Hollis Sponsorship Bulletin

Hundreds of leading lights from the sponsorship industry gathered at The London Marriott Hotel last night (March 29) to see British Gas and Carat Sponsorship secure the Hollis Sponsorship of the Year Award for their work with British Swimming. The winning team was presented with its Award by Double Olympian James Cracknell, who was named Hollis Sponsorship Personality of the Year for his Herculean achievements in raising funds and exposure for the charity sector.
Altogether, 15 brands including British Gas picked up Hollis Sponsorship Awards this year. Among the highlights were HSBC’s success in the Arts Category with Festival Brazil, Specsavers’ success in the Media Category with the TV Book Club and Evian’s success in the big budget Brand category for its Wimbledon activity. Among new winners, Compeed’s partnership with the ATP won the first-timer Award while Theakston’s triumphed in the low-budget category.
Across the categories, a high number of blue-chip brands proved successful, notably Asda, Castrol, Unilever, Jaguar and O2, the latter picking up the Continuity Award for its naming rights deal with AEG. Lesser-known brands also shone, notably Brakes and Ekspan. Flying the flag for Scotland were Glenmorangie and Tennent’s.

Hollis Awards organiser Rosemary Sarginson said: “The quality of entries this year was excellent. While the economic downturn has clearly taken its toll on many companies and individuals, the sponsorship industry has again shown its resilience and innovation.”

Looking to the future, Sarginson was also delighted to see Carat’s Matthew Riches pick up the Barrie Gill Award For Most Promising Young Sponsorship Executive. “We had four great candidates in this category. There’s no question that the future of the industry is in safe hands if this group of rising stars is anything to go by!”

The Hollis Sponsorship Awards Gala Dinner is almost at capacity.  To secure your place at the industry’s celebration of the best of sponsorship, please visit www.sponsorship-awards.co.uk or ring us on 020 8891 1067.  ESA members can claim a 10% discount on individual bookings.

Barclaycard has signed up for the fifth year running to sponsor London’s largest free festival, The Mayor’s Thames Festival in 2011. The festival attracted over 825,000 people in 2010. This year, the festival will take place on 10th and 11th September, on the river, roads, bridges and public open spaces between the London Eye and Tower Bridge.

Barclaycard first sponsored the festival in September 2007 to coincide with the launch of the Barclaycard OnePulse card. Following the success of that campaign, Barclaycard then renewed its sponsorship in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Dan Mathieson, Head of Sponsorship at Barclaycard said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with the Mayor’s Thames Festival – it’s wonderful to be associated with this truly memorable event that just gets better and better, and that Londoners enjoy so much”. 

Adrian Evans, the festival director, said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with Barclaycard for another year. It is a great link for both partners, and ensures that London’s largest free festival will be even more spectacular in 2011”.

The Mayor’s Thames Festival is delivered by the Thames Festival Trust, a not-for-profit charitable trust with an independent board of trustees.

HSBC Premier has joined the Oxford Literary Festival as its Global Banking Partner.  The Festival, for which pre-booked tickets are up by 33% from this time last year, brings an exchange of ideas and debate to Oxford and beyond, believing that books have the ability to illuminate different perspectives and to break down the barriers between cultures The festival gathers some of the world’s best writers together for a week of debate, lectures, seminars and dinners.
For an event which receives no state or local government funding, partnerships are vital. HSBC Premier’s sponsorship will see the Festival become a highlight of HSBC’s global Cultural Exchange programme and will provide its clients with exclusive access to tickets, a series of lunches and a VIP lounge. It will culminate in the closing dinner featuring Madhur Jaffrey’s contemporary take on Anglo-Indian cuisine in the Great Hall at Christ Church.
Head of HSBC Premier UK, Richard Knight, said: “The international outlook of the Oxford Literary Festival and its engaging programme of events complement HSBC Premier’s commitment to opening up opportunities and stimulating debate. Through our partnership with the Festival we hope to challenge and inspire people to explore a world without boundaries.”
Based at the Oxford University college of Christ Church, the 2011 programme features over 550 international speakers at more than 300 events.

