Image Credit: Action ImagesThe GAA has won a prestigious European Sponsorship award for its partnership with Kellogg’s on the national Cúl Camps programme.
It was voted the winner of the European Sponsorship Association’s Excellence Award in the Rights Holder category, beating off competition from 13 countries across Europe.
Supervalu’s support of the All Ireland Football Championship was also recognised with a third place in the ‘Best of Europe’ category recognising outstanding national campaigns during the year.
The awards are especially notable given the presence of the London Olympics and the UEFA European Championships in the same year.
2012 was the first year of Kellogg’s sponsorship of the GAA Cúl Camps and the initiatives launched between the GAA and the sponsor were hailed as producing a strong return. A record number of more than 82,000 children participated, an increase of 6 per cent on the previous year when the programme was sponsored by VHI.
Organisationally, there were more camps held than ever before as well with 1,013 taking place across every county in the country.
Prestigious brands such as BMW, Cisco, Mars, MasterCard and O2 were among those to take home awards from the ESA’s 7th annual awards, hosted at The O2 in London. The awards recognise sponsorship across different sectors including sport, culture, entertainment, media and corporate responsibility.
“We are delighted that a key sponsorship for the Association that helps raise the profile of our underage activity has been recognised on an international platform,” said GAA President Liam O’Neill.  “Values such as family, Irishness and community are central to the GAA’s identity and contribute strongly to the Association’s enduring attractiveness to sponsors and partners.   I believe that these core traits were reflected in the successful campaign which saw the number of children participating in our camps rise in 2012.
“This is fantastic recognition for Kellogg’s GAA Cúl Camps,” added Bernadette Grant, Marketing Director for Kellogg’s Ireland.  “2012 was the first year of the Kellogg’s GAA Cúl Camps sponsorship and it was extremely successful. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the GAA over the next number of years”.
The GAA signed extensions of nine long term partnership agreements throughout the past twelve months and continue to attract commercial partnership at all levels of the game.  In recent weeks Supermacs in Galway and Brady Meats in Kildare have signed six figure, multi-year sponsorship deals with their respective County GAA Boards.
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