Liberty Insurance and Camogie 2019

The Liberty Insurance All Ireland Camogie Finals take place on Sunday with Galway and Kilkenny facing each other in the Senior Final. It promises to be a cracker of a game after the tension and excitement of the semi finals.

The target this year is to bring 25,000 fans to the stadium to see the finals and to attract a significant six figure viewership on RTÉ.

The Championships have been strongly supported since 2013 by Liberty Insurance and we sat down this week with Sean Brett, Head of Strategic Marketing to discover how they have kept the partnership fresh and what they have in store for this weekend.

SfB: Liberty Insurance has been the main partner of the Camogie Association now for seven years. How do you maintain a fresh feel to your activation over such a long period of time?

SB: At the end of each year we go through a full review. Through this process we identify opportunities to evolve our sponsorship activity for the following year. We also work with the Camogie Association and take learnings from our Annual Women in Sport research, which this year was on the “Coaching Effect.”

This helped us to develop a unique angle for our 2019 Camogie Made Us grassroots campaign, focusing on coaches and the important role they play in the lives of players.

SfB: How have you primarily activated the sponsorship throughout this year?

SB: Our sponsorship is activated as part of our Ready for the Real World campaign. We have a specific “Camogie Made Me” campaign which focuses on the impact playing Camogie has had on intercounty players, and through “Camogie Made Us” which is our grassroots campaign.

This year we saw a three fold increase in entries to our Camogie Made Us campaign, and through our RTE media partnership over 65,000 members of the public voted on our 5 finalists to select the top 2 club coaches.

These coaches and their teams will now go head to head during half time of the Liberty Insurance All Ireland Senior Camogie Final to win €7,000 for their club, with the runner-up receiving €3,000. All 5 finalists teams received new club jerseys.

SfB: What has been your personal highlight of this year’s involvement?

SB: Reading through the Coach nominations for Camogie Made Us. You can see the positive impact that the coaches are having on players both on and off the pitch. Many of the players spoke about how the coaches had organised Mindfulness and Social Media Awareness courses for them.

SfB: How important is the sponsorship you in terms of driving business?

SB: Very important, our sponsorship supports our Brand Awareness and Consideration throughout the Camogie Season, we can see the positive direct impact on our business performance the closer we get to the Finals.

SfB: How has the Camogie ad performed against others in your Ready for the Real World series?

SB: Our young drivers ad is our best performing TV ad, and also performs well above the industry norm.

SfB: What do you have special lined up for the weekend?

SB: We like to make the Camogie Finals as special as we can for everyone there. We will have a couple of competitions going on during the day, our Camogie Made Us Teams will get a full match day experience from being bused to the stadium, utilising the changing and warm-up areas and then having the excitement of showing off their skills in front of over 20,000 supporters.

For me one of the best parts of the Camogie Final is the Flagbearer Guard of Honour, this year we will have 24 Flagbearers and we could have had double!! Our flagbearers are so excited about getting the opportunity to get out onto Croke Park pitch to welcome the Galway and Kilkenny teams.

SfB: And after the Finals you have the All Star Tour going to New York this year. That must be exciting?

SB: The excitement is building for the All Star Tour, we are deep in planning with the Camogie Association and are really pleased with how the Tour is developing. We know who the 2018 All Stars are, but have to wait another couple of weeks before we find out the 2019 Team to face them. The Tour promises to be a great occasion, New York is the perfect venue and we are hopeful of a big crowd at Gaelic Park to watch the match.

SfB: The Liberty Insurance supported Sport for Business Women of Influence Series gets underway on Monday. Do you feel that the work you have done in supporting Women in Sport has had an impact over time?

SB: Yes, we know our support of Women in Sport has had a very positive impact over the last seven years. We have developed a campaign which has allowed us to support Camogie Players from grassroots right through to Intercounty level.

We supported the first ever Camogie All Star Tour to Madrid, and are delighted to support the first Camogie All Star Tour to America. The sponsorship has allowed us to engage directly with communities and especially young drivers around Ireland. We would see it as a complement for all the work we have done over the last number of years that so many other brands have recently come on board to support Women in Sport.

The Liberty Insurance All Ireland Camogie Finals Day takes place at Croke Park on Sunday. Tickets are available online and round the stadium ticket points on the day. Group discounts are available for teams travelling to the games and all three finals will be televised on RTÉ 2.