Robert- Courage

I was going to write something about Christmas coming up for this blog entry but I happened across a video that changed my mind. This video concerns a young boy of perhaps about 12-13 years of age. There is no dialogue to the story but instead the tale is given to us through a collection of handwritten flashcards. His name is Jonah Mowry and he has been cutting himself since the 2^nd Grade (8 years old).

As the video progresses we learn that Jonah has been bullied since the 1^st Grade (6-7 years old) and that he will be entering in the 8^th grade next month. Jonah is terrified of returning to school because every day he gets picked on and he is hated by everyone. This doesn’t surprise him because he hates himself too and he has frequently thought of suicide as his only way out.

Despite the emotional nature of this video it ends positively with Jonah saying that he is not going anywhere and that he has a million different reasons to stay. Upon seeing this video I found myself thinking about my own schooldays. I was lucky enough to never have had any trouble like Jonah but I knew people who were miserable for five days a week throughout their time in primary school and secondary school and I wish I had done more to help them. Even just stop and talk to them and let them know I was there.

Coming from a background in psychology I am very passionate about the emotional health of my friends and colleagues in both the MDP and beyond. I also know from personal experience that one of the simplest and most effective ways of coping with depression or anguish is to talk about it. Jonah felt that he had to turn to the online community for support but even confiding in a friend or someone you trust can have a very positive effect on someone’s wellbeing.

A link to the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdkNn3Ei-Lg&feature=share

And please remember to share it on either facebook or twitter to spread the story of Jonah Mowry.

For anyone looking for more information on depression or feel the need to talk about themselves or others anonymously, Aware Ireland offers a depression counselling -service.

You can get in touch with them here: http://www.aware.ie/

If you do think someone you know might have depression then the worst thing you can do is ignore it. Far too much grief in this world has been caused by others assuming someone else will solve the problem.

Thank you and good night.

Christy- under the tree at SPAR

The unexpected has happened; SPAR is set to begin featuring in RTE’s Fair City as a new outlet.

The store will become part of the storyline and will essentially create awareness for the brand. In Ireland to date there has never been such an extreme investment in product placement and brand integration of its kind; costing SPAR €900,000 over the next three years.

Christy Phelan, the loser in love, has always put his business as his priority at the Carrigstown corner shop. His corner shop is currently under a transformation into a state-of-the-art SPAR store. Although it is evident that opportunities are there for through the investment, Fair City can also benefit from the opportunity to create new story lines around the Christy Phelan, one of Fair City’s favourite characters.

SPAR has been in the Irish market for over 50 years which places SPAR as a fitting product placement for the Irish soap. RTE’s Fair City reaches over 500,000 viewers across Ireland four times every week, an average of over half a million viewers per episode in 2011

The opportunity for SPAR goes further than product placement because the SPAR brand will be a feature of the story-line on a regular basis which will maximise marketing activity. An on-screen store launch will be aired in December of this year. Although the viewers will now notice the SPAR tree symbol during each episode, they will also notice a “PP” logo to state that the programme contains product placement.

Advertisers are currently faced with an era where viewer can now skip through TV ad breaks at a high speed which allows the viewers to avoid advertisements with the use of SKY+. I feel that SPAR has innovatively established a marketing method which can overcome the current ad avoidance issues and tie with the Irish communities.

Posted By Christine Cullen

A Mo’Ment for thought

As I looked up at the entrance to Dundrum Shopping Centre on a cold Saturday Morning in November I notice something strange. A giant black design on the front of the glass pains. Maybe it’s too early or maybe it’s too cold, or maybe, just maybe, there actually is a giant moustache on the front of Dundrum?

Being November I feel it is fitting to write about one of the most active campaigns that is happening across both the online and offline world. That campaign is Movember.

Things you might know about Movember:
· It’s a month long campaign that encourages men to grow moustaches to promote awareness of Prostate Cancer.
· It happens every November (Hence the Movember…yes, you probably knew that one already.)
· Friends and Family are encouraged to donate to the mo’bros (that’s what participants are called) and all proceeds go towards helping to fight Prostate Cancer.
· Fun events are held at the end of each November to celebrate the end of the campaign, congratulate the participants and help remove moustaches in humorous ways for the purpose of further fundraising activities.

