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Sports sponsorship in Ireland
By Riccardo Tafà| Posted March 26, 2019 | In MotoGP, Sport Sponsorship
By Riccardo Tafà| Posted March 26, 2019 | In MotoGP, Sport Sponsorship
Sports sponsorship in Ireland
Ireland: an island filled to the brim with passionate, sociable people, who love nothing more than a weekend spent socializing and watching sport. Because of the nation’s dedication to all manner of sports – rugby, anyone? – campaigns for sports sponsorship in Ireland can offer brands a great opportunity for ROI.
The biggest sports sponsorship in Ireland campaigns have tended to be around ball sports (see Irish Rugby’s €22 million campaign with mobile provider 3 and the Gaelic Athletic Association’s with Allied Irish Bank), but the rules and learnings that we can take from them can be applied to any sport.
Sports sponsorship in Ireland: Examples of great campaigns
As mentioned, football and rugby are great drivers for sports sponsorship in Ireland. Here are just some examples, from recent years…
- An award-winning €22 million deal between Irish Rugby and mobile phone provider 3, which lasted until 2016
- A €4 million deal with insurance provider AIG and the Dublin GAA
- Electric Ireland’s award-winning sponsorship of Team Ireland at London 2012, leading them to be known as “the energy fuelling Ireland’s Olympic Team” and to a 78% rise in awareness of the brand
- Heineken’s top-rated partnership with the European Rugby Champions Cup
- Vodaphone’s more recent sponsor of the Irish Rugby team, which took over from 3 and made them official Mobile Telecommunications provider to the IRFU, and sponsor both of the Ireland Senior Team and second team the Ireland Wolfhounds from 2016
In a sport that’s a little more niche, top Middle Eastern airline Etihad took it upon themselves in 2012 to sponsor the All Ireland Hurling Championship in a €5 million deal.
Alongside Vodaphone, other partners of the IRFU include Aldi, Aviva, Lucozade Sport, Dove Men +Care, DHL, Aer Lingus, and of course local brand Guinness. These brands can all be associated with sports: buying snacks to have whilst watching with friends at home, boosting your energy to take part in sport yourself, traveling to watch it live, drinking a local brand whilst watching it socially, and so on.
Sports sponsorship in Ireland: Who are Ireland’s biggest sporting heroes?
The answer to this question will probably change depending on who you ask, but the same names might crop up more than once. Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor pulls in the crowds and is hugely popular with the 18-24 year old demographic. Other surveys might name female boxer Katie Taylor, whilst others (for example those based in Munster, where he has a strong base of support) might point out footballing hero Roy Keane. Ask an Irish rugby fan ahead of the 2019 Six Nations, or even up upcoming Rugby World Cup, and they might’ve said fly-half, Johnny Sexton.
What does this tell us? That if you’re looking to invest in sports sponsorship in Ireland you need to know who you want to reach, which fans are where, and as much detail as possible on ages, locations, and specific interests. Prioritizing this research and choosing your partner carefully will increase your chance of success.
Why does sponsorship work so well in Ireland?
There might be a lot of answers to this question, but RTE sums it up well when it points out how sports sponsorship in Ireland “sells Irishness to the Irish” and that “as a totem for national identity, sport is less divisive than nationalist political rhetoric and more significant than the cultural ephemera ironically celebrated online.”
It also tells us that over half of the 20 most watched Irish television events each year are sporting events – an amazing number of eyes on screens, then.
MotoGP and Motorsports in Ireland
Motor racing has always been popular in the British Isles and Ireland sure makes no difference: there is a very long and distinguished history of motorsports in the land of the shamrock and names such as Dunlop and Ferguson spring to mind.
In more recent years, also, Irishmen in both two and four wheels have ignited the hearts of their fans, with Eddie Irvine competing for the F1 World Championship on the Ferrari and Eugene Laverty and Jonathan Rea dominating the World Superbike class.
Today, although there are no Irish riders or drivers in MotoGP and Formula 1, the island is well represented in both paddocks: think of LCR Honda’s Chris Richardson, Yamaha’s Ian Gilpin or MotoGP’s top journo Simon Patterson just to name a few.
Audiences at home follow on the same lead, with BT sports providing extensive coverage of the MotoGP championship to Irish crowds and Sky Sport broadcasting all 21 races of the Formula 1 season.
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Find out more – contact RTR Sports Marketing today at info@rtrsports.com
Riccardo Tafà
Managing Director for RTR Sports, Riccardo graduated in law at the University of Bologna. He began his career in London in PR, then started working in two and four-wheelers. A brief move to Monaco followed before returning to Italy. There he founded RTR, first a consulting firm and then a sports marketing company which, eventually, he moved back to London.
