Geoff Scully is a retail veteran who has a deep understanding of what makes online sales work well. He has been involved with the growth of Littlewoods Ireland to a point where it now stocks 70,000 items and attracts 30 million site visits a year.
As a company they are on top of their game and when it came to a new idea for promoting the store and its services to communities of people across the country, in a real as well as a virtual sense, the GAA was an obvious first port of call.
That initial call was facilitated by Bernard Brogan’s Legacy Consultants and the connections and approach to doing business made it a relatively quick deal to bring over the line taking three months from first conversation to yesterday’s spectacular launch at Croke Park and later at city locations across the country.
.@MrJackieTee doing us proud! 🙌#LittlewoodsIrlGAA pic.twitter.com/jzCx50iDyO
— Littlewoods Ireland (@LittlewoodsIRL) December 6, 2016
Scully was excited at Croke Park yesterday, as befits a man who has seen the first step taken very surely in a €3 million investment over the next three years.
We caught up with him as the pop of the flashes faded and the complex catwalk from the tunnel to the centre of the pitch was carefully dismantled…
Congratulations first, it’s great to have new blood in the sponsorship arena. At first glance the link between fashion and events here at Croke Park is not an obvious one. Was that something you were conscious of and to the fore when plotting and planning the deal?
“It definitely was. I get why it’s not obvious but when we look at the objectives we set for ourselves as a brand it is all about getting deep into communities and really engage at grassroots level. When you look at the GAA and what they do, and when you compare that to others, with all due respect, for us this was by far the best possible fit.”
“For us this is all about family. Yes it’s about sport, it’s about passion, it’s about loyalty, there’s no doubt about that but at its heart it’s about family and our business serves families.”
When you talk about community, the concept of that in a traditional sense is different to that in its online form, or is it?
“Well we are very good at finding people. We’ve won lots of awards for online retail and digital marketing and there is no other comparable brand in Ireland that has our reach.”
“We are very findable and a lot of the work that we do centres on content, on talking with our customers about things that matter to them. Sometimes we talk about clothes, sometimes we talk about other things which mean that we can find each other.”
“We have also built a large real world community through the click and collect service when you can either have products delivered to home or if that doesn’t suit, to individual retailers in every town in the country.”
“There isn’t another retailer who is as deep in the community as we are in terms of getting to your door or your local collection point.”
What is the ownership and history of the brand?
“We are part of the UK’s Shop Direct Group but we operate with complete independence and have been players in the Irish marketplace, first through catalogues and then online for the past 38 years.”
Has sport been a sector that’s been important to you?
“It is a really important and fast growing area for us. Now we didn’t get involved in the sponsorship to go head to head with sports retailers exclusively but it is an important element within the 70,000 products we sell.”
“As we have spread into an ever wider audience base, sport has been a really strong performer in terms of clothing, fitness equipment and more.”
“There’s a natural curve, as our customers are becoming more conscious of health and fitness they are coming to us to get their gear and that’s something that we can expand on.”
Does the strength of Hurling and Camogie, which is perhaps more regional than other sports, map well to your own areas of strengths, and perhaps weakness, across the country?
“It’s a good question and when we sat down first with the GAA we mapped out the coverage of the sports and we mapped out your own main areas of reach. When we laid the two over each other it was an almost perfect match.”
“It was a great fit for us.”
“One of the main objectives is not to be seen as just Dublin centric and reaching out to other areas is really important.”
The inclusion of Go Games as part of this is interesting.
“It’s part of the reach to families and we want to work with the GAA on helping them promote the values and benefits of kids playing sport in whatever way they see fit.”
“The initial focus will be on the national days with kids coming to Croke Park from all around the country and we will see how we can help to develop that.”
Where have Littlewoods Ireland been involved in sponsorship before?
“This is a first into sport but we sponsored the Eurovision Song Contest on RTE this year and we also are involved with the broadcast of Home and Away.
“We were broadcast sponsors of the X Factor on TV3 before and of Coronation Street.”
“The exciting thing about this is the level of engagement we can have with fans at every level. Supporting a TV show is limited in many ways but getting to the heart of a sport is really exciting in terms of what we plan to do in social and other channels.”
“On the ground, at stadiums and interacting with fans will be great.”
Have you had a discussion around the new GRMA loyalty programme yet?
“Not yet but if there are ways that we can add value for each other then that’s a conversation which can take place.”
“We are a data driven business and if there are offers and relationships that work for fans, for us and for the GAA then yes, we will do what suits the customer needs.”
Has this been a while in the making?
“Right from the start there was a meeting of minds. The GAA were interested in working with us as an innovative, tech driven company, and we wanted to work with them.”
“It came together over around three months and Legacy Consultants played an important role in that too.”
It promises to be an interesting three years with new digital elements bringing a special reach for hurling and camogie into as wide an audience as exists.
