Noel Quinn: The Donegal man who is head of Marketing and Broadcast in Croke Park

Just before Christmas Croke Park announced a major expansion of the broadcasting of GAA games during the forthcoming Championship and Tailteann Cup with GAAGO set to broadcast 38 exclusive games.

GAAGO has been part of the broadcast scene for eight years and a Donegal man has been at its forefront for that time.
Noel Quinn, a native of Portnoo, has been part of the furniture in Croke Park since 2007 and is presently head of Marketing and Broadcast.

Initially he worked on the Association's brand audit and new identity roll-out in 2007 he took up the position of Sponsorship Executive in May 2008.

From 2011 he assumed a Business Development role focusing on new business opportunities within both Croke Park Stadium and the wider sports marketing area. Later he would become Media Rights Manager and it was then that he was at the forefront of the arrival of GAAGO, which allowed the Irish Diaspora the opportunity to view the championship games live in their own sittingrooms all over the world.

Now as Head of Marketing and Broadcast, Noel Quinn is responsible for the Association's national marketing and promotional strategy (research, creative ideation and media buying), acting as the GAA brand custodian and negotiating all commercial broadcast agreements across TV, OTT and radio.”

The recently announced expansion of the GAAGO brand comes directly after the GAA deal with Sky TV came to an end.

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NEW DEAL
The new deal will see an expansion into the home market for GAAGO, but it will not affect the market abroad.

“We will carry on internationally as we have done for the last eight or nine years. But we are scaling up now. We have hired a full-time match producer, who will do the live shows,” said Quinn.

There is also a full presentation team which will include our own Michael Murphy, who will be one of the analysts.
Scotstown-native Gráinne McElwain will anchor the pre-match, half-time and post-match discussion and Michael Murphy will be joined by Marc Ó Sé of Kerry and Dublin’s Paddy Andrews. Live hurling match analysis will come from Limerick’s Séamus Hickey, Kilkenny’s Tommy Walsh and Eoin Cadogan of Cork. Quinn is aware of the impact that streaming games live has for the Association.

“Broadcast is the quickest base way for us to promote our games. Because hundreds of thousands can watch it on TV. And at the same time, next year’s championship is an example, including provincial and All-Ireland series games there’s over 100 games there but nowhere near that will be broadcast, specifically because we have made a call in Croke Park that we still have to encourage people to attend games.

“Like, what we don’t want is to become a broadcast sport like golf. I would be a golfer myself and golf is better watched on television at home, or rugby. People would prefer to watch rugby at home and listen to the broadcast. We don’t want that to happen in the GAA. So we have to strike that balance between trying to sell tickets and get people to attend, like the Donegal v Kerry game in Ballybofey and balance that with getting a good viewership. We are a participatory association and we would like people to go to the games first.”

BUSY SCHEDULE
The Donegal man has a busy schedule but at the moment he has most of his weekends free and you could find him at any Donegal match.

Married to Denise Cassidy from Dunkineely, his two young daughters are beginning camogie careers with Na Fianna, not far from Croke Park. “There is no Dublin gear in the house yet. There is plenty of Donegal stuff and Na Fianna gear and some Naomh Ultan tops that granddad has sent down too,” says Quinn.
“When I started, there were definitely off-season periods. We were May to September but with the split season now and because club has become so popular from a broadcasting and marketing perspective, it has become a full year job.

“It is very busy now in Croke Park and GAAGO has another campus on RTÉ,” said Quinn, who said most of his work is done during the week. “Most of the planning and logistics take place from Monday to Friday. On the weekends, if you get a call it’s because you are needed to solve something. In the past when I was involved in sponsorship there was weekend work but the current role is in more long-term strategic planning and day to day stuff.”

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