Updated 2 PM with reaction and other elements:

The Aer Lingus and Ryanair flights returning from London this morning will be carrying a bit of excess baggage with Irish brands and agencies securing an incredible 12 awards at last night’s European Sponsorship Awards.

Eight of the awards were for Category wins and there were four more that were highly commended.

The GAA, SuperValu and Centra’s powerful Club Together campaign, which featured in our Sport for Social Good Conference last year won the Best Ethical Response to Covid-19, a testament to the real impact which it had in communities across the country.

It was a great representation of the ways in which rights holders and commercial partners came together to find ways to maintain their strong relationship but also to do the right thing at a time when there was no playbook on what that looked like.

The GAA’s Diarmaid Murphy and Maighréad Cremin from Musgraves, the parent company of SuperValu and Centra are pictured above with the award at the London Ceremony.

Teneo Sports Advisory, our Partner in the Annual Sporting Year Ahead event and more, are returning home with the Award for an Agency in a Single Nation, just edging out Core Sponsorship to the gong. Their citation listed six key areas they had excelled in being Insight, championing sponsorships’ ability to meet business objectives, Supporting rights holders to fund their mission, expanding from local to global, focusing on people and giving back through volunteering.

“We’re absolutely delighted to win this highly contested award for the second time,” said Rob Pearson, Director at Teneo.

“The award is testament to the hard work of the team, a culture of learning and development as well as the collaboration with the wider Teneo Ireland teams and global colleagues we interact with on a daily basis.”

“It’s testament too to the incredible relationship we have with our clients as we work together to help them achieve their business objectives through strategic partnerships and sponsorship.”

“It’s fantastic to see the role of sponsorship being recognised in the eyes of business leaders, and we’re excited to use this award win as a platform from which to deliver more great work for our clients.”

Aviva Ireland won the Best Use of Talent award for its Safe to Dream campaign focusing on grassroots initiatives and backed by a mix of male and female athletes as well as Ronan O’Gara to bring it to life. Wilson Hartnell were a core part of the team behind this win.

Vodafone won the award for Best use of Virtual Experience with the Vodafone Team of Us Live, translating real-world engagement into the screens that dominated our lives, working with CMS on the project.

The team were also on their feet to pick up a highly commended award for the partnership with the British and Irish Lions in the Sports Sponsorship worth between €1M and €5M.

In the category below that for Sports Sponsorships worth up to €1M, the winner was another wrapped in the Irish flag with FBD Insurance and its support over an extended Olympic Cycle for Team Ireland, gaining the vote of the experienced panel of judges. This was another cause for celebration for the Wilson Hartnell team.

Energia’s campaign to ‘Get Ireland Growing’ was the winner in the Best Use of PR, just edging out Guinness for its #NeverSettle campaign working with Wilson Hartnell. The Brand Fans and Legacy Communications were heavily involved in the Energia success

An Post picked up Ireland’s two other wins in the Purpose and Digital Channels categories for the Irish Book Awards and the work they do with regard to encouraging Children’s reading. Noel Martyn from Core Sponsorship was on hand to help the team pick up the award and Core lived up to their name in terms of the insights that backed up this campaign.

SSE Airtricity picked up a Silver award in the Best of Europe category for their Eco Explorers Club, where Edelman were on the team.

Lifestyle Sports, Immedis, Bank of Ireland, Electric Ireland, Allianz, Indeed and AIG were among other Sport for Business members to be recognised on shortlists for what was another huge validation of the strength we have within the sponsorship sector here in Ireland.