Environment high on agenda

5 February 2010

People are more concerned with supporting local social community projects and the environment than with tackling certain global issues, according to new research released today

The UK adults surveyed were asked to rank (1-3) the ‘good causes’ they would feel most positively about a company supporting.  Most participants ranked supporting protecting the environment (55%), local social community projects such as providing sports facilities for children (54%*) and fighting diseases such as HIV and Cancer (47%) as the three they would regard most positively, ranking them either 1, 2 or 3.  These were closely followed by protecting endangered animals (42%).

Lower down in the results were tackling global poverty, supporting the creative arts, supporting social projects and tackling obesity. The survey was carried out by Havas Sponsorship Insights on behalf of Chester Zoo as consumer research which addressed the issue of corporate sponsorship.

Alasdair McNee, Corporate Director for Chester Zoo, comments:

“We found these results fairly surprising but it is fantastic to see environment and endangered animals fairly high up in terms of what the participants particularly value.  As a charity which is actively working on various projects overseas and truly believes in conserving biodiversity worldwide, it is excellent to discover that these issues are now maybe more valued than they perhaps used to be. This survey was carried out for internal use but the statistics were not necessarily what we predicted.  It seems the UK public is becoming more savvy and interested in researching their options.  From the looks of this survey, what a company chooses to support could potentially sway their consumers either way.”

Havas Sponsorship Insights is a division of Havas Sports & Entertainment, one of the world’s fastest-growing brand partnership agencies, employing 400 sponsorship specialists in 20 countries around the world.  The Havas Sponsorship Insights division is a market-leading specialist in sponsorship research, evaluation and strategic consultancy, with clients including AEGON, Aintree Racecourse, Eden Project, Laureus World Sports Awards, Lawn Tennis Association, Nokia, Texaco and The Premier League.

For more information on sponsorship opportunities at Chester Zoo, or on Havas Sports and Entertainment, please contact:  Gavin Peters, Account Director, Sponsorship Insights: Tel: +44 (0) 20 7759 2069     Email:  gavin.peters@havas-se.com