The first week of 2012 and festive memories well and truly evaporated!
Back into it this week and relishing the sporting season ahead.

The opportunity to reflect this week on last year’s championship summer
when GAA.ie’s Round The Square makes it’s TV debut.

Iomaint 2011 will be broadcast this Wednesday night January 4th
at 7.30 with  Peil 2011 on 730 on Friday night. The shows produced by
the GAA Communications department and Ballywire will have you buying your
season ticket straight away!

Congrats to John McGuinness and all the lads on their gong for best use
of new media for the 2011 Cadbury’s Under 21 Football Championship.
Ballywire was delighted to provide the online video content for
the campaign and produced two broadcast tv highlights shows broadcast
on TG4.

You can read more on the case study here.

Getting Social Media engagement right within the GAA

Murray Consultants secure PR Award for Excellence for Cadbury GAA U21 Football Championship

Leading public relations consultancy, Murray Consultants was recognised for its use of new media for the Cadbury GAA U21 Gaelic Football Championship. The Award, ‘Best Use of New Media’ was presented to Account Director John McGuinness as part of the annual PR Awards at the Conrad Hotel, Dublin.

As sponsor of the U21 Gaelic Football Championship since 2005, Cadbury through agency partner Murray Consultants has worked hard at developing a pro-active sponsorship programme aimed at promoting the U21 Gaelic Football grade for both players and fans alike.

The PR Award for Excellence which recognises Murray Consultants work in developing the use of New Media for the Cadbury GAA U21 Gaelic Football Championship focused on the range of platforms which have been developed under the Cadbury brand to support the Championship. These include a very active Facebook page with over 7,000 fans from all over Ireland and the rest of the World, a FlickR resource and a Twitter channel with a following of over 800 which includes fans, players, GAA Clubs, County Boards and sports media. These platforms are all anchored by the U21 Championship website www.cadburygaau21.com.

Explaining the Social Media engagement, John McGuinness, Account Director, Murray Consultants said, “We are thrilled with this recognition, Cadbury are a terrific sponsor of the U21 Gaelic Football Championship and over the last number of years, Murray Consultants working in partnership with Cadbury have been responsible for a lot of firsts in the GAA sponsorship space. Our work within the area of Digital and Social Media is an example of this where we have placed considerable emphasis on the development of content and particularly video content through our strategic partners Ballywire Media as a way of engaging the GAA community.”

Speaking about the Sponsorship, Shane Guest, Senior Brand Marketing Manager Cadbury said, “Murray Consultants and its Consumer PR Wing MCsquared have and continue to be an integral partner in our sponsorship of the U21 Gaelic Football Championship. They have matched their own deep interest and commitment to the GAA with an ability to push the boundaries of sponsorship engagement, constantly learning, developing and executing and the Social Media and Digital element of the U21 sponsorship is a perfect example of this.”

Paul Dermody, Sponsorship Manager, GAA added, “Over the last 6 seasons Cadbury have taken the U21 Football championship to new heights in terms of profile and support. We have been continually impressed with the activation campaigns created by Cadbury and implemented by Murray Consultants over this period, in particular in the social media space. Social media is absolutely the right medium for engaging with the fans of the Cadbury GAA Football U21 championship and the team at Cadbury have excelled at maintaining the interaction with fans across various platforms”

Over the last two Championship seasons, Murray Consultants and Cadbury have developed a number of initiatives promoting social media engagement by fans of the U21 championship these included the selection of the best 15 players at U21 Championship grade between 2005-2010 which received over 5,000 votes online, this season also saw the introduction of Facebook updates by Cadbury Hero of the Future Judges Dermot Earley, Paul (Pillar Caffery), Darragh O’Shea and Michael O’Domhnaill.

For further information on the Cadbury GAA U21 Gaelic Football Championship go to:

Website: www.cadburygaau21.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/U21GAAFootball

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/CadburyU21

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cadburyu21football/

Watch the Hero of The Future 2011 Highlights

Recognising groundbreaking events as they happen and putting them into the proper context is only possible in a newsroom which has national media experience. When it’s powered  by the very latest technology this news service becomes a groundbreaking means of getting the very latest video in realtime. This is something Ballywire has been doing for some years now and today our content appears on many of Ireland’s leading web destinations.

Check out our news promo here:

It’s nearly as big a tradition as it’s 15 man counterpart, but the eve of All Ireland Senior Hurling Final tournament at Kilmacud Crokes continues to attract hurling fans up in the smoke for the big weekend. How will the  2010 All Ireland 7′s champions Portumna fare this year? We’ll have to wait and see but here’s how they celebrated last September.

Now that he’s been signed up to play his rugby in Ireland for the next two years, Leinster’s Rob Kearney is targetting a spot in Declan Kidney’s Rugby World Cup squad as he continues his rehabilitation from the injury that ruled him out of this year’s Six Nations Championship.

The Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Ambassador has been sharing the secrets of the skills that prompted the IRFU to ensure they hold onto his services for another two seasons, holding a special rugby training session with a delighted Gorey RFC.

