Labatt Breweries of Canada took Best of Show at the 9th annual Sponsorship Marketing Awards (SMAs), winning for a fan-based sponsorship program involving Budweiser and the Winnipeg Jets that exceeded business objectives. The SMAs, presented April 25th at the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada’s annual conference in Toronto, recognize companies that maximize their investments in sponsorship marketing by developing innovative strategies that drive results. Other big winners were BMO and Scotiabank, which each won two awards. Click here for the media release.

Nominations are now being accepted for The Bees Awards, a new international social media award competition for communications and marketing professionals. The deadline for entries is October 1, and the awards will be presented in San Francisco on November 9. (more…)

Mark Sabourin, Editor of The Sponsorship Report, has prepared an expanded news summary of the session presentations delivered at the 2010 Annual Conference of the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada.

The day-long event, which culminated with the presentation of the 6th Annual Sponsorship Marketing Awards, was held at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. Click here to download a PDF copy of the report.