The increasing financial support provided by gambling companies to sports teams and events in recent years has led to a fast-growing sector emerging within the European sponsorship industry. The value of gambling sponsorship deals reported since 2007 runs into the hundreds of millions of Euros and the upward trend is continuing.

While this growth is welcomed by the sponsorship industry, the legal issues relating to gambling sponsorship vary considerably from country to country and as a result, the European Sponsorship Association (ESA) has issued a policy statement to address the restrictions and continuing developments that may appear unclear.

Helen Day, ESA’s Head of European Policy, believes it is appropriate that the Association outlines its views on support by this industry sector, as it is a complex and changing subject.   Not least, the European Commission is launching a Green Paper on Online Gambling in the Internal Market today, March 23rd.

“We have had discussions with the European Commission about their Green Paper and are keen to ensure that sponsorship is fully understood and correctly presented within it, so ESA will certainly be responding to the consultation”, said Day.  
 
The ESA paper refers to ‘gambling’ as covering betting, gaming and participation in lotteries. Key points raised include:

Legality – Currently there is no harmonised legislation which governs the provision and promotion of gambling services across all 27 European Union Member States. While ESA advocates that all gambling sponsorships should respect and comply with local laws, the Association supports steps being taken at a European level to ensure legal restrictions are compatible with European law and that cross-border issues are addressed.

Self-regulation – ESA also believes in the value of self-regulation and that sports governing bodies and other sports organisations are best placed to decide if a properly regulated gambling operator is an appropriate sponsor for them.

Integrity – The Association welcomes initiatives that seek to promote cooperation and information sharing between the sports and gambling industries to promote and maintain integrity.

Corporate Responsibility – As part of its corporate responsibility commitment, ESA seeks to ensure that sponsorship does not adversely affect or influence children or vulnerable audiences. It believes that successful and responsible sponsorships will be those which target suitable events or properties with an audience appropriate to the sponsor’s brand and where activation is clearly directed at an adult audience aware of both the risks and rewards of gambling.

The Association concludes that sponsorships by gambling operators should be lawful and responsible. It warns however that restrictions on these sponsorships, which provide a key source of finance, could have a substantial adverse impact on sports, culture and the gambling industry itself.

To view the full ESA Policy Statement on Gambling Sponsorship, see http://www.sponsorship.org/content/policy_papers/ESA_Gambling_Sponsorship_Policy_Paper_160311.pdf

A sponsorship deal with logistics company Stobart Group is enabling the Professional Jockeys Association to re-introduce career ending insurance (CEI) for its members. As part of the new agreement, Stobart Group also becomes the headline sponsor of The Lesters, horse racing’s ‘Oscars’,  for the next two years.
 
The insurance deal has come about after the British Horseracing Authority agreed a new branding site for jockeys – on their ‘posteriors’. Stobart Group is match funding the CEI scheme with the jockeys themselves also making a personal contribution.
 
PJA’s Joint Presidents Steve Drowne and AP McCoy said: “Jockeys have one of the most dangerous jobs in sport, so insurance is important for most of us.”
 
“As an Association, we have not been able to offer career ending insurance since 2008 because of the prohibitive cost of premiums.  Therefore, we are delighted that such a prestigious company as Stobart Group has agreed to become a PJA sponsor and that the income from the new ‘posterior’ branding site is going to be used for the welfare of all Jockeys,” said Kevin Darley, Chief Executive of the PJA.
 
The PJA sponsorship deal is not Stobart’s first involvement in horse racing with race and stable sponsorship featuring amongst other initiatives the company is involved in.
 
Stobart Group’s Chief Executive Andrew Tinkler is a significant racehorse owner, who has invested heavily in bloodstock and will have about 60 horses in training this year.
 
Andrew Tinkler, Stobart Group’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “It’s great that we can help support the PJA in a way that is actually going to make a difference to the jockeys themselves.  I understand the risks involved in business and we have processes in place to minimise those.  So it’s reasonable to suggest the same should be true within sport.  I’m pleased that our support will be put to such good use.”

 Sports nutrition brand Maximuscle. part of the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Group, is to continue as Official Nutrition Supplier to the ECB and England cricket teams until the end of 2013.
 
