The GAA has announced details of a new GAA Membership Card and rewards programme entitled grma or ‘go raibh maith agat’.
It has the potential to unlock the real value of a total membership base of 600,000, far and away the largest in the country united by a common purpose and at least 250,000 of which are adults.
Announcements about individual benefits that may be struck with partners, initially from within the main sponsorship family of brands associated with the GAA will be made over the coming months but the start of the roll out is now underway to coincide with renewal of memberships in GAA clubs and their AGM’s taking place in the coming weeks.
GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail recalled at the launch that membership letters and cards have been part of the GAA since 1884 but the scale and potential of the grma initiative is much more in line with loyalty programmes among retailers and airlines that have become a standard part of being a consumer.
“So much of what we do as an Association is made possible by the fact that we have such a loyal following of supporters all over Ireland,” he said.
“This new rewards programme will offer us the chance to extend a thank you to them in recognition of that support for the commitment they show be it at club level in their community, or in supporting our Games.
“Being a GAA Club Member is for many of us a way of life. But I welcome the fact that this programme will also add extra value to that commitment. I’ve no doubt that people will also be interested in signing up to receive a Membership Card.”
This will also be the first time that the GAA itself will have full sight of its membership albeit still through an individual’s membership of a club first and foremost. The next stage of development will extend the scheme to overseas members and add the opportunity for more occasional fans to be part of the scheme.
There will be a points system based on purchases of match tickets, sign ups for GAA Cúl camps and potentially other initiatives.
Members will be able to redeem these points on an individual basis or pool them together as a club for broader community based rewards. The detail of what these will be has not yet been finalised but will be interesting to see coming to life.
GAA members will need to register specifically for the grma programme online via the GAA website at gaa.ie/grma. Cards will be distributed via clubs in early 2017.
The scheme is being managed by a company called TLC Marketing which runs similar loyalty programmes for major brands including Vodafone, Continental, Kellogg’s Samsung and IKEA.
Join us tomorrow for an exclusive Sport for Business Members’ interview with GAA Chief Information Officer Tomás Meehan who has steered this campaign from concept to life.
Learn more about the benefits of Sport for Business Membership
