Entries for the 2027 European Sponsorship Association Awards close this Friday, October 16.
Campaigns that ran substantially between March 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026 are eligible for consideration.
Recent history suggests that entering is well worth the effort.
Ireland has enjoyed an extraordinary run at the Awards, most notably taking ESA Best of Europe Gold in each of the past three years.
The Irish Life Dublin Marathon took the honour in 2024, the An Post Irish Book Awards followed with Centre Stage in 2025 and, earlier this year, Lovely Summer for a Guinness extended the sequence to three successive Gold awards.
That run at the top has been accompanied by considerable strength across the wider Awards programme.
At the 2026 ceremony, Irish campaigns and partnerships won across sustainability, equality and inclusion, content, sport and events.
Cairn Community Games won the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in Sponsorship category; The Irish Times and Electric Ireland won for Ireland’s Greenest Places; Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon was named Event of the Year; and Irish work involving Centra, Three, Sky and Pfizer was also among the category winners. Guinness added to the haul with success around both its Premier League partnership and its IDA collaboration before Lovely Summer for a Guinness collected Best of Europe Gold.
It continued a pattern stretching back well beyond the past three years. Electric Ireland’s Game Changers campaign has previously won ESA Sponsorship of the Year, while Irish brands including Aldi, Vodafone, Three Ireland and others have regularly appeared among winners and highly commended entries.
That consistency reflects the sophistication of the Irish sponsorship market and the ability of relatively small teams and budgets to compete successfully against major international brands.
The Awards are based on effectiveness, creativity, strategic thinking, and measurable impact rather than scale alone, which has traditionally played to the strengths of Irish campaigns.
The video below captures some of the atmosphere of the Awards night and the scale of an event that brings together the sponsorship industry from across Europe.
Opportunities span a broad range of categories, including sport, content, measurement and insight, PR, technology, arts and culture, sustainability and social purpose, alongside Agency and Rights Holder of the Year.
This year also introduces a new Grassroots & Community Sponsorship category, recognising partnerships that support clubs, organisations and communities while delivering meaningful value for sponsors and rights holders.
With Ireland setting such a high bar in recent years, there should be no shortage of contenders capable of matching that record.
The more immediate challenge is completing the entry.
The deadline is this Friday, October 16.
ESA Ireland, Irish Lide, the Dublin Marathon and most of the winners listed above are among the many organisations that see the value of a Sport for Business membership. If you would like to join them and see your organisation in our content, on our stages, and in the daily conversation around the commercial world of Irish Sport, email us today to see what is possible, or sign up straight away using the link below.
Image Credit: European Sponsorship Awards
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