Corporate branding is a growing phenomenonthat has experienced a real boom in recent years.In light of the recent naming rights deal secured

by Aviva for Lansdowne Road, it is an issue nonethelessthat leads one to ask who benefits, and is corporatesponsorship the way forward for the sporting andcultural venues in this country?

Naming rights deals are not a new phenomenon. Infact, they have been commonplace in the US since 1926,when the Chicago cubs took on the name of a well-known chewing gum brand for their home, WrigleyField. In fact, out of the leading 121 teams in NorthAmerica’s top four sports – basketball, hockey, NFL andbaseball, over 80 of these have their home grounds namedafter corporate sponsors.

This side of the pond, corporate branding has becomebig business too, with the €75 million euro deal betweenBayern Munich and Allianz for the Allianz arena, hailedas the biggest European naming rights deal to date.

Ireland’s first major naming rights deal was the O2building, which replaces the former Point Depot. Thepartnership is between the world’s largest music promo-tion company, Live Nation, and O2 Telefonica Ireland.Many would agree that the old Point was in dire need ofa rebrand when it finally did close its doors in 2007. Theold stadium was outdated and had substandard acoustics.The new arena boasts amphitheatre style seating, creatingboth a better acoustic and visual experience. The O2venue has been extremely successful so far, due in no smallway to the fact that it is a very good fit for the brand.

According to Majella Fitzpatrick, O2’s head of corpo-rate affairs “for many people in Ireland, music is theirnumber one passion. By embarking on this partnershipwith Live Nation, we have become part of the amazingexperiences that 2 million people enjoy each year, whileat the same time bringing many unique benefits to ourcustomers. It puts us in a great position to bring the ben-efits of the ongoing convergence of music and mobile to

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Venue sponsorship

Sponsorship of venues is a powerful tool, but can be met withcontroversy. Aisling McKenna looks at this new phenomenon in Ireland.

A Rose by any other name…

dymount, Dublin 47 erthotel.ie

BERT

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the Irish concert-going public in new and innovative ways,now and into the future.”

Fitzpatrick affirms that it was a highly sought afternaming rights deal, and O2 was delighted to come out ontop. She feels the reason the telephone giant was ahead ofthe pack was down to the fact that both O2 and Live Na-tion were “passionate about what really matters” with re-gard to the concert-going experience and “in a unique po-sition of being able to extend that experience before andafter the event to our customers.”

O2 has experienced very positive feedback from itscustomers, particularly on its Blueroom website,www.o2blueroom.ie. But the positive reaction is notunique to O2’s customers, Fitzpatrick asserts: “Duringthe development of the the O2 sponsorship programme,we felt we wanted to do more than name the venue. Wewanted to share in visitors’ experiences while they were inthe venue. So we developed a number of added extras thatmake the experience special and memorable for all visitors.”

Of course, being an O2 customer has its benefits. Ul-timately, the special privileges that they enjoy – which in-clude priority ticketing, fast-track access to the venue andentry to the venue’s designated O2 bars – are expected tohave a very positive impact on their loyalty to O2. Ac-cording to Fitzpatrick, “We already know from the expe-rience of O2 UK with the O2 arena that strong loyalty tothe brand and a reduction in consumer churn can be di-rectly correlated to their involvement in the O2 in Lon-don.” It is likely to attract many new customers also, as “thecompetition simply won’t be in a position to compete withus in the same way.”

Fitzpatrick confirms that the partnership will continueto grow and develop. “What we can provide to our cus-tomers by way of an enhanced experience the O2 is lim-itless and will evolve in many exciting and innovativeways in the course of the sponsorship.”

There is no question that the venue has been a re-sounding success. However, in the case of the proposedAviva Stadium, a certain amount of scepticism exists. Ina country like Ireland where corporate naming rights arestill a relatively new concept, it is perhaps inevitable. Avenue such as Lansdowne Road, which has been a part ofthe Irish sporting scene since the 1870s, holds a strongemotional attachment for legions of sports fans in thiscountry. Despite the fact that Lansdowne Stadium orig-inally took its name from 18th century English landlord,the Marquis of Lansdowne, for some the name stands for

something inherently Irish and still invokes a profoundsense of national pride. Even social networking site Face-book has no less than 10 groups campaigning for thename to be preserved.

John Trainor, MD of sports sponsorship agency Onside,believes that once Irish consumers have the opportunity tosee the benefits that the Aviva sponsorship will add to theoverall stadium experience, they are likely to respond well,based on the largely positive experiences for sponsors suchas the Emirates Stadium in London and the O2 venues inLondon and Dublin.

