Getting bang for sponsor’s buck in GAA

So a quick pop quiz — name the current sponsors of the All-Ireland hurling championship?

If your answer is that there are more than one, three in fact, then you deserve some kudos.

And if you can actually name all three — Etihad Airways, Centra, and Liberty Insurance — then you are in the small minority as far as clued-in GAA supporters are concerned.

The Philip Lee Sport Report, released recently and focusing on Irish sporting attitudes and habits, highlights an interesting issue for the association — that of brand awareness.

In a nationwide poll conducted in May, 21% of adults said the brand they most associate with hurling is Guinness.

It was an unprompted poll so Guinness was the name that immediately came to respondents’ minds — even though the drinks giant severed its sponsorship links 18 months ago.

Way back on 8% of the votes was Etihad in second place with Centra third, on 7%, and Liberty fifth, behind O’Neills, on just 4%.

Perhaps the three companies were prepared for this. Guinness were title sponsors for 13 of their 18-year involvement after all, including the second half of the 1990s when the game captured the public’s imagination like never before. The company ran award winning advertising campaigns alongside its sponsorship such as the ‘Not Men but Giants’ promotion.

Still, it’s got to be unsettling for the current trio that Guinness continues to command the attention of fans.

According to the report, the Guinness situation, “highlights some of the challenges facing ‘first time’ sponsors in a sport that may have a long legacy of previous associations”.

The report spoke of the “brand saliency” and “emotional connection” built up by long-time sponsors.

The GAA itself, of course, may not be overly concerned. How they have handled sponsorship of their flagship championships, particularly hurling, has been nothing short of genius.

By moving in 2008 from a single sponsor, Guinness, to a trio of backers, they presumably increased their income stream, stripped any one company of naming rights for the championship — it is now the GAA hurling championship, not the Guinness championship — and neatly addressed the emotive issue of an alcohol company fronting their hurling sponsorship.

It was reported in May of last year, when Liberty Insurance replaced Guinness as a championship sponsor, that Guinness had been prepared to pay €1.5m for a one-year extension.

In the end, they downgraded to the role of “proud partner” of the GAA though the GAA claimed it was a significant move which would help create “new business and marketing collaborations”.

The picture is a little clearer where football is concerned, though the issue of “emotional connection” is still obvious to see.

SuperValu, one of three current sponsors, is top of the ‘unprompted recall’ list with 16% of adults who are interested in football associating the supermarket chain with Gaelic football. But Bank of Ireland, who were previously sole sponsors of the Championship, remain highly placed in third position on the list.

Meanwhile, Dublin’s high profile deal with insurance giants AIG is clearly paying off. AIG are fourth on the football list while Eircom and GAAGO, two of three overall football championship sponsorships, aren’t mentioned.