Guinness has won the battle to become the tournament sponsor of what will now be known as the Guinness PRO12.Since RaboDirect announced its departure during last season, talks had taken place between a number of brands with Turkish Airlines and Guinness always among those being talked about as the leading contenders.
The signing of a four year TV deal with Sky Sports and the resolution of the European Rugby Champions’ Cup, with the tighter qualification process for that arising out of the PRO12 were two key elements in driving interest.
Demographic
Rugby’s interest to sponsors is based on the demographic of its audience with 54% of players, fans and TV viewers from the ABC1 demographic. That is more than double the 24% figure in the same category within the broad population.
Leinster, Munster and Ulster have been leading contenders from the outset of the Celtic League, with Connacht providing a real national spread and some great highlights along the way.
Up until now Guinness’ involvement in Irish Rugby has been exclusively with the IRFU and the Guinness Autumn Series of internationals.
Exclusivity
The growth of interest in the Provincial teams was exclusively harnessed in the alcohol sponsorship market by Heineken’s naming rights to the Heineken Cup. Guinness has though been involved in the English club game and this was something that they clearly wanted a part of.
Heineken are now more likely to retain beer brand exclusivity within the Champions’ Cup but negotiation on which and how many brands will be involved are still ongoing.
The Guinness deal, as well as the additional commercial income from the Champions’ Cup means that the three main provinces commercial revenues are likely to double in the next year, making them by some considerable margin the most financially powerful teams in Irish sport.
Alcohol Sponsorship
It also lays down an additional marker in the ongoing debate about alcohol sponsorship in sport. In the past week Guinness has signed long term deals at the Galway Races and now the Guinness PRO12 which make it more important to sport in Ireland than it was at the time of this particular debate being pushed to the Taoiseach’s office.
Given the unintended consequences of authorities decision making has been shown through the Garth Brooks concert kerfuffle, it may now be less likely that the Government will willingly shut off such a deep vein of funding, at least in the short term.
The Guinness PRO12 season will start on the first weekend of September (5/6/7th) 2014, with Glasgow Warriors hosting back-to-back champions Leinster in a repeat of last season’s Final. Munster and Ulster, who both reached the Play-Offs, face Edinburgh at home and Scarlets away respectively. The Ospreys will face Benetton Treviso in Swansea and Cardiff Blues travel to Parma to take on Zebre. Connacht host the Newport Gwent Dragons in Galway.
John Feehan, Chief Executive of the Guinness PRO12 said that ‘we are delighted that Guinness, an international brand with a strong pedigree in rugby, will be our title sponsor and we are looking forward to working with Guinness in actively developing the profile and stature of our competition which boasts some of the biggest names in world rugby.’
Charlie McEwen, Sales & Marketing Director for the tournament commented that ‘Today’s announcement and that of the Sky Sports partnership earlier in the year provides the backdrop for an exciting new dawn for the GUINNESS PRO12, we look forward to a compelling season of rugby and working with our new partners to promote the competition.
