Franchise Marketing Awards 2013 – Best PR Campaign
The Franchise Marketing Awards recognise the industry’s most innovative and effective marketing campaigns, rewarding organisations that have raised their public awareness and as a result have achieved sustainable growth.
The judges comments on choosing the winner of the ‘Best PR Campaign’ were: “A well executed and detailed PR campaign that included a wide variety of media. We particularly liked that it was tied into current events such as the Olympics, and the clear evidence provided made it very easy to select A-Star Sports as winners.” The awards aim to uncover ‘the franchises that are at the top of their game’.
The Small Business Network’s Best Practice Exchange – Starting Up winner
A-Star Sports is a national winner of the Guardian Small Business Network’s Best Practice Exchange – Starting Up category, in association with Lloyds TSB. As the judges choice, A-Star Sports’ story featured on the Guardian website and in the national paper (p. 24, ‘How to make a success of a startup’.
Theo Paphitis ‘Small Business Sunday’ winner
Sunday 5th August saw A-Star Sports receive an amazing Twitter business boost from TV Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis.
On choosing A-Star Sports as a ‘Small Business Sunday’ winner, Theo re‐tweeted our message to his 260,000+ followers:
A-Star Sports is now profiled on a new website that is exclusive to Theo Paphitis’ Small Business Sunday winners.
Startups 100 Business Award winner
A-Star Sports is proud to have a prestigious place in the UK’s top Startups 100. To be considered, companies had to have launched on or after 1 January 2009 and be UK based. After that, the judges were looking for innovation, impressive achievements, a viable business model and growth potential. The businesses that make it on to the list are described as ‘creative, exciting and original, the 2012 Startups 100 are a force to be reckoned with’.
Launched in 2008, the Startups 100 was the first and bar-setting countdown of the top 100 start-ups in the country. It’s published every two years and previous winners have gone on to phenomenal successes. Huddle, Shortlist Media, Naked Wines, Wonga and Zoopla are just a few of Startups100′s alumni.
What’s On 4 Junior Awards 2012 – double award win!
In just seven months, the A-Star Sports team launched the new brand, brought 11 territories into operation, was accepted as a member of the British Franchise Association and rewarded with the accolade of two national What’s On 4 Junior Awards after so many parents nominated and voted for us:
- Best New Activity for Children
- Most Outstanding Activity Leader for children aged 5-12 (Kevin Key)
In addition to being crowned a winner in these two categories, A-Star Sports also reached the finalist stage in the Best Children’s Party Entertainment category, making it into the top three in the UK for its action-packed parties.
Here are the moments the winners were announced and the reactions of the team members there on the day (including an oscar-reminiscent list of thank yous and a reflection on just how excited the children in classes would be when they find out the results!):
Social media awards
#Purplebiz ‘UK Business of the Day’ – double winner
After reaching the #Purplebiz ‘five star’ list, A-Star Sports was selected as @Purpledognet’s UK Business of the Day on 9th December 2012 and again on 19th April 2013. The #purplebiz network helps to support and provide a networking platform of 33,900+ SME Twitter members. Find out more about the #purplebiz network.
WEGO Health Activist endorsement
As a WEGO Health Activist Awards nominee, A-Star Sports’ activities on social media have been endorsed with a new badge of recognition and highlighted as a ‘community leader’:
The WEGO Health organisation describes itself as ‘a different kind of social network, built from the ground up for the community leaders, bloggers and tweeters who are actively involved in health online. WEGO Health is a platform for committed health advocates to foster new relationships, gain access to helpful resources, and to grow their communities.’ Read more about A-Star Sports as a ‘community leader’ and positive ‘health activist’.
Gladstone BizNetwork ‘Small Business Sunday’ winner
The Gladstone BizNetwork (@Gladstone_Biz) re-launched it’s ‘Small Business Sunday’ (#GBizSBS) awards in March 2012 on Twitter and A-Star Sports was one of the five businesses to be named winners.
Describing #GBizSBS, the Gladstone team said: ‘We give 5 of our favourite UK, Ireland, Scotland & Wales based businesses a shout-out on the network every Sunday…[from the] fastest growing business network on twitter.’
