London – July 14, 2004: Specialist digital sports agency, Aura Sports has appointed Vicky Kell as Head of Sponsorship, in a newly created sponsorship department. Vicky joins Aura after six years at the Guardian Media Group. For the past 4 years Vicky was Sponsorship Manager across the Guardian Unlimited group of websites. She brings with her a wealth of cross-media sponsorship experience. 

During her time at Guardian Unlimited, the company received numerous nominations and commendations in various sponsorship awards and this year received a coveted Hollis Sponsorship Award.

“The online sponsorship environment has changed dramatically over the past few years,” says Vicky Kell, “We now have a medium which has become better-and-better as a sophisticated branding-tool in its own right. We are starting to see brands and their agencies really exploring the use of online sponsorship, to develop and enhance brand awareness. Sport has always been at the forefront of sponsorship, and we believe that we can now extend that sense of innovation into a digital environment.”

She continues;

“Traditionally online sponsorships have been complicated and time consuming, but by creating a dedicated, highly specialised team, we can offer a very much enhanced service for our clients to maximise a sophisticated and integrated cross-media sponsorship strategy.”

In a further development in expanding their offer to clients, Aura Sports are also setting up a dedicated Client Services team, working hand-in-hand with the Sponsorship team.

Samantha Seal has been appointed to the role of Head of Client Services. Samantha was previously Sponsorship and Partnership Manager for Handbag.com, a joint venture between Boots and The Telegraph. Prior to this, Samantha spent over three years in airtime sales and sponsorship for Channel 5 Television.

“We believe that by offering specialist teams in both roles will ensure that we will deliver a best practice solution to clients from the outset.” says Samantha Seal, “This will further allow us to extend our offer, create additional business opportunities and to move into additional sports.”

ENDS

For more information on Aura Sports visit www.aurasports.com

For more information please contact Mark Thursfield at MTA Media

Tel: 07780 991975

NOTES:

• The Aura Sports UK network currently delivers over 160 million page impressions monthly, with over 7.1 million unique users
• Sky Sports recently acquired a minority share in Aura Sports
• Aura Sports also covers sports sites on a pan-European basis
• Aura Sports was founded by Paul Wright and three former members of the Sports.com sales and marketing team.
• Aura Sports is a privately funded company based in Holland Park, London and Liverpool
• Aura Sports is a digital sports agency, focussed on helping sports companies and rights owners maximise revenues from their digital properties.
• Aura Sports also represents Sky Sports official football club sites
• Aura Sport was recently short-listed for the ‘Best New Business’ award at the National Business Awards and the New Media Age Awards