Countdown To The UK Sponsorship Awards 2016 – One Month Until The Final Deadline!

There’s just one month to go before the final deadline for entering the 2016 UK Sponsorship Awards (UKSA), medstore the industry’s largest and most prestigious awards event.

The exact deadline is January 15, 2016 with the event itself held at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square on March 22, 2016.

As in previous years, the 2016 Awards will celebrate the best campaigns across areas such as sport, media, the arts, community and PR.

But this year there are a number of new categories designed to reflect current trends within the business, says UKSA organiser Rosemary Sarginson: “Anyone who works in sponsorship knows that this is a business that has a good track record on gender equality. So it seemed right that we ought to reflect that fact in our Awards event. The result of that is our new ‘Empowering Women Through Sport’ Award. We want this category to showcase the great work being to promote inclusion and equality for women and girls.”

Also new this year are two categories designed to celebrate rugby union sponsorship and the Best Use of Celebrity Endorsement.

“After the success of the recent 2015 Rugby World Cup, we wanted to reward those brands that have done an outstanding job of partnering the dynamic sport of rugby union, both in terms of the commercial benefits they have realised and what they have given back to the sport” says Sarginson, “As for celebrity endorsement, our view is that the relationship between talent and sponsorship has become one of the most potent forces in 21st century brand communications.”

Although the basic format of the UKSA event has stayed the same in recent years, the organising team has made a point of shaking up the categories: “In recent years we have introduced awards for entertainment, digital activation, innovation, sustainability and best consultancy,” says Sarginson. “Our commitment to the future of the business was also the driving force behind the creation of the Barrie Gill Award for the Most Promising Young Sponsorship Executive, named after one of the industry’s most popular figures, now sadly gone.”

One of the toughest parts of any Awards event is making sure companies and organisations of all shapes and sizes have a fair chance of winning: “It’s easy to fall into the trap of favouring sponsorships you’ve heard of,” says Sarginson, “But we challenge our judges to look beyond the headlines at the substance of entered campaigns. No matter how big or small, campaigns are judged on the basis of the clarity and insightfulness of their objectives, the creativity and effectiveness of their execution and the strength of results.”

To ensure the most democratic result possible, the Awards also contain categories geared specifically towards small-to-medium sized enterprises. “If you look at our categories you’ll see numerous way in which we have created an inclusive format,” says Sarginson.

“Sport, Brand and Consultancy are split into two price bands, for example, and there are also categories for low budget, first timer, grass roots, education and community, all of which open the door to more tailored campaigns.”

One other important category is the Personality of the Year, which rewards the person deemed to have made the most significant contribution to the sponsorship industry in the last year. “The final decision is made by the judges,” says Sarginson, “but we ask for nominations from the industry.

So if you’d like to put someone’s name forward please email rosie@sponsorship-awards.co.uk with your nomination and reasons why. The more input we can get from the industry the better the Awards will reflect the quality of its work.”

Simply register your interest by emailing: info@sponsorship-awards.co.uk