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Ireland’s historic Grand Slam win in Twickenham may have proved to be the icing on the cake for TV3 in its inaugural year as the new Irish home of Six Nations rugby but the various social media platforms were alight throughout the day according to research carried out by The Brand Fans and Engager in the aftermath of the big game.
On March 17th 2018 between 10am and 10pm, The Brand Fans in partnership with Engager monitored social media activity for rugby in Ireland. According to their findings, there were 22,022 mentions of rugby hashtags and keywords during this period. 11,970 of these were original mentions reaching a potential audience of 19,700,373. In addition, 11,956 unique profiles made a total of 10,052 re-shares spreading the mentions to an additional 32,223,561 people.
Social mentions peaked at full time and the IRFU’s Grand Slam winning post was the most popular of the day with 4,557 retweets. The post with the most reach came from @WWESheamus with over 4.9m.
Of the 22,022 mentions analysed, approximately 7,252 mentions (33%) were positive, and 715 mentions (3%) were negative. Some 14,055 mentions (64%) were classified as neutral. Not surprisingly, Eddie Jones’  ‘Scummy Irish’ comments featured strongly in the negative mentions! 25-34 year olds were the most active at 42% with 35-44 year olds at 29%.
The top influencer, was The Irish Times with 425,126 followers and an influencer score of 92 followed by Irish Rugby, with a score of 91. AerLingus, Leinster, Munster and TV3 also feature in the top 10 influencers.
In terms of sponsors, Vodafone was the most mentioned sponsor with 3,069 mentions of #teamofus during the day.  Aer Lingus had the most spread post of the day. ‘It’s a Green Slam’ spread to 3,844,137 additional people.
“Ireland’s Grand Slam win at Twickenham on Saturday is likely to have attracted close to 1m viewers for TV3 but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Our social media analysis shows the true reach and impact that Irish Rugby is having on audiences through traditional and second screen media,” says Daragh Persse, managing director of The Brand Fans, the sponsorship and brand engagement specialists.
“With 18 months to go until the World Cup, there is great momentum behind Irish Rugby. Ireland have had enormous success on the pitch but the sport is clearly proving to be a very impactful platform for sponsors, media owners and social influencers – long may it continue,” he says.
