Pro14 Rugby has significantly stepped up its marketing and commercial muscle with three new appointments in recent weeks.
Aisling Delaney is the new Events and Sponsorship Manager having worked previously at the FAI and within the sports team at Wilson Hartnell PR.
She is joining an expanded team which has also recruited Chris Mounsey, using the experience he gained at Paddy Power to head up the marketing side of the tournament.
The third hire brings Joseph Cronin in from an agency role at Javelin where he was a media planner working on Toyota and other accounts.
They will be working under Dermot Rigley who joined Pro14 Rugby from RTÉ a little over a year ago.
The tournament expanded to incorporate two teams from South Africa this season and is building towards a sell-out final at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday 26th May.
Guinness is at the midpoint of its six-year sponsorship of the Pro14 and Rory Sheridan told Sport for Business in an exclusive interview at the start of the season that
“Rugby has been good for Guinness and we would argue that Guinness has been good for Rugby too.”
“We’ve been operating in the sport for north now of 25 years and the relationships we have with our customers through these strong partnerships are very important.”
Earlier this week The Times and Sunday Times were unveiled as a commercial partner of the Final Series and we understand more announcements about similar partnerships will be made in the coming weeks.
Delaney will be a strong addition to the team. She graduated from University College Dublin with a BSc in Sports Management during which time a work placement opportunity with the FAI led to a full-time role.
As a Sponsorship and Marketing Executive, she worked on the UEFA Europa League Final at Aviva Stadium while also working with brands such as 3, Carlsberg, Ford, Aviva and Lucozade Sport on activating their sponsorship rights.
After returning from travelling to Australia, she joined Wilson Hartnell’s Sport’s Practice in September 2015, working across key accounts including Guinness, Electric Ireland, Carlsberg, An Post as well as with a number of rights holders such as Swim Ireland, Ireland Active and the Irish Sailing Association.
Mounsey earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Dublin and a Masters in Marketing Practice from Smurfit School of Business. He began his career with Dunnes Stores as a Marketing Executive where he was responsible for marketing in their Northern Irish stores while also managing the supermarket chain’s radio and press advertising.
He then moved to Paddy Power where he held roles as a Partnership Executive and later as a Social Advertising Specialist after the company’s merger with Betfair.
Cronin was previously a media planner with Javelin Advertising where he managed campaigns for a host of major brands including Toyota, Lexus, Irish Ferries, BT, Kelkin, AIB Merchant Services and The Intercontinental Hotel.
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