An Exploration of Sport Sponsorship and Digital Cultural Nationalism
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Three Ireland, Two Teams, One Nation: An Exploration of Sport Sponsorship and Digital Cultural Nationalism Colm Kearns, B.A. (Hons), M.A. (Hons) Thesis submitted for the award of PhD School of Communications, Dublin City University Supervisor: Neil O’Boyle 2019 i Declaration I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of PhD is entirely my own work, and that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: _____________________________________ Candidate: Colm Kearns ID No.: 11211829008 Date: 02/08/19 ii Acknowledgements I owe an enormous debt of thanks to my supervisor, Neil O’Boyle. He was always available to provide perspective, advice and feedback. I couldn’t wish for a better supervisor. I am also very grateful to the encouragement of many of the faculty from DCU’s School of Communications, particularly Pat Brereton, who offered timely and helpful feedback, and Declan Fahy, who was a rigorous and engaging examiner at the transfer stage. A huge thanks too to all my fellow PhD students. We laughed (or at least, wryly chuckled) in the face of terror. All those cups of coffee in the common room counted for something big in the long run. Stephen and Niamh deserve particular thanks: a closing-months-writing-the-final-draft- panic shared is a closing-months-writing-the-final-draft-panic lessened, as they say Throughout it all, I also had the support of my family and friends, and to them I am very thankful indeed. They reminded me of the great, big world beyond the thesis draft – and there certainly were occasions when I needed reminding. Special thanks to my family: Rob, Paula, Liam, Emma, Fabricio and Milly – it’s been a crowded house, but rarely an unhappy one. iii Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my granddad, Jack Kearns (1927-2018), whose one commandment – ‘Take care of yourself’ – kept me sane throughout this whole process. “In a hundred years, we’ll all be dead. But here and now, we are alive.” - Terry Pratchett, Small Gods iv Table of Contents Introduction 1 i:1 The Intersection of Sport, Sponsorship and National Identity 2 i:2 Digital Cultural Nationalism 5 i:3 Structure of Thesis 7 Chapter 1: Literature Review 9 1:1. Introduction 9 1:2. Sport 10 1:3. Advertising 21 1:4. Irish Identity 31 1:4.1. The Place of Football and Rugby in Modern Irish Culture 38 1:5. Digital Cultural Nationalism 51 Chapter 2: Methodology 60 2:1. Introduction 60 2:2. Background 64 2:3. Production Process 66 2:4. Textual Analysis 68 2:5. Reception Analysis 71 2:6. Limitations of Study 76 2:7. Conclusion 78 Chapter 3: ‘An Ode to Fans’ 80 3:1. Introduction 80 3:2. Production 82 3:2.1. Three-FAI Sponsorship Campaigns Prior to ‘Ode’ 82 3:2.2. Production of ‘Ode’ 84 3:3. Textual Analysis 90 3:3.1. Analysis of Televised Ad 90 3:3.2. Analysis of Supplementary Video Produced for Campaign 95 3:4. Reception 97 3:5. Post ‘Ode’ Ireland Fans and Their Implications for Future Sponsorship 109 3:5.1. Ethnographic Assessment of Production of ‘#MakeHistory’ 109 v 3:5.2. Reaction to Ireland Fans at Euro 2016 111 3:6. Digital Cultural Nationalism 114 3:6.1. The Cultural Cachet of Irish Football Fandom for Advertisers and Sponsors 115 3:6.2. The Conception and Construction of Ireland Football Fandom as Digital Cultural Nationalism 122 3:7. Conclusion 127 Chapter 4: ‘All it Takes is Everything’ 129 4:1. Introduction 129 4:2. Production 130 4:3. Textual Analysis 137 4:3.1. Analysis of Televised Ad 138 4:3.2. Analysis of Supplementary Videos Produced for the Campaign 140 4:3.3. Analysis of Overall Campaign Discourses 147 4:4. Reception 149 4:5. Post ‘All it Takes’ Rugby Players and Their Implications for Future Sponsorship 160 4:5.1. The Aftermath of ‘All it Takes’ 160 4:6. Digital Cultural Nationalism 169 4:6.1. The Cultural Cachet of Irish Rugby Players for Advertisers and Sponsors 169 4:6.2. The Conception and Construction of the Ireland Rugby Team as Digital Cultural Nationalism 174 4:7. Conclusion 179 Chapter 5: Theoretical Synthesis 181 5:1. Production 181 5:2. Textual Analysis 188 5:3. Reception 196 5:4. Sport, Advertising and National Identity in the Modern World 202 5:4.1. The Transformation of National Identity into an Empty Signifier 207 5:4.2. National Identity – An Ideological New Scarcity? 