The BRIT Awards 2011 with MasterCard
Shaun Springer - Sponsorship and Digital Marketing for UK and Ireland
Iconic Music Awards Confirms MasterCard sponsorship renewed for the next three years
Additional Complementary Brand Partnerships In Development - Commencing with the BRITs first digital partner, iTunes
London - November, 2010…….The British Phonographic Industry (BPI), organisers of The BRIT Awards, confirms the MasterCard title sponsorship renewal of the event for the next three years up until and including 2013. This will take the relationship up to 15 years, a testament to the strong and enduring relationship between The BRIT Awards and MasterCard. The MasterCard BRIT Awards 2011 will take place on Tuesday 15th February and will be broadcast live on ITV after a new exclusive three-year deal was agreed with the broadcaster.
The continued support by MasterCard the UK music industry’s most celebrated spectacular represents a professional partnership between the two organisations that has matured for over a decade since MasterCard first sponsored the awards in 1999.
The 2011 BRITs have already made headlines with previous announcements including a move to The 02 Arena, a re-styling of The BRITs trophy, a restructure of the Voting Academy to include artists for the first time, and the newly titled ‘MasterCard British Album Of The Year’, intended as the evening’s main focus and climax.
Shaun Springer, the new Head of Brand, Sponsorship and Digital Marketing, MasterCard UK & Ireland, comments: “The MasterCard commitment to The BRITs is very special and an association we value highly. Furthermore, we hope our involvement brings more to the event than just the title sponsorship; recent innovations such as this year’s ‘mypricelessgig’ online promotion to celebrate 30 years of The BRITs and the Priceless Dance-Off in 2008 provided creative digital content and myriad social media opportunities and interaction to engage the public in a relevant and meaningful way.
“And we don’t intend to slow the pace any time soon…. We will be announcing shortly the details of further digital innovations and developments in 2011 intended to bring even more sparkle to The BRIT Awards, such as the exciting new iTunes partnership.”
The BRITs Commercial Director Barney Wragg of Barney Wragg Associates, is responsible for seeking out ancillary partners to complement the MasterCard sponsorship, especially in areas such as online and mobile, new brand partners and product placements.
The first new relationship to be announced for the 2011 Awards is with iTunes, the BRITs’ first-ever digital partner given a category association - ‘ British Single of the Year’, together with Capital FM.
Barney Wragg says:
“The BRITs are a huge, multi media brand encompassing everything that’s great about music – world class professional talent, unique live performances, celebrity news, backstage action and a 30 plus year history. We’re lining up a range of exciting ancillary partnerships, both on and off line, to support MasterCard’s longstanding headline sponsorship.”
BWA engineered the successful move by the BRITs last year to release their first ever commercial download, the live performance of ‘You Got the Dirtee Love’ by Florence and the Machine and Dizzee Rascal, on iTunes which sold over 300,000 copies.
Further news and developments will be unveiled in the coming months.
