Prizes add glamour to business sponsors

Literary prizes are still a vital tool for drawing people into bookshops and remain attractive to business sponsors, a seminar on the subject heard last week.

The debate—"Literary Prizes: Who Benefits?"—was organised by Arts & Business, an Arts Council-funded agency promoting links between the two sectors.

Gail Rebuck, chief executive of the Random House Group, said prize sponsorship had mutual benefits. "We have something quite unique in books in the word-of-mouth phenomenon, and that's something that businesses want to get hold of."

Colin Tweedy, chief executive of A&B, said there was no shortage of companies interested in sponsoring awards. "Prizes are very successful for business sponsors—they're good value and bring a glamour element."

Roly Keating, controller of programmes for BBC4, the new sponsor of the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction, said: "Prizes do bring new books to people's attention. It's fantastically difficult to navigate through books, and even very specialist prizes can help by giving a judgement on books."

Several speakers measured the value of prizes to their sponsors in business terms. David Reed, director of corporate affairs for Whitbread, said his company's sponsorship of awards had turned from a philanthropic undertaking to a commercial venture. "It's difficult for us to get off the business pages, and the prize does that for us."