It's the next stage in the life of "brand Brian". Former rugby professional Brian O'Driscoll has launched a new website www.brianodriscoll.com where he will publish "exclusive content" for an international fanbase.
It's all part of the post-retirement business plan of the modern sportsperson – a digital marketing strategy that can sustain the recognition and appeal built up over 15 years of lining out for Leinster, Ireland and the Lions.
“The idea of the site is to align myself with a new career,” says O’Driscoll. This means “becoming a separate entity” from the teams with which he made his name.
His previous, neglected site "needed a refresh" and it made sense to create a new home for "talking about rugby and the things I like" ahead of this autumn's Rugby World Cup. The tournament is expected to spark record levels of commercial activity in the sport over six weeks, during which his highest-profile role will be as a pundit for broadcaster ITV.
Promotional style
His hope is that the new Brianodriscoll. com will attract about 100,000 monthly unique visitors, which would represent a substantial jump on the 3,000 per month that hit his old site. But he won't be "ramming it down people's throats", he says. "I'm not someone who is overly aggressive in how I promote something."
Nevertheless, O’Driscoll has been “putting a lot of time in” to the site as he bids to get the design and feel of it right. Digital marketing company iZest is taking care of the publishing, but he will be writing all of his own posts, he says. Writing is a process that still feels new to him.
Sectional interest
In a sport-themed section called "The Offload", O'Driscoll outlines "reasons to be optimistic" about Ireland's chances in the World Cup and documents how he putted with Colin Montgomerie and Tim Henman at the Open golf tournament. "I like getting an insight into how they think," he says of his encounters with professionals and ex-professionals from other sports. "You're intrigued, because you have been watching them for years."
On a more personal section of his site, inevitably titled "Life of Brian", he details his trip to Wimbledon with wife Amy Huberman, a photo gallery of what he sheepishly calls his "Blue Steel" poses and his take on New York food.
Like Huberman, O’Driscoll is adept at social media. Although “relatively new to Instagram”, he is “more comfortable” with Twitter, where he has built up 610,000 followers. “There’s a lot of fun to be had with social media,” he says. Its potential negative side has not overly affected him. “You get some people saying things you don’t like and you get a few trolls, but you develop a thick skin.”
So far, O’Driscoll (36) has not been shy of punditry offers – as well as the ITV role, he has another regular gig at BT Sport. But he’s also keen to dabble a bit more in corporate speaking. “It is something that I would say I have probably grown into,” he says.
He can talk about “creating the right team environment” for success. There is no greater sport than rugby, he believes, for learning teamwork. “You have to be absolutely selfless in rugby. We definitely understand you have to be a cog in the wheel, rather than a mé féiner.”
His other main business interest is the Ultimate Rugby app co-owned by technology entrepreneur Ray Nolan, which ranks among the crowded field of sports publishers preparing for a bumper Rugby World Cup. Asked if there are any sportspeople whose post-retirement careers he would like to emulate, he cites former England rugby player and coach Clive Woodward for his speaking work and says he admires ex-Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand for his always interesting online posts.
Blunt truth
So how does the famously nice O’Driscoll feel about delivering blunt verdicts? That’s “the difficult part”, he admits. “You are going to say something that a team mate won’t love hearing.”
But as long as the criticism is about what is happening on the pitch, not off it, he believes most players “don’t have a problem with it”. Most of them, he says, are their own worst critics.
