MG Motor Ireland has taken a different route into sports sponsorship by backing RTÉ’s new Donncha’s Away Games, putting the brand alongside sport, entertainment, travel, and some of Ireland’s most recognisable sporting personalities.
The agreement includes 108 credited sponsorship stings across RTÉ One and RTÉ One +1, as well as coverage on RTÉ Player and catch-up viewing.
MG branding will also feature across dedicated programme promotion on television, audio and social media.
The series is hosted by former Ireland rugby international Donncha O’Callaghan and sends a different celebrity abroad in each episode to represent Ireland in unusual international challenges.
The sporting line-up includes Olympic boxing champion Kellie Harrington, Ireland Rugby Sevens star Jordan Conroy and former Ireland international Tommy Bowe, alongside comedian Emma Doran, actor Hilary Rose and Dancing with the Stars judge Oti Mabuse.
Challenges range from the Bathtub Regatta in Belgium and La Tomatina in Spain to the Highland Games in Scotland.
Shinawil produces the series for RTÉ.
From a Sport for Business perspective, the interesting aspect is that MG has secured many of the benefits associated with sports sponsorship without attaching itself to a team, competition, or governing body.
It already has each of those through partnerships with Bohemian FC in the League of Ireland and Rowing Ireland.
In this case, sport is instead raw material for entertainment.
Natasha Maher, Marketing and PR Manager at MG Motor Ireland, said the 7-30 pm Sunday slot offered an opportunity to reach families watching together as the winter months approach, describing the programme’s energy, humour and adventure as a strong fit for the brand.
There is also an obvious automotive connection.
A programme built around journeys, destinations and discovery creates a more natural environment for a motor brand than simply placing a logo around unrelated content. Much like Mercedes gets coverage of the journeys to and from Slane Castle made by the Traitors and the Faithfuls in Traitors Ireland.
Niamh Smyth, Business Director at Omnicom, which brokered the partnership, highlighted the opportunity to build both visibility and consideration through engaging content.
The Expanding Definition of Sports Sponsorship
The partnership also illustrates how the boundaries around sports marketing continue to blur.
There was a time when sports sponsorship largely meant a shirt, a stadium board, a competition name or perhaps a broadcast sponsorship around a live match.
All of these remain valuable, but audiences now consume sporting personalities far beyond the events in which they made their names.
Athletes appear in entertainment formats, documentaries, podcasts, social media, branded content and live events, all of which create additional commercial territory.
Sports-led entertainment can create sponsorship inventory for broadcasters without the cost of acquiring live sports rights.
RTÉ Sponsorship Manager for Video and Digital Ruth Kennedy described Donncha’s Away Games as being built around adventure, discovery and unusual destinations, with competition and road trips at its centre.
Sport for Business Perspective
This is a relatively straightforward sponsorship but an interesting one.
MG gets Donncha O’Callaghan, Kellie Harrington, Jordan Conroy and Tommy Bowe within the same entertainment property without needing four separate athlete partnerships.
It gets linear television, RTÉ Player, catch-up and promotional exposure across television, audio and social.
And it does so within content built around travel and journeys, which provides a logical connection to an automotive brand.
That is a useful reminder that sports sponsorship is no longer defined solely by what happens between the white lines.
Increasingly, value lies in the personalities, stories, and entertainment sport can create around itself.
RTÉ and Rowing Ireland mentioned in this story are full members of Sport for Business.
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Image Credit: RTÉ Commercial
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