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Read MoreWhy choose RTR Sports Marketing
In an era where it is possible to get anywhere with a click, there is a strong temptation to approach teams and properties directly for sponsorship projects.
By doing so, we are convinced that we are shortening the value chain, saving time and money. However, these DYI methods are anything but risk-free and what initially appears to be a competitive advantage soon turns into a problem that is difficult to resolve. That’s why there are agencies. And this is why you should rely on us for your sponsorships.
Save time and money
When first approaching a sponsorship or sports marketing project, it is difficult to know immediately which stakeholders are correct, what the decision flow is, and what the right timelines are for each process. Sports is a very specialized field of action, and fitting effectively into its paths can take a lot of time and therefore money. We, on the other hand, know referents and spheres of action and know who to talk to, when and how. So you are also more effective.
The right information, the right choice
Sports is an immense passion, and for our heart colors we would be willing to do anything. But business is a different business, and it is important to make the best possible strategic decisions based on independent research, statistics and reliable data. A sports marketing and sports sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which sport, which athlete, which team. This is because we possess a great deal of data and information on ratings, segmentation and attitudes. Because the numbers don’t lie. Never.
Activations are the beating heart
Activations are the real heart of sports sponsorship. Without them, there remains only a blank sticker on a motorcycle, car or uniform and no contact with the public, no emotional connection, no impact on the bottom line. Then how do you do it? It certainly won’t be the teams or the athletes who will help you leverage sponsorship and enjoy the many marketing rights you have paid for. To bring out the best in a sports marketing project you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase on the Web, to reach out to Shopping Centers, to organize hospitality, to develop B2B and B2C opportunities, and to get “your” athletes in front of millions of potential consumers.
Objective measurements for a certain return
Would you ever go to the dealer who sold you the car and ask if the competitor’s car is better? No, of course. So, how do you expect to get firm measurements of the effectiveness of your sponsorship if you do not rely on someone super partes? At RTR, we have always worked with independent third-party agencies that allow us to know the return on any exposure of your brand on TV and in the media. In addition, we believe in calculating ROI as the ultimate measure of your success-so we can tell you for every penny you spend how much you are making.
Sit back, relax, we’ll take care of it
We have been involved in sports sponsorship and sports marketing for more than 15 years. We are consultants in the sense that our goal is to maximize your investment, but we are also an agency that manages the project from start to finish. We have been doing this since 1995 with passion and professionalism, following three principles that have become cornerstones of our business: independence, verticality and transparency.
I would like to highlight the fact that one of the qualities of RTR is its great ability to approach the sponsorship scenario strategically, together with its passionate attitude, its amazing enthusiasm for solving problems, and its high level of professionalism.
Gianluca Degliesposti
Executive Director Server&Storage EMEA
Eurosport is truly delighted with its business relationship with Riccardo Tafà, who has become extremely popular, thanks to his detailed knowledge of the sports marketing sector and his highly diligent attitude to work.
Francois Ribeiro
Commercial Director
Passion and Expertise are the features that I have found in RTR since the very beginning. Serious and reliable professionals but also very helpful, nice and open-mind people, willing to listen and compare different ideas. All the values in which RTR believes make this agency a partner, not just a supplier, a partner with whom we have had the opportunity to achieve significant commercial results in term of success and image.
Luca Pacitto
Head of Communication
We have been working with RTR Sports Marketing for over 10 years. The objectives and the programmes of collaboration continue to be renewed and to grow with mutual satisfaction. I believe RTR is a team of great professionals led by Riccardo Tafà, who I consider a manager of exceptional skills and with a great passion for his work.
Lucio Cecchinello
Team Principal
I have known and worked with Riccardo Tafà since 1995 when we collaborated for the first time on a project for the Williams Formula 1 team. Several clients followed. After leaving Williams to work for Gerhard Berger then owner of the Toro Rosso F1 Team, I turned again to Riccardo to seek his help in finding a tool supplier for the team and Riccardo duly obliged with an introduction to USAG, a partnership with Toro Rosso which endured for five years. I recently started a new role as Group Commercial Director for the renowned Andretti Autosport organisation and I find myself working with Riccardo once again on a number of interesting projects. Why has this relationship with Riccardo endured ? He’s smart, knows the commercial side of sport inside out and back to front and he’s honest and trustworthy. Riccardo Tafà is a “doer” not a “talker”: in over 20 years I have never had a dispute either with him or with a company that he has introduced and each partnership introduced by Riccardo has delivered quantifiable ROI to rights holder and sponsor alike. I can think of no better testimonial of Riccardo’s diligence, knowledge, contact base and hard work than that.
Jim Wright
Group Commercial Director
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