‘Celebration Of The Best 80 Minutes On Grass’: Budget Direct’s Jonathan Kerr Tells All On Its Sprawling NRL Sponsorship Deals

Budget Direct has been very busy this NRL off season. Rather than simply sponsoring one NRL team, the insurer has penned deals with three major clubs—the Perth Bears, South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Melbourne Storm—giving it unparalleled brand exposure through shirt sponsorships.

It was not three months ago that the insurance  brand only was a major sponsor of one NRL club. With these new deals, plus an upgraded Dolphins sponsorship, the insurer has a presence in each of the league’s main states. What’s more, Budget Direct is the sleeve sponsor for all these teams, giving the brand a level of consistency and nearly omnipresent exposure through the league.

It’s a unique approach pioneered by chief growth officer Jonathan Kerr.

“I was surprised that nobody had ever done what we are doing, which is having the same actual property on all teams,” Kerr told B&T.

“If you know anything about NRL, you know that it’s shot from the side. And so the most prominent logo position is the sleeve.”

While the sleeve might be the most prominent sponsorship spot in the NRL, some Victorians might question why Budget Direct has opted to go so big on rugby league, rather than the AFL.

“We know that the NRL is really moving through the ranks to be the number one sport. When you add in WA, it will obviously start to progress into clear number one,” he said.

“It’s got a really wonderful combination. It’s the demographic of people who are turning up to the games, it’s really become a family sport. And it’s without doubt, the most coherent, fastest, and best 80 minutes on grass in Australia. It also generates one of the only growing audiences in Australia, and it actually does that still on free to air and on SVOD and BVOD.”

“[AFL] a sport that is extraordinarily long to watch,” said Kerr, “and it does have a very, very, very significant lean towards just one state. And we really wanted a nationwide strategy.”

Dolphins

As mentioned before, Budget Direct has doubled down with its sponsorship with the Dolphins, becoming the principal partner. Four years ago, the insurer picked up the sleeves sponsor, becoming the club’s biggest supporter, rallying behind the team before its inaugural season.

Per the upgraded sponsorship, Budget Direct will now feature on the premium front position of the 2026 jersey, while also continuing with its sleeves branding on the Dolphins’ playing kit.

Kerr said the expanded partnership was a “natural evolution” and that the Dolphins were “incredibly easy to work with”. It’s also the first time in 15 years a side has had a logo on the front and sleeve of a team’s jersey.

One thing NRL fans have loved about this partnership so far is the hilarious Dwyane Bennet, the Dolphins’ very own chief phin-spiration officer—a die-hard fan who appears across its socials and marketing collateral.

Budget Direct deployed Bennett four years ago to help build hype around the club. The campaign’s goal was to bring the energy and fire up the team all season long. Whether it’s game day or any day, the so-called cousin of one of the greatest ever NRL coaches had a simple task: “living and breathing Dolphins footy.”

Lifting the lid on the plans of the second most famous Bennett, Kerr said, “he could not be more committed, he could not be more excited, and he won’t rest until the Dolphins bring home a premiership.”

He has already made his presence known before the upcoming 2026 season has even began, adding a sprinkle of his signature humour to the principal partner announcement.

Melbourne Storm

Last month, Budget Direct announced it had become the Melbourne Storm’s first and only platinum partner.

The sponsorship sees the Budget Direct logo on jersey sleeves, apparel, training ball and signage, as well as community support initiatives and several still under-wraps sponsorship concepts.

Budget Direct also saw a chance to launch the partnership with an irony-twinged campaign, mimicking AFL guernseys to “get on the radar of Victorians,” said Kerr.

“We’re going to get behind this team like they’ve never experienced before. So how can we create a point of difference? And so we put together this fun campaign of launching a sleeveless jersey for the sleeve sponsor, and it was massive for us. And it just shows that we turn up differently,” explained Kerr.

Unfortunately, we won’t get to see the Storm run out in the guernsey, with Kerr confirming, “it’s actually against the NRL rules… you have to have sleeves”.

The Storm is an interesting team. AFL is Victoria’s favourite sport but the Storm has consistently been one of the most successful in the NRL. Its success has not been without controversy, either with rival fans taking umbrage following its salary cap scandal and controversial wrestling techniques in the ruck.

Kerr, however, saw this as an opportunity. “One of the things that’s very attractive to us about the Melbourne Storm is that they’re the ultimate challenger brand, just like Budget Direct,” he said.

“Every single person in Victoria supports the Storm, and everybody in Victoria supports one of 12 different teams [in the AFL]. That would be an incredibly inefficient way to address a whole state. You’ll notice that for two of our teams, there’s only one team in the state, which means that you get the whole state behind it.”

South Sydney Rabbitohs

Earlier this month, Budget Direct took its place in the highly competitive Sydney NRL market, inking a three year deal with the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

“Sydney is a challenging market… it’s like the situation that AFL has in Victoria, because it has so many teams,” said Kerr.

But the Rabbitohs status as a founding member of the league presented an opportunity.

“Let’s take the OG, let’s take the most iconic brand in terms of time and history and narrative arc,” said Kerr.

The Bunnies has one of the richest narratives in the league, too, offering a chance to do the sponsorship differently, Kerr said.

Another factor to why Budget Direct identified the cardinal and myrtle as the best team to sponsor in NSW is because of its famous supporter base—“the stretch of their fan base, both in New South Wales and then nationwide, is second to none,” said Kerr.

“But let’s face it, everybody’s second favourite team is the Rabbitohs.”

There is a running joke in Australia, that no matter what sporting event you go to, you will always run into a random Souths supporter. This has even resulted in a dedicated Instagram account showing all the Rabbitohs fans that show up at events they shouldn’t.

Perth Bears

Completing Budget Direct’s suite of NRL sponsorships is its Perth Bears deal. In fact, Kerr was so keen to get on board with the only Western Australian team that Budget Direct became the club’s first major commercial partnership, almost a year and a half before the side announces itself in the NRL.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity and an honour to be part of another day one storyline, and then also help them with the knowledge that we’ve got, having been there for the Dolphins. And it’s a wonderful, symbiotic relationship,” Kerr said on the Bears partnership.

The nascent Bears has been attracting a lot of media attention, lending some extra earned media mileage to Budget Direct’s partnership.

“There’s a lot of chat about whether or not they’re going to make it or not… and that’s the point,” explained Kerr.

Budget Direct will be leveraging its knowledge it gained with the Dolphins (the most recent club to be introduced to the NRL) to help rally support around the Bears.

“We look forward to having a real platform in the fastest and biggest sport in Australia,” said Kerr.

“Getting to the four teams has been like an overnight success that took forever. It’s a platform element within our [marketing] mix. And our mix absolutely follows where the eyeballs are….party, where the party’s at, not where you want it to be.”

And party on we will.