The Business of AIG Backing Dublin

It’s on the shirt front of potentially the most successful Men’s Gaelic football team in history and for this weekend again, the AIG name and it’s association to Dublin adorns one of it’s prime pieces of commercial real estate.

Having parked away the cherry picker needed to but the new ‘Effort is Equal’ banner up on the company’s quayside Headquarters, Sport for Business sat down with AIG Head of Consumer Marketing and Sponsorship John Gillick to find out how the team sponsor has been preparing for Sunday’s historic All Ireland Championship Final.

SfB: AIG has been part of the Dublin success story for much of this decade. Does it feel different this year with the final against Kerry and the historic weight of the drive for five?

JG: Yes, I think from the minute they won last year there was an immediate realisation of the historic importance this season was going to bring to everyone involved in Dublin GAA, the wider GAA and Irish sport in general.

That importance has brought more analysis of Dublin GAA in general, the senior footballer’s form, every detail being dissected more than ever to help try to predict whether Dublin can do it again this year.

It’s a fact that can’t be ignored but as a committed sponsor it was business as usual with another season supporting the Dubs across all four codes, male and female.

We respect the team want to focus on one game at a time so we don’t want to hype things up and just focus on only one aspect of the story as Dublin GAA is about more than one team and more than just that one story.

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

JG: This year we launched our ‘Effort is Equal’ campaign which was created to better align and coordinate our sponsorship activation and messaging across our sponsorship portfolio, and align better with our consumer brand strategy and communications.

We developed a through the line campaign with common themes and consistent messaging across TV, press, PR, digital, video and social media to magnify and communicate our message around supporting equality in sport, gender balance and the 20X20 campaign of which we are an official sponsor.

SfB: How was your connection to the 20X20 campaign of particular benefit this year?

JG: Strategically we came on board the 20X20 campaign as it was a good fit for our sponsorship and brand strategy.

It is a great halo over our sponsorship portfolio and we have benefitted from its association, activations, assets and overall positivity. It has also given us new opportunities through people, employee engagement, ambassadors and energy to work with, and we have actively integrated the 20X20 campaign into our own sponsorship and brand communications.

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

JG: For me it was the 20X20 logo swap on the Dublin jersey. Our good partners Dublin GAA, Dublin LGFA, Camogie and all four teams, players and management got behind it and supported it which was great.

It got an excellent reaction and achieved its objective of raising the awareness of the 20×20 women in sport campaign along with bringing the campaign and brand to new audiences and opening new conversations.

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

JG: It’s a key element of our marketing strategy and pillar of our marketing communications mix.

Sponsorship behaves in a different way and dynamic to paid advertising but that’s the trick with it and that’s where the magic can lie.

Sponsorship can do things other advertising or promotion can’t. It’s the sum of the parts, it’s a lever and can support key steps in the pyramid of attention, interest, desire and action.

As a marketer, my task is to make that sponsorship and its assets work and align with the business goals by developing out plans and activations that have the business and brand objectives in mind.

To make sponsorship work you have to invest in it, both in human and financial terms. A healthy sponsorship requires among other things strategic thinking, budget, creativity, patience, good use of assets, internal management support, good timing, being brave and embracing an element of risk, good rights holder partners and internal and external teams.

Some of that can also be said about other elements of the advertising or promotion mix but if done well in sponsorship both the short and long tail benefits can reward with a return on investment superior to other forms of advertising or promotion.

SfB: How have you best used your access to the players throughout the year?

JG: We’ve used the players well for PR and media events, videos, content, 20X20 campaign support, internal staff events, client health and wellbeing roadshows and advertising campaigns which links back to your question on driving business via sponsorship.

SfB: With the men and the women into another All Ireland Final, how do you assign resource and ‘energy’ to both?

JG: We aim to do it equally. Effort is Equal so we try to be consistent in our approach and allocation of resources. We are a very small team so we always have to keep that in mind and be smart in our planning and managing workload.

The reality is budget and resources so you have to be smart and prioritise. That’s the challenge most of us have, picking and choosing the best ideas and dropping the others.

SfB: Do you have anything special lined up for the weekend?

JG: Yes we have a few things on the go with an excellent match day event run by our commercial team, a new building banner is back to grace the IFSC Liffey skyline, a new ‘EffortisEqual’ TV ad running featuring the Dubs, pre-match social media build-up plus some new content in the pipeline.

The result will also dictate some plans so you’ll see if the game goes our way on Sunday.

SfB: How do you think the game will go?

JG: I’m nervous and think it will be a lot closer than some people think but the form and stats point to Dublin. I think they’ll have enough and will be too strong in the end for Kerry but they will throw everything they have at us to stop us.

Dublin have been excellent in this championship but still have areas to work on. Kerry have also looked strong and have put in some very good performances.

A final is a final and sport is sport so nothing is guaranteed but I think we will get there in a tight enough game.