reminder that the industry needs to keep raising its game in all areas now London 2012 is over.”

Other winners on the night included Sponsorship Consultancy of the Year MEC Access and Personality of the Year Sally Hancock, who gave Lloyds an extra reason to celebrate. Not satisfied with its overall Award, Sky also triumphed in the Arts category with Sky Arts Ignition.

Other winners included Vodafone, RBS, Alzheimer’s Society/BUPA Care Homes, Nivea, O2, Evian, Sony Mobile and Nissan. The digital activation category went to O2 while Best use of PR was split into two segments, won by Santander and Heinz. Best use of research went to a cross-industry effort entitled Subconcious Storytelling entered by Yahoo!.

Details of winners and shortlisted entries can be found by clicking here.

ALCOHOL SPONSORSHIP BAN THREAT - WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS TO THE INDUSTRY? - click here to read the first in a series of features written by specialist journalsit Andy Fry focusing on issues impacting the sponsorship industry today.