August 20th, 2010
The Evening Herald is to feature a media marketing column starting on Wednesday, September 1st. Entitled Campaign Brief, the weekly column will provide readers with an update on industry news, including the latest campaigns, media news, product launches and goings on in adland, PR and research.
The column will be written by Michael Cullen, editor of Marketing.ie magazine.
Stephen Rae, editor, Evening Herald (pictured), said he was delighted that Michael Cullen was joining the paper. “He’ll be producing a cutting-edge column with incisive comment, analysis and the latest news,” Rae said. “It will set the agenda and be a must-read for everyone in media and marketing,” he added.
By Michael. Filed under Marketing, Print.
August 20th, 2010
TV3 is to bring an Irish version of the highly popular Come Dine With Me reality series to screens as a key part of its autumn schedule which has been announced. The show, which has proved a big audience puller for Channel 4, involves a group of people hosting and cooking for each other to win a cash prize of £1,000.
TV3 will broadcast 30 episodes of the show around the country and people will be able to apply to take part online. The series will be made for TV3 by ITV and will feature the voice-over commentary of British actor Dave Lamb, whose contribution is seen as one of the reasons the series has been so popular.
The Apprentice returns with Bill Cullen (pictured) as the one who must be obeyed, despite rumours that the businessman came close to quitting the series over the terms of a new contract. The Apprentice, You’re Fired will be presented by Anton Savage, director of The Communications Clinic, who replaces Sunday Independent journalist Brendan O’Connor, soon to return as the chat show host on RTE on Saturday nights.
Ben Frow, director of programming, TV3, said the station could make 150 hours of home-grown programmes from a budget of €20.5 million, of which €1.5m comes from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s Sound & Vision fund. TV3 hopes to increase its home programming to 40 per cent, twice the official requirement. There will be a series of documentaries, including one about Irish solders who fought in World War II.
TV3 claims to be the second most popular station in Ireland, with more viewers than UTV and BBC combined. TV3 chief executive David McRedmond has ruled himself out of the running for the RTE director-general job as he wants to concentrate on achieving the goals he has set for himself at the Doughty Hanson-owned station.
By Michael. Filed under TV.
August 12th, 2010
Cadbury Ireland has launched its biggest ever marketing campaign with a €15 million spend aimed at getting people of all ages and walks of life to play games again. Young and old, people in villages and in towns, able-bodied and disabled people will be encouraged to play games and challenge each other.
Cadbury has conducted research into the importance of play, and game-playing in particular, across all age groups and is working closely with children’s psychologist David Coleman. The chocolate company is the official treat provider to the London 2012 Olympic Games.
As a result of this sponsorship, Cadbury wanted to develop a programme to reflect the spirit of the games and game-playing itself. What emerged was Spots v Stripes. The game invites everyone to divide into two teams – either Spots or Stripes – and play any type of game to score points towards an overall national team total. The game will run until 2012, but Cadbury hopes the legacy of playing will last much longer.
Spots v Stripes will be the biggest programme ever undertaken in Cadbury’s history and the company has embarked on an integrated marketing campaign involving sponsorship, advertising, digital, PR, events, CSR and sales promotion channels. Irish agency partners include Carat, Publicis QMP and Ogilvy One. The PR is handled by MCsquared, part of Murray Consultants.
London-based agency Fallon created the new TV commercial. Featuring two teams of fish characters, one spotty and one stripey, the film shows a dramatic underwater game unfolding between the two teams. The CGI characters for the film were created by the Moving Picture Company over eight months and placed on a coral reef backdrop in Egypt.
Fallon developed the other well-known Cadbury Dairy Milk ads, including Gorilla, Airport and Eyebrows. The campaign website is www.spotsvstripes.com Cadbury has been running a colleague and ambassador engagement programme since May. Over 5,000 people have already played and can be seen in action on two dedicated facebook pages, www.facebook.com/cadburyspots and www.facebook.com/csadburystripes
By Michael. Filed under Marketing.
August 5th, 2010
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has appointed two Dublin-based agencies to handle its advertising with Irish International BBDO winning the creative account and the Publicis-owned MediaVest picking up the media buying and planning. Both parts of the account were previously with Belfast agency Lyle Bailie.
QMP Publicis and Mindshare were also both part of the review. IIBBDO’s RSA win follows the recruitment of planner Leo Moore from McCann Erickson in place of Eamon Clarkin. Moore had returned to Dublin from London where he was involved in a start-up agency. He had also been with Diageo, RTE and TAM.
The RSA review process was handled by pitch doctor Empirica. News on the PR front is that Slattery Communications has been appointed to handle the Microsoft consumer account as well as its corporate work. The US technology giant had previously worked with Edelman on consumer projects.
By Michael. Filed under Adland.
July 28th, 2010
Ryanair has appointed Edelman to handle its PR in Ireland and the UK after a competitive pitch. In a joint statement issued by Stephen McNamara of Ryanair and Edelman’s corporate affairs director, Joe Carmody, it was said that over 30 agencies presented for the business. The contract starts from August 1st 2010.
The review was prompted following a decision by the low fares airline and Murray Consultants to go their separate ways. It was understood that Murrays, which had handled the account for 15 years, were unhappy with the terms of their agreement. Ryanair offered agencies pitching €7,500 a month to handle its account.
Apart from Edelman, other Dublin agencies which tendered were Drury and O’Herlihy Communications. Drury handled Aer Lingus for many years before it moved to WHPR. Edelman boss Mark Cahalane, who himself was formerly with Drury, said he knew that their work in supporting Ryanair will be “challenging and rewarding”.
Grayling is to look after PR for Dublin’s newest music station, Radio Nova, which launches in September. The agency team, headed by Rachel Sherry and Lisa Carroll, will work to Nova’s chief executive, David Tighe. Nova executives got proposals from other agencies. Unique Media had previously done some work for the station.
By Michael. Filed under PR.
July 27th, 2010
After a competitive national tender process, the DDFH&B-owned agency BespokewithDirection has been retained on the Fáilte Ireland consumer PR account. Slattery Communications was the other agency in the final reckoning. The account is now under consumer marketing and as such the agency will continue to be the agency of record for all of the tourism body’s consumer marketing and PR activity.
They will continue to work to John Concannon, director market development and Sheena Doyle, trade marketing executive. Fáilte Ireland has a lakelands and inland waterways cinema campaign with a message encouraging people to ‘staycation’ this year in Ireland. The commercial directs cinemagoers to promotional stands in the cinema lobby, where they can pick up a competition leaflet.
By Michael. Filed under PR.
