Wahl inks sponsorship deal with NRL Dolphins

Grooming brand Wahl wants to drive national awareness of its brand and products through its sponsorship deal with the NRL Dolphins.

Dolphins player Mark Nicholls, Wahl Australia and New Zealand managing director Shaun Geddes, Dolphins CEO Terry Reader and player Herbie Farnworth.

Grooming brand Wahl has signed on as the principal sponsor of the NRL Dolphins in a bid to drive national awareness of its products.

The 106-year-old US brand, that is best known for its hair clippers, will leverage the multi-year sponsorship deal to become a household name across Australia.

Wahl wants to increase awareness of its range, which includes grooming products for men, women and pets.

While it claims to be the market leader in all of its categories, it is not as universally known as competitors such as Phillips and Braun, according to Wahl Australia and New Zealand managing director Shaun Geddes.

“Wahl was the first major clipper brand in Australia and pretty much took the market by storm, because they launched originally in the professional segment,” Mr Geddes said.

“If you go to any barber who is 50 years or older they would only ever use Wahl. That’s where our tagline ‘used by professionals’ comes from.

“We grew the retail and the animal business off the back of that, and they’ve become huge businesses on their own accord.”

Mr Geddes said the objective was to become part of the Australian vernacular.

“The goal for us, is to have people understand it is not just a clipper, it’s a Wahl clipper, because we invented it,” he said.

The Dolphins’ strong fan following, which skews higher with women and families, was a key attraction for Wahls, which aimed to leverage the key demographics to boost sales. The team, Brisbane’s second NRL team which joined the competition in 2022, had also attracted a strong national following and boasted the title of “everyone’s second-favourite NRL team,” according to Mr Geddes. Wahl was using the deal to help power the growth in the grooming category, which Mr Geddes called the “groom boom”.

“There’s certainly been a boom in men taking better care of themselves,” he said. “Aussie men have become more attuned with going to a barber, and we’ve seen the rise in the barber shops that have replaced video shops in the little shopping centres over the last couple of years.”

The deal will put the brand’s logo front and centre on player jerseys and the brand has creative plans for marketing, such as game-day haircuts for players.

“There’s some horrendous haircuts on footballers these days, I think we can bring a lot to this partnership,” Mr Geddes joked.