Who says there are any unlucky numbers? After 13 years of loyal and steadfast support and sponsorship, Canon recently terminated their long-term relationship with the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP), deciding to end their sponsorship of the AIPP Australian Professional Photography Awards (APPA).
Ross Eason, the AIPP’s national president, confirmed that while the announcement itself, that Canon would no longer be naming sponsor for APPA from 2016 onwards, was something that the organisation had been aware of for some time, it was the timing of it that came as something of a surprise, with Canon going public earlier than planned, and without warning to the AIPP. “We had agreed on a joint public announcement, being mutually respectful,” Eason says, “and were working on that basis. We were disappointed, but respect Canon's right to act as they saw fit.” In his e-mail to AIPP members, Eason apologised to members for not announcing the end of the relationship in a more coordinated and structured fashion, stating that they believed an agreement had been made with Canon for “the need for a joint communication that respected both party’s views.”
In a statement released by Jason McLean, Canon’s director of consumer imaging, to professional photographers, he stated that Canon has been “determined to see as much of our sponsorship dollars as possible used to support the winners and entrants [of APPA] directly”. He went on to say that Canon was not comfortable or satisfied with “investment decisions and changing priorities of the AIPP administration.”
The AIPP has made a number of decision in the last few years, all, according to Eason, to benefit members. One of these decisions was to combine The Event and APPA into a single, larger event. Eason stated that the AIPP’s changing priorities for 2016 will see the APPAs combined with The Event and held at the Pullman Hotel's conference facility in Melbourne, instead of at The Digital Show. [Notably, in 2015, Canon surprised everyone as a result of their absence at Australia’s largest photographic trade show.]
Eason went on to say that the combined additional cost of the venue and judges, plus their investment over the last two years in developing a state-of-the-art judging system and extensive judge training added significantly to AIPP overheads, and “was seen by Canon, according to their press release, as an investment decision that did not benefit the entrants and winners of APPA. I guess that was their reason [for ending the relationship]”, says Eason.
In the hope of shedding a little more light, Capture reached out Canon last Thursday to clarify their position, but have yet to receive a reply. The statement they released does however point to “differences of opinion” which Canon says “limited our ability to provide the help that ‘professional’ photographers were telling us they needed through the Major Sponsorship.”
So, what does the future hold? According to Eason, the APPAs, with it 36-year history, is unlikely to be adversely affected by the departure of Canon. “We are more confident than ever that APPA will continue to evolve and go from strength to strength with the ever-growing involvement of our members and the continuing support of our committed trade partners,” he says. In their statement, Canon indicated that they would be seeking to sponsor a single category of the awards, to allow them “a more flexible structure to contribute”, and have noted that they are waiting on confirmation from the AIPP. When asked about this, Eason said that the AIPP is “keen to continue with Canon’s support of the awards and we appreciate the offer”. And at this stage, there is no reason why they would not look at the option of a single category sponsorship.
But the exit of Canon is not all bad news for the AIPP, and Eason indicated that a new and exciting paradigm, where APPA, The Nikon AIPP Event and the new format trade show could all be combined together “to deliver, inspiration, knowledge, choice and opportunity for professional image makers.”