The men’s and women’s Guinness Six Nations competitions have helped some of rugby’s biggest sponsors hit new heights in the UK according to a new consumer study from ONSIDE.
The tournament title sponsor, Guinness, is joined by Vodafone, O2 and BT, who all invest in national rugby team sponsorships, amongst the most admired sponsors of sport according to ONSIDE’s latest UK Quarterly Sponsorship Review.
It is the fourth year in a row that the title sponsorship has propelled Guinness up the rankings in ONSIDE’s Q1 analysis of UK consumers. The brand performed particularly well in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, topping the standings in the latter two markets.
Results for the telcos fluctuated across the different parts of the UK with Vodafone, the main sponsor of both Ireland and Wales, leading the way in these markets while O2, sponsor of the England team, was narrowly ahead of the pack in England and BT the highest performing of the three in Scotland.
While still a prominent sponsor of Scottish Rugby, BT is the only one of these telco brands not to feature on the front of the shirt of a national rugby team. The current front of shirt partner for Scotland, Peter Vardy, didn’t feature at all in the unprompted consumer responses.
ONSIDE’s Managing Director, UK and Middle East, Jon Long explains: “The Guinness Six Nations benefits from excellent scheduling and broad media reach across both the men’s and women’s competitions.
“This doesn’t guarantee that sponsors will cut through with consumers but several brands, including Guinness, Vodafone and O2, have got into a good rhythm of capitalising on this during the first part of the year and these are the best results we have seen for rugby sponsors in the UK since we began our tracking in 2021.”
Jon Long - Managing Director, ONSIDE (UK & Middle East)
Even though it was a record-breaking quarter for rugby sponsors, they continue to be out-performed by Nike, Adidas and Barclay’s, three brands that have used football in particular to dominate their sectors in the UK.
There are no other apparel brands or banks in the UK-wide list of the top 20 sports sponsors but Bank of Ireland and RBS perform well in Northern Ireland and Scotland respectively.
Lucozade has joined Red Bull, Coca Cola and Pepsi back in the top 20 for the first time since 2022. Just over three months out from the start of the Paris Olympics, Aldi is the best performing of the British Olympic Association’s local partners.
The same three telcos also feature in the top 20 most admired non-sports sponsors, as does EE, with O2 leading the way on the back of its extensive venues and music sponsorship portfolio.
ONSIDE’s Quarterly Sponsorship Review has been running since 2016 in Ireland and since 2021 in the UK, serving as a barometer of consumer interest in sport and non-sport sponsorship
