John Trainor, ONSIDE Founder and CEO
Guinness has topped the league of Ireland’s most appealing sports sponsors among Irish adults so far in 2016, while the level of new deals activity reported has slowed this year, according to the quarter 1 Irish Sponsorship market review by sponsorship advisors ONSIDE.
The latest ONSIDE QSR (Quarterly Sponsorship Review) notes that since January, sixty-four different sports sponsors effectively competed to varying degrees of success for the admiration of the Irish adult public, with 3 in 10 adults identifying either Guinness or Heineken sponsorship as best in class this quarter.
The next line of stand-out sports sponsors identified by ONSIDE’s Sponsorship Tracker for Q1 2016 included 3 Mobile as sponsors of Irish Football and Rugby, provincial rugby sponsors Bank of Ireland and AIB, whose GAA support peaked in March with the Club championship Finals and their ground-breaking TV initiative ‘The Toughest Trade’.
Strong results for other GAA sponsors that scored in the ONSIDE research were achieved by Allianz (League sponsors) and Super-Valu, while a noteworthy start was achieved by Lidl as they launch a €1.5m spend as sponsors of Ladies GAA. Other sports sponsors singled out by the Irish public for stand-out recognition last quarter included brands active around the landmark event of the period, namely the 6 Nations, including Aer Lingus, Aviva, Canterbury, RBS/Ulster Bank and Sony.
Commenting on the wider Irish sponsorship market dynamics at play in their quarterly monitor, John Trainor, Founder and CEO of ONSIDE notes that “the number of reported new sponsorship deals is some way behind those reported the same time last year. January was a particularly slow month for new sponsorships when compared with 2015, with a sharp drop in the reported deals.”
9 in 10 of all deals done were sport-related, with significant new deals reported in the quarter including CityJet’s official airline partnership with the FAI as they prepare for the Euro’s and Kellogg's official sponsorship of Team Ireland for 2016 Olympic Games. New ambassadorial deals included the Budweiser link up with Conor McGregor and KPMG’s sponsorship agreement with Ireland’s rising golf star, Paul Dunne.
The ONSIDE consultants are anticipating a more positive quarter 2 for Irish sponsorship investment generally with a mix of significant new sports sponsorship deals on the horizon and the Euro Football Tournament stimulating some game changing forces within the wider industry.
