The Background
Entering 2024, Allianz faced significant challenges. Allianz operates in an increasingly cluttered market with little differentiation, where many brands begin with “A”, sharing a similar blue brand colour. The category also continued to attract new entrants.
However a bright opportunity emerged with the brand’s sponsorship of the Irish Olympic & Paralympic teams, alongside Allianz Group’s global sponsorship of the Paris 2024 Olympics & Paralympics. Paris 2024 promised to be Ireland’s most engaging Games ever, offering Allianz the chance to connect with audiences beyond a transactional relationship.
Allianz needed more than just a sponsorship. The brand required a bold, strategic shift in how they activated global sports sponsorship locally, transforming its engagement with the Irish market to outperform competitors, securing its position as a leading insurer in Ireland.
Allianz’s three brand/business objectives:
1) Build awareness & affinity through stand out creative & partnerships
2) Build brand trust through partnerships
3) Recruit & retain by rewarding customers, providing a reason to choose Allianz
This campaign won the award for Best Use of Sponsorship at the 2025 TAMI Awards
The Challenge
As a sponsor of the Irish Olympic and Paralympic teams as well as global sponsor of both the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Allianz wanted to forge the deepest possible connection with both events and an expectant Irish public. However other local partners had already made strides with extensive activations, including large numbers of athlete ambassadors and a TV series on RTÉ highlighting athlete preparation for the Games. So Allianz still faced the challenge of delivering best-in-class activation at a local level.
Starcom’s strategy was to partner with RTÉ as broadcast sponsor of the official coverage of the Olympic & Paralympic Games, with **Allianz being the first brand in the Irish market to sponsor coverage of both events**. RTÉ is synonymous with high-quality sports coverage, with a rich legacy of broadcasting the Olympic Games since 1964. With high expectations for Ireland’s most successful Olympics and Paralympics yet, and an excited public eager to support our athletes, there was no better platform to showcase the sponsorship. This opportunity spanned linear TV and RTÉ’s live and catch-up player, with sponsor stings across all platforms in addition to branded RTE station promos, branded posts on RTE’s social and online channels, plus viewer competitions. It also allowed Allianz to activate alongside its partners, the Olympic Federation of Ireland and Paralympics Ireland.
Most importantly, it enabled Allianz to transform a global sponsorship into a uniquely Irish celebration of the Games with the national broadcaster. This approach was crucial for forging a deep connection with the public as Ireland prepared to celebrate a record breaking performance in Paris.
**Beaming into homes nationwide**
The sponsorship of RTÉ’s Paris 2024 Olympic & Paralympic Games coverage marked a complete shift in Allianz’s approach to reaching a broader audience, cutting through the crowded ad market to build genuine connections in a competitive landscape. This collaboration with RTÉ, alongside its partners the Olympic Federation of Ireland, Paralympics Ireland and Allianz Group, placed the brand at the heart of Olympic and Paralympic coverage in homes nationwide.
**Giving us a platform for our athletes**
The broadcast sponsorship provided a valuable platform to showcase Allianz’s inspiring brand ambassadors, Rhasidat Adeleke (Olympic athlete) and Ellen Keane (Paralympic swimmer), both heroes and role models to many. The team maximised this opportunity by featuring them prominently in the sponsorship stings throughout the coverage which achieved massive frequency levels, reinforcing the brand’s association with the Irish Olympic and Paralympic teams and strengthening brand affinity.
**Anchoring Allianz in moments that mattered**
Sponsorship assets, such as sponsor-branded social posts, kept Allianz visible to its target audience during live, heart-pounding moments in Irish sporting history. These posts featured interviews with Ireland’s hero athletes immediately after their performances, creating unique “money-can’t-buy” moments that further strengthened brand affinity.
**Agency collaboration**
A key feature was the collaboration with the creative agency Forsman & Bodenfors, particularly around the creation and distribution of a suite of branded assets across all of RTE’s platforms.
The Strategy
As mentioned previously, Allianz were the first brand in the Irish market to sponsor coverage of both the Olympic & Paralympic Games. Its sponsorship of the coverage provided extensive branded access via sponsorship stings to approximately 250 hours of Olympics and Paralympics coverage in homes nationwide. The Olympics broadcast coverage ran from July 24th until the closing ceremony on August 11th. While the Paralympics coverage commenced shortly afterwards on August 28th running until September 8th. A total of 31 days of glorious coverage.
This transformative initiative encompassed ‘live’ heart pumping “in the moment” TV, social, TV, online video, and search activations driving remarkable business results including a significant jump in sales. More importantly, it reshaped engagement metrics and enhanced brand perception, delivering a top position in market for trust and likeability.
**Broadcast Sponsorship Activation**
The broadcast sponsorship provided a suite of asset opportunities to leverage.
-10 and 7 second sponsorship stings featuring brand ambassadors Rhasidat Adeleke and Ellen Keane ran during the entire coverage on linear TV as well as the RTÉ Player (live & catch-up broadcasts).
-Sponsor branded coverage promos featuring Allianz brand ambassador Jack Woolley as well as Britney Arendse generated anticipation and excitement prior to the start of the coverage of both events. Generating 1,099 TVR’s.
-Allianz display adverts were placed on a specific section of RTE.ie dedicated to the station’s coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics.
-In a real departure beyond a conventional broadcast sponsorship, Allianz branded social posts captured emotional peaks and consequently massive engagement levels as we saw our hero athletes being interviewed immediately post their sporting success.