Things you might not know about Movember:
· It started in Melbourne, Australia in 2004.
· News and photos of their moustache-growing movement spread throughout the web, rapidly transforming the campaign into an annual effort involving over 1.1 million (source: Google Chrome )
· Prostate Cancer is the number 1 cancer suffered by Irish Men.
· People can also get involved by ‘adopting a mo’ for €1 a day.

So why moustaches you might ask? Well the purpose of Movember and its hair raising antics is to raise awareness to get regular health checks and prevent prostate cancer related deaths, and after all ‘What is manlier than a moustache?’ What is important to note is that this is no ordinary health charity appeal, instead it is one which utilizes all that digital media has to offer brilliantly and showcases how an entire global community can get involved in a good cause. The proof is there that this works and to date Movember has raised €21,296,255 for its cause. That can buy you a lot of moustache combs! From an Irish perspective Movember’s success is as tangible with 12,506 registrations to pledge to grow a moustache having raised €216,865 so far and its support base on its Irish Facebook boasting 10,252 likes. The below video demonstrates how involved the global community has been in the success of the campaign to date.

Youtube Link

Movember has further heightened its engagement with people by creating links with many commercial organisations such as Golden Disks, Marshall Amps, Swatch and Heineken. From a marketers perspective this is very clever collaborating on the commercial organisations behalf as it showcases their social responsibility whilst also appealing primarily to their target market, most of whom are adult males. Personally, I am a big fan of the Movember Goods offered by the Irish Online Clothing Store HairyBaby.ie. Novelty tshirts and mugs are on sale with Hairy Baby promising to donate €10 from the sale of every Movember themed t-shirt and €2.50 from every Movember Mug. These mugs allow even the moustache growing unabled to produly sport a tashe for the month at every given opportunity. Great!

Posted by: Paula

Your Favourite Chocolate Bar in Phone Form

Cadbury Dairy Milk has announced the launch of a Cadbury Dairy Milk Smartphone App for the Irish Market. This app promises to transfer your smartphone into a Dairy Milk bar and will have dual-functionality with the two main features being the ‘Unwrap and Snap’ interactive feature and the ‘Share a Square’ feature. The purpose of the campaign is to entice people to become more actively involved with the classic Cadbury Dairy Milk eight-square bar and incorporate social media into Cadbury’s ever increasingly marketing presence.

The app will be free to download by accessing it via a Cadbury inspired QR code on promotional packages and various forms of print media. This QR code, which has been created using blocks of Dairy Milk, is incredibly tactful and clever. Not only does it tie the brand brilliantly into the usually ordinary QR code, but it also shows the actual chocolate block rather than the traditional fully wrapped product. This is very effective in heightening awareness of the Dairy Milk Product and not just the Cadbury Brand, not to mention that it looks pretty tasty too! Personally I wish this QR code was for some sort of Pac Man style game where one must eat all the chocolate blocks to succeed and you win the amounts of blocks eaten in real chocolate. Sign me up please!

Cadbury's chocolaty QR code

The Unwrap and Snap element of the app is not only fun to say but fun to play with too. It allows users to unwrap a Dairy Milk bar by sliding their finger across their phone’s ‘wrapper’. The bar can then be snapped into eight pieces (Remember this is only virtually snapping, don’t go breaking your phone into eight pieces.) which can then be sent to friends online using the Share a Square function. This function encourages users to share virtual squares on Facebook to their friends and once they have collected eight squares these can be traded in for a real bar of Dairy Milk in any participating Centra store.

Quite frankly I think this concept is genius! Not only because Diary Milk is arguably the nicest chocolate bar on the market (and I am prepared to argue this) and are finally getting some of the much deserved media attention the Cadbury brand attracts, but also it encompasses terrific elements of social media marketing into their IMC. The popularity of sending cows or trees and what-not through Farmville and similar Facebook virtual worlds is huge and so the opportunity to send something tangible is a recipe for success. Another promising element of this campaign is that in order to claim your free bar you must collect eight pieces. Eight is a small enough number that customers won’t lose interest in the campaign, but large enough that Cadbury are not at damaging risk for give-aways. It has the potential for generating great word-of-mouth interest from Facebook users interacting with one another through the brand as well as showcasing its technological advancement in QR design. What was noted by Aideen Murphy, brand manager for Cadbury Dairy Milk is that ‘The size, shape and weight of a standard Smartphone is similar to a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk providing us with an opportunity to tempt consumers with the ‘Unwrap & Snap' and ‘Share a Square' features’. This is yet another interesting element to this already very remarkable campaign.

