As Sharon Woods of Bank of Ireland said this morning it was like walking into a friend’s wedding party so many faces were recognisable and happy to be there at this morning’s Who Won Sponsorship Series 2023 event at the Aviva Stadium.
It was hardly believable but the last time the event took place in person was back in 2019 so fair play to John Trainor and the teams at ONSIDE Sponsorship and the Marketing Institute of Ireland for bringing it back.
The room was the biggest draw for many, and the opportunity to shake hands, share a coffee and swap plans with peers from across the sector.
There was no shortage of talent on the stage as well.
Louise Cassidy, Director of Marketing and Communication at the FAI, Eileen Leahy, Marketing Activation Lead at Cadburys and Declan McBennett, Head of Sport at RTÉ got things underway under the probing of Sarah o’Connor of Wilson Hartnell for the first session looking at the impact of the FIFA Women’s World Cup this summer.
Stephanie Roche then kept the momentum going in a one to one interview with Daragh Moloney before the focus switched to Rugby.
James Ryan had to answer for the crime of nearly eating Gilbert the Grape in Aldi’s activation around the Rugby World Cup before Gerry Nixon of Vodafone, Padraig Power of the IRFU and Paige Mosberg of World Rugby talked us through the activations and the sponsorship themes that mattered most over recent weeks.
Vodafone emerged as the brand that ‘won’ rugby over the course of the year. The 1,2,3 of them Guinness and Heineken spoke of the importance of local with brands associated to the tournament rather than the team having to settle for places in the top 10.
There is a lot more to come as well with Nixon speaking with real enthusiasm about Vodafone’s enhancement of the consumer experience through technology, and the promise of further innovation in this area.
Rory Sheridan of Diageo spoke with ONSIDE’s Jon Long about Guinness’ campaigns over the summer from music and lifestyle through to the ‘Don’t Jinx It’ campaign of the World Cup and Tom Boyle brought a big spend international flavour through the work of Man City in connecting with fans.
The formal proceedings ended with Brian O’Driscoll talking about personal identity, working with the right brands and ‘Brianifying’ the way that certain campaigns were pitched so as to make them more authentic using his identity.
Vodafone, Sky and Guinness emerged as the top Sponsors of the year in the sporting category with Allianz, Electric Ireland and Three claiming the bragging rights in the non sporting category.
Bundee Aki may have benefitted from some recency bias in emerging as the public’s most appealing sports star ahead of Johnny Sexton, Katie McCabe, Evan Ferguson and Rhasidat Adeleke, with no sign of perennial table topper over the past decade Katie Taylor. Sport can be brutal at times.
Well done to Sport for Business friends and members Verve and LineUp for their part in the morning and it was great to be back.
Listen out for tomorrow’s Sport for Business Podcast where we talk with ONSIDE Founder and CEO John Trainor about the year gone by.
