It has been one of the longest commercial partnerships in the sport, and one of the most successful, but this will be the last year of AIG partnering with Dublin GAA.
It brings the curtain down on two five-year partnerships that were worth close to €1 million a year over the past decade and saw six All-Ireland Titles in the Men’s game and four in the Women’s.
AIG is a major global business and has in the past built great partnerships with the New Zealand All Blacks and Manchester United but has always known the time to make a graceful exit.
The work they have done integrating all four codes into every promotional opportunity has been a huge win for the growth of Ladies’ Football and Camogie in the capital and the partnership has picked up multiple awards and citations at national and European level.
John Gillick and the AIG team have given over jerseys and made a material difference to charities and campaigns from the 20×20 initiative to Aoibheann’s Pink Tie and Support4Drummo down the years and their support was an undoubted factor in the confidence that led to the success of Dublin over the past decade.
Part of the success from a brand perspective was always about measuring and monitoring the success of the partnership and tieing that back to business metrics that gave confidence to the initiatives that were undertaken.
There was no lessening of the impact that Dublin had but nothing lasts forever and the evidenced value of sport means it is likely that they will be in the market again before too long.
The relationships that AIG has with Golf Ireland, the Ladies Gaelic Football Association, and other sporting bodies, and with Sport for Business as the partner of our 50 Women of Influence series remain in place.
It has been a rare pleasure to play some small part in the decade of one of Ireland’s marquee sporting partnerships and there is still one year left to run.
The value of the association means that there will be plenty of interest in securing a partnership and knowing the way that Dublin and AIG have worked together we can only imagine that there will be cooperation and assistance in helping get a new deal in place.
