Anticipation was running high in Ireland, as the newly created Dublin Super Cup football tournament publicity campaign gathered momentum. Held at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, in late July, the event was billed as great family entertainment, with the first team squads of Celtic FC, Inter Milan, Manchester City and an Irish all-stars team, Airtricity, competing for the inaugural cup, which was designed and made by EFX.

Reaction to the half metre tall steel trophy, which combines a striking, three-dimensional football with the event’s official Irish knot logo, was hugely positive. Each element of the lattice football was painstakingly hand-bent, with the utmost precision, and the trophy was robustly crafted to withstand frequent handling in the years to come.

The trophy was a key element of the pre-event promotional activity and featured in press coverage and visits to schools and football clubs. Greg Norman of Endemol Sports, the event Organisers, was thrilled with the impact it made: “At the official drinks reception the day before the tournament, the trophy was on display with The FA Cup and the Scottish Cup and it looked more than impressive compared to such icons; during the tournament, the Dublin Super Cup was then centre stage again, in the tunnel, and received some admiring glances from the likes of Wesley Sneijder and Gareth Barry”.

And the score? Manchester City romped away with the trophy, with a 3-0 win against Inter Milan.

www.dublinsupercup.com

The Alitalia Go Karting Grand Prix has, in just three years, become a much anticipated event, for which guests eagerly await their invites, and that is despite it being referred to as an ‘Endurance Race’ and orange juice being the preferred refreshment! The event was recently held at The Raceway indoor track in Greenwich Docklands and several of the invited travel agent teams arrived with a decidedly competitive eye on the rostrum and the EFX made trophies.

Cecilia Sabucci, Marketing Supervisor at Alitalia, emphasises that: “The quality and design of the trophies is paramount as everyone longs to win and the trophies add panache to the Alitalia brand and event”. The EFX design team captured a motor sport theme for the bespoke trophies this year, with the chequered flag as the backdrop to the Alitalia logo, all made in solid nickel plated aluminium. Cecilia was clearly happy with the end results: “We are extremely pleased with the expertise and competence shown to us by EFX year after year”.

www.alitalia.co.uk

The IPM Awards 2011 (Institute of Promotional Marketing) gala dinner must have been quite a night, with over 650 attending. The following morning a croaky Keith Herman from the Inspire agency telephoned EFX from his bed: hung-over but happy. Inspire had won a silver award in the Retail & Home Shopping category for its campaign for New Look Retailers, which it had magnanimously let its client keep, and Keith was keen to order a duplicate of the imposing silver plated, engraved pewter award as proof of its success.

Melanie Osborne, Sales Director at EFX comments that: “It is a reassuring sign that organisers have a success on their hands, when recipients value their award so much that they want copies of their trophy making after the event”.

EFX designed and made the original 98 bronze, silver and gold awards for the IPM, which had successfully attracted huge interest in the event and a fabulous number of entries. EFX is always pleased to provide copies for joint winners of such occasions, or alternatively, clients can always specify small sized memento versions to be made along with their original order.

www.theipm.org.uk

Just how big a fish do you have to land to win £50k prize money? The top UK anglers are certainly up for the challenge, as 24 of them take part in the final of the inaugural Maver ‘Match This’ Event on Saturday 20th August at Larford Lakes near Stourport. Sponsored by Daily Mirror and Angling Times.

The biggest prize money ever put up for a fishing competition is matched by the EFX designed and made, polished aluminium trophy, which Ben Hughes of Maver, the fishing tackle distributors and organisers of the event, has received in plenty of time for the event: “It is an impressive and striking trophy, beyond my expectations, heavier than I had anticipated and with a fabulous finish – it is just what we wanted”.

Richard Woodall the ex super-middleweight champion boxer is co-commentating on Sky Sports with Maver MD Phil Briscoe