Hollis Sponsorship Bulletin

Having brokered the deal back in December for Kia Motors UK to become the headline sponsor of The Oval Cricket Ground, sports marketing agency Havas Sports & Entertainment has also been appointed to manage the brand changeover of the iconic London cricket ground.
Kia signed a five year deal giving the brand the brand full and exclusive naming rights to the ground and makes Kia the primary shirt sponsor for Surrey County Cricket Club. The deal is worth over £3.5m to the Club over its duration.
The agreement will see the continuation of Kia’s relationship with the Havas Media group as Havas Sports & Entertainment take responsibility for the delivery of the various benefits negotiated through the deal including both internal and external signage, branding on all Surrey playing shirts as well as a number of hospitality and promotional benefits throughout the season. The deal came into force on January 1st 2011, and the ground is now known as the Kia Oval.
Further support for the sponsorship will be provided by MPG Media Contacts. Following their recent negotiation of Kia’s broadcast sponsorship of ITV’s coverage of the FA Cup, the media planning and buying arm of Havas Media will provide additional support for the sponsorship with key media purchases throughout the local region.
Havas Sport & Entertainment COO Marcus Wight said “We are delighted to continue our work with Kia Motors UK. With HSE’s strong background in cricket we believe we can ensure their first foray into the sport is a resounding success”.
The deal is Kia’s first entrance into the cricket market; the company currently has worldwide commercial partnerships with the FIFA World Cup and Australian Tennis Open. Further to this, it employs current world number one Rafael Nadal as a brand ambassador and is also the Official Automotive Partner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States, sponsoring thirteen individual teams.
Kia is a major global player in the automotive industry and part of the fourth largest automobile manufacturing group in the world.

Sport and entertainment agency Havas Sports & Entertainment (HS&E) will welcome a group of elite athletes to their team as part of a scheme with the English Institute of Sport (EIS).
The EIS Athlete Career Development Programme (ACDP) offers athletes the chance to gain valuable work experience within a corporate environment to assist their eventual career choices.  Seventeen elite athletes from the worlds of athletics, hockey, rowing, fencing, wheelchair rugby, judo, fencing and women’s rugby applied for the opportunity to work with HS&E. Interviews have taken place and the successful candidates will be selected in December 2010, to start work with them in the New Year.
Having been introduced to HS&E by the British Olympic Association (BOA), EIS Performance Lifestyle Advisor, Emma Mitchell says the partnership has proved a success: “We wanted to develop an opportunity which could be valuable in terms of career development and experience, but also tailored to the athletes’ training and competition demands. We took these into account alongside their individual skill sets in order to match them with the most appropriate companies in the scheme. We’re delighted with the interest and active support of HS&E and hope that the opportunities offered will help support the career development needs of some of Great Britain’s best Olympic and Paralympic athletes.”
HS&E CEO Keith Impey commented: “The successful candidates will work on a range of projects within our specialist teams. It will offer them the opportunity to gain tangible experience within a corporate working environment, with the flexibility to do so alongside their training and competition schedules.”
The English Institute of Sport (EIS) is a publicly funded, non-profit organisation, who deliver sport science and sport medical support service to approximately 1700 elite athletes from almost 50 different sports.

Havas Sports & Entertainment, the global sports and entertainment communication network of Havas Media, has been charged with the task of activating a range of sport sponsorships for FxPro Financial Services Ltd (FxPro).

FxPro is a leading global retail broker in foreign exchange (FX) and Contracts for Difference (CFDs). The FxPro sponsorship portfolio includes the World Rally Championship (WRC), the Virgin Racing Formula One team, and English Premier League football teams Aston Villa and Fulham, all of which are being used to grow the international profile of the brand.

Havas Sports and Entertainment is working with FxPro to create a range of activities that build understanding and awareness of the brand and increase the number of customers. The first of these is the activation of FxPro’s Formula One partnership with Virgin Racing, and the launch of a new online racing game that pits players against each other from around the world. Havas Sports and Entertainment has produced a site which combines the thrill of F1 racing with the high-pressure currency trading market. Online racers will be asked to choose a currency pair at the start of the race and their speed around the track will depend on their respective real-time performances on the global financial markets during the course of the lap. Each race winner has a chance to win international and local F1 Race tickets, and signed merchandise.

Jim Manczak, Head of Strategic Relations,FxPro said, “FxPro in partnership with Virgin Racing and Havas Sports and Entertainment is proud to demonstrate how the sport of Formula One and sponsorship blend together to entertain fans. The FxPro Currency Race is a great chance for everyone to learn about the fast growing retail foreign exchange market in the context of one of the world’s most thrilling sports”.

Nick Lockwood, Account Director, Havas Sports and Entertainment UK said, “The FxPro Currency race takes in real time, market data with the cars literally powered by movement in the Forex markets! We will be using both bought and social media to push people to the game (www.f1.fxpro.com) with the hope of bringing Forex trading to a new audience”,