By Lauren Mattera at the International Sports Event Management Conference in London

Lloyds Banking Group sponsorNovember 8 - Despite the current economic crisis to hit the United Kingdom's banks, Lloyds Banking Group Head of Olympic Marketing and Sponsorship has proclaimed today that their sponsorship of the London 2012 Games has been recession proof.

Lloyds Banking Group, who last night won the 2012 International Sports Event Management (ISEM) Award for Best Use of Sponsorship, signed their deal to become the Official Banking and Insurance Partner of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games back in 2007, marking the first domestic partner of the Games as well as the largest sponsorship deal in Lloyds' history.

"Lloyds stood the test of time," Gordon Lott, Head of Olympic Marketing and Sponsorship, London 2012 of Lloyds Banking group said here today.

Although banks are a traditional sponsor of an Olympic Games, this year's flow of financial establishments which needed rescuing by the UK Government could have shattered that.

Nevertheless the state-backed UK lender invested £80million ($128 million/€100 million) to secure the deal.

Lloyds identified the Games as a vehicle to bring to life their campaign "For the Journey", a brand that is aimed at helping customers get to where they want to go in life, and supported athletes in their quest to fulfil their aspirations.

"It was critical for us to demonstrate to our customers that this was a commercial deal," said Lott.

"It was significant that we showed how this deal would drive revenue back to the bank and to the customers."

"We delivered the operation with no issues and in doing so have transformed our reputation, built our brand and made a large amount of revenue.

"The money we made off the deal covered more than the cost of the rights of the deal.

"It was a multiple effect."

Lloyds TSB advertising materialLloyds TSB spent £100 million to become a London 2012 sponsor

Despite London 2012 being praised for being a fantastic sales house for the country, Lott touched upon their nickname among the Olympic partners of "NOCOG", due to the lack of flexibility they would allow and their aspirations to protect its registered trademarks and properties.

"We had to be extremely patient and I think a key thing we learnt was how much we overestimated LOCOG's knowledge of us as a bank, as we are just one of their 60 partners."

The direction of Lloyds' sponsorship path is not certain to continue with major sports events, as Lott told how the British bank was keen to get weight behind big social causes and expressed an interest in facilitating change on a social level.

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