Posted by Paula

"The Blackberry Death"

Last week, Research in Motion suffered the most severe blackout in the history of the company. For three days, tens of millions of Blackberry users around the world lost communication services on their devices such as email, Blackberry Messenger and internet browsing.

As someone who has never been a fan of Blackberry smartphones, I'm nearly happy when I hear of them failing in such a big way. It baffles me that they are still such a strong contender in the market. I find them to be so user unfriendly and in no way attractive to look at, yet, they currently hold 11.7% of the smartphone market.

There was outrage expressed over the issue on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as pleas for the company to solve the issues as quick as possible. Many users (iPhone users in particular) found the opportunity for some jokes at Blackberry's expense.

Inevitably, this failure on Blackberrys behalf will put an element of doubt in people's minds about the reliability of Blackberry devices. Many companies worldwide give Blackberrys to their employees and when the blackout occurred it slowed many companies' operations. A student at Michigan State University, after the blackout, said "I've been a pretty big Blackberry advocate, but I'm done playing games with you, BlackBerry". She proceeded to go and buy an iPhone even after the service was restored.

Jim Balsillie, one of the company's CEOs said "We're going to fully commit to win that trust back". Personally, I feel that the reliability of Blackberry devices was one of the few competitive advantages that the company possessed over competitors such as the iPhone and after this fiasco, it could be a long uphill battle to restore that trust. The brand name has been tarnished.

This situation has brought about a very negative image for Blackberry. However, this situation has highlighted an extremely important fact which is our dependence, as a society, on devices such as smartphones. The fact that a simple blackout like this can hinder global companies from functioning effectively is a worrying thought. It is an incredible power that communication companies hold.

Maybe companies need to diversify their means of communication? Or maybe, companies such as Blackberry need to be held more accountable when an issue like this occurs? Regardless, issues such as this will happen again and again, and we need to better prepare ourselves in the future.

"Heres To The Crazy Ones"

This week one of the most influential men of our time passed away after a long battle with cancer. As an avid Apple user I was very moved to hear of Steve Jobs passing. Over the last few days tributes have poured in from all around the globe in recognition of Steve Jobs achievements.

Being from the generation of people that take devices such as the iPad, MacBook and iPhone for granted, I did not understand why so many older people were moved by his passing, as I had considered Apple as a relatively new and young brand. I really did not associate the machines that were produced in the 70's and 80's with the white shiny brand that is Apple today.

One video that is circulating at the moment is that of Steve Jobs address to Stanford University is a very moving insight into how Steve approached life, and as a young person who is coming into the last few months of his education, tough life decisions will have to be made soon. One thing I took from that video is that as idealistic as it may sound, I really agreed that you should always do something that you love, and if you don't, changes need to be made.

This is a way of thinking that must be adopted by all young people, especially with all the financial pressures that they are currently facing. Holding off for the job you really love is something that takes a lot of self belief. Steve Jobs is testament to this, he was always confident in himself, even when he was fired from his own company he came back even stronger than before.

I hope to emulate his way of thinking, and even if people cannot emulate his level of success and wealth they will still be very happy with their lives and jobs because they are doing something they love. Aside from all the technological innovation Jobs is known for, his way of thinking will have an influence on people around the world that will last longer than any product that will leave the shiny factories of Apple.

The below video is a subtle reminder of Steve Jobs way of thinking.

Posted by : Paul Maher

It’s that time of year again...

The X-Factor is back on our screens again for the eight years running and this year is set to be its biggest year yet. Year after year the competition is surrounded in controversy and mayhem making it one of the most talked about reality talent shows of all time. Its ratings have doubled over the last eight years, with last year’s final being watched by over 14 million people. This year’s show will not let us down with the show already featuring 3 new judges, a flashing light-up leotard and a contestant being disqualified for serving a jail sentence.

The X-Factor has also dominated in the marketing arena. The show has branded almost every type of merchandise out there, from books and DVDs to clothing jewellery, perfume and even pizzas.

One of the most interesting marketing moves I have seen the show make is the partnership with high street retailer Marks and Spencers. Last month, the retailer announced that it would be the official fashion partner of the X-Factor. This was a bold and strategic move that ties in with the brands new and constant effort to attract a younger market to the New Limited and Autograph Collections.