– On air viewer competitions during the coverage featured two prize funds provided by Allianz, which delivered audience engagement and action.
**Integration With Other Marketing Activity**
In addition to the assets provided through the broadcast sponsorship Allianz activated further via the following:
• The Allianz premium content series “Inner Drive” produced with leading sports media brand “Off The Ball” featured interviews with Rhasidat Adeleke and Ellen Keane in advance of their participation at the Olympics and Paralympic Games respectively.
• Allianz kids camps which brought the Olympic movement to life, featuring 4,000 children across the summer months, including athlete visits and messages.
• Allianz’s athlete “Good Luck” campaign which ran across both paid and organic digital.
• Allianz employee activation included athlete visits / panel discussions in Allianz HQ.
• Paris “on the ground” activity included stakeholder hospitality, events with Government representatives including a visit by the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, customer hospitality and ambassador parties.
• The Allianz Rewards platform offered customers a once in a lifetime trip to the Games.
• Exclusive Allianz Rewards customer events in Dublin and Cork – rewarding customers for their loyalty.
But perhaps most importantly Allianz was at the heart of the action for all of Team Ireland’s amazing feats, personal bests, national records and 13 precious medals.
The Results
The outcome was that this transformative initiative drove remarkable business results. More importantly, it reshaped engagement metrics and enhanced brand perception, delivering a top position in market for trust and likeability.
**Business objective 1: Build awareness & affinity through stand out creative & partnerships**
The specific results are commercially sensitive, but the partnership helped generate significant increased levels of the following metrics:
• Unaided brand awareness in last 12 months
• Brand consideration YOY
• Brand likeability YOY
Prompted awareness of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements (OPM) partnership, significantly higher than all other global OPM partners
• Brand likability among those aware of the OPM partnership
• Earned media with athlete ambassadors reached an audience of 2,762,771 in a country of just over 7 million people
**Business objective 2: Build trust: Increase trust in brand through partnerships**
The specific results are commercially sensitive, but the partnership helped generate significant increased levels of the following metrics:
• Brand trust
• Brand likability
**Business objective 3: Reward and give customers a reason to choose Allianz**
The specific results are commercially sensitive, but the partnership helped generate significant increased levels of the following metrics:
• Increase in motor and home sales across the Olympic Games
• Increase in motor and home sales across the Paralympic Games
• Increase in Net Promoter Score (NPS) with customers who are aware of the Olympic & Paralympic partnership scoring Allianz higher NPS score than those who aren’t aware
**Summary partnership results**
• RTÉ TV’s Olympics Coverage Reach: 3.4m Individuals (73.8%) vs. 2.6m (58.7%) for Tokyo 2020
• RTE TV’s Paralympics Coverage Reach: 1.99m Individuals (43%) vs.1.5m Individuals (34.4%) for Tokyo 2020
• 1,964 stings were broadcast during the Olympics linear coverage reaching 70.1% of all Individuals = 3.2m (4+) generating a frequency score of 86.7
• 824 stings were broadcast during the Paralympics linear coverage reaching 32.9% of all Individuals = 1.9m (4+) generating a frequency score of 16.82.8m stings on RTÉ Player (Olympics & Paralympics)
• Sponsor branded coverage promos: 3.5m Individuals (77% coverage) (Olympics)
• Sponsor branded coverage promos: 2.7m Individuals (59.8% coverage) (Paralympics)
• Sponsor branded social posts: 186 posts generated 18.6m views & 18.8m impressions (Olympics)
Internal
• Sponsor branded social posts: 88 posts generated 1.16m views & 1.29m impressions (Paralympics)
• Olympics & Paralympics On Air Viewer Competitions
• RTÉ Online: 4.3m visits generating 7.6m streams (Olympics)
• RTÉ Online: 228k visits generating 735k streams (Paralympics)
• Display adverts on RTE.ie: 9.3m ad impressions and 18.7k clicks (Olympics) Display adverts on RTE.ie: 523k ad impressions and 1.1 k clicks (Paralympics)
During the Olympic period, Allianz content reached over a quarter of a million people through paid and organic ads on Instagram and almost a million on Facebook.
The campaign results showed outstanding performance across all media metrics. However, it was only after we completed a valuation of all partnership assets post-Games that Starcom and Core Sponsorship realised the true monetary return.
“Although we were privileged to sponsor the Irish teams, alongside Allianz Group’s global sponsorship, we still faced the challenge of delivering best-in-class activation at a local level. Other local partners, had already made strides with extensive activations, including large numbers of athlete ambassadors and a TV series on RTÉ highlighting athlete preparation for the Games. Our key insight was the value of partnering with the best possible platform. Working with RTÉ placed us at the heart of Paris 2024, with Olympics coverage reaching 73.8% of individuals (aged 4+) across the country. This partnership required us to fundamentally transform how we engage the Irish market, helping us outperform competitors and secure our position as a leading insurer in Ireland.
Working with our valued partner RTE and our agency partners. Helping us to realise our marketing strategy.”
Anna McCarthy, Partnerships Lead Allianz
Credits
Brand:
Allianz
Media Agency:
Starcom, Part of Core
Supporting agencies/teams:
Core Sponsorship
RTÉ Media Sales
Award:
TAMI Awards Winner of Best Tactical Use of Sponsorship at the 2025 TAMI Awards