SuperValu launched the 15th year of its partnership with the GAA this week, and are doubling down on the idea of Community.
We sat down with John Kelly, ready to enjoy his first year at the helm of the partnership.
Our conversation was instructive in many ways about the workings of the partnership and the motivation that underpins it. We also veered into his own memories of winning a Club All Ireland hurling Championship bck in the day…
SFB: How how much of a challenge is it to continually refresh your presence because the Championship comes around year after year and the older we get, the quicker it comes.
John Kelly: I think given the length of association and the establishment the brand has with the GAA, that we have become almost synonymous with the sport.
The association has built up over many, many years. So it’s easier in some instances for us, for people to be familiar, comfortable with us being there.
We’ve brought in one or two new ambassadors this year. Emma Cleary on the on the Ladies Football side wherewe sponsor the Cork Ladies as well, and Paul Mannion is our new addition from Dublin.
He has a very good understanding of the campaign from his own club in Kilmacud Crokes. They are very much involved in the diversity and inclusion agenda so it’s an easy fit to amplify at Inter-County what he and others, like Padraig O’Hora of Mayo in particular, are doing at their own local level.
So while we try to freshen it up, there’s a consistency there of what works.
Every year we would sit down and look at what has worked well, what’s not worked, how can we build it.
Last year we would have had the Laces campaign that was very successful for us with the Belong To charity. We will continue that again this year and look to raise even more funds for that.
And that very much fits in one of the pillars of our diversity and inclusion agenda.
SFB: How much of a kind of a federal nature is there to the sponsorship because you’ve got over two hundred stores, all with a voice and a locality of their own.
We’ve got two hundred and twenty stores stores around Ireland .
If you look back to the roots of why we first got involved in this fifteen years ago, they are embedded within the communities. The SuperValu retailers are sponsoring their local club or providing food for their teams and matches.
And it was very much at a local and county level.
The sponsorship really elevates the brand and gives up a national focus to the existing multiple partnerships.
Our retailers really live and breathe this in their communities. Some of them are selectors at clubs and managers or members all around the country.
We get to amplify that with the halo message on the national sponsorship.
We’re national sponsors, but we’re very much on the ground in local clubs, supporting local clubs and aiming to build vibrant communities. It is what we’re all about.
SFB: I remember writing about when it was moved first that you would become the national partner, that there was a survey undertaken amongst the retailers and that 70 percent or so of their individual sponsorship spend was going to the GAA anyway.
So it just became a kind of a, a natural fit for that. Is that the same now?
JK: Oh, absolutely. I think it’s only grown. They see SuperValu around the hoardings, all around the stadiums, it really gives that sense of this Championship being the pinnacle of the GAA and they can see that’s what everyone wants to inspire up to. From the smallest village to the biggest City.
It gives retailers great assurance that they know that we’re speaking on their behalf at a national level, but they’re doing the real work in the communities and in the clubs and supporting them.
That’s in many ways from local sponsorship, food, charity fundraising and more.
And it’s right across the country, when you go from the very Northernmost areas to Bantry in West Cork. I can tell you for a fact that all every store is sponsoring a local GAA club.
It’s a great differentiator for us and for the brand.
SFB: How important has the current campaign been about including everyone?
JK:Over the last number of years our aim has been really to bring out the diversity and inclusion agenda.
In the new research we have done it shows that 80 percent of people believe that if their local club is more diverse then it will improve the the diversity and inclusion within the whole community.
Building vibrant communities is what the brand is all about, sustainable communities for the future and keeping people involved, keeping people of every ethnicity, every sexual orientation, every perceived disability right at the heart of the sport.
We really push the proof points out there of how we can link back to the sponsorship and that’s what we’re trying to do this year.
We have a very exciting series with Balls.ie that will feature some in depth interviews with Ikum Igwero about his story and some great nuggets about how a teacher in his primary school showed him the rules of the game after school to keep him involved in the GAA.
And that’s really what the GAA is all about, welcoming people to get involved.
He’s now gone on and played for Clare. His brother sees him and he wants to be like Ikum. And that’s where you get role models. And that’s why we have these ambassadors here today that are speaking on behalf of other people out there that may be finding it tough, may be finding it challenging.