In September we saw Rosie Huntington Whitely and Ryan Reynolds feature in the new Autograph ads. This was not received well by many, and the connection between the Hollywood A-listers and high street brand was not clear. It was also felt that the new campaign was alienating the core customer segment, middle aged women, who didn’t recognise or like the new brand ambassadors or the new trendy clothes ranges.

Marks and Spencers have seemingly ignored any criticism surrounding this move and have just announced that 16 X-Factor finalists will feature in the company’s Christmas Ad.

It is hard to judge how this move will affect the brand. On one hand I think it is great that they are trying to broaden their market and using the X-Factor and well known celebrities to do this could prove very effective. However, alienating the core customers could prove detrimental if this younger demographic does not buy into the M&S brand.

As an avid X-Factor fan, I will be watching the show and keeping an eye out on fashion of the finalists. Will this make me go and buy M&S clothes? I highly doubt it. With the brand firmly positioned in my mind as a “brand that my Mum and Gran buy” no amount of TV ads will make me buy the same clothes as them... My Mom watches the X-Factor too; maybe this will keep her buying the M&S brand!!

Urban Decay - Making Up Technology

Technology and make-up are not two words that you would often see in the same sentence. However, cosmetic giants, Urban Decay, have decided to change this by releasing a new innovative make-up palette.

Along with 16 eyeshadows, mascara, liquid eyeliner and eyeshadow primer the palette comes with a mirror, a smartphone dock, a speaker and a connecting cable. Also contained in the box is a card with 5 QR codes that you can scan with your smartphone to download step-by-step make-up tutorials. Each respective tutorial shows the customer how to create a certain look using Urban Decay products contained within the palette.

In an attempt to capitalize on the increasingly popular trend of watching 'how-to' videos, Urban Decay have launced this product which now makes it simple and convenient for their customers to learn new make-up techniques. Furthermore, the tutorials promote the use of Urban Decay products compared to online tutorials which usually combine a number of cosmetic brands.

For anyone interested in purchasing the product it is currently available in House of Fraser, Dundrum.

Bestie's Bar

With so much made in the media presently about the dangers that alcohol poses in today's society, has the announcement of the latest celebrity endorsement of alcohol and its consumption gone a step too far?

I have no problem with the mention of Patron and Hennessy in the songs of musicians around the world. I have no issue with Dublin Football captain Bryan Cullen announcing that he will see everyone in Coppers tonight after a fantastic All-Ireland final victory. I do, however, have concerns with Calum Best announcing that he will be opening a George Best themed pub in Dublin's city centre. For a man who so sadly joined the whole world in watching his fathers career demise and who subsequently died at the age of 59 having publicly and privately battled alcoholism, I ask the question; why endorse this?

I agree that the memory of George Best and his achievements should live on for years, and his son should undoubtedly be proud of his father but why not a cafe, a shop or a museum?

Calum's endorsement has reportedly upset members of Best's family, including his sister Barbara who set up the George Best foundation to help people struggling with alcohol abuse. The areas of alcohol sponsorship and celebrity endorsement of alcohol brands are being discussed more and more in media and marketing. Many query whether both encourage under age drinking and over consumption.

People should consume alcohol responsibly and enjoy the products on offer. But the business men and women who run the industry and develop the marketing strategies to promote their brands and establishments must be more conscious of who is seeing their message and what those messages are. I look forward to the opening of Bestie's bar and Calum's endorsement provided the focus is on responsible drinking. I think with hindsight that is what George would want too. Article references can be found at; http://goo.gl/RzemJ

2011 Rugby World Cup

With 1 billion people tuning into the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup, sponsorship revenue is a vital part of the sporting event. Therefore, protecting the sponsors Heineken, Emirates, Microsoft and Range Rover from guerrilla marketing is a vital element of major sports event.

In the past two decades, ambush marketing, where a brand establishes an unauthorised association with the event has become one of the most significant problems facing rights, holders and sponsors of major sporting events.

Examples of ambush marketing that occurred at previous world cups include, a Tongan player changing his name by deed poll to Paddy Power in order to promote the national team’s sponsorship by the bookmaker. The IRB did not accept the name change and, following this, the Tongan squad members dyed their hair bright green before the team’s match against England. In the end, the dye was removed prior to kick-off.

