The document is an audit of Leinster Rugby Club's online marketing activities. It includes a brand health check comparing Leinster to Munster Rugby Club, development of two online personas, and a recommendation to utilize live streaming video on Periscope to appeal to modern audiences.

1. “Audit of the current effectiveness of online marketing
activities used by Leinster Rugby Club.”
Photo leinsterrugby.ie - 2016

2. Student Name - Robert Joyce
Student Number 16123972
Student email address robertjoyce789@gmail.com
Date 24 - October - 2016
Submitted to Eva Perez
Word Count 1153

3. Contents
1. Introduction
2. Task 1
3. Task 2
4. Task 3
5. References

4. 1. Introduction
I have chosen Leinster Rugby club as the brand for this assignment. I am an avid rugby fan at club level. I was also a season
ticket holder for seasons 2013, 2015 and 2016/17 with Leinster Rugby. I am a patron of the IRFU supporters club and I also have
previously contributed to my former clubs social media portfolio in Zaragoza, Spain.(See Ibero Club de Rugby)
My aims with this project is to carry out a current social media brand health check, comparing Leinster’s online Presence with
their competitors Munster Rugby Club. Issue a SWOT analysis of their online marketing activities. Develop two online personas of
various sub-segments according to income. Finally evaluate the effectiveness of the Leinster brand online and suggest a new
development or communication technique that will appeal to one the selected online personas.

5. 2. Task 1
▪ Online brand health check
▪ Online SWOT
▪ SWOT options , analyse your previous tools and uncover opportunities for this brand

6. 1.1 Online Brand Health Check 0 - Totally Dissatisfied
2 - Neutral
3 - Somewhat Satisfied
- References
- 1- Facebook-LeinsterRugby
- 2- Twitter-Leinster Rugby
- 3- Instragram - Leinster Rugby
- 4- LinkedIn-LeinsterRugby
- 5 YouTube - LeinsterRugby
- 6 Social Bakers- Leinster Rugby
Brand Health
Check : Leinster V
Munster - Sat 22nd
Oct - 2016 4 - Very Satisfied
Criteria Tools to Check Leinster Munster
In comparison to the
competition, rate your
satisfaction about your
brand for each of the 9
criteria in a scale from 0
to 4
Reach
1 Facebook Fan Count (1) Facebook 177933 109570 5
2 Twitter Follower Count (2) Twitter 179000 166000 4
3 Instagram Follower Count (3) Instagram 61100 28700 5
4 LinkedIn In Follower Count (4) LinkedIn 3340 4657 3
5 YouTube Subscriber Count (5) YouTube 5642 3884 4
Quality of Audience
4 % of Local Fans on Facebook (6)
https://www.socialbakers.com/
statistics/facebook/pages/detail/
25793755239-leinster-rugby?
country=ireland
111438 =
62 %
78398 =
72 % 3
Engagement
5 Facebook Engagement Rate
FBER = (No of Interactions on last 5
posts / Total Fans) X 100% 4412 9315 3
6 Twitter Engagement Rate
TWER = (No of Interactions on last 5
tweets / Total Followers) X 100% 140 84 3
8 Instagram Engagement Rate 6510 10534
7 Share of Voice
8
No of relevant results for a brand search on
Google Blog Search (within top 20 links) Google Blog Search 20 17 5
No of @Mentions during last 48 Hours Twitter Search 10 6 4
9 Sentiment
% of 'Negative Sentiments' in brand mentions
Last 10 @ Mentions of Twitter and
Last 10 comments on Facebook 0 3 5

7. 7 -( LeinsterRugby.ie - School & Club Media Guidelines - Emla Beirne - 2016)

8. • Digital Marketing Intern
• Degree in International Business & Languages
• Single
• Male
• 24
• Income: < € 20,000
• Suburban - Clontarf - Dublin
• Outgoing Personality
• Very Active on Social Media
• Acts as an Advocate within his social circle for brands.
3. Task 2. Online Persona 1. James O´Connell
Background
Identifiers
Demographics
8 - ( Persona Layout by - HubSpot - Pamela Vaughan - 2015)

9. • Gain full time employment.
• Run the Dublin Marathon
• Finding Tickets for International Games
• Fitting in Time to attend matches between work, social life etc.
• Offer James a discounted Season ticket at a student rate.
Real Quotes
“ If you can dream it, you can do it”.
Common Objections
“ I am more interested in attending
International Rugby Matches”.
Goals
Challenges
What can we Do ?

