Most marketable Irish athletes?

ecoli

Listening to a recent radio ad done by Sonia O Sullivan it got me thinking.In terms of sponsorship appeal etc who do people feel are the most marketable Irish athletes and what qualities make them marketable? Fast times? Attitude? Charisma? Success? Notoriety?

ultraman1

ecoli wrote: »

Fast times? Attitude? Charisma? Success? Notoriety?

Trr?

tang1

Ciaran O' Lionaird, has plenty of the above.

RoyMcC

I'm surprised Kelly Proper doesn't have a higher profile. Dedicated athlete, successful, good looking. A good ambassador for the sport.

drquirky

RoyMcC wrote: »

I'm surprised Kelly Proper doesn't have a higher profile. Dedicated athlete, successful, good looking. A good ambassador for the sport.

Agree but she simply isn't fast enough- her times are nowhere near pushing for any kind of euro/ international medals.

CoL obviously is pretty marketable (Nike certainly think so)

RayCun

Fionnuala Britton, maybe Derval O'Rourke. Qualification #1 is 'people can pick you out of a line up'

TRR

Ron Heffernan.

Chivito550

Heffernan easily. A world champion and a complete character.

drquirky

Chivito550 wrote: »

Heffernan easily. A world champion and a complete character.

Racewalking is potentially the least marketable "activity" in athletics by a huge margin. Hence Heffernan isn't really marketable.

irishrepeat2

drquirky wrote: »

Racewalking is potentially the least marketable "activity" in athletics by a huge margin. Hence Heffernan isn't really marketable.

attitudes are changing...

he doesnt need to be marketed for necessarily for race walking..

as other have said a character and his success is probably the most marketable among all the irish athletes..

Chivito550

drquirky wrote: »

Racewalking is potentially the least marketable "activity" in athletics by a huge margin. Hence Heffernan isn't really marketable.

The general public have as little interest in racewalking as they do 1500m. The reality is that no track and field events are of particular interest to the Irish public except the 100m. What Irish people do like however is success and somebody who is good banter. Heffernan ticks both those boxes.

drquirky

Chivito550 wrote: »

The general public have as little interest in racewalking as they do 1500m.

Disagree Chivito- your average sportsfan finds running events like the 400m, 1500m etc fun to watch and will watch if on. You'd be hard pressed to find actual sports fans who can stomach race walking.

tang1

drquirky wrote: »

Disagree Chivito- your average sportsfan finds running events like the 400m, 1500m etc fun to watch and will watch if on. You'd be hard pressed to find actual sports fans who can stomach race walking.

The average Irish sports fan wouldn't have a clue who Irelands current top 1,500m runner is though. Rob Heffernan would be marketable currently cause of his sucess in the Worlds last year.

vitani

TRR wrote: »

Ron Heffernan.

Rob's brother?

RayCun

Heffernan is at least well known, but I don't think people are going to become fans of race walking, even to the extent that people became 'fans' of the 3000 when Sonia was running, or are fans of XC when Britton is winning.
I've yet to have a single kid ask me when we were going to start race-walking training, but they fell over themselves to meet Britton and O'Rourke.

Ososlo

Ask your average friend/family member (who would only have a passing interest in athletics) to name their favourite current Irish athlete (which I've done recently) and most are hard pressed to name anyone (let alone their favourite) other than O'Rourke and Britton, and can't seem to name any current male Irish athletes except for Heffernan. So from a marketing point of view as it currently stands, I'd say Fionnuala and Heffernan. Lots there that they could push to the forefront such as Proper as has been mentioned but I guess if they're not doing the business on the international stage then it's a difficult thing to market.

YFlyer

Coghlan by far, and that be the Daddy.

notsofast

C'OL has the same type of charisma as Heffernan but while not as successful (yet) he does compete in a more marketable event (and he knows how to use social media properly).

Having said, Ireland's most recognisable athlete is Sonia which is why she is one used by he marketing folks.

Skid X

I think Jason Smyth would have an appeal - interesting backstory, his success in athletics despite being legally blind, multiple Paralympics Gold, possiblity of competing in the Olympics as well as the Paralympics etc.

Tombo2001

Fionnuala should put everything she has into winning a European track medal.

The marketing folks/ general public dont seem to excited about cross country, sadly.

One thing that adds to Fionnuala's marketability in my view is that she is very visible. if you live on the northside of Dublin, you will see her out running.

nerraw1111

Winners are marketable. Hence Heffernan and Katie Taylor. Does any of it trickle down to the second best walker/female boxers? The sport is only one element and arguably of least importance to the public.

thirstywork2

Very good topic here and I believe most runners are caught up in their own bubble and need someone to market themselves.

Yes racewalking is not popular but look at Rob's Facebook and twitter pages which he updates everyday and lets people interact.

I think both Sean & Maria could have made big money after winning Dublin but they both went back into training and didn't take abit of well deserved time out.

It's a fine line,look at Amos who won a silver in the Olympic 800m,he went and lived it up big time.From what I hear in a training camp he is struggling to keep up with the women.

Derry Mcveigh does a great job marketing Rob and I think more athletes can do the same.


Regards most marketable I think Paul Robinson,Mark English could do well.
Sarah Lavin also but track and field has little appeal to the public compared to someone winning road races/marathons.

theboyblunder

Chivito550 wrote: »

Heffernan easily. A world champion and a complete character.

great athlete and character. he is from cork though.

worse, he sounds like he is from cork