March 5 - InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has appointed Catch Sport to help find it athletes to promote its sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, it has been announced.



IHG had previously used the services of Catch Sport, an online sponsorship brokering service set-up by former British international Karim Bashir, to support an internal event last year where the company broke new ground in providing athletes for the one-off appearance at their headquarters in Denham. 

Three fencers and three wheelchair basketball players provided a visual spectacle by demonstrating their sports for IHG staff in September 2009. 

Catch Sport also secured the services of Denise Lewis, the 2000 Olympic heptathlon champion, for the event, who gave a speech about her experiences as an international athlete.

Adrian White, the Director of Partnership Marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa at IHG, said: "The Catch Sport team demonstrated not only that they had an efficient athlete matching system but also that their communication channels in the sports world are second to none. 

"The successful delivery of the athlete element of our internal launch gave us great confidence in Catch Sport’s abilities and we didn’t have to think twice about signing them up for our full athlete engagement.

"We are in the middle of running a pilot for our engagement with athletes over the next three years which is promising to be something special for IHG and hopefully those athletes we choose to support."

IHG, which is to primarily back the Games through its Holiday Inn chain, signed up as a Tier Three London 2012 sponsor in June 2009 and has already appointed Fast Track to manage its overall sponsorship programme.

But the link-up with Catch Sport will provide opportunities for other British athletes to benefit from IHG's sponsorship.

Bashir said: "Bringing another major brand on board is a significant step forward for us. 

"The IHG project is extremely exciting for us and will help us achieve our major goal this year of raising £500,000 of athlete sponsorship.

"This is a great start to 2010."


Related stories
September 2009: IHG appoints Fast Track to manage London 2012 sponsorship
June 2009: London signs up Holiday Inn as latest sponsor