Ireland’s win over South Africa on Saturday evening was a tremendous start to the international season for Irish Rugby and a masterclass in match branding on twitter.
Sponsors 3, the Aviva Stadium and Irish Rugby were all active in promoting the game from hours beforehand while professional photographers Inpho and Sportsfile were very much in sharing mode with a constant stream of images from the touchline.
Individual sponsors were also keen to get in on the trending hashtag with RedBull and Toyota among those sending messages of good luck and congratulations to the players.
There was plenty of user generated pictures flowing from the Aviva Stadium as well, despite the regular problems of connectivity and media outlets were keen to be out among the fans with sharable content.
The Irish Independent’s Sports account tweeted out a short video clip suggesting the George Hook had fallen asleep on air during RTE’s post match analysis.
The only real element missing from the general rush to share online was that of the players.
On Friday we published a look at the numbers behind the Irish players twitter accounts, revealing an overall follower base of over one million, more than will have watched the match live and on television.
That audience did not get much from the players after the game though with Robbie Henshaw the only player active since the final whistle with a single retweet of a picture taken of him celebrating afterwards with his family.
Even Jamie Heaslip, normally an inveterate commentator was quiet over the past 36 hours and it may be that advice from management not to get too carried away was taken to heart and to their smartphones by the players.
Team and Match sponsors Three and Guinness were active in promoting a variety of content throughout and after the game, including a behind the scenes video of the day, uploaded on the night.
Much talk beforehand centred on the absence of Brian O’Driscoll from the pitch and he was quiet on social media as well with a simple two word tweet ‘Exceptional performance’ his measured response to the game.
The Ultimate Rugby app in which he is involved though was very active on the day regularly posting updates on the game with pictures and highlight videos up on all the Autumn international games.
Social Media and how to make the most of it in a sports marketing context will be one of four themes at Digital Sport 2014 in Dublin on November 27th. A limited number of tickets are still available. See details below.
