NATIONAL: New Zealand Fashion Week has reportedly lost its principal naming rights partner, in the latest fashion corporate sponsorship fallout of the week.
Airline company Air New Zealand relinquished its naming rights following a “strategic review” of its sponsorship portfolio, according to an official New Zealand Fashion Week digital news alert.
Fashion Week organisers are reportedly in discussions with the company for a “more targeted level of involvement” in the event moving forward. Air New Zealand has been a principal naming rights sponsor for the last six years.
As reported on www.ragtrader.com.au yesterday, organisers of Swim Fashion Week were forced to pull the plug on a 2010 installment due to a lack of corporate funding support.
Air New Zealand and New Zealand Fashion Week spokespersons could not comment further by the time of press. Stay tuned for more details.
UDPATE: Air New Zealand Fashion Week managing director Pieter Stewart said she was working with a number of potential sponsors for the 2010 installment.
Stewart said an official naming rights partner was not neccesarily on the agenda, instead the event will see a “number of different levels” of corporate funding.
“Air New Zealand reviewed all of their strategic assets in terms of sponsorship and a number of changes were made outside of Fashion Week,” she said. “There's a lot of leveraging around an event of this scale and it was a natural end to their second term of [sponsorship]."
“Air New Zealand will still be very involved with the event, just not on the same scale as previous years.”