The future of any business is closely associated with social welfare, stability, the cultural and educational level of the country. So it's not a surprise that financial organizations pay great attention to the implementation of various sponsor­ship projects, including sports events. At that banks solve two important problems: the enhancement of their reputation as a socially responsible organization and the use of considerable opportunities of one of the most effective marketing communication channels.

KEY TO CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE WITH STATE POWER

The victories of our athletes at the World, European and Russian Championships, gold medals of Universiades, medal places at the Russian championship in skiing, the achievements at martial art tournaments made many people consider sport as a full-fledged national idea. Currently, the issue of active and healthy lifestyle is becoming increasingly important, especially among young people.

Literally during the last decade the sponsorship for many banks became not an abstract concept but a very specific position of a corporate program, an important part of organization mission. At the same time more and more attention is paid to support sport events, various sport teams, specialized training programs for future champions, etc. It's quite natural that banks consider "sport sponsorship" as one of the most effective tools to increase the degree of company's popularity and business development. Experts emphasize that a well-built strategy helps financial organizations implementing sponsorship programs, to attract new customers, to develop their own positive image, to enforce their market positions. It's also important, that working for the development of national sport provides more constructive interaction between banks and government agencies. Among the variety of PR-tools the sponsorship of sport events is perhaps the most productive and efficient according to public relations experts.

Of course, it is not a cheap pleasure. The sponsorship contribution to specific event consists of many aspects: organization (rent of premises, equipment and inventory, accommodation of participants, food supply), wages for sport and technical service personnel, prize fund, the advertising campaign for competition (the development of style, anthem, emblem, web­site is also taken into account). However, according to expert estimation, the effectiveness of sponsorship is so great that nowadays many banks are willing to fight for the right to provide a financial support for profitable and large-scale projects.

The question arises: why don't banks choose a more effective way of buying an advertising campaign in mass media with­in an equivalent amount? Experts tell that sport competitions in terms of value of contact with the target audience are the most lucrative sponsorship object. So a wide range of potential customers have a positive association between favorite sport and one or another bank, promoting a team to success. Besides, the sponsor­ship of global sport events is perceived as an attribute of the largest and most serious companies paying attention to the social orientation of business. Bank experts have a common opinion: the support of sport and culture is one of the priority activities for credit institutions, especially for those that are actively developing retail banking.

Organization and carrying out of large-scale sport events, the targeted assistance for talented athletes, the provision of favorable conditions for training -such projects have a much greater effect for the development of popularity and the improvement of the company's reputation compared with direct advertising.

STARTED PROJECTS

Today the Internet is used daily by 50.1 million of Russians, or 43% of the adult population, according to the Public Opinion fund. It's no secret that Internet is a great opportunity for banks to post quickly the latest news about the participation in ongoing activities and events. Just look at the corporate websites and look through the profiles of social networks to find out which banks were the sponsors of sport events and the form of its sponsorship.

One of the main trends in the social program of Uniastrum Bank is the development of sport. On September 21, 2013 the Cup of Russia tournament in combat sambo was held in Moscow due to the support provided by this bank. The competition in seven weight categories was attended by over 150 athletes from many regions of Russia, including 4 world and 12 European champions. The Cup of Russia in combat sambo became a qualifying tournament at the formation of a national team to participate in the combat sambo World Cup of 2014.

It is worth noting that Uniastrum Bank supports Moscow Sambo Federation for two years. This sport is rooted in the culture of Russian people, in folk wrestling, has a rich history, philosophy of constant development, renovation and openness to all best things. During 19 years of active work at the Russian market Uniastrum Bank was a partner of significant sport events many times, including the Russian Federation President's Sambo Cup, International chess match, the matches with Dinamo football club (Moscow).

Physical culture and sports, as well as the support of active athletes, sports teams and sports veterans occupy an important place in the activities of Garant-Invest financial and industrial corporation. Sponsorship is provided, charity events are held, construction (reconstruction) of playgrounds is performed. Shopping malls and FIC stores organize sports activities for the children of surrounding areas, organize the days of sports in orphanages with the provision of sports equipment, arrange holiday parties on its territory with the stars of the Soviet and Russian sport.

