Mubadala Investment Company - Innovation in Sponsorships

Company: Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Category: Award for Innovation in Sponsorships

Nomination Title: More than a Sponsorship

Essay:

The Special Olympics World Games 2019 was hosted in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in March 2019 for the first time in the Middle East North Africa with a mission to promote positive social change for people with intellectual disabilities and create a more inclusive society. Special Olympics is the world’s largest humanitarian sporting event and a global movement, which focuses on the empowerment of People of Determination with intellectual disabilities through the power of sport.

The event welcomed more than 7000 athletes from 190 countries. Mubadala supported the Special Olympics World Games 2019 as a Gold Sponsor, the second largest tier of sponsorship available. Mubadala’s agreement was made up of an initial financial investment followed by a series of initiatives, events and rights to create a broad range of ‘Value-in-kind’ (VIK) benefits. Mubadala didn’t just provide a monetary sponsorship. It released a number of employees to be seconded into the Special Olympics planning team for almost a year prior the event. An Employee Volunteer Program (EVP) was a launched at Mubadala as a managed effort that seeks to motivate and enable employees to effectively serve community needs through the leadership of the employer.

As part of a global campaign organized by Special Olympics, Abu Dhabi's major landmarks were bathed in red light on July 18th 2018 night in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Special Olympics. 17 buildings in Abu Dhabi joined more than 225 landmarks globally, to pledge support for the movement. Mubadala further utilized their rights as ‘Main Sponsor’ of Al Jazira FC to welcome 22 young people of determination as player escorts to a match between Al Jazira FC and Al Wasl FC. The players families were invited to enjoy VIP hospitality alongside Mubadala staff to watch the game and to support the children. The 22 children were then invited to take part in a half-time penalty shoot-out against a professional Al Jazira FC goalkeeper. The Al Jazira FC Stadium emcee announced a pre-approved script, informing the crowd of the activation and promoting Mubadala’s continued support of the Special Olympics World Games 2019. The Special Olympics UAE team were given the opportunity to experience a full training session with Al Jazira FC first players and coaches. The athletes and their families were warmly welcomed onto the pitch by the UAE’s footballing community and were given the opportunity to engage with players in a meet and greet before the training kicked-off. The training session lasted a full hour and included 16 members of the UAE team. A specially designed session included short skills drills and concluded with a Unified Match, which ended 1-1.

Following the event, each Special Olympics player was given a dual branded Al Jazira jersey and the goalkeepers were given gloves from the Al Jazira first team goalkeeper and coachers Both the Al Jazira and Special Olympics' players thoroughly enjoyed the experience and expressed desire to organize future sessions.

Prior to the start of Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019, Mubadala held an internal event at Al Mamoura on 27 February 2019. During the event Mubadala senior management had an opportunity to talk about the upcoming World Games and Mubadala’s contribution towards a successful delivery of those Games. Fifty UAE Special Olympics athletes were invited to the event and were greeted and honored on the stage. As part of its contribution towards successful delivery of Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019, Mubadala employees participated in the volunteering programme. In total 173 Mubadala staff volunteered during the Games. They were among 20,000 volunteers across the UAE, who dedicated their time toward delivery of the largest humanitarian event.