Another example was at the soccer World Cup in South Africa, 36 orange-clad Dutch women were removed from Holland’s game with Denmark and arrested under legislation relating to merchandise marks. They were accused of an ambush campaign to promote Dutch brewer Bavaria’s Orange beer. Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser was the official beer for the tournament.

Aside from advertising revenue I was surprised to find out that although organisers are aiming to make 269 million dollars from 1.36million tickets sales, New Zealand will incur a direct loss from hosting the event, Therefore the benefits will have to be indirect such as short and long-term boosts to the tourism industry or a lift in national confidence after the horrific damage that was cased due to the recent earthquake.

New Zealand will record a direct loss from the event, estimated at $40 million dollars which will be shared equally between the Government and the New Zealand Rugby Union. The projected deficit does not include capital costs associated with the rebuilding and refurbishment of stadiums and other non-operational costs.

We've Finally Qualified!!

Finally, after 40 years of trying, Ireland can proudly say it now has a team representing it at the group stages of one of the most prestigious cup competitions in the world. Shamrock Rovers are the first Irish male team to qualify for the group stages of the very financially rewarding Europa League. They now will mix it with some of the best of European footballing clubs including Tottenham Hotspur, Rubin Kazan and PAOK of Greece.

League of Ireland fans, (for the most part) are happy for Shamrock Rovers. It shows the Airtricity League in a positive light, given all the negative publicity it has received in recent times. However, one has to ask the question. Will this result in increased attendances at league and cup domestic games?

Looking back on social media around the time that Shamrock Rovers defeated Partizan Belgrade in Serbia, the noise about the game was huge. People were jumping on the bandwagon so to speak and groups and fan pages were being set up every couple of minutes. The scorer of the wonder goal which leveled the game and sent it to extra-time, Patrick Sullivan, had received over 400 friend requests on Facebook and was also trending on Twitter. Dara o'Brian even mentioned him in one of his tweets. One must ask the question, would he have received the same spotlight had he not scored the equalising goal? Unfortunately the answer is probably not.

Irish footballers are not seen in the same light as footballers from countries such as England, Spain and Italy. Games do not receive the same media coverage in Ireland as they should and as a result, The league has struggled, and to an extent still struggles to move forward and progress. Actions speak louder than words and in this case Shamrock Rovers qualifying for the group stages of the Europa League should be a call to action. Everybody who commented on social media or joined a group saying how fantastic an achievement it was should get up and go support their local club. If they put the effort in revenue will be generated and as a result that money can be fed back into the other clubs in the league and who knows? maybe Irish clubs qualifying for the top European competitions will become a regular occurrence.

Tallafornia

During the week TV3 announced their autumn TV schedule and among the many shows, is a new reality show set in Tallaght. The show is aptly named ‘Tallafornia’ a take on the popular ‘Jersey Shore’. So is it going to be a success? The gut instinct says no, Ireland has already copied The Hills with Fade Street and that was a complete crash and burn.

So why do they think this will be superior? With their unique selling point being “Four hot West Dublin boys & fabulous West Dublin girls will spend four weeks living, eating, working and partying together”. Can’t see this hanging around for that long, Irish people are very hard to impress and are extremely judgmental, good luck to the eight future reality stars, it’s going to be interesting.

We now have the Irish version of ‘The Hills’ and ‘Jersey Shore’, what’s next ‘The Kardashians’? So which Irish beauty could be the next Kim Kardashian? There is a few that spring to mind but not quite sure any will be able to captivate the world with their assets to the same extent!

The future of Irish TV is full of American story lines; let’s just hope it has more of Irish sense of humor then the American copycat version we have been seeing on ‘Fade Street’.

Another Year, Another Great Dublin Horse Show

Since it was first established in 1864, the Discover Ireland Dublin Horse Show has become a Dublin institution for horse lovers and the general public alike. Taking place in the first week of August each year, it is Ireland's largest equestrian event, and one of the largest events held on the island. This year the show ran from August 3^rd-7^th.

It is a showcase of the best national and international equestrian talent. This year, Irish riders were joined by competitors from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands and the US.

The show itself saw over 100,000 spectators attend the RDS show grounds over the five days. It estimated to have cost €3.6 million to hold the Discover Ireland Dublin Horse Show and it is expected to break even. Last year, the horse show contributed €43 million to the economy and it is expected to be the same again this year.