But we’re saying to them, get involved in your own community. Get involved in your GAA club. We know there’s work to be done, but really that’s where it starts and look where it can bring us to the role models and advocates that we have here today
78 percent of people believe that our club promotes diversity and inclusion. So that’s gone up 7 percent since last year, which is a win.
I think we’ve started on a journey. We are four years in it. We’re building year on year and it really is that we are using the power of the GAA to truly try and highlight these areas and try to build that there’s a place for everyone.
SFB: On a more prosaic level, it obviously has to work from a financial point of view. Sponsorship is sometimes seen as great at the softer edges, but there’s a clear link as well in terms of the match ticket sales driving footfall. Has that changed now there’s been more of a nudge towards online and ticket sales in advance.
Look, everybody’s seen the advancement of online. But there’s still a commitment to have the physical ticket machines and sales in store.
Particularly for our older generations, and particularly given the rural footprint that SuperValu and Centra have around the country. Our stores will still sell a lot of tickets for club games and club levels as well as at County.
That is always going to be a need for a long time yet.
SFB: And it’s an important thread between you and the GAA as well. I mean, from a retail point of view, you’re looking to provide something that your rivals don’t.
JK: Absolutely. So, GAA tickets is one of those cases. One of those things. It’s a footfall driver into the shop that people come in to buy a ticket and then there’ll be something else as well. That’s the business we are in.
SFB: A few years ago, you had Peter Keane, who was a store manager down in Kerry and manager of of the Kerry team as well. Would he be one of the voices that you’d listen to in terms of tweaking these campaigns from year to year?
Or is it very much from a marketing point of view?
JK: I think from a marketing and strategy point of view, it’s up to us and head office to come with the strategy. But absolutely we listen to our retailers. We would have our ear to the ground, and we run a feedback framework exercise of what’s working, what hasn’t worked so well, and what can we improve.
We learn because ultimately if listen to our retailers, to our customers, they’re the people on the ground with the, with the most knowledge of what’s happening.
You’ve got a plan written and ready and they’ll give you a note or they’ll give you a tweak and they’ll only enrich it.
So that’s where the Musgrave model works extremely well because you’ve got head office setting the strategy, setting the direction, but you’ve got the retailers day to day on the ground in their communities, they know what’s going on, they provide us that intelligence.
SFB: Were you a footballer yourself?
I played hurling actually. Well I played football in my younger days and then I was more into the hurling. I come from a staunch GAA background and, well, I actually played in Croke Park and won an All Ireland Intermediate medal in 2011.
SFB: Oh, congratulations, belatedly. Who was it with?
JK: It was with a club called Ballymartle, it’s my home club in Cork. We beat Dixborough from Kilkenny. Won by a goal. Great times.
SFB: And you moved into the sponsorship role only last November, how has it been?
For me, on a personal level, it’s very satisfying to be able to combine my passion for GAA and working on it from a commercial point of view as well.
I’ve worked across a number of disciplines within Musgraves in terms of loyalty, local marketing, national value for money, I’ve never run sponsorship before. But I’m really enjoying it.
SFB: Is the TV campaign this year the same as it was last year with that kind of beat underneath it?
JK: It is. A powerful piece don’t you think?
Our campaign kicks off today, obviously with the PR launch, then we have the Balls.ie series and every two to three weeks we will have a focus on a different story about diversity and inclusion in the GAA. We have an LGBTQ+ with David Gough> We have Emma Cleary with whom we’ll be talking about keeping girls in sport, and then more as well.
And then we go into Pride month and we will spike in relation to the Laces campaign.
At that point there was another picture to be taken, another message to be put out. They are full on these days where you have to distill a year’s planning into soundbites and make sure the players are all on-message.
Great to chat though in the same way as we did last week with Jason Delany of Staycity and Tomás Quinn of Dublin GAA.
Next week we will be switching sport and putting Laura Lynch, CMO of Bank of Ireland in the hot seat, 48 hours before Leinster rugby take over Croke Park with a different shape of a ball.
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