The Virgin Earth Challenge is a $25million global science and technology prize. Virgin set it up with Al Gore last year, just as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported, and it supplements the action that Virgin is already taking within its business to address climate change.

Virgin's sponsorship is strategically sensible. The company is using all the mechanisms available to tackle the biggest issues it faces and build a message around its commitment to doing so.

The fact that 53 per cent of concerned consumers think that it is the airline doing the most to tackle environmental issues, more than twice as many as for BA, suggests this gamut of activity is paying off.

Compare this with corporate sponsorship of the Olympic Games.

For most companies, the Games will sit at arm's length from all the other activity that they will be conducting to address the particular social and environmental issues they face.

And, noble as the principles of the Games are, the event is always going to be beyond the company's control, a point aptly demonstrated by the 67 per cent of consumers who say they think that commercial sponsors should withdraw this year over China's human rights record.

This is illustrative of a broad change in the role of sponsorship and other ancillary corporate activity in the 21st-century business mix.

Leading companies increasingly are moving to bring together all the tools they have at their disposal to help to build their brand and reputation - and ensure that they are all working to deliver the same message.

The 20th-century model of sponsoring an event or investing in the community and hoping to get value through positive association is evolving fast.

Companies are moving to develop and deliver their own vehicles, which are directly related to their business and which say something powerful about them and just what they can do. And which - unlike the Government of China - they can control.

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