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Archive for the ‘Advertising’ Category

Of fur and fangs.

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Mischievous trolls, ugly ogres, evil hobgoblins, dour dwarves, wicked witches, big, bad wolves and fire breathing, albeit despondent, dragons. (I must admit I’ve always had a soft spot for dragons. They seemed so sad and put upon. I think it harks back to my childhood memory of one of the saddest songs ever sung, ‘Puff The Magic Dragon’.)

These larger than life creatures were more real to us than some of our actually real family and friends. Even vying with our imaginary friends for their share of our attention. They inhabited our storybooks, lived in full colour illustrations and came to life on a regular basis – predictably, of course, at night.

As characters, they were imbued with all sorts of nasty attributes. They were mean. And sneaky. They didn’t walk, they crept. Silence and stealth were their modus operandi and even the larger limbed amongst them seemed to have the ability to melt effortlessly in to the darkness.

There were occasions when we could hear them advancing. We could feel the ground groaning beneath the massive, thumping feet, thundering hooves or firmly planted paws. The hot, stinking breath on the back of our necks, raising every last, tiny hair. The misshapen silhouettes standing out in the otherworldly landscapes.

These were the realer than real monsters that lurked nearby, always waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. Imagining them to be everywhere they weren’t, we became accustomed to uncovering one or other of them in all sorts of unexpected places.

And, strangely, they’re reluctant to leave us. Despite our best efforts to shake them. So, if you think you may be imagining things lately, seeing big monsters and hearing little voices, don’t be surprised. They’re all around us, after all.

Sinéad Kennedy is a senior copywriter with McConnellsintegrated

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Posted in Advertising, Creative, Laurence Keogh, MINI, Outdoor, Radio, Sinéad Kennedy, Work | No Comments »

Embracing the power of pink

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Ballgowan Pink PosterWhen Ballygowan came to us with their master plan to bring pink to the attention of the nation, we were intrigued. It’s not often that you’re gifted the opportunity to work side by side with one of Ireland’s most famous and well loved brands, while at the same time, helping to boost awareness (as well as the coffers) of a great Irish charity. This is, of course, where the pink comes in. Because Ballygowan is now sporting a pink bottle to help the Marie Keating Foundation.

Established by Ronan Keating, after the death of his mother from breast cancer, the Marie Keating Foundation works tirelessly to raise funds for breast cancer awareness. The simple premise is that knowledge is power. The more we know about it, the more we can do about it.

Ballygowan’s own brand attributes of health and well being make the pure, Irish still water the perfect partner for this fund raising effort. It’s about coming together to achieve something great. That, being in it together, means we can make a difference. Be part of it is a gentle, rallying call that will hopefully see scores of people taking up the Ballygowan Pink bottle in response to a unique invitation.

So we’re here to remind you on TV and Radio (thanks to Ronan for lending his voice and his support), in consumer and trade press, on outdoor posters and on bus shelter wraps, that with every Ballygowan Pink bottle you buy, you’re helping the Marie Keating Foundation to raise funds for breast cancer awareness. You’re doing more than simply quenching your thirst. You’re making a difference. Come on, do you need a better reason?

Congrats to the creative team, Sinéad Kennedy and Sally O’Sullivan, as well as to Siobhan McNickle, Fiona O’Sullivan, Stuart Fogarty, Laurence Keogh and, of course, to our clients, Leonie Doyle and Sian Price.

For more information, and to get involved, check out these links -

Ballygowan to help cancer campaign

Ballygowan website

B part of it Facebook Page

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Posted in Advertising, Ballygowan, Creative, Outdoor, Radio, Sinéad Kennedy, Stuart Fogarty, Work | No Comments »

UCD life

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

The most important question facing any student sitting their Leaving Cert. next year is; what next? It’s probably the single biggest and first major decision that anyone of that age has had to make. The range of options could seem dizzying. Our client, UCD, is acutely aware of this. As Ireland’s premier third level institution, UCD are always looking at new ways to talk to its audiences. In this age of splintered and disparate media consumption the main challenge is how to truly engage with your average 16-18 year old. We need to talk with them in a dialect finely tuned to their critical ears.

The challenge was set: reaching our audience in the most relevant channels, in the most credible way.

With this brief in mind, UCD took the step this year of inviting their students tell their own story of UCD. In September 2009, twenty diverse UCD students were recruited to the UCD Video Squad. They were chosen from a group of over 100 applicants. We supplied them with camcorders and conducted production workshops with them. We asked them to create and produce short videos about their experience at UCD and we briefed them on covering both academic and non academic pursuits.

This content is live, and will be continually updated on UCD Life.
This bespoke website was designed by McConnellsintegrated where a mixture of Video Squad videos and other UCD videos will let its audience see what UCD is really like. Content produced by the people who know it best – its students.
We could talk about the videos, how they were produced and who the stars of our squad are but you’re better off having a look for yourself. Better yet, send the link onto someone you know doing the Leaving Cert. next year.

Big thanks to Colm Doyle, Jennifer Hord, Saibh Hooper, Andrew Moran and of course our clients Eilis O’Brien and Claire Percy in UCD.

Posted in Advertising, Digital, Social Media, Video, Work | No Comments »

Happy Christmas from McConnellsintegrated

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

We are closed for Christmas holidays from 1pm Wednesday 23rd December 2009 until 9am Monday 4th January 2010. If you need to make contact with the agency during that period, please call Stuart on 086-2577510. We would like to take this opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

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Posted in Advertising, Video | No Comments »

TV3 gain significant ground

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

The past few months have been good ones for Ireland’s largest commercial broadcaster: TV3. The performance of their hit shows “The Apprentice” and “The X-Factor” have, for the first time, allowed them to really mix up with arch rivals RTE. Both shows have captured the imagination of the nation (Ed.: was the rhyme intentional?). Whether or not they’re cringe inducing (Jedward, Michelle Heaton) or brilliant (Leona’s comeback for the finale