A new survey undertaken by sponsorship consultancy ONSIDE and Sport for Business has identified rugby, athletics, and golf as the three Olympic sports most attractive to sponsors in Ireland.
While the popularity of rugby and golf are driven by the year-round schedule of competition, a pre-Opening Ceremony kick off for Sevens and a high-profile Irish golf team will help both sports consolidate their position at the top.
It is athletics, however, that has had a breakthrough 18 months leading into Paris 2024 due a string of achievements on the track, most notably from Rhasidat Adeleke and her relay colleagues.
ONSIDE’s 2024 Sports Impact Monitor found 6 in 10 members of the influential Sport for Business community have changed their perception of athletics for the better over the past six months with over 8 in 10 now highlighting it as an attractive property for sponsors.
This places it over 20 percentage points ahead of the next Olympic sport on the list, rowing, which is narrowly ahead of swimming. While rowing’s position has remained steady from 2023 to 2024, swimming has climbed significantly off the back of strong performances from Daniel Wiffen, overtaking both basketball and hockey.
As well as being a showcase for 32 sports, the Olympics will be a shop window for the next generation of Irish athletes.
ONSIDE’s Director of Intelligence and Insight, Kim Kirwan explains: “Over 90% of industry experts believe the use of sports personalities to endorse a brand or company is an effective form of sponsorship with over 50% interested in aligning with a brand ambassador in the next 1-2 years.”
“We tracked an increase in brand ambassador deals leading into the Olympics and Paralympics and - based on what we saw after the Tokyo games - there will be two or three star performers able to strike even bigger deals post-Paris,” adds Kirwan.
Almost four times as many organisations have entered new sponsorships as have dropped out of them since the start of 2024 and 80% are optimistic about the how the industry will perform in the next two years.
Rob Hartnett, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sport for Business said: “The industry is buoyant and positive heading into the Olympics and Paralympics but there are notes of caution as well, particularly as we look to the next generation.”
“Three quarters of respondents said sport needs to do more to engage younger audiences and 87% of respondents said that sponsors should invest in the grassroots aspect of the sports they support.”
This was the second time the usage of Artificial Intelligence in sport and sponsorship in Ireland has been tracked in the study and its usage is growing rapidly. In 2024, half of respondents said AI will be an important part of their company’s activation strategy in the next 1-2 years, more than double the number from 2023.
This is the seventh wave of the ONSIDE Sports Impact Monitor that was first launched during the pandemic in 2020. All respondents are members of the Sport for Business community with the survey undertaken in June-July 2024.
