page_title: O2 (brand)
section_title: Sponsorship
hierarchical_section_title: O2 (brand) / Marketing / Sponsorship
caption_attribution_description: O2 Rugby Advert (from flickr)
context_page_description: O2 is a global brand name owned by the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica. The company uses the O2 brand for its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Germany. Since 2018, it is also used as a secondary brand in Spain.
  Formerly, all European branches of Telefónica were managed by Telefónica Europe plc, a broadband and telecommunications company. The company originated as a collection of worldwide telecommunications companies, known in the later half of the 1990s as BT Wireless, and a global mobile data business known then as Genie Internet, both subsidiaries of British Telecommunications. As part of a reorganisation of Telefónica in 2014, Telefónica Europe's holdings and operations became direct subsidiaries of its parent: Telefónica S.A.
  Telefónica Europe provided mobile telephony operations in the United Kingdom and Germany, and licensed its brand to former operations in Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. O2 has additionally established a joint venture with Tesco Mobile in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in Slovakia, and the Tchibo Mobilfunk network in Germany.
context_section_description: O2 currently sponsor the England rugby team, and in 2003 launched a mobile video service allowing customers to download or stream video content related to the 2003 Rugby World Cup. In 2005, Telefónica O2 extended their involvement in rugby union,  signing a new deal with the England rugby team and the Rugby Football Union, as well as O2 rugbyclass and Premier Rugby Ltd for the English Premiership.
  Telefónica O2 also had a long-standing relationship with Arsenal F.C., being their shirt sponsor until the start of the 2006/07 Premiership season. In 2005, a three-year deal was signed that saw Telefónica O2 become the team's exclusive Mobile Communications Partner.
  From 2005 to 2008, O2 sponsored the Wireless Festival, a music festival held annually in London (and near Leeds in 2006 and 2007).
  Telefónica O2 was the sponsor of the Cork GAA Football and Hurling teams and the Irish rugby team. The partnership with Irish rugby went interactive in 2006, when Ireland fans were offered access to daily updates from head coach Eddie O'Sullivan. In 2009, O2 launched their 'BeTheDifference' integrated advertising campaign where fans had the chance to have their names included on the O2 Rugby posters and on the Irish Rugby players' jerseys. The integrated campaign was created by O2's two Irish advertising agencies: McConnells (above-the-line) and Brando (below-the-line). The interactive campaign won an award at the 2009 Kinsale Sharks.
caption: An O2 Irish rugby union advertisement
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