As part of the contract renewal Maximuscle, who originally became an ECB supplier in 2008, will continue to work with the ECB Science and Medicine team, based at the National Cricket Performance Centre, to develop a range of bespoke products that are designed to improve physical condition and preparation of all the England teams. 

Commenting on this announcement Nick Moore, ECB Head of Sales said: “Over the past three years Maximuscle has been instrumental in working with the ECB’s Science and Medicine staff to help ensure the England cricket team is one of the best prepared in world sport.

Mark Morgan, Senior Sponsorship & PR Manager from Maximuscle added, “We are pleased to be continuing this successful partnership and look forward to carrying on our work with the ECB to provide their players with first class sports nutrition.  It has been an honour to be a part of the recent momentous successes of England Cricket, including being crowned ICC World Twenty20 Champions and bringing home The Ashes.”

Mizuno has signed as Official Partner and Preferred Footwear Sponsor of The
British Handball Association in a two-year partnership. The Japanese sports brand will provide the official competition and training footwear for the men’s and women’s national teams. To mark the sponsorship, both teams will be launching Mizuno’s new handball specific shoe, the Wave Stealth, developed from research carried out with elite handball players from across Europe.
The next two years will see the European and World Championship qualification campaigns and the world’s best teams battling it out at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
“We are absolutely delighted to be teaming up with the British Handball Association during what will no doubt be an exciting two years of international handball,” said the European Sport Promotions & Communications Co-ordinator for Mizuno Europe, John Hooper. “Handball is a rich part of Mizuno’s heritage that we are extremely proud of and we hope that the brand’s ongoing technical expertise and support of the British teams will give them every chance of Olympic success next year.”
British Handball’s CEO Paul Goodwin said: “We will be competing with some of the best handball teams in the world at the London 2012 Olympic Games, so it is fitting that our athletes have a world class brand in Mizuno to support them.”
Mizuno remains committed to a number of long-standing sponsorships and continues to build an impressive portfolio within the sport of handball. This family of esteemed handball properties include German Bundesliga team TBV Lemgo, the Norwegian national team and Norwegian star player Kristian Kjelling who plays for AaB Håndbold.

The Hong Kong office of sponsorship and associative marketing agency, brandRapport has secured three new clients – the AirAsia Hong Kong Beach 5s, The R&A and UFL have all just appointed the agency to work on a variety of programmes.

The AirAsia Hong Kong Beach 5s appointed brandRapport to run its media and communications campaign, the R&A is using the agency to publicise its golf development programmes in the region through Rules Schools in China and Vietnam and UFL, a new clothing label in Asia, has become a sponsor of the Faldo Series Asia for which brandRapport is responsible for specific social media elements of the sponsorship activation programme.   Over the last few years brandRapport Hong Kong has established its name through working on a number of high profile sponsorship programmes with clients such as UBS and Mission Hills.

Commenting on the recent wins, Damien McDowell, Associate Director of brandRapport, Hong Kong said, “It has been a great start to the year for us.The Asian market is showing strong signs of growth once more and we now feel we are well placed to meet the needs of the many exciting brands in the region who are increasingly looking at major sponsorship programmes as the way to reach their target market.”

Coconut-based hydration drink Vita Coco has signed up as the official drink of Boutique Run which takes place in London in July.  Boutique Run is part of Boutique Sport, a women’s only sports brand created by leading sports marketing agency, Limelight Sports.  The aim is to encourage young women to lead active and balanced lifestyles by offering opportunities to participate in premium events and experiences. 
Boutique Run – the flagship event of the brand campaign – is in its second year and will see 5,000  women running 10k in Battersea Park followed by an after party and pampering in the Boutique Village; including hot showers, nail bars, makeovers and entertainment.
With a loyal following of health-conscious celebs and consumers Vita Coco is a keen supporter of active and original sporting initiatives.
Pip Brook from Vita Coco commented “We focus on partnering with organisations that share our values of living life to the full in a healthy and fun way.”
Kara Sweney, Director, Boutique Sport said, “The brand is a perfect fit for Boutique and an indication of the types of new, young, ambitious brands that can benefit through partnering with Boutique Run”.