Garant-Invest FIC sponsored many sport events, including Ski Track of Russia, Miao Chang marathon with Julia Chepalova's prizes, MVTU Marathon with the participation of the legendary Olympic champions, tennis tournaments, basketball Star match. The company assisted Ski Federation of the Komi Republic, provided financial support for various football matches and for the publishing of honored coach books.

Agropromkredit bank pays special attention to support sports projects, in particular hockey as one of the most exciting, spectacular and promising sports in Russia. Since 2012, the Bank acts as the title sponsor of Avtomobilist HC, and this is a fundamentally new level of Russian hockey support for the credit organization. The main objective of the bank is a comprehensive financial assistance for the step by step development of the club and, as a result, for the improvement of Sverdlovsk region sports prestige in the country.

"Sverdlovsk Region is one of the key regions in the branch network of our bank. Every year it asserts itself increasingly as one of the most promising Russian territories. Due to the sponsorship of Avtomobilist HC we have a contact with a certain segment of loyal audience, which may promote our credit and deposit products. Since the beginning of this project, I realized that reputation plays an important role as for the sports club, so as for the bank. We have an inflow of wealthy clients in deposits and clear target group for crediting," states Vasily Kornev, chairman of the board on Agropromkredit bank.

FINHOLKOM-GROUP (bank holding) is also working a lot to develop sports culture in Russian society: this bank drew a lot of attention due to the implementation of large-scale and socially significant project for the construction of the National horse park RUS'.

We are talking about the building of a real large-scale sports and leisure complex on the territory of about 250 hectares. Nowadays, all the necessary infrastructure for international competitions is established. There are negotiations about the possibilities for the construction of a training base on the Park territory for the Russian Olympic horse sport team training.

"We want to awaken people's interest in sports, horses, nature. You know, that modern townspeople have a very stressful life. They do not always have time to communicate with nature. We provide them with such an opportunity in the format that involves leisure, sport, ride training and the acquiring of new knowledge. If we talk about training, then there are several park groups, both for adults and for children (a special program for children since two years of age). And people may choose the type of equestrian sport, which they want to learn: jumping, dressage, driving, western," says Julia Zedina, chairman of the FINHOLKOM-GROUP coordinating council.

Investtradebank develops the popularity of snowmobile sport. The Bank was one of the main international competition organizers in cross-country snowmobile competition Snow Battle of Nations which took place in March 2013 at the Center for technical sports Semigorye in Vichugsky district near Ivanovo Oblast. There are no similar competitions in the world yet.

The chairman of Investtradebank Vladimir Gudkov called the Snow Battle of Nations a new stage in the professional development of snowmobile sport. "The work performed by the tournament organizers was fruitful. Over the past two years, we applied considerable efforts to promote snowmobile sport in the world. We had a series of negotiations to establish an international pool of sponsors willing to invest financial resources in the development of mass entertainment events in Scandinavia, North America and Russia", says Vladimir Gudkov (Investtradebank) Athletes and participants in the World Cup unanimously noted that the track in Semigorye today is one of the toughest in Europe. Prestigious competitions became a clear indication of the dynamic development of technical sports in our country and are aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle and physical activity among the Russians.

In July 2013 Kedr Bank and Sokol hockey club signed a partnership agreement. "The strategic development of Kedr Bank as the largest regional credit institution is associated with the Krasnoyarsk region, so we are going to support the Sokol team and Krasnoyarsk hockey in general. Hopefully, the club will achieve great results. Major League is not the limit," states Ivan Kanyuka, the Bank's chairman of the board. According to Ivan Kanyuka, the partnership involves not only financial support, but also the introduction of technology, which has the commercial bank possesses. "We also plan to provide the most talented players with grants which will help them in training to improve their skills and participate in master classes with famous athletes," the head of the bank said.

Promsvyazbank acted as a sponsor of World Masters Judo Tournament, which took place in May 2013 at the Sports Palace in Tyumen. 220 athletes from 45 countries took part in the tournament. Since 2008, the Promsvyazbank is the general sponsor of Khimki basketball club, and since November 2011 it is the official sponsor of PFC CSKA and a general sponsor of CSKA teams for children and youth.

Experts state that this approach to business indicates that banks are profitable and responsible before their customers. In general, the credit organization social projects support results are revealed in the positive attitude of the partners and the improvement of the social climate within the country.