UK Sponsorship Awards 2025 - open for entry - Early bird deadline - December 20th

Arts, Sports, Media, Entertainment and Esports categories all up for grabs at 31st edition

Special categories for Olympic and Euro 2024 sponsors

Now open to non-UK based sponsorships - new International category - see all categories here. 

Early Bird discount available until December 20th  

Arts campaigns enter for free until December 20th

The UK Sponsorship Awards (UKSA) team is delighted to announce that the latest edition is now open for entry. Brands, agencies, rights holders, charities and other stakeholders can now enter via the UKSA website. Shortlisted campaigns will be celebrated during a prestigious awards event on March 25th, at the London Marriot Hotel Grosvenor Square.

Well-established categories will be available for entry as always – notably arts, sport, women’s sport, TV, PR, social purpose, diversity and digital activation. But 2025’s event will also see exciting innovations - to be revealed over the coming weeks. These include an expansion of the international segment to celebrate non-UK work.

In other developments, there will be special categories for Olympic and Euro 2024 sponsors. There will also be awards for branded content and esports, two of the fast-growing segments of the awards in recent years. Smaller companies and newcomers will also be recognised through categories such as smaller budget and first time.

“After celebrating our 30th Anniversary last year, The UK Sponsorship Awards is entering its fourth decade in excellent shape,” said UKSA CEO Rosie Sarginson. “As always, our award categories are designed to celebrate the sponsorship industry’s stalwarts – in areas like arts and sport. But there is also a constant renewal process to ensure that UKSA is keeping up with developments. This is evident in categories such as esports, branded content, innovation, craft and technology.”

In addition to the above categories, consultancy and people awards will again be key elements of the UKSA line-up in 2025. Consultancies will have their own categories, and there will be at least three new additions to the Champions of Sponsorship hall of fame. Also returning is the Barrie Gill Award for Most Promising Young Sponsorship Executive – which celebrates future leaders.  This category will be supported by our partners NoTurningBack2020. 

“All of the great work we see on our Awards night is created by hard-working and inspired teams,” said Sarginson, “So it is only right we have categories that acknowledge teamwork, leadership and tomorrow’s talent.”

Joining us this year to sponsor the Best Use of Research, Measurement & Evaluation is global research and insights agency GSIQ and joining our partner roster are  F1 Recruitment and No Turning Back 2020.

For more details on categories, criteria and entering, visit the website via this link. And keep your eyes open for new editorial insights related to the sponsorship industry over the coming weeks and months.

Did You Know? Last year’s Sponsorship of the Year trophy went to Google Pixel for its brilliantly executed Pixel FC strategy.

For winning tips, click here and here. 

M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment celebrated winning large consultancy of the year, while the medium to boutique consultancy category was clinched by EssenceMediacom Sport & Entertainment. The consultancy ‘Breakthrough’ award went to The Space Between.

The diversity & inclusion category winner was Barclays Community Football Fund, while women’s sport went to Metro Bank.

For further inspiration when entering this year’s UKSA Awards, why not review details of 2024’s winners and nominees? These can be found at the Awards website: http://www.sponsorship-awards.co.uk/

To register to enter the Awards, please click here https://www.sponsorship-awards.co.uk/registration

Google Pixel secures Sponsorship of the Year Trophy at the 30th edition of the UK Sponsorship Awards   

O2 named as Best Sponsor of the last 30 Years  

Google Pixel’s innovative ‘Football on Pixel’ campaign, entered by EssenceMediacomX, is the UK Sponsorship Awards’ Sponsorship of the Year for 2024. The team behind the sponsorship collected their accolade in front of a sell-out crowd at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square.

Women-focused campaigns perform strongly with wins for McDonald’s, Metro Bank, Xero, Unilever Personal Care, Barclays and Standard Chartered and KIND Snacks

The campaign, based around the Women’s World Cup, finished the night with three wins and a highly commended. For judges, it captured the zeitgeist of sponsorship in 2023 by creatively addressing the issue of gender disparity that afflicts global football coverage.

