With the Six Nations in full swing, let’s consider the commercial opportunities that the event provides for title partner Guinness.
In 2019, Guinness affirmed its long-standing relationship with rugby by replacing the Royal Bank of Scotland as the tournament’s title sponsor. Now into the third year of the deal, YouGov BrandIndex data can help to confirm that this relationship has been a beneficial one for the Irish stout producer.
There has been a dramatic improvement in Guinness’ Ad Awareness metric amongst rugby fans since the beginning of the month (whether a respondent has seen or heard an advert by a particular brand in the last two weeks). On February 1, the score was 9.7% and just prior to the tournament’s first rest week on February 15, this had risen to 16.4%.
Guinness’ pre-tournament advertising was able to impact the brand’s Ad Awareness scores in the days leading up to the tournament, rising steadily by 1%. However, it is clear that the event itself offers the best levels of exposure for the brand. From the February 6 start date to February 15, Ad Awareness scores rose from 10.8% to 16.4% - achieving a significant 52% increase in Ad Awareness amongst rugby fans over the period.
Guinness will be hoping that these figures continue to rise and considering that this year’s event came just three months after the conclusion of last year’s disrupted Six Nations, the brand will certainly be enjoying the levels of exposure on offer.
