The Australian Youth Orchestra and Accenture commended by AbaF
9 October 2009
The Australian Youth Orchestra and Accenture Australia were recently awarded a Good Practice in Partnering Recognition as part of the annual Australian Business Arts Foundation awards. The nomination was submitted under the Marsh Partnering Award and acknowledges the strong partnership between the Australian Youth Orchestra and its Principal Sponsor, Accenture.
The Australian Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) provides advice, professional development, volunteering and networking opportunities, to connect the corporate sector with arts organizations, individual artists, trusts and foundations. The annual awards, which took place on Thursday 10 September at Government House, Sydney, were a celebration of the many, successful collaborations between the arts and the corporate world. Guests were entertained by a performance from AYO musicians, the Orava String Quartet, who played a Mendelssohn String Quartet.
HISTORY OF THE PARTNERSHIP:
Accenture and AYO began partnership discussions in early 2007 and as a result Accenture presented the Australian Youth Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Concert at the Sydney Opera House in July 2007. The concert was billed as “Presented by Accenture” and key benefits included 300 concert tickets plus invitations to the post-performance reception, signage at the concert, logo acknowledgment in AYO publications, advertising in the concert program, advertising in AYO’s Newsbeat newsletter and 1500 co-branded promotional CDs.
Accenture used the concert tickets as a benefit for their employees and the response was so enthusiastic that both organisations met to discuss continuing the partnership.
Between September and October 2007, Accenture signed on to become “Presenting Sponsor” of two AYO concerts - Australian Youth Orchestra in association with The Cat Empire in October 2007 and Australian Youth Orchestra in Concert in Melbourne Town Hall in February 2008.
Sponsorship benefits were similar to those for the 50th Anniversary Concert and a total of 400 Accenture employees attended the two events.
During this same period Accenture also made the decision to use the 1500 co-branded promotional CDs, one of the sponsorship benefits of the July 2007 concert, as its 2007 Christmas card which were distributed to key clients. In addition, Accenture also decided to fund production of another 2000 copies of the CD to be used as an internal Christmas Card. This internal card was sent to all employees in Australia as a celebration of Accenture’s continuing partnership with the Australian Youth Orchestra.
In late 2008 Accenture became the Australian Youth Orchestra’s Principal Sponsor.
“Since inception, the AYO has been a showcase for artistic excellence. Its dedication to high performance and innovation is something that Accenture is proud to be associated with and fits well with our own business philosophy. Our partnership also gives us the opportunity to support the Arts and help nurture Australian talent. Importantly, our people are very positive about our relationship with the AYO: the three concerts we supported before becoming the AYO’s Principal Sponsor were attended by 700 employees whose comments were full of praise and followed by requests for more of the same.” Robert Hohnen – Geographic Ser vices Lead, South-East Asia, Australia and Korea [SEAAK], Accenture
The partnership benefits now offer Accenture employees more access to AYO programs and activities.
The spectrum of benefits for the AYO is broad and includes financial assistance to facilitate its training programs, technical expertise (in particular for AYO’s digital strategy), increased audiences at concerts and a significant scholarship for AYO participants.
The Accenture Australia Foundation (AAF) funds a scholarship for an outstanding young musician. The AAF was established in 2001 to complement and support Accenture in its investments in charitable and community programs. The scholarship provided by AAF supports one young musician to enable him/her to participate in the AYO training programs and assist his/her musical studies in Australia.