Hollis Sponsorship Bulletin

Synergy fought off great competition from highly-successful consultancies Capitalize, Four Sports, Arts & Sponsorship, MEC Access, Octagon and SBI to win the top prize Hollis Sponsorship Consultancy of the Year, a category – sponsored by Icon – which is designed to recognise the work that goes on behind-the-scenes of the great sponsorship campaigns.   Synergy has managed to buck the recession, delivering £1million in new business wins.  Now in its 25th year, Synergy’s success is evident in the breadth of its work and its success rate in holding on to existing clients.  As part of the Engine Group of companies, it has managed to retain its identity whilst also drawing on the expertise of sister groups in servicing clients.

The Synergy Sponsorship team celebrate Consultancy of the Year win.

Sponsorship consultancies which are part of broad-based marcoms groups make a very compelling case for placing all creative and communications work within one multi-disciplinary agency. So it’s interesting to see that credit card giant Visa has split responsibilities between Publicis and WPP on its London 2012 Olympics activation strategy.

Following a competitive pitch between Publicis and WPP, the outcome is that Publicis agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, ZenithOptimedia and Freud Communications will manage the communications planning, advertising and PR surrounding Visa’s 2012 sponsorship in Europe. However WPP-owned agencies Mediaedge:cia and MEC Access will continue to handle media buying & planning and sponsorship (roles they were responsible for during Beijing 2008).

At first sight, a shoot-out between two big groups doesn’t seem to give much cause for optimism among boutique consultancies. But the fact that Visa didn’t centralise all activity into one group does, at least, suggest that brands are still willing to go down the route of best of breed specialists.