Redmandarin Research & Evaluation wins Hollis Award for 2nd consecutive year

March 2007: Last night Redmandarin Research & Evaluation won the Hollis Award for 'Best Use of Research in a Sponsorship Campaign for the second consecutive year for their work with T-Mobile.

The most prestigious awards in the Sponsorship Industry, the Hollis Awards recognise great sponsorship practice in the UK.

Now in its third year T-Mobile’s ever imaginative series of Street Gigs continues to combine the most exhilarating live music talent with remarkable locations. The gigs are designed to deliver against T-Mobile’s brand promise ‘Simply Closer’ providing intimate, credible music experiences for between 50 and 1,000 passionate music fans.

Redmandarin Research & Evaluation designed a bespoke framework to evaluate effectiveness against the sponsorship objectives and the impact of the changes made from last year. The research was conducted among event attendees, (to evaluate the gig experience) and among the target audience in the cities where the gigs to place (to understand impact and reach). Results showed awareness of the programme was steadily building, affinity with the T-Mobile brand had increased from 2005 and the changes to the programme had been extremely well received. This award recognises a comprehensive, insightful and actionable piece of sponsorship evaluation which enabled T-Mobile to refine their activation strategy and improve sponsorship effectiveness.

Redmandarin is an international strategic sponsorship consultancy based in London, working predominantly with international clients on multiple-territory sponsorships. It is one of very few agencies that have managed to preserve their strategic independence and do not sell rights or represent rights holders.

Speaking of the award Toby Hester, Head of Sponsorship T-Mobile UK, said, “Winning the Hollis Award is a fantastic achievement and one we are extremely proud of. The research and evaluation programme continues to play a critical role in developing T-Mobile Street Gigs to ensure we continue to meet our objective of delivering the ultimate live music experience. ”

Identifying and understanding the direct impact of any sponsorship has often been seen as the holy grail of sponsorships and many brands have struggled to find the best approach to solving the mystery. Redmandarin’s Research and Evaluation approach tackles this head-on and, whilst recognizing that there is no “one size fits all” solution, develops bespoke approaches for clients to enable them to make decisions around their sponsorship investment based on relevant, actionable insights.