Building on its previous ‘Be There’ campaign: which aimed to drive live attendance (and ticket sales), The GAA has tweaked its approach with the launched a revised ‘Be There All The Way’ marketing initiative with a focus on honest commitment.
The new work not only promotes the GAA in general, but also specific tournaments including the Allianz Football Leagues and the AIB GAA Club Championship Finals.
Continuing the organisation’s long heritage of community commitment and club focus, the campaign revolves around The GAA unites communities across Ireland and its tagline reads: ‘Be there for your Community, Be there for your Club. Be There. All The Way’.
The campaign, which runs across TV, radio and web platforms, was spearheaded by a January 40-second TV spot – ‘It Wont Be Easy’ – to promote the start of The Allianz Leagues and drive ticket sales.
The TV ad operates in harness with The GAA Predictor Facebook (and app) fan game which incorporates a consumer ticket competition.
Supporters simply need to chose a fixture and predict a score. After each round, the game automatically assigns points for each players and generates a fan leader board.
Weekly winners receive a range of GAA prizes: monthly winners win tickets to an Allianz League Final of their choice and a family pass for the GAA Museum and Etihad Skyline stadium tour, whilst the overall leader by midnight on 4 May after the conclusion of all Allianz Leagues Finals will win an iPad Mini.
The campaign continues to evolve through the season with additional long form web video posted online on The GAA’s own digital platforms.
These films kicked off with a film of the Allianz Leagues press launch event at Croke Park (the GAA’s national stadium) that includes interviews with stars players such as Paul Geaney (Kerry) and Séamus O’Shea (Mayo), plus managers Jason Ryan (Kildare) and Kieran McGeeney (Armagh) exploring their hopes ahead of the opening weekend of fixtures on January 31st/February 1st.
This video film also includes a vox pop with title sponsor Allianz Ireland’s CEO Brendon Murphy in which he explains the reasoning behind the company’s long term, 23-year commitment to The GAA as being based in the sport’s reach into every parish in the country and that its customers and staff are personally involved in those community’s just as The GAA is.
This was followed a month later by a further video for the AIB Club Championships under the same campaign with a focus on local community, youth and grassroots foundation and volunteer commitment:
The rights owner is also encouraging its other sponsors – who include Eircom, SuperValu, Etihad, Centra, Liberty Insurance, Electric Ireland, Specsavers, Eirgrid, BoardGas Energy, Kelloggs, Independent, Bus Eireann and Guinness – to use its #BeThereAllTheWay hashtag within their own activations.
Thus, as well as the activation running on GAA properties, its sponsors and partners are also promoting the campaign assets – such as kit supplier O’Neill’s
Absolutely love the latest promo vid from @officialgaa and @AIB_GAA. Great work! #GAA #TheToughest #BeThereAllTheWay https://t.co/pMEEN21fA7
— O'Neills (@ONeills1918) March 2, 2015
Further strands of the campaign, which was developed in partnership with agency Brando, continue through the Spring.
Comment
The GAA is something of a unique property as it is as much of a community and a cultural play as it is a sports one.
The players are famously all amateurs and it is the unique passion of everyone in each community – from the athletes, to the fans and the volunteers – who together make it all possible.
The way in which GAA sport and culture combine to unite communities of all sizes across the country is what makes the property unique.
This is the real underlying message of this campaign.
One which is perhaps reflected by the campaign’s YouTube data – not specifically by the 50,000 views to date, but by the fact that the launch TV ad received just one single, lonely thumbs down dislike.
A rare feat in the ‘easy to criticise’, troll-filled world of social media.
Links
GAA YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/officialgaa
GAA Website
GAA Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/officialgaa
GAA Twitter
https://twitter.com/officialgaa
Brando
