KISS awards for FAs' excellence

UEFA's member national associations have been rewarded for excellence in their field at the second annual KISS Marketing Awards held in Rome.

The marketing awards are staged under auspices of UEFA's Knowledge & Information Sharing Scenario (KISS) – the programme whereby FAs exchange expertise for the overall improvement of European football. Excellence is celebrated in what is a crucial area of modern-day football, given that marketing helps nurture the identity of a national team, club or fan base.

With 51 entries from 34 national associations, competition in each category was at an all-time high. "UEFA is delighted by the huge interest and standard of applications from our national associations," said Allan Hansen, chairman of the UEFA HatTrick Committee. "The awards demonstrate the wonderful promotion of football that is going on across UEFA's associations – and this bodes very well for the future."

The Football Association of Iceland (KSÍ) scooped the Best Sponsorship Activation award for its men's and women's league campaign, while the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) received the Creativity and Innovation prize in the same sponsorship category for using its supermarket sponsor's loyalty programme to attract interest and awareness and to boost attendances at international matches.

The Scottish Football Association (SFA) won the Digital Marketing Campaign award, with the Football Federation of Armenia (HFF) taking the Creativity and Innovation honours in this category.

"The KISS Marketing Awards represent everything that is good about national associations' marketing of the game in a number of areas," said Guy-Laurent Epstein, marketing director at UEFA Events SA. "All entries showed excellent marketing initiatives, ideas and activities and will form a priceless database of inspiration for all our national associations. We have strengthened our marketing support for national associations in 2012, and we will continue to develop our support for each national association in 2013."

Full list of award categories, nominees and winners:
Best Digital Marketing Campaign
Winner: Scottish Football Association (SFA) – 'Scotland Supporter Club Renewals 2012'

Nominees: Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) – 'Mission KNVB' campaign; Polish Football Federation (PZPN) – 'Social Media Development'

Creativity and Innovation award: Football Federation of Armenia (HFF) – 'Star Football, You Can!'

Best Fan Experiential Campaign
Winner: Danish Football Association (DBU) – 'Camp Denmark'

Nominees: Swiss Football Association (SFV-ASF) – 'Get There'; Royal Belgian Football Association (URBSFA-KBVB) – 'Give the National Team back to the Fans'

Creativity and Innovation award: Israel Football Association (IFA) – 'IFA Open Day'

Best Sponsorship Activation
Winner: Football Association of Iceland (KSÍ)  – 'Passion for Iceland Football'

Nominees: Football Federation of Kazakhstan (KFF) – 'Bulgary Dop'; Football Association of Norway (NFF) – 'Heroes of Tomorrow'

Creativity and Innovation award: Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) – 'Each Game is a Final'

Best Brand Strategy and Implementation Campaign
Winner: English Football Association (FA) – 'FA Cup with Budweiser'

Nominees: Football Association of Finland (SPL-FBF) – 'Building the National Team Brand'; Belgian Football Association (URBSFA-KBVB) – 'Enabling the Red Devils to Share Emotions'

Creativity and Innovation award: Faroe Islands Football Association (FSF) – 'Recruitment of Referees'

Best Women's Marketing Campaign
Winner: French Football Federation (FFF) – 'Heading to the Olympic Games'

Nominees: Football Association of Ireland (FAI) – 'Bus Eireann Women's National League'; English Football Association (FA) – 'The FA Girls' Football Festivals'

Creativity and Innovation award: Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) – 'Women for Football'