In research conducted by Onside in October 2008, sixout of 10 Irish adults were positive or neutral to the sell-ing of sponsorship rights for major stadiums. Going onthese results, it would seem that any opposition to theAviva naming deal may simply be a case of overzealous na-tional sentiment in the hands of a few.

Trainor states that, when asked in an online pollwhich brands consumers thought would be best suited tothe sponsorship of the proposed stadium, companiesfrom the insurance sector were spontaneously amongstthe top brands mentioned, resulting in the insurance sec-tor being voted as one of the top five best-suited spon-sorship partners. According to Trainor, the results high-lighted in consumers’ minds the “inherent natural fit” ofthis particular sponsor. Indeed, there are obvious associ-ations of health and fitness, which can be attributed toboth venue and sponsor.

Trainor points out that the success rate of namingrights deals is generally high, especially if sponsors becomeactively involved in the whole project. “The requirementon the part of a new sponsor is that they are seen to be en-hancing the whole experience by being part of it ratherthan just sticking their name on the stadium and leavingit at that.” Part of the Aviva deal is a commitment from the

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company to support rugby and soccer grassroots pro-grammes. Ideally, this will create real synergy between thebrand and its target market.

The partnership should also be beneficial to the Avivabrand. According to Onside research, one in three adultswould think more favourably of a company that has asports stadium named after it.

The deal signed by Aviva is understood to be in the re-gion of €45m over a 10 year period. Plans for the newvenue certainly look impressive, and there are high hopesfor it, with FAI chief executive John Delaney describing itas a “place where dreams are realised and memories aremade”. Philip Browne, chief executive of the IRFU believesit will be “an engine to drive our sports and our economyin these difficult times”. It is predicted that the stadium willinject up to €250m into the local economy annually.

Although other Irish sports grounds have not been ret-icent in taking up sponsorship deals – Dubarry Park inAthlone and Kingspan Century Park in Monaghan beingtwo obvious examples – the case of Thomond Park in Lim-erick illustrates how a potential naming rights deal can beaffected by a negative reaction from fans. Munster rugbyfans, as well as public figures including the Mayor of Lim-erick Joe Leddin, were very vocal about their oppositionto the renaming of their hallowed sports ground.

Plans for a stadium rename were subsequently aban-doned. Official reports state that “the decision was nottaken due to lack of commercial interest” but that “the ap-propriate natural fit didn’t fall into place.” Naming rightswere to be sold instead for the individual stands, with Toy-ota as a major sponsor. Interestingly, the Toyota/Munsterrugby partnership now has a top-five spot in Onside’s con-sumer poll on the most appealing sponsorships of 2008.

It should be noted however that sports and culturalvenues received significant government funding in the

years of the Celtic Tiger. In 2006 alone, Thomond Parkreceived a sum of €3m and Galway’s Terryland Parkbenefited from €500,000 in Government funds. In thesechallenging economic times, funding is thin on theground. For some, it is now a question of not looking agift horse in the mouth.

This was certainly the view of Sean Feeney, Mayocounty secretary with regard to the proposed namingrights deal for McHale Park. “Some people might find itless than appealing, but we’re living in a commercialworld. Money has to be brought in from somewhere.”

In spite of the current economic climate, Onside pre-dict that sponsorship will rise by 3% this year to €134m.According to Trainor, “Major global brands like Coca-Cola, McDonalds and RBS have recently made publictheir strategic intent to continue to use sponsorship todemonstrate their commitment and strength to con-sumers in these uncertain times.”

€130 million was spent in sponsorship in 2008, andthe trend is set to continue in 2009. According to the On-side Sponsorship Outlook 09 report, one in three Irishsponsors expect to increase their sponsorship spend in thecoming year. Venue naming rights and rugby sportingevents are believed to hold the greatest potential oppor-tunities for sponsors in the future.

In fact, in economic downturns, sponsorship is onemarketing tool that is seen as being relatively “recession-proof”. According to the report, it is the one form of mar-keting that can effectively send out a message of stabilityand reliability to consumers in need of reassurance. Con-sumers in turn would much rather that brands spendtheir marketing budgets on sponsorship than “wasting” itin costly advertising campaigns. In fact, traditional adver-tising will suffer most, as marketers seek out more accu-rate and relevant ways to target consumers. More interac-tive forms of sponsorship which have the ability tostimulate sales and product trials will be the most impor-tant factor for marketers in 2009.

There is no doubt that naming rights partnerships canbe mutually beneficial for both sponsor and venue alike.The reality is that in the case of the O2 and the Aviva Sta-dium, we have two world-class venues, the scale of whichnever would have been financially possible without theircorporate sponsors. This leads us to the inevitable con-clusion that, ultimately there is quite a lot to this nam-ing business, if we’re only willing to wake up and smellthe roses. �

The new Aviva Stadium

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