Clydesdale Bank scoops second award for backing Scotland

Clydesdale Bank’s support for the Scottish team competing at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne has been voted best sponsorship campaign by judges from the banking industry.

The Glasgow-based bank won “most effective sponsorship campaign” at the Financial Services Forum awards for marketing effectiveness in London.

The win follows hot on the heals of Clydesdale Bank’s call centre at Clydebank Business Park was named “Best Contact Centre of the Year” across the whole of Europe, the Middle East and Africa by leading global support organisation ContactCenterWorld.com.

When Clydesdale Bank became official partners to the Scottish Commonwealth Games team in March 2005, the judges were impressed that they said it was an opportunity for their staff, their customers and the communities in which they operate to share in the excitement and inspiration of the Commonwealth Games.

Senior judges from the banking industry acknowledged that Clydesdale Bank had taken full advantage of a comprehensive sponsorship programme that spanned across all key stakeholders. The unprecedented levels of staff awareness and the significant increase in public awareness is a particular success story of the sponsorship programme along with the Scottish Team achieving one of its best performances ever.

David Thorburn, chief operating officer at Clydesdale Bank, said: “Along with the rest of Scotland, we were enormously proud of our athletes’ performance at the Commonwealth Games and are delighted to see our backing of their efforts recognised in this way.”

Clydesdale was also highly-commended in two other categories – “new product or service or innovation” and “direct mail”.

The innovation award was for a database system that helps business managers identify prospective new account holders and the direct mail prize for a campaign that improved personal loan sales.

Clydesdale Bank is among the Major Supporters of Scotland’s bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.