Corporate & EventsAn Post × James Lowe — Fan-First Rugby Campaign
An Post partnered with Sport Endorse to deliver an engaging rugby-led social campaign, connecting James Lowe with Irish fans through authentic content and high-performing digital storytelling.
Overview
The campaign
An Post partnered with Sport Endorse to drive awareness and engagement for the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards by connecting directly with Irish rugby international James Lowe. Managed seamlessly through our digital platform.
The challenge
An Post wanted to promote the Sports Book of the Year category within the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards by reaching a highly engaged Irish sporting audience.
Rather than relying solely on traditional promotional channels, the team sought an authentic rugby personality capable of creating engaging social-first content that would generate conversation, encourage public participation, and extend the campaign's reach beyond existing book award audiences.
Finding the right athlete, coordinating campaign delivery, and managing the partnership efficiently within a tight campaign timeline required a streamlined approach.
The Sport Endorse solution
Using the Sport Endorse platform, An Post launched a campaign seeking a rugby athlete to announce the Sports Book of the Year shortlist.
The platform enabled the team to:
Publish a targeted campaign brief.
Review athlete interest through the platform.
Source and secure James Lowe for the activation.
Coordinate campaign communication and deliverables.
Manage the collaboration from briefing through campaign completion.
The resulting partnership formed part of a wider collaboration between October 2024 and February 2025, with James Lowe supporting multiple An Post rugby-related activations.
Athlete fit
James Lowe was a natural fit for the campaign.
As one of Ireland's most recognisable rugby internationals, he brought immediate credibility to a campaign centred on Irish sporting culture. His highly engaged audience aligned closely with the target demographic for the Sports Book category, while his authentic personality translated naturally into conversational, entertaining social content.
Rather than delivering a traditional advertisement, Lowe's relaxed, quiz-style presentation encouraged genuine audience engagement and reflected An Post's objective of creating content that fans would actively watch and discuss.
Deliverables
- Social media video revealing the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards Sports Book of the Year shortlist.
- Organic social media post published through James Lowe's social media channels.
- Paid social media advertisement promoted by An Post.
Results
“James & his team were a pleasure to work with from start to finish. The nature of our content idea was a 'quiz' which put him on the spot at times and he was a great sport about it. The video turned out excellently and the performance of the ad from a paid point of view was the strongest of all our influencer ads in the campaign (we used 5 other influencers). James has a strong following and they are very engaged users — he got a great reaction to his post, people commenting and conversing underneath it and the retention rate on the video was way above benchmark. We were very happy with our decision to work with him & would recommend him for brands who are interested.”— Lauren Murphy, Social Media Manager, An Post
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