By Mary Hennock BBC News Online business reporter

Not many banks would think burning money was good publicity, but Egg is determined to be different.

The firework dragon will last one minute

When a Chinese experimental artist lights the fuse to send a firework dragon leaping up the tower of Tate Modern on Friday, the online bank will be footing the bill.

Altogether, Egg is paying for eight live arts events at London's newest major gallery, pushing its brand in a year-long festival, Tate & Egg Live.

"I'm looking for ways to make the brand alive...to draw out the innovation side of Egg," says Nick Cross, the bank's chief marketing officer.

Multimedia mix

With innovation as Egg's chosen image, the festival is commissioning new music, theatre and visual arts and mixing them together in live performances.

Egg has distained the usual form of sponsorship, backing a big exhibition by a famous painter: "I don't think it does anything for the brand. Where's the link?" says Mr Cross.

As a dotcom bank, Egg has no local branches to spread its logo along the High Street. Linking up with the Tate is seen as a perfect way to appeal to Egg's target audience of young, media savvy spenders and savers.

Bigger spark

So far, the strategy seems to be going down well with Egg customers, who get festival promotions when they check their accounts.

A sculpture representing flayed skin has inspired anti-war theatre

Online ticket sales are going well. And the festival's potentially most controversial work - an anti-war play under a giant sculpture representing flayed skin - has more than half sold out after just nine days, says festival curator Alex Poots.

Both sides are cagey about how much Egg is spending, as if mentioning the sum was equivalent to turning up at the Turner Prize in open shirt and gold medallions. But in the end, they agree it's a bit more than �1m.

It is not all creative idealism. For Egg, the firework dragon represents a bigger bang for the buck than previous forays into motor racing.

Competitive market

"Football and sport are huge arenas where you just have to cough up so much money," says Mr Cross, putting the cost of getting a logo on a Formula One driver's suit at �5m.

Most arts sponsorship is for big shows of famous paintings

Both Tate and Egg are trumpeting the festival as a big step forward in a new style of arts sponsorship - "a partnership" - to develop events tailored to the sponsor's brand.

Corporate spending on the arts almost doubled in the five years to 2000, reaching �150m, though it is now shrinking again in a more uncertain economic climate and totalled �114m in the year to April 2001.

Government spending has grown at a slower pace, though it is worth more: it rose about 25% to �252m by April 2001.

City firms - big banks, global accountants and stock brokers - have been particularly keen arts backers of big exhibitions, kudos with a minimum price tag of �250,000.

Brand building

Growing competition for backers is forcing galleries to offer more innovative packages, says Tate head of corporate fundraising Bernadette Sullivan.

Modern artists are global brands

Hence in arts funding, tailor made brand-building is the new black.

The trend is to "get businesses to see how they can do it differently, see how the arts can benefit branding," says Colin Tweedy, an ex-investment banker who heads fundraising specialists Arts and Business.

If Tate & Egg raises the popularity of commissioning new work, it will be good news for artists, who are increasingly willing to position themselves as brands in their own right.

The myth of the creative loner is far from the way the modern art world works.

Agents and entrepreneurs

"Most creative artists are incredibly business-like because they have to be, so much of their work is commissioned by advertising or fashion houses," says Mr Tweedy.

Digital artist Maria Mencia says group projects are essential to develop work with new technologies and meet production costs.

But is it risky for a brand to associate itself with new art? How shocking is too shocking? Could good intentions end in embarrassing censorship?

Mr Cross says Egg did not ask for a veto. "I'm happy that Tate is not about to push things to a degree that would compromise what we're about," he says.