Jonathon Sexton has to face more tests to determine if he suffered concussion during the closing stages of Saturday’s win over Australia.
He may also be in a spin over the amount of well timed commercial activity he has been unveiled in this week.
Timing is everything and credit is due to two of his principal sponsors Toyota and Aer Lingus for striking while the Irish star was likely to be in high demand.
Aer Lingus timed his involvement in the publication of the Airline’s new schedule as well as one of his own cross field kicks, securing significant pho coverage across the media this morning with the images reproduced above taken by our photo partners Inpho.
The trade off for getting access to Sexton to talk about the Irish performance in the cooler light of day after the match is to carry the images and a line or two about the airline’s new service to Washington, daily flights to San Francisco and third daily flight from next May to New York.
See, that was painless and yet that’s the kind of cut through that sports stars in the moment of greatest demand can deliver better than any other form of marketing.
Aer Lingus could spend small fortunes advertising in traditional and digital means with pictures of the New York skyline but it’s in earned coverage such as that they have this morning that they will get their biggest return in terms of the audience they are hoping to reach.
Toyota’s video was shot earlier but the timing of it’s release again is well timed to capitalise on his latest moment in the spotlight.
If Sexton had a poor gamer and the team had lost it would not have lessened media interest but as it turned out that was as far from the case as you could imagine.