210 5:5. Conclusion 214 Conclusion 216 vi Appendices 222 Appendix 1: Social Media Reaction to Three Sport Sponsorship Campaigns 222 Appendix 2: Supplementary Materials to Three Sport Sponsorship Campaigns 237 Appendix 3: Recent Examples of Digital Cultural Nationalism 240 Appendix 4: Supplementary Materials Relating to Other Relevant Irish Sports Sponsorship Campaigns 250 Appendix 5: Survey & Interview Material 251 Appendix 6: Recent Irish Television Yearly Audience Figures 270 Bibliography 272 vii Three Ireland, Two Teams, One Nation: An Exploration of Sport Sponsorship and Digital Cultural Nationalism Colm Kearns, B.A., M.A. School of Communications, Dublin City University Abstract This PhD project focuses on the intersection of sport, advertising and national identity. Specifically, it examines the period in which telecommunications brand, Three, were the primary sponsors of both major international sports teams in Ireland. Through exploring sponsorship campaigns Three commissioned for the Republic of Ireland international football (soccer) team and the Ireland international rugby union team, this project will expound on both the contextually specific nuances and wider international significance of the contemporary commercial leverage of the sport-nation nexus. Thus, it incorporates a variety of perspectives on Irish cultural studies and sports studies in order to shed light on the factors which shaped the production and reception of each campaign. In addition, the cultural and commercial significance of both campaigns are placed within a wider international context with a view to illustrating the distinct potential of sport as a vehicle for commercial expressions of national identity. Perspectives on nationalism are drawn from in order to illustrate a rough spectrum of modern nationalism and identify the significant place of sport on this spectrum, and its subsequent appeal and significance for both advertisers and wider society. This is contextualised through the concept of digital cultural nationalism which is employed to illustrate the curious position of national identity with regard to public expression and commercial use in much of the contemporary western world. In addition to in-depth textual analysis of sponsorship campaign material (televised ads, supplementary videos, press releases, etc.), the data involves interviews with figures from each of the key parties involved in sport sponsorship; advertisers, sponsor officials, sport governing body officials and fans of each team. This is supplemented by analysis of social media reaction to both campaigns and audience survey data gathered after screenings of the campaigns’ main televised ads. viii Introduction In 2014 Three Ireland, the Irish branch of telecommunications multi-national Three, completed the takeover of rival phone services provider, O2, having announced their intention to do so in June 2013. This transaction not only cemented Three’s place as one of the top telecommunications brands in Ireland, but also placed the brand in the unusual position of being the primary sponsor of both major international sports teams in the country: the Republic of Ireland football (soccer) team and the Ireland rugby team.1 This is an occurrence that is relatively rare across the range of national sporting markets, and it left Three with what was simultaneously an opportunity and a dilemma. Namely, the brand had double the opportunity to tap into a widespread and passionate fan base, but to accomplish this effectively, they needed to ensure that the campaigns they construct around both sports remain distinct from one another while still availing of the tropes central to the appeal of idealised depictions of sport and nationhood. This thesis was conceived with this peculiar case of dual sponsorship in mind as an ideal topic for investigation of the wider socio-cultural significances of national sport sponsorship in the modern era. As will be outlined further in subsequent sections, sport is a particularly potent symbol for national identity and this potency is all the more significant as encroaching globalisation and other developments erode the sense of stability around national identity while simultaneously fostering an anxious desire to preserve, or even champion, it. Sport sponsorship campaigns put the symbolic power of sport to use in a coherent narrative, providing a commercial balm to those anxious over national identity. Those involved in the construction of sponsorship campaigns must draw from the cultural connotations attached to both sport and national identity, but their effectiveness is to some extent dependent on obscuring their commercial motivations and resounding with the public through appeal to the emotional attachment to those connotations. Whether or not they are successful in doing this not only 1 The international football team referred to intermittently throughout this work as ‘Ireland’ represents, as the above sentence indicates, the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland. The 6 counties of Northern Ireland that remain part of the United Kingdom are represented by their own international team. The Ireland rugby team, on the other hand, represents both the Republic and the North of Ireland.