Other multiple award winners on the night included Paddy Power, via its impressive partnership with Prostate Cancer UK and darts governing body the PDC. 

O2 was also celebrating, having been named as the Best Sponsor of the Last 30 Years in a public vote. The mobile network brand headed off competition from Barclays, McDonalds, Santander, Visa and Volvo.

In terms of the Agency Awards, M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment celebrated winning the Large Consultancy of the Year Award. The Medium to Boutique Consultancy category was clinched by EssenceMediacom Sport & Entertainment, while The Space Between secured the Agency Breakthrough Award.  The Space Between also celebrated winning one of the two Women’s Sports Sponsorship categories, for its work on Metro Bank’s partnership with women’s and girl’s cricket.

The newly-expanded Rights Holder category saw wins for the Ryder Cup Europe, AEG Global Partnerships and the Victoria & Albert Museum. New Champions of Sponsorship included Albright Special’s Rachel Clark, Santander’s Sam Inskip, CAA International’s Matt O’ Donohoe and AEG Global Partnerships’ Nathan Kosky.

Several of 2024’s categories included competitive shortlists, none more so than the First Time Sponsor Award. With more brands finding their way to sponsorship, the category went to KIND Snacks, The FA and England’s Lionesses. The Arts Sponsorship prize went to Morgan Stanley, Somerset House and the Courtauld Partnership.

As in 2023, several of the evening’s prizes went to sponsorships connected to women’s sport and the FIFA Women’s World Cup in particular. A second Women’s Sport category went to McDonald’s UK and Red Consultancy for their work around the World Cup. 

Aside from those already mentioned, Xero (Football), Unilever Personal Care (International), Barclays (DEI) and Standard Chartered (Craft & Creativity) also triumphed with campaigns tackling gender inequality. Barclays also celebrated the fact that Emily Goodwin won the Barrie Gill Award for the Most Promising Young Sponsorship Executive.

Another of the evening’s big winners was Samsung, which triumphed with two different campaigns, a partnership with Skateboard UK and Iris (Social Media & Digital); and a partnership with Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch (TV). Other big brands to win on the night included Amex, Amazon, Co-op, Lucozade, P&O and the car brands, BMW, Nissan & TeamViewer.

First-time winners came from various sectors and included the likes of Spin Master, Casillero del Diablo, TeamViewer and Rockstar Energy. Rockstar Energy’s partnership with Stormzy, entered by Globe – Universal Music Group, was another double winner (Branded Content and Innovation). There were also celebrations for Bauer Media, which won with The Fun Never Ends With Voxi and Kiss (Print, Radio & Film).

As always, the spread of winners demonstrated how sponsorship is embraced by businesses across numerous sectors. Financial services brands were big winners but mobile, automotive, FMCG, tech, drinks, retail, travel & leisure were also prominent on the night.

Commenting, UK Sponsorship Awards organiser Rosemary Sarginson said: “What a fantastic set of winners and finalists to help the UK Sponsorship Awards celebrate its 30^th Anniversary. As always, it was a joy to welcome friends and colleagues to this annual celebration of the sponsorship industry’s creativity, innovation and effectiveness. Congratulations to everybody who entered, thanks to our judges, and here’s to meeting again in a very futuristic sounding 2025.”

Full details of winners and nominees can be found here

What is a Sponsorship Award?	For individuals as well as businesses	We're here to help you succeed!
Winning a Sponsorship Award isn't just a pat on the back and a splendid trophy to dress your foyer (though it’s certainly that as well), it brings with it tangible benefits and long-lasting commercial impact. Click here for ten reasons why you should enter and a host of testimonials from winners.	The sponsorship industry is peopled by fantastically enthusiastic and dynamic individuals. We recognise these executives in two categories. For more information on these categories, please click here.	We are also on hand for any help/advice you might need, so please click on the Help! button, send us an email and we will come back to you by return. It doesn't have to be an Awards related query - if we don't know the answer, we’ll find someone who does.