Winners of SPORTO Awards 2017 announced
Nov. 16, 2017
The SPORTO Awards perfectly illustrate the capability of brands, rights holders and agencies to deliver against the strategic goals of businesses in the region and as a shop-window of best practice. The range, from all across the Adriatic region, covers integrated programmes engaging brands with fans through their passion points of global sports to community activities, from healthy living campaigns to direct sales drivers and targeting from the very young to more mature audiences.
“This year’s entries challenged the judging panel even more than in previous, stimulating some intense debates to agree the winners in each category. As a Board Director of the European Sponsorship Association and a long-term partner of SPORTO, I am delighted to see that the industry is vibrant and continues to innovate in the way that business are connecting with audiences in the emotional ways that only sponsorship can achieve,” stated Toby Hester, the President of SPORTO Awards 2017 Judging Panel.
The jury awarded the following projects:
• Winner of the category SPORTO Sponsorship Award
Laško x NK Maribor (sponsor: Pivovarna Laško Union d.o.o., rights holder: NK Maribor, entrant: Luna/TBWA)
The Jury emphasized that the »Laško x NK Maribor« is very well-created, planned, executed and evaluated sponsorship campaign. The sponsor used the assets well within a creative idea that was endemic to the football fans. The created rivalry was a really excellent idea.
The Jury noted that the shortlisted projects were excellent examples of sponsorship. These are four finalists in addition to the winner: #EuroBARsket (sponsor: Pivovarna Laško Union d.o.o.), Piraeus Bank Bank Serbian Basketball Association sponsorship (sponsor: Piraeus Bank AD Beograd), PoKRENI (Motivate) (sponsor: GRAWE Hrvatska d.d.), Triglav & ATP Croatia Open Umag (sponsor: Triglav Osiguranje d.d.) and Green. Visible. Successful. (sponsor: Adria Mobil d.o.o.).
• The winner of the subcategory SPORTO Endorsement Award
60-DAY TOTAL AS CHALLENGE (sponsor: Adriatic Slovenica d.d., rights holder: Miha Geršič, entrant: Adriatic Slovenica d.d.)
The Jury commented that this strong activity was well executed and is example of good audience profile with a strong rationale for participation.
• The winner of category SPORTO Event Award
Triglav The Rock Ljubljana (sponsor: Zavarovalnica Triglav d.d., rights holder: Ekstrem d.o.o., entrant: Ekstrem d.o.o.)
In the Jury´s opinion activation was very innovative, with awesome idea, great concept and excellent realization.
The Jury selected two finalists in addition to the winner: Fight for green. (entrant: Adria Mobil Cycling Club) and Olympic Festival (entrant: Olympic Committee of Slovenia).
• The winner of category SPORTO Media Award
Gajsiramo na Šport TV (sponsor: Šport TV, entrant: Šport TV and AVI)
The Jury commented that it is a very good media programme, strategically created to achieve the objectives through a mainstream programming to a strong target audience.
The other finalist in this category was Kanal A – Home of Basketball (sponsor: Kanal A, entrant: Pro Plus d.o.o.)
• The winner of SPORTO Rights holder Award
There are more types of victory (rights holder: Football Association of Slovenia, entrant: Football Association of Slovenia)
The Jury pointed out that this planned activity was very clear and strong and congratulates and thanks the FAS for its commitment to people beyond commercial gain.
Other two finalists is this category in addition to winner were Foksi – Mascot of Olympic Committee of Slovenia (rights holder: Olympic Committee of Slovenia) and HNTV (Hrvatska nogometna televizija) (rights holder: Croatian Football Federation).
• The winner of SPORTO Digital Award
#EuroBARsket (sponsor: Pivovarna Laško Union d.o.o., rights holder: Basketball Federation of Slovenia, entrant: Agencija 101 d.o.o.)
The Jury noted that this is a great campaign with direct connection between brand (products) and targeted groups and enhanced long-term cooperation.Alpsko mleko: 50 years through stories of Olympic athletes (sponsor: Ljubljanske mlekarne) was second finalist in addition to the winner.
Projects from each country of the applicants which received the highest score in the category of SPORTO Sponsorship Award are qualified for the competition of the European Sponsorship Association (ESA) in the category "Best of Europe". The following projects qualified to enter the competition of the best European sponsorships projects:
The best Slovenian project: Laško x NK Maribor (sponsor: Pivovarna Laško Union d.o.o., rights holder: NK Maribor, entrant: Luna/TBWA)
The best Croatian project: Motivate (sponsor: GRAWE Hrvatska d.d., rights holder: AK Sljeme, entrant: GRAWE Hrvatska d.d.)
The best Serbian project: Piraeus Bank Serbian Basketball Association sponsorship (sponsor: Piraeus Bank AD Beograd, rights holder: Basketball Association of Serbia, entrant: Fullhouse Ogilvy)
Entries in all SPORTO Awards categories were reviewed and evaluated according to predefined criteria in close cooperation with European Sponsorship Association (ESA), by an international expert Judging Panel chaired by an ESA representative Toby Hester (Sponsorship Coach). Other members of Judging Panel were William Fenton (Founding Partner of Find!Sponsorship), Roman Krajniak (Founder of aequilibrium), Janez Rakušček (Executive Creative Director at Luna/TBWA), Tjaša Kolenc Filipčič (Marketing Department Director at Zavarovalnica Triglav), Alenka Potočnik Anžič (Market Communications Director at Gorenje), Ranko Vučinić (Senior Partner at PRiredba), Uroš Stanić (Marketing Manager at HNK Rijeka) and Aleksandra Radujko (Managing Director of New Media Team).
