Six Irish winners picked up awards at the annual European Sponsorship Awards which took place in London last night.
In the Media Sponsorship category, Londis picked up the top award for its sponsorship of Ireland’s Fittest Families while in the Sports Sponsorship category (< €1m), Energia, Core and Irish Rugby won the top award for their “Think of the Possibilities” campaign which champions many people who work tirelessly behind-the-scenes to keep rugby in Ireland ticking over.
Also in the Sports Sponsorship (€1m-€5m) category, rugby was to the fore as Guinness picked up the top award for its “Don’t Jinx it” campaign in the run up to the Rugby World Cup in France in 2023.
Smirnoff, another Diageo brand, triumphed in the hotly contested Event of the Year for The Smirnoff Collective Stage which marked the brand’s partnership with Electric Picnic last year.
Elsewhere, Just Eat’s sponsorship of Dublin Pride took the top award in the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion category while Ireland celebrated a second successive ESA Best of Europe Gold thanks to the ‘Centre Stage’ initiative which is part of the An Post Irish Book Awards.
A number of Irish entrants were singled out for commendations on the night including Cairn Community Games, Electric Ireland for Darkness into Light, mobile operator Three for its Three City Stages and Sky’s sponsorship of the Irish Women’s National team. Other commendations were given to Allianz Ireland for its Inner Drive partnership with Off The Ball and Aer Lingus and its sponsorship of Irish Rugby.
The biggest winner on the night, however, was Norwegian insurance company Gjensidige which enjoyed a record-breaking success scooping an unprecedented five titles including ESA Sponsorship of the Year.
Speaking about the awards, ESA Awards Chair of Judges, Matthew Leopold, said: “We look at performance year on year and the overall judges’ scoring in the 2025 ESA Awards indicated a notable step up from previous years, with the highest-ever average score for winners. What that tells us is that the quality of the applications we are receiving is genuinely, substantially and subjectively better than it has ever been before.
“When deciding which of the winning categories should win the ultimate accolade of ESA Sponsorship of the Year, the difference in scores was so narrow that for the first time ever, we were just able to discuss categories based on their innovation, on the impact to customers, rather than based on their scores.”
