The Finnish Sponsoring & Events Association handed out its annual sponsorship awards in a gala event on the 3rd of March. As communicated earlier the Fisherman’s Friend branded referee shirts at the Men’s World Floorball Championships 2020 in Helsinki were among the finalists.
The afternoon kicked-off with a seminar. First the Research Director Klaus Virkkunen from Sponsor Insight presented the results of the annual sponsorship and events barometer. The second speaker was Ville Köngäs from the Finnish Olympic Committee with their views on sports sponsoring today and in the future. The closing speaker for the seminar was CEO Tomi Saarinen from Live Nation with the topic “Without events nothing happens”.
- Cultural Sponsorship of the Year,
- Social Sponsorship of the Year,
- Sports Sponsorship of the Year
- Event of the Year.
The awards were decided by an esteemed jury however this year also the public had the possibility to vote for their favorite.
The Fisherman´s Friend campaign with the custom referee jerseys at the championships in Helsinki received a honorable mention in the Sports Sponsorship of the Year- category. The concept was described as a ”creative implementation and fresh idea”.
The other floorball-related entry among the finalists was the cooperation between floorball club Classic (in Finnish) and the shopping centre Ideapark in Lempäälä. The essence of this case is that Classic moved its home matches to a new event venue, named Bläk Boks (in Finnish), which is in the middle of a shopping centre, bringing the match experience closer to people flows. The venue also offers a multitude of hospitality options and a lot of audio-visual elements for the floorball audience. The jury regarded this concept as “Sponsorship of the Year” taking away the main prize. This was also the favorite of the public vote. The winner will represent Finland in the European Sponsorship Association Awards in London.