The 2011 Discover Ireland Dublin Horse Show had a prize fund of over €940,000 for the 15 international jumping competitions and the 87 showing classes which saw over 1,500 horses and ponies on the Ballsbridge grounds between August 3rd and August 7th.

Shaun Quinn, chief executive of Fáilte Ireland, said for many people overseas Ireland was the land of the horse, and our association with horses was very much bound up with our cultural image abroad. “Our commitment to this event reflects not only the potential of the equestrian sector to attract visitors and holidaymakers to our shores but the importance of iconic events and festivals such as the Dublin Horse Show to generate economic activity,” he said.

The Dublin Horse Show is not just for horse lovers. It is, of course, possible to pass a very enjoyable day at the show without ever coming within sneezing distance of a horse. More than 300 trade stands were on exhibition, and the Fine Art Antiques Hall and the RDS National Crafts Competition exhibition provided further browsing opportunities.

While many sporting events are suffering with lack of sponsorship, this is not the case for the Dublin Horse Show. The show is sponsored by a wide range of well-known brands from Land Rover, which launched the ‘Evoque’ at the show, to Longines and Blossom Hill.

This year was also the first time that the Discover Ireland Dublin Horse Show had a strong social media campaign. The Facebook page has over 12,000 followers. With regular updates during the show, the page was a platform for horse lovers to discuss the show. It is a great example of how a successful social media campaign must be interactive and updated regularly.

We are a nation renowned for our well-bred, high performance animals. The Dublin Horse Show is a truly great event which really showcases how important the equine industry is in Ireland. The 2012 Discover Ireland Dublin Horse Show is taking place next August from the 15^th to the 19^th. It is being held a week later to avoid clashing with the Olympics. So whether you are attending the Olympic Games or not a visit to the Dublin Horse Show is a must.

All Eyes on New Zealand

With the 2011 Rugby World Cup just over a month away, the marketing machine that surrounds such an event has sprung into life. Most notably is the release of the new official team merchandise that will be worn by each team during the competition. Ireland donned their new kit against Scotland this weekend. Puma have put a huge amount of research into the new products and have claimed that the new Irish jersey is the most technologically advanced jersey that has ever been worn by the team. This may be true, but it it is a statement that is being echoed by many other brands that will be represented at this years World Cup.

As much as the pitch is a showcase for high quality rugby, it is also the prime opportunity for the elite brands of World Rugby to battle and see who has made the most innovative and advanced product. Adidas have supplied the All Blacks with their gear for a number of years, and are still waiting for the ultimate pay off they have been expecting since the Adidas logo graced the left breast of some of the worlds most naturally gifted rugby players the game has ever seen. Richie Mc Caw is the odds on favorite captain to lift the World Cup, but history has shown us that New Zealand's track record is something the proud nation is quick to forget.

For Adidas to still go on such tag lines as "I believe in a black jersey" the All Blacks simply must succeed this year. As fantastic a team as New Zealand are, it will be very hard for their current sponsors to stand by them if they are not successful.

A nations hopes rest on the shoulders of the team, and no one will buy a piece of Adidas clothing that has the silver fern embroidered on it if they lose, as they will want to distance themselves from the pain that losing a World Cup at home will create.

The Irish jersey is promoted as a high performance jersey. I believe this feeds off the Irish feeling of "what if". We all know that we have a very special group of players, but even so we know it will take something remarkable. This jersey lives up to this feeling and is marketed as giving the players something extra on the pitch, a sixteenth man so to speak. This seems to be working well because sales of the new jersey are quite high and people are buying into the ethos that surrounds it.

The All Black on the other hand is plain and simple, and represents something more than performance on the pitch, it represents a nations pride. Unlike most teams kit,it never changes. And this is how it is marketed, a simple yet incredible identity that rugby fans and players around the world have come to love and fear.

Winning the World Cup will justify this form or marketing, a loss however will destroy it, and maybe people will start wondering if maybe space age materials are more important on the pitch than national pride. All that is certain is on the pitch it is as much Puma versus Kooga as it is Ireland versus Australia, and brand executives around the world are hoping that their teams are celebrating tries, and not huddled under their posts.

It is an interesting fact to consider that no matter how much work a brand puts into their team ,months and even years of hard work can be destroyed in only 80 minutes, but that is the nature of sport.




The above video is a fine example of getting it very very wrong!






Posted by Paul Maher