Canon renews London, Milan and Paris Fashion Week sponsorship

by Miranda Fitzgerald, marketingmagazine.co.uk 19-Feb-09, 13:00

Canon has announced that it will continue to be the main sponsor for London, Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks for the next three years despite plummeting profits.

Under the agreement, it will become the title sponsor for London and Milan fashion Weeks and a key sponsor for Paris Fashion Week.

The Japanese camera manufacturer suffered a 90% drop in net profits in the last three months of 2008. The company was badly affected by the strength of the yen, which make Japanese exports more expensive.

Last year, Canon ran a campaign throughout Europe called The We Speak Image fashion project. It ran a competition to find images that ‘represented the spirit of their European nation', which were then used as inspiration for a series of ‘national' fashion collections that were exhibited at London, Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks.

The company sponsors a number of events and organisations, including WWF, The European Red Cross Societies and the Canon Pro Golf Series. A Canon spokeswoman said there would be no changes in Canon's sponsorship properties in 2009.