SPORTS EVENT MANAGEMENT AWARDS 2009 SPORTBUSINESS SPORTS CITY AWARD Gold: Victorian Major Events Company for the city of Melbourne Silver: Senate Department for the Interior and Sport for Berlin Bronze: Qatar Olympic Committee for the city of Doha MELBOURNE’S reputation as a world-class city is well-recognised and well-deserved. Few cities approach the business of attracting and then delivering top quality domestic and international events with the professionalism and enthusiasm which the team at the Victorian Major Events Company demonstrates so consistently. And according to the winners, the true measure of a city’s worth - in sporting terms - is its passion for the major events it hosts. Melbourne, they say, is a city that lives and breathes sport. One of the key requirements of the SportBusiness Sports City Awards was to demonstrate the role played by local government, local business and the community in making sport happen. Over more than a century, political leaders of the day have demonstrated a strong commitment to major sporting events in Melbourne through ongoing, significant investment in they city’s sporting infrastructure. Melbourne has been staging major events, including and Olympic Games for many years but the key, it appears, is continually planning for the future. In the last 12 months Melbourne’s sports precinct, on the doorstep of the city centre, has welcomed a new member of the family. Joining the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena, and Olympic Park is the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium which will provide the city with its first purposebuilt, rectangular pitch stadium with a world-class playing surface. In a national and regional context, the new stadium ramps up Melbourne’s competitive position as host city of choice for a range of different sporting codes, and offers event owners a new level in quality and amenity. In January, the Victorian government announced plans for a multi-million dollar redevelopment of Melbourne Park, to ensure that the Australian Open maintains its position as one of the best-loved and most successful tennis events on the calendar. The redevelopment will improve the comfort of patrons, players and media with more open space and shade, increased seating capacity, better public transport access and enhanced facilities including an international broadcast centre. In the last twelve months more than five million people have attended major sporting events in Melbourne - with a population approaching 3.9 million people, this is an impressive indicator of the importance of sports events to the city. BRAND PRESENTATION GOLD: MasterCard Europe for the UEFA Champions League Final JOINT SILVER: McLaren Marketing Limited for the Formula One Grand Prix Season JOINT SILVER: The Look Company for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships THE RELATIONSHIP between events and the brands which become their partners is, at best, symbiotic. But too often brands are thought to fail to take advantages of the opportunities at their disposal, relying on the tried and tested value of perimeter boards and hospitality rather than embracing the event and applying intensive creative overlay to produce outstanding results. In the 2009 SportBusiness Sports Event Management Awards, Mastercard Europe demonstrated a commitment to creativity and a willingness to build promotions around the UEFA Champions League final which delighted the judges. The UEFA Champions League is a major element of Mastercard’s football sponsorship portfolio and the 2009 Final in Rome was MasterCard’s most successful ever event programme. The game in the Eternal City captured the imagination of the world, as Spain’s Barcelona overcame an early onslaught to beat English champions Manchester United. With a record 97 million worldwide TV viewership for this year’s UEFA Champions League Final, increased brand awareness and affiliation for MasterCard was achieved through broadcast sponsorship packages, perimeter boards and on-site branding. Mastercard Europe was the only sponsor to conduct a venue branding exercise. The branding programme included specific Romethemed materials and a replica of the Trevi Fountain in the customer hospitality suite. In a five-day festival next to the world-famous Colosseum, MasterCard ran a joint promotion with adidas that provided all fans and visitors with free UEFA merchandise for every purchase made with a MasterCard. The promotion was communicated through over 10,000 flyers, posters, giant screens, as well as a number of MasterCard hostesses. Through the exclusive hospitality area at the Champions League final, MasterCard showcased its newest payment, PayPass, to over 600 key customers. Guests were provided with specially designed PayPass watches and cards that allowed guests to use their contactless payment Charlotte Jackson and MasterCard’s Paul Meulendijk with the Award - Action Images device by tapping the watch against terminals that were positioned in front of a reconstruction of Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain. Each tap represented the idea of throwing a coin into the fountain to make a wish and for every tap made, MasterCard donated €1 to charity. Overall, MasterCard Europe’s sponsorship of the 2009 Champions League Final in Rome was judged an an outstanding success. The brand says its programme helped deliver unique value to consumers and customers, and drive key business outcomes locally in Italy, and in key global markets. Key to this was the stadium branding activity through walk-way and Fan Zones branding, which created the perception that MasterCard was the dominant Champions League final sponsor for the 72,000 fans who attended. 40 SportBusiness <strong>International</strong> • No. 152 • 12.09
TRIP FROM BRUSSELS TO LONDON : 250@ NEW UMBRELLA : 20@ TAXI TO LORD’S CRICKET GROUND : 15@ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * RECOGNITION THAT YOUR ROME CAMPAIGN WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY : PRICELESS * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else there’s MasterCard.
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