Ben Goodale: Sports marketing expert on why INEOS tried to greenwash the All Blacks

New Zealand Rugby has launched legal action against INEOS - believing the petrochemical company has breached its sponsorship deal.

London's Telegraph reports INEOS failed to pay the first instalment of 2025 to New Zealand Rugby - at the halfway point of a six year deal to sponsor the Teams in Black, including the All Blacks.

A statement released by NZR says they view the non-payment as INEOS exiting the six-year agreement early and have "no option" but to launch legal proceedings.

The deal is worth eight million dollars a year to NZR - leaving a big financial shortfall to fill at short notice.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcie Waldergrave
from news Talk ZEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joined now by Ben good Ale. He's the CEO of
the marketing agency Quantum Jump. Good evening, Ben, Darcy. Great
to be and thanks very much for joining us. This
situation between I can only presume a rather irate Sir
Jim Ratcliffe, his massive company Ineos and n zaid are well,
that's reached quite their head. I want to look at

(00:35):
it from a marketing point of view. First up, what
does anyos stand to gain by having their names on
the backsides of the All Blacks? Ineos is not exactly
a brand that we all go out and buy tomorrow.
So why the All Blacks and what do they get?

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Well, I guess the All Blacks are globally seen as
a brand of excellence. You know, they are peak athletes,
They are coached perfection most of time, and they you know,
they glow, they have seen you know that they are
par excellaunce. So if you're gonna, you know, try and
marry up with a brand like that, you know, whether

(01:14):
you're Annios, PEPSI, you know, IBM, whoever, you know they
if you want to lean into that those brand attributes
the all Blacks are perfect.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, but we know IBM and we can go out
and buy IBM product. We know peeps, we can go
and buy PEPSI go and buy an Nios.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
I know, I mean, I guess, yeah, you don't, you
don't really go by I mean, but also you know
why is he why why what does have a team
of the America's Cup And you know, I mean we
know why it's get what. We know why it's got
involved in Manchester United because he's a lifelong fan and
that's a real passion play. But I guess if you
think about look at it another way that the because

(01:54):
of what we all black stand for, they can the
those attributes that that they have when and he also
may be talking internally to their teams. You know, you
imagine an all marketing point of view, and we know
why if we partner would be all Blacks because they're
about you know, great teamwork, great team spirit, cutting edge
use of medical science, whatever you want to go into,

(02:17):
and that you know, there's great storytelling that they can
bring those all black stories through and say that's why
we're partnering with them. And so even internally and then
maybe when they're talking about business partnerships between inios and
industry partners Again, they can bring most other attributes through,
so you know, and he's not the money. So I mean,

(02:38):
you're right, you can't go and buy an inios, but
sometimes brands you can't buy a sponsoring a sponsoring teams
as well.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
It has not aimed at the great hand wash saying
go and buy and any as as I ye, he
was a bit of fun when I said there. It's
more aimed the bigger section, more as I suppose cut
through at an international corporate level. We're the name behind
the All Blacks.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
You listen to us, yeah, yeah, And also I mean
the other aspect and it came up when the deal
was originally done and is probably part of how this
has led to the today's news is. But you know,
there's an arguably you could say there's a bit of
green washing going on around you know, New Zealand, Clean Green,
great reputation globally for that. The All Black's very much

(03:22):
participant in that any of us. You know, it's a
petrochemical company, plastics, it's you know, it's industrial and there's
a bit of a disconnect there. So I know, at
the time there was a lot of debate about why
why were the All Blacks doing it? Why were they
Reunion getting into bed with a company that was in

(03:43):
you know, maybe potentially from a values point of view,
not so aligned. But you can see why they would
want to do it because it shows that they they
are aligning with a very wholesome brand and you know,
the New Zealand's brand globally as being you know, a green,
perfect country.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
How hard is it going to be forends ed are
to actually replace this money? Well, it's going to tell
years to get it, isn't it. And once the wheels
are in motion, what next?

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well they got two propers. First of all, I wouldn't
fancy taking on gym cliff in the legal stash and
the other you're right, I mean they but it was
interesting because it did raise eyebrows when they went with it,
and you would think that there would be other brands
globally who would love to sponsor the All Blacks, and
so I mean they do. It was interesting why they

(04:33):
you know, why do they go in your time? And
maybe they were presumably they were the highest bidder, and
it's hard to believe they didn't have other options, but
maybe the duration of the term because what was it
six years at what was it? Was it eight million
a year that they But regardless of that, you know,
the I would have thought they can replace it. It's

(04:56):
just replacing at a drop of a hat is harder.
You know, it's you know, is it a fire sale
they're going to have to do.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
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