Sponsorships

Focus areas

Cricket

Standard Bank’s flagship sponsorship of cricket has been aligned with our brand positioning. Consequently, we now focus on sponsoring the South African One Day International team and both the domestic and international twenty-overs format of the game (Standard Bank Pro20 Series). The Pro20 sponsorship is particularly exciting as the progressive nature of the game is relevant to the Standard Bank brand identity.

We have also sharpened our focus on cricket development through a R19 million development partnership, over three years, with Cricket South Africa. Our focus is in three areas: the annual under-13 schools week; support for approximately 50 cricket centres of excellence which utilise infrastructure built through fund-raising during the 2003 Cricket World Cup; and the High Perfomance Centre in Cape Town. This partnership will see us build on our legacy as a key player in South African cricket development.

Soccer

In 2001, we formed a strategic partnership – acting as the official banking partner and service provider – with South Africa’s top two soccer brands, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs. A total amount of R6 million per year has been budgeted for this initiative. The partnerships present a key business opportunity, whereby we are able to offer services, products, rewards and benefits to loyal Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs fans. For example, we offer co-branded bank cards that offer users a facility that donates percentage-based contributions to soccer development.

Maropeng

Arts and culture

Standard Bank’s commitment to South African (and African) arts and culture is wide-ranging. Main focus areas include:

Jazz: R7,7 million

Our association and involvement in three key jazz festivals, held in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Grahamstown, not only contributes to the growth of the musical genre in South Africa, it also assists in attracting many jazz enthusiasts to the main metro centres, and at the same time positions South African musicians amongst credible international line-ups. Key events in 2005 included the Johannesburg International Jazz Festival and the Cape Town Jazz Festival – both of which provided a platform for promoting both established and emerging jazz musicians. The jazz festivals also provide the bank with opportunities to engage with various stakeholders.

Arts: R7,2 million

Standard Bank is one of the four main sponsors of the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, working together with local government and other commercial partners to ensure the involvement of local communities in the festival. Through school involvement programmes and other initiatives, the National Arts Festival continues to play a positive role in the engagement of local artists and communities, as well as performers and art lovers from around the country.

The Standard Bank Art Gallery plays an important role in exposing the country’s talented artists to the broad South African art market, while also committing resources to bring schoolchildren and students to the gallery to experience some of the country’s finest art.

The exhibition of the Timbuktu Mali Manuscripts, in partnership with the Office of the Presidency and the Department of Arts and Culture, at the Standard Bank Gallery was extremely successful, drawing global attention to the historic project and at the same time attracting record crowds to the gallery in the week-long exhibition.

The main exhibition of 2005 at the Standard Bank Gallery was a retrospective exhibition of the legendary South African artist, Walter Battiss. The 160 works on exhibition were drawn from both public and private collections held all over South Africa.

In February of 2006, Standard Bank, in partnership with the French Embassy and the French Institute of South Africa, presented Picasso and Africa – an exhibition of works by the 20th century European master, Pablo Picasso, communicating his African inspiration influenced by classical African art.

Standard Bank and the University of the Witwatersrand jointly own the Standard Bank African Art Collection (SBAAC), which is housed at Wits Art Galleries. The SBAAC is independent of the Standard Bank Corporate Collection as well as other collections owned and administered by the university. The SBAAC comprises roughly 6 000 historical and contemporary artworks from West, Central and Southern Africa.

Through the Standard Bank South African Young Artists Awards, we seek to drive the development of creative talent in the visual and performing arts. The Young Artists Awards focus on rewarding the country’s leading young artistic talent financially, as well as through exposure in the public space, primarily at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival.