Online branded content is pretty common in Ireland, Irish content is generally overshadowed by global brands like Red bull, Beats, Nike and Adidas but this is the first time an Irish brand has created, produced and broadcast its own long-form content on TV without paying for the air time, with the broadcaster TV3 selling ad space in AIB's content.

Product placement/over-branding throughout the show was heavily restricted, but the voiceover at the beginning of the show explained the reason for the show "To test their own theory that the Club championships are 'the toughest of them all', AIB invited 4 athletes to swap lives".

Idents at the opening and after each commercial break carried the message "#TheToughest presents - The Toughest Trade" so the audience knew this was part of AIB's campaign.

The Toughest Trade was an original idea that AIB created and produced themselves. Working out the format and the plot points and then taking to TV stations to look for air dates.

This meant they kept editorial control and could release teaser content before, during and after the show.

Professional sports backed by global brand sponsorships were dominating the sports pages and sporting conversations in Ireland.

The recent recession in Ireland meant that Allied Irish Banks hadn't spent any money on activating their sponsorship of the GAA Hurling and Football Club championships - 7 years of silence left AIB with a sponsorship that nobody knew or cared about. They weren't even in the top 20 sports sponsorships in Ireland AIB sponsorship.

We had to increase the appeal of the sponsorship and put the AIB GAA club championships back in Irish sporting conversations and back on the sports pages. We had to get Irish people to take fresh look at these culturally important games that have been around for thousands of years and in the process make AIB’s customers feel more positive toward AIB. A bank that many people blamed for the financial crisis.

So AIB invited 2 pampered professionals to swap lives with 2 Irish amateurs.

Supercars were swapped for hatchbacks, Rest and recovery for day jobs and cold, hard cash for the love and respect the local community.

Ireland watched as the professionals discovered why AIB call it "The toughest" and the amateurs showed off their fitness and skills at Sunderland FC (English Premiership) and Miami Marlins (Major League Baseball).

As soon as filming began, teaser-content was shared online. A buzz was created for 3 weeks before the air-date with a social team sharing extra content and intensively engaging with viewers before during and after the 60 minute documentary.

It was an authentic documentary - So branding was used at the start of the show and after each commercial break. At the beginning, the voiceover explained that that TV show was an AIB initiative to test their theory (positioning) that GAA hurling and football were the toughest.

Our real-time social content strategy sat at the core of the success of #TheToughest Trade Campaign.

TV3 used traditional TV promos, but AIB used PR and a strong social media strategy to generate awareness and conversation by sharing teaser content as soon as we started shooting.

The original content drove high levels of conversation and debate amongst football, soccer and GAA fans - before, during and after the air date.

This meant the 60 minutes of air-time gave AIB 5 weeks of social content, peaking during the 60 minute air-time, with a team on hand to engage with our audience.

AIB's sponsorship of the GAA club championships was independently recognised as the most popular sports sponsorship in Ireland, ahead of the much heavier spending Guinness Rugby, 3mobile soccer and Heineken Rugby.

The sponsorship has improved perceptions of AIB amongst those aware, with 55%* indicating that they think better of AIB and have significantly more trust in the brand (+6%*) – both of which are extremely positive outcomes considering that the general public felt that AIB was largely to blame for the financial collapse in Ireland in 2008. (* 2015 Brand Tracking conducted by Millward Brown Lansdowne)

The TV show and additional content generated €2.9million in earned media.

The teaser content got 1.3 million views and 5 million page impressions ( in a population of 4.5million)

The social team generated 70,000 engagements while the show was on air, more than their busiest month.

On March 12th the AIB GAA Club Championships made history with #TheToughestTrade by being the most watched sports documentary TV3 had ever aired. Over 327,000 people tuned in to watch #TheToughestTrade with three show related trends occupying the top Twitter trends, including #TheToughestTrade which trended for 48hours after the airing.

International, professional sports were overshadowing the amateur and local AIB GAA Club Championships. So AIB invited David Bentley (English Premiership) and Brian Schneider (Major league baseball) to swap lives with two amateur GAA players.

In The Toughest Trade, a branded content TV show created, produced by AIB, two professionals showed Irish people exactly how tough it is to be an amateur elite athlete while the Irish amateurs proved they had fitness and skills that would shine in professional environments.

The idea worked and AIB showed the truth behind their "toughest of them all" message in an authentic way.

TV3 aired the show for free and AIB employed a 5-week social strategy to share teaser content and engaged viewers on the night and after the show.

So the conversation dominated social media for 5 weeks, not just the 60 minutes air-time.