10. Marketing Message
• “Every Season has a Story” - We will offer
James a discounted Season Ticket with
included benefits if purchased before
September.
Elevator Pitch
“ Entry to 11 home games in the Guinness PRO12 in
the RDS Arena and Aviva Stadium”.
• Entry to 3 home Champions Cup pool matches in
the RDS Arena and Aviva Stadium
• Entry to all home pool matches in the British &
Irish Cup

11. 3. Task 2. Online Persona 2. Mick Dawson
• Chairman Davy Stockbrokers
• Married
• 4 Kids
• Male
• 55
• Income: > € 80,000
• Suburban
• Enthusiastic, Diligent, Committed to his
brief
• Active on LinkedIn, Twitter & Email.
8 - ( Persona Layout by - HubSpot - Pamela Vaughan - 2015)

12. Goals
• Grow his company internally.
• Represent his local rugby club as Chairman to the top Irish league.
Challenges
• Growing Online Popularity for his Local Rugby Club “ Lansdowne
RFC”.
What can we Do ?
• Offer Mick’s local club an online partnership with Leinster via their
Blog, Twitter & Facebook to attract attention. Offer the club discounted
Junior and School Boy Tickets to Leinster Matches.
Real Quotes
• “ It is my responsibly to attract young
players and grow Lansdowne RFC’s
online presence. ”.
Common Objections
• “ I often find it difficult to attract new
fans of the page locally. It’s really hit or
miss ”.

13. Marketing Message
“ Our Social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook
are useful tools which allow clubs to communicate
information with supporters in an immediate and succinct
manner. ”
Elevator Pitch
• “ We can Maximise your local press and club
news via the Leinster Rugby channels Website
and popular social media channels “.

14. 4. Task 3
3. Conclude from your research and recommend online communications techniques this brand can use to appeal to persona 1
or 2 or both.
From the findings of this project. We can see that Leinster Rugby Club has a strong online presence compared to rivals such as
Munster Rugby Club. Facebook being their strongest social media platform has a follower count of almost 180,000 fans. 62 % of
the fan-base is local from the Republic of Ireland. Their engagement rate is very high with the last five posts receiving over 5000
interactions. The Leinster Rugby search Engine ranking is very strong with 20 / 20 relevant results from a Google brand search.
The brand health check proved very strong and the club should continue monitoring new developments.
9 (Leinster Rugby - Google - 2016 )
As a recommendation to appeal to both of the two online personas. I would recommend utilising a live video feed such as
Periscope. Periscope is a live video steaming app for iOS and android acquired by twitter in 2015. Periscope could allow Leinster
rugby fans and followers around the world to provide insights into the daily life of the club, pre-match and in match actives and
direct interaction with the players. According to thinkwithgoogle.com they state that now 47 % of millennials now watch less TV
compared to adults over the age of 35. The insights also show consumers are spending more time on more devices with more
focus and passion for online video than ever. Over 85 % of adults aged between 18-49 use multiple devices at the same time
while they are watching TV. I
10 ( thinkwithgoogle.com - Celie O’Neil-Hart - Howard Blumenstein - 2016)

15. 5. References
1. facebook.com - Leinster Rugby https://www.facebook.com/leinsterrugby/ - Date Accessed 18 October 2016
2. twitter.com - Leinster Rugby https://twitter.com/leinsterrugby?lang=en-gb - Date Accessed 18 October 2016
3. instagram.com - Leinster Rugby https://www.instagram.com/leinsterrugby/?hl=en - Date Accessed 19 October 2016
4. LinkedIn.com - Leinster Rugby https://www.linkedin.com/company/3322205?
trk=tyah&trkInfo=clickedVertical:company,clickedEntityId:3322205,idx:2-1-2,tarId:1477236879652,tas:leinster rugby -
Date Accessed 19 October 2016
5. youtube.com - Leinster Rugby https://www.youtube.com/user/LeinsterrugbyTV - Date Accessed 19 October 2016
6. socialbakers.com - Leinster Rugby https://www.socialbakers.com/statistics/facebook/pages/detail/25793755239-
leinster-rugby?country=ireland - Date Accessed 20 October 2016
7. LeinsterRugby.ie - School & Club Media Guidelines - www.leinsterrugby.ie/files/downloads/
ClubandSchoolMediaGuidelines.pdf - Emla Beirne - 2016) - Date Accessed 21 October 2016

16. 8 ( Buyer Persona Layout by - HubSpot - Pamela Vaughan - 2015) - http://offers.hubspot.com/free-template-creating-
buyer-personas - Date Accessed 21 October 2016
9. google.com - Leinster Rugby - https://www.google.ie/?gws_rd=ssl#q=leinster+rugby - Date Accessed 22 October 2016
10 (Think With Google.com - Celie O’Neil-Hart - Howard Blumenstein - 2016) https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/
infographics/online-video-trends-2017-media-plan.html - Date Accessed 23 October 2016