Brian O’Driscoll’s farewell to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday was one of the sporting stories of the year, perhaps longer. As a player he is without compare and he has also been named as among the two most popular Irish Sports Stars of the year in the Pembroke Communications Sport Sentiment index since the survey began.
As a brand ambassador he is the gold standard in Ireland and has personal deals with Lexus, O2 and Adidas but it was an accident of fate that led to his becoming one of the faces of Leinster sponsor Cityjet, and the airline is hoping to make the most of his final few months as a player.
The standard practice in team sponsorships is that three players will be made available at different times for photo shoots or promotional events. When Cityjet renewed their deal with Leinster and wanted to build some strong poster and other branding around the deal, their timing could not have been better.
“Our schedule for the shooting of imagery was locked down and we were somewhat at the mercy of training, injury and availability as to which players we would get,” said Helen Breen, Marketing and Partnerships Manager at Cityjet.
“By chance, Brian, Rob Kearney and Jamie Heaslip were having an easier introduction back to full training after their 2013 Lions adventure so when our request went in for three players who would be available for a photo shoot, you could say we hit the jackpot.”
The shoot resulted in images that adorn Dublin and London City Airports and are also likely to feature in new campaigns planned for April once the airline becomes independent under new owners and will have greater flexibility on promotion and pricing.
Rugby continually performs well in indexing among the business community which would be the principal target market for the airline and this is a relationship that will deliver even more should Leinster continue to progress in Europe.
It could be argued that O’Driscoll’s star is so bright at present that he could sell ice to the eskimo’s and if victory and a sign-off Championship were to be achieved in Paris on Saturday, those who have the right to use his image and personality in the commercial world will be cheering louder than most.
