SPONSORSHIP OR PARTNERSHIP OF THE YEAR
BT & EE Home Nations
BT Group’s ‘4-3-3 Game Plan’ is the UK’s most ambitious, transformative and truly game-changing football sponsorship.
4 – Lead Partner of all four Home Nation Football Associations partnerships (The FA, FAW, SFA and IFA)
3 – Three communities most in need of support (grassroots, women’s, para and disability)
3 – Three commitments to make a meaningful difference and legacy
In partnership with all four Home Nation FA’s, 4-3-3 doubles down on the areas often overlooked in the game: women’s, grassroots, para and disability. EE and BT is a lead partner like no other – we’ve created a network of grassroots community hubs with connectivity and digital skills and inspired more women to step on the pitch.
We committed to broadcasting The FA Disability Cup for next three years, introduced disability football to Gen-Zs and assembled a star-studded Home Nations squad to tackle online hate across two international tournaments.
This is not a badging exercising; this is a unique sponsorship about making a meaningful and tangible difference to communities across the four home nations. Ultimately, staying true to the brands guiding purpose: we connect for good to ensure our national game is left in a better place.
Delivering iFollow for the EFL – Endeavor Streaming
Endeavor Streaming partners with the English Football League (EFL) in delivering the league’s dedicated direct-to-consumer OTT service, iFollow. The go-to destination for EFL fans globally, iFollow delivers live and on-demand matches for over 50 clubs including audio match commentary, behind-the-scenes content, highlights and more – all centrally acquired, transcoded, monetized and distributed by Endeavor Streaming.
At the close of the 2021-2022 season, Endeavor Streaming delivered more than 1,800 matches for the EFL with a peak of 35 concurrent matches delivered twice a week over the season’s entirety. Following a 2020-2021 season that was disrupted by an unforeseen global pandemic, the league strove to maximize revenue potential for its clubs via iFollow whilst ensuring reliable and seamless match delivery at scale throughout the nine-month season for thousands of fans worldwide..
iFollow is consistently delivering a highly engaging content experience for fans in the UK and overseas and, now more than ever, is contributing a meaningful and sustainable revenue source for clubs.
Fifty Digital and Qatar Airways Sports Sponsorship Portfolio
Fifty Digital is proud to work with Qatar Airways; the World’s Number One Airline 2021 (Skytrax) serving all continents and connecting more than 140 destinations. As well as delivering excellence to customers, Qatar Airways hold one of the most prestigious sports sponsorship portfolios in the world including the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, FIFA Club World Cup, FIFA Arab Cup, UEFA EUROS 2020, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Bayern Munich, AS Roma, Brooklyn Nets, Goodwood Festival, Boca Juniors, Lionel Messi, David Beckham, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé.
From marking the importance of Breast Cancer Awareness Month with Paris Saint-Germain Féminine to celebrating the 2022 FIFA World Cup’s Qatar home with legend David Beckham, we use the power of sport to inspire and unite fans around the world, bringing meaning to Going Places Together.
Formula 1 Williams Racing Grand Prix Autograph Series Sweepstakes
Virtual Tables worked in conjunction with Dorilton Motor Sports, the parent company of Formula 1 team, Williams Racing, to create a unique fan engagement experience designed to fill gaps in audience engagement and retention by capitalizing on traditional experiences integrated with modern digital technology. This activation involved using Virtual Tables’ digital autograph solution, DigiSign, at a number of Formula 1 races worldwide.
Removing geographical concerns and the need for a physical location to conduct a full-scale autograph session, DigiSign is able to replace an anonymous, rapid exchange with a dynamic, virtual experience that leaves fans with an authenticated digital signature during a highly exclusive interaction with their favorite talent.
Dorilton Motor Sports hosted a series of online 48-hour digital sweepstakes for fans to receive an exclusive 1×1 private autograph DigiSign session with one of their two drivers, Alex Albon or Nicholas Latifi.
This activation was extremely successful and left a few fortunate fans with a digital autograph and memory of a private interaction with their icon.The sweepstakes brought more than 11,000 sign-ups in four days, including more than 6,000 entries that were new to the team database, along with a high click through rate, consistently over 85%.
Lancashire Cricket & Emirates
After a year-long collaborative activation campaign, Lancashire Cricket and Emirates recently announced a new seven-year partnership extension until 2029, making it the longest and biggest sponsorship in English domestic cricket.
The extended partnership includes naming rights of the world-class stadium Emirates Old Trafford, as well as shirt sponsorship for Lancashire Lightning’s Vitality Blast shirt, and strengthens one of the most recognisable and respected sponsorships in sport.
The partnership began in April 2013 and this extension means that Emirates will remain as principal headline sponsor at Lancashire Cricket and Emirates Old Trafford and be on the front of the Club’s T20 shirt for at least 17 years.
Lancashire Cricket is hugely proud of our relationship with Emirates, a world class brand with a truly global reach and is another very positive step in the Club’s continued commercial growth and development.
A true partnership and one worthy, we believe, of the Sport Industry Awards Partnership of the Year.
NIVEA MEN & Liverpool FC
NIVEA MEN and Liverpool FC became partners in 2015 and since that time the partnership has evolved into one of the strongest in global sports. Over the past 7 years the approach has shifted from product led to purpose led marketing and this move has seen the partnership go from strength to strength. It is a best in class example of how to execute a sports partnership in an authentic way and the results have followed.
Skateboard GB & Habito – Building a Partnership with purpose
Skateboard GB and principal partner Habito set out to form a purpose-led partnership which delivered societal change and real benefits to underrepresented UK skateboarding groups and their wider communities Habito recognised the power of skateboarding as a tool to engage with a diverse and passionate user group and audience Together we developed and launched the Grassroots Skatespaces project, and have worked with seven community groups to improve and transform their skatespaces, through providing capital investment alongside development support.
The results of the project are wide reaching and inspiring Working with each community group we brought people together and helped strengthen communities by creating safe spaces for people of all ages and socio-economic groups The spaces have transformed derelict wasteland and unused dangerous sites into welcoming areas which act as hubs for their communities.
There’s also been collaborations between the skateboarding communities and schools/businesses in each area; bringing skateboarding to a wider audience and creating more impact and community cohesion Across the skate-spaces 900 – 1500 skaters now use the facilities every week, and the project is an internationally acclaimed initiative, with the skatespace locations having been visited by award-winning NGOs from places as far away as Jamaica, Greece and Mexico.
