Ireland’s sponsorship industry, estimated to be worth around €215m a year, has a new entrant in the form of Playbook, an agency set up by sponsorship veteran James Wynne.
Headquartered in Dublin, with affiliates in London, Florida and Dubai, Playbook is offering a number of strategic advisory services for brands and rights holders as well as creative campaign development and activation.
Wynne previously worked for a number of companies including Slattery PR (now Teneo), Digicel Group and Onside. Some of the athletes and brands he has worked with include Usain Bolt, Chelsea FC, West Indies Cricket, Diageo, Coca-Cola, Allianz and Puma.
Wynne is also a director of production company, Record Media, which he co-founded with Richie Kelly. The company specialises in the creation of sports content and has produced documentaries for RTE, TG4 and France 3. Record Media will operate as the content production partner to Playbook.
“The Playbook way is focused on making sponsorship commercially accountable on all sides, delivering massive value for brands, rights holders, and the communities they serve,” says Wynne.
“The traditional sponsorship model has had its day and too often becomes an ineffective cost centre whereas, the modern structured approach to sponsorship has the potential to become a powerful driver of positive commercial outcomes for all stakeholders. With our network of international affiliates, we can ensure our advice and ideas are at the cutting edge, drawing on insights and best practice from the biggest sponsorship markets in the world. We’re excited by the fact that we can scale this from our base in Ireland.”
