HSBC’s Giles Morgan delighted with SPIA recognition

Joy Chakravarty 12:17 02/04/2014
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  • Proud: Morgan and his team stage two of the region's biggest sporting events; the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and the Dubai Rugby Sevens.

    Two Golds and two Silvers in one night would make anybody happy, and Giles Morgan, head of global sports sponsorship of HSBC Bank is no exception.

    The bank, one of the biggest sponsors of sports in the world, have put their might behind two tournaments in the UAE – the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and the Dubai Rugby Sevens – and both were recognised at the SPIAs in various categories.

    The Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, which kick-starts the Desert Swing on the European Tour at the beginning of the year, won the Best Sport Event (Professional) Gold and Silvers for Best Sport Sponsorship and Best Sport Marketing Campaign.

    The Dubai Rugby Sevens, part of the HSBC Sevens World Series and is held towards the end of the year to a packed delirious crowd, was judged the overall best in the Sport Sponsorship category.

    Speaking to Sport360° from his base in Hong Kong, Morgan said: “It’s always great to be recognised in an industry, and in a region, where we are investing so much money. We are trying to support and sponsor some of the best events in the Middle East.

    “Wherever we do events, we take great care in our activations to try and produce special flagship events for our customers, our staff and all the stakeholders, to experience.

    “Both the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf and Dubai Rugby Sevens are worldrecognised events which we trust and put our brand on. The awards are a testament to the hard work all these people put in.”

    Even though golf and rugby are two distinctly different sports, Morgan said there was a common binding factor in all the sponsorships that HSBC do.

    “At the heart of every sponsorship that we do, we try and create an emotional connect, or initiate a conversation with our customers and stakeholders. Sponsorship is a means to do that, but in order to be a good sponsor, you’ve got to be able to speak the language of all those associated,” he said.

    “Obviously, a rugby fan demands a very different experience compared to a golf fan and the trick for the sponsor is to be able to speak in relevance to that association. Otherwise, you just end up looking like a corporate patch and you don’t become a partner.”

    Even though planning for either events is yet to take off for 2015, Morgan promised they would be better than the previous years.

    “For us, it is very important to keep evaluating the success that we have had, and find out new areas of improvement,” Morgan added.

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