The Wexford rugby club won a competition run by Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain to experience their very own training session with the Leinster and Ireland fullback and professional trainers.

The rugby clinc took place in Old Belvedere RFC, Dublin and experienced rugby trainers Girvan Dempsey (Elite Player Development with Leinster Rugby, 82 caps for Ireland), Richie Murphy (Leinster Skills and Kicking Coach) and Collie McEntee (Head of Leinster Rugby Academy) were also on hand to give the team an experience they will never forget.

Speaking at the session, Rob Kearney said: ‘This is a really great prize for Gorey Rugby Club and I’m delighted to be involved with Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain on giving them such an opportunity. They have had the chance to train with professional rugby coaches today, which is obviously very exciting. The session also gave them insight into what a typical training session is like when you train with a professional rugby team.”

The scene in the Tipp dressing room after the 2010 All Ireland Senior Hurling Final

Ireland’s leading sports photographic agency Sportsfile spend their Sundays on sidelines around the country providing reportage to the nation’s newspapers on matters on the pitch and every year they publish what they consider their best work in a coffee table book called A Season of Sundays. A who’s who of the GAA community attended the 2010 launch at Ulster Bank headquarters in Dublin including Mullinahone’s Eoin Kelly pictured above letting rip after inviting Liam McCarthy to the Premier dressing room.

President Mary McAleese arriving at the 2011 BTYSE

President Mary McAleese officially opened Europe’s largest event of it’s kind aimed at finding Ireland’s Young Einstein. The BT Young Scientist and Technology Event 2011 saw  secondary students from the 4 provinces vying for honours. The Ballywire reporters and camera crews were there to capture all the excitement. This is our 5 year being involved with the event which is hugely popular with young people across Ireland. BT’s organsier Mari Cahalane and her team put an incredible amount of work into both the planning and running of the event. If you haven’t been shame on you! Make it next year and get a real uplift from all the economic doom and gloom. You can check out more of our videos from the event at www.btyoungscientist.com

Táinaiste and Minister for Education Mary Coughlan, Alexander Ami and BT CEO Graham Sutherland after the announcement of the 2011 BT Young Scientist winner.

It’s one of the biggest events of it’s type in the world and for the duration of the 2011 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition Ballywire created a digital newsroom at the RDS producing radio segments, online video and tv content on the spot for distribution via the Ballywire Content Hub.  In the end the winner of the 47th annual event was named as 15 year old Alexander Amini from Castleknock College, Dublin has taken home the overall prize for his project entitled, “Tennis sensor data analysis”. The announcement was made by Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Ms. Mary Coughlan, T.D and Graham Sutherland, CEO, BT Ireland, at the awards ceremony held this evening at the RDS in Dublin.  Alexander, a 4th year student, was entered in the Technology category, Intermediate section.

Alexander was presented with a cheque for €5,000, a Waterford Crystal trophy and the opportunity to represent Ireland at the 22nd European Union Young Scientist competition taking place in Helsinki, Finland this coming September.

Wexford’s International star Kevin Doyle and 3 CEO Robert Finnegan at the announcement

Republic of Ireland and Wolves striker Kevin Doyle had a welcome distraction from fighting to stay in the Premier League when he turned up as guest of honour at an announcement aimed at generating money for the grassroots of the game in Ireland.

And the Wexford man reckons his own club Wolves  are just one game away from Premier League safety.
He was speaking as 3, primary sponsors of the Irish National soccer squad, announced a special fund to aid the grass – roots development of Irish football. The programme offers FAI affiliated clubs the chance of earning cash when their members switch to 3, the more people that switch, the more money the club earns.

To date over 450 clubs have switched at least one member to 3 with Drogheda United topping the table by already securing €900 for the club. In total €53,150 has already been committed to clubs across the country.

The club offer is open to all club members, supporters’, friends and family who switch to 3. Not only will they get the latest mobiles with fantastic value, 3 will also make a payment to the club for everyone who switches. Switch to 3 and dare to dream of a better future for your club today.

Speaking at the announcement 3 CEO, Robert Finnegan said, “I’m delighted to be able to announce our 10 million euro fund for Irish football. When we came on board as official sponsors of the FAI back in August we promised to match our ambitions with real action to help the grass roots of Irish football. This €10million fund gives clubs, big and small, all across the country, the opportunity to earn money to help them run their clubs on a daily basis.  I encourage every Irish football fan to get behind this initiative and help us invest more in the future of Irish football. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Kevin Doyle for his involvement in helping us promote this initiative. I know many young players are inspired by Kevin’s success and with this fund, we at 3 are committed to supporting these rising stars of the future.”

The programme was launched by Irish and Wolves striker Kevin Doyle who himself came through the ranks of underage football in the League of Ireland with Wexford Youths, St. Pats and Cork City before moving to Reading in England. Speaking at the launch Kevin said: “This is a terrific initiative and one which I’m delighted to lend my support to, I’m confident that the fund put in place by 3 today will be of huge benefit to clubs up and down the country no matter how big or small they are.”