From Ladyball to Croke Park, Lidl’s Katie Taylor partnership shows how a decade-long commitment to women’s sport can create impact on the biggest stage.
Katie Taylor’s final professional fight at Croke Park was always going to be a major moment in Irish sport. On 5th September, more than 83,000 fans watched Taylor defeat Flora Pili and finish her career as a three-time undisputed world champion. At home, the fight reached an even bigger audience, with RTÉ2 recording a peak audience of 1.6m and a further 552k streams on RTÉ Player. Across Matchroom and DAZN Boxing’s social channels, the event generated almost 95m video views and more than 150m social impressions.
Lidl Ireland was the Title Event Partner, but what made the partnership stand out was the amount of activity built around the sponsorship. Rather than relying solely on branding around the fight itself, Lidl created a presence across broadcast, radio, retail, digital and fan engagement.
A major part of this was its media partnership with RTÉ, which covered the live broadcast across RTÉ2, RTÉ Player and 2FM, alongside the press conference, weigh-in and digital takeovers on RTÉ.ie. Radio broadcasts were also brought directly into Lidl stores in Bray and Ballybough during fight week. The locations were particularly relevant: Bray is where Taylor grew up, while Ballybough is just minutes from Croke Park.
That local connection was taken even further through Lidl’s Bray store, which was temporarily transformed around the fight and celebrated Taylor’s career. It's a good example of how a national sponsorship can be made to feel personal and local, particularly when the athlete has such a strong connection to the community.
Lidl also created ‘In Katie’s Corner’, giving fans the opportunity to buy limited-edition boxing shorts, with all proceeds going to Family Carers Ireland. This added another layer to the partnership, turning it into something fans could actively participate in.
Lidl has spent the last decade building a clear platform around women’s sport through its partnership with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA). Beginning in 2016, the relationship has now been extended to 2030, taking Lidl’s total investment in women’s Gaelic football to €22.5 million. Earlier this year, the brand launched its ‘Greatness Deserves to Be Seen’ campaign, using its own ad space to give greater visibility to LGFA players and moments from the game. The campaign generated more than 12 million views.
That commitment has also been about challenging how women’s sport is perceived. When Lidl and the LGFA launched their ‘Ladyball’ campaign in 2016, the deliberately stereotypical pink product was designed to provoke a conversation about the way women’s sport was marketed and treated. The campaign went viral, creating significant discussion around sexism and the perception of women’s sport. That makes Katie Taylor a particularly natural fit for Lidl, with her own journey reflecting just how far women’s sport has come. When Taylor started boxing, women’s boxing was not sanctioned in Ireland and she has spoken openly about having to pretend to be a boy to get fights, entering competitions under the name ‘K Taylor’.
Fast forward to 2026 and Taylor is walking out in front of over 80,000 people at Croke Park for the final fight of one of the most significant sporting careers Ireland has produced. For a brand that has spent a decade arguing that women’s sporting achievement deserves greater visibility, it's difficult to find a more fitting moment.
There was, however, a lesson around the execution. As Taylor celebrated her final victory, she placed her gloves in the centre of the ring, directly on top of a large Lidl logo. While this created an extremely memorable brand moment, it also attracted criticism from some fans who felt the branding distracted from an emotional moment that belonged to Taylor. It goes to show that visibility has to be carefully balanced with context - being at the centre of a moment doesn't always mean putting the brand at the literal centre of it.
As the curtain comes down on one of Ireland’s greatest sporting careers, Lidl’s decade-long commitment to making women’s sport more visible was reinforced on the biggest stage. From challenging outdated perceptions through Ladyball, to investing in grassroots Gaelic football, supporting players through its own media channels and ultimately standing alongside Katie Taylor at Croke Park, Lidl has consistently used retail, charity, broadcast and social activation to put women’s sport in front of the Irish public.
The Katie Taylor partnership was the culmination of a platform Lidl has been building for ten years - from backing young Irish girls at grassroots level to celebrating Katie Taylor on the grandest stage. And that consistency is ultimately what makes this such a strong example of long-term sponsorship done well.
