Heineken Cup Final scoops top Sport Sponsorship Award

The Heineken Cup Final, Murrayfield 2005 took top honours at the Scottish Business in Sport Dinner in Glasgow last night (Thursday 4 May). They won the 'Best Sponsorship of a Sporting Event' category sponsored by EventScotland and then went on to scoop the overall 'Scottish Sport Sponsorship of the Year Award 2006'. The top award was presented by Patricia Ferguson MSP Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport and David Graham, Head of the Sports Business Group for title sponsors Shepherd+ Wedderburn.

The key aim of the sponsorship was to deliver a world-class event - and it did exactly that. The 2005 Heineken Cup Final at Murrayfield was recognised by the sponsor, organisers, the European Rugby Club (ERC) and spectators alike as the 'best ever' final. Attendance totalled 51,000 - almost double that of any previous all-French final. It delivered maximum brand exposure for Heineken and revenue for the ERC, and it also delivered significant economic impact for Scotland.

The judges felt that this sponsorship was an outstanding achievement - putting Scotland firmly on the map for hosting major sporting events. A slick, fully integrated marketing campaign ensured maximum coverage for both sport and sponsor.

The Scottish Sport Sponsorship Awards were launched by sportscotland in 2001 to recognise and reward creativity, innovation and excellence in Scotland's sport sponsorship arena. There were seven categories in all plus the overall award, the Scottish Sport Sponsorship of the Year, selected from category winners.

Julia Bracewell OBE, Chair of sportscotland said: "The Scottish Business in Sport Dinner is a celebration of the fantastic results achieved when business and sport works together. The Scottish Sport Sponsorship Awards seek to recognise the important role business sponsorship plays in Scottish sport and by spotlighting good practice we hope to encourage even more to get involved.

"The additional resources sponsorship brings to sport is vital to the survival of many sports in Scotland, from the local village team upwards. In return, sport offers the commercial sector unique promotional benefits such as association with a healthy active image, direct access to target audiences, and when effectively executed, a sponsorship can be an extremely powerful marketing tool."

One further highlight of the evening was the talk from guest speaker Seb Coe, Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games. Lord Coe was in Scotland to meet with business leaders, school children and aspiring young athletes to promote how Scotland can benefit from the 2012 Games. Not only did he lead London to victory in the 2012 Olympic bid, but he also set 12 world records in his athletics career and won two Olympic gold medals.

Also attending the awards ceremony were Commonwealth Games double gold medallist in swimming, Gregor Tait, athletics silver medallist Chris Baillie and cycling bronze medallists Kate Cullen and James McCallum.

Scottish Sport Sponsorship Awards

Category award winners

Best Sponsorship of Young People
Sponsored by Scottish Water

Winner

Bank of Scotland Talented Young Athletes Programme

Despite strong competition in this category, judges felt that the Bank of Scotland Talented Young Athletes Programme stood out because it saw increases in participation levels at the Young Athlete Development Camp and in the Age Group Championships. This year's sponsorship saw a 100% increase in print media coverage and more medals for the athletes involved. Over the duration of the sponsorship Bank of Scotland athletes have won more than 200 medals at British level and over 50 medals at European, Commonwealth or World level.

Highly Commended

Annandale & Eskdale Sports & Leisure Trust and the Cumberland Building Society - Sports Academy 2005

Best Sponsorship of a Team or Individual

Sponsored by PMP

Winner

Littlewoods Football Pools - Helping The Shire Be Lucky

The idea behind the sponsorship was to help the worst (and arguably the unluckiest) team in professional football in Britain to be lucky. The judges described it as "innovative and imaginative" with a PR and Media campaign that involved creating a club website to funding match promotions and generating PR through placement of key stories such as Littlewoods approach to Paul Gascoigne with an offer of a £10 a week player-coach contract, which generated massive media coverage. Littlewoods work quadrupled the club's revenue and The Shire won more games than the previous two seasons combined.

Highly Commended

Specsavers Giving Refs 20/20 Vision

Best Sponsorship of a Sporting Event

Sponsored by EventScotland

Winner

Heineken Cup Final, Murrayfield 2005

The key aim of the sponsorship was to deliver a world-class event - and it did exactly that. The 2005 Heineken Cup Final at Murrayfield was recognised by the sponsor, organisers, the European Rugby Club (ERC) and spectators alike as the "best ever" final. Attendance totalled 51,000 - almost double that of any previous all-French final. It delivered maximum brand exposure for Heineken and revenue for the ERC, and it also delivered significant economic impact for Scotland.

Highly Commended

Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) and Scottish Football League - CIS Insurance Cup 2004/05

Best Long Term Sponsor

Sponsored by Radisson SAS Hotel

Winner

The Famous Grouse - Scotland Rugby Team

The judges felt that Famous Grouse has developed a brand that is now synonymous with the Scotland Rugby Team. Almost 20 million viewers we exposed to Famous Grouse branding during the 2005 RBS Six Nations tournament and research confirms that rugby audiences recognise Famous Grouse as the Scotland Rugby Team sponsors. Judges agreed that the joint objectives of the sponsorship are excellent and have stood the test of time. 15 years of committed sponsorship has positioned Famous Grouse as 'the spirit of rugby'.

Highly Commended

Glenfiddich Grampian Games

Best Community Sport Sponsorship

Sponsored by SPORTSMATCH

Winner

Bank of Scotland Midnight League

A national five-a-side community football programme aimed at keeping boys and girls off the streets on a Friday night and reducing anti-social behaviour. It involved a unique partnership between local authorities, police officers and the SFA. During 2005 the programme saw an increase of 14 to 17 leagues, with the number of young people taking part increasing from 1,800 to just over 3,000. Judges felt this sponsorship demonstrated excellent social responsibility and achieved outstanding participation figures.

Highly Commended

Tennent's Lager and the Scottish Football Association - Total Futsal

Best First Time Sponsorship

Sponsored by sportscotland

Winner

Allied Surveyors Scottish Amateur Golf Championship

Judges recognised this sponsorship for the strong brand association that Allied Surveyors achieved with the Scottish Amateur Golf Championship. The focus was on profile raising, for both sport and sponsor, by attracting significant media coverage of the event, and increasing traffic to the Scottish Golf Union's website through the introduction of live scoring. The first year of the sponsorship was so successful, Allied Surveyors have committed to a further two years; good news for continuing coverage of amateur golf.

Highly Commended

Camanachd Association (Shinty) and Tulloch Ltd - Shinty Development Programme

Best Use of PR/Media in a Sport Sponsorship

Sponsored by The Scotsman

Winner

Royal Bank of Scotland Jack Nicklaus Commemorative £5 note (The Open Championship 2005)

Royal Bank of Scotland issued 2 million £5 notes bearing the Jack Nicklaus image to commemorate his professional retirement from professional golf at The Open Championship in St Andrews in 2005. The judges recognised this as an outstanding use of PR and an innovative and distinct promotional tool to link RBS with golf, generating interest from golf fans world-wide. Over 80,000 notes 'sold' at the RBS on-course branch and a specific website has been set up about the note - www.jacksnote.com.

Highly Commended

Lloyds TSB Scotland's Sponsorship of Scottish Cricket