We’re highlighting the different categories of the Irish Sport Industry Awards that are open for submissions by reviewing some of the fantastic entries from the 2022 Awards. First up Best Sports Sponsorship and Best Use of Communications platform in Sport.
In the Best Sponsorship Category the following nominees were shortlisted:
- SPAR Kellie Harrington Partnership
- Energia All Ireland League Sponsorship
- Sky Ireland and FAI Women’s National Team
- AIG Effort is Equal Sponsorship Portfolio
- Indeed Ireland Partnership with Team Ireland Tokyo 2020 Games
- Gala Retail Special Olympics Partnership
The overall winner was Sky Ireland and FAI Women’s National Team partnership.
Some of the campaign highlights included a fully branded HQ for the 1,000 strong team at Sky Ireland. A full outdoor campaign to drive WNT awareness and support. Sky Ireland made the first ever dedicated WNT TV ad. The launch earned media reach of over 38 million throughout the first seven months of the partnership. The campaign also included media partnerships with Off The Ball and Today FM. In conjunction with Today FM, the first ever WNT watch party for Sweden fixture was hosted.
The campaign was hugely successful and went on to win plaudits overseas picking up three awards at the European Sponsorship Awards including Best Newcomer and Best Use of Content for the broadcaster’s ground-breaking “Outbelieve” sponsorship of the Women’s National Football Team. It just recently scooped up yet another award for Best Use of Sponsorship at the Media Awards.
For Best use of Communications Platform in Sport the following nominees were shortlisted:
- IRFU and TikTok
- AIG Show Your Skills campaign
- Gymnastics Ireland Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games social media campaign
- Her Sport media platform dedicated to women in sport
- Paralympics Ireland Team Ireland at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games
- Football Association of Ireland No Ref. No Game. Campaign
The overall winner was Her Sport a social enterprise with the core objective of bridging the gap and levelling the playing field for girls and women in sport. They were founded with the goal of increasing and promoting the representation of women’s sport in the media. In their words they are “…not only a media organisation, but a movement, a community, creating a cultural shift and changing the narrative of women ‘ s sport”.
Their digital platform has social engagement rates above industry across key platforms with 120,000 unique website visitors, over 7 million average monthly impressions on socials and 17,000 average website monthly views. Her Sport uses their platform to tackle taboo topics with the aim of sparking change and understanding through conversation. Her Sport openly discuss barriers and contributing factors which lead to the drop out of young girls in sport. This is done through talks and seminars with schools, clubs and universities and daily digital content.