The volume of sponsorship deals reported in Ireland in the first quarter increased at its fastest rate for seven years during the first three months of 2022, according to the latest Onside quarterly sponsorship review.
The number of sponsorship deals increased 43% year-on-year in Q1, driven by agreements in sport, with 58% of deals tracked to date this year made in the sports arena.
GAA rights holders drove the largest share of this growth, making up nearly half of reported deals, thanks in part to the introduction of shirt sleeve sponsor opportunities, while soccer and athletics proved to be popular as well.
The findings come following the return of crowds to sporting events after restrictions were lifted early in the year and a surge in viewership for televised matches, with more than 1m people tuning in to Ireland's Guinness Six Nations win over England on RTÉ.
John Trainor, founder and CEO of Onside, noted that "2022 has opened with an exceptionally bright start to the sponsorship year with a mix of high-profile major ‘glocal’ deals by new players on the block including Horizon Therapeutics naming rights deal of the Irish Open Golf Championship, Shane Lowry’s pairing with Irish tech unicorn Wayflyer and TikTok with Six Nations Rugby.
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"These were mirrored in GAA circles by groundbreaking new arrangements with international players including Westerwood Global (Galway Camogie) and Fiserv (Tipperary GAA), reflecting the changing face of sponsor brands entering the game this year.”
Vodafone again topped the league of Ireland's most appealing sports sponsors in the hearts of the Irish adult public for the third consecutive quarter, with Six Nations tournament sponsors Guinness rising above Lidl to take second place.
Other sponsors that appealed most to the public in the first quarter included principally Irish Rugby national and provincial backers Aldi, Aviva, Bank of Ireland, and Heineken.
Three Mobile topped the charts of the most appealing non-sports sponsors on the back of its name sponsorship of the 3Arena and the 3Olympia.
Relatedly, 71% of respondents agree with the company's decision to suspend its sponsorship of Chelsea FC following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in light of Roman Abramovich's, the Premier League club's outgoing owner, ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Elsewhere, nine in 10 sponsors see women's sport as an opportunity for their business in the next one to three years, with one in five deals reported during the quarter being women's sport-related sponsorship.
Trainor noted that “despite ongoing debate around the issue of low visibility of women’s sport in terms of media coverage versus men’s sport, a very significant eight in 10 Irish males and three in four females already have a sponsor in mind that they feel is increasing the profile and public’s interest of women’s sports in Ireland”.
Retailers Lidl (LGFA), Aldi (IRFU), and SuperValu (GAA), plus Sky Ireland (FAI), Vodafone and Bank of Ireland (rugby) surfaced in the latest Onside research as trailblazers in promoting women’s sport to date.
Looking to the rest of the year ahead, Trainor concluded: “Fans are responding to increased coverage and audiences reached via women’s tournaments, and new assets including the Women’s Irish Open and other carve outs by major sports rights holders of the women’s side of their sport will unlock fresh opportunities for revenue growth for the sponsorship market into the medium term.
"Broadcasters, including RTE and TG4, are playing into an underserved content sweet spot that will be massive, while female C-Suite leaders that influence where marketing investment is spent are increasingly "buying women’s sport' as a way of growing their businesses and will buy onto these platforms as the business case of women’s sport is built out further and proves it is here to stay and grow."
Photo: Onside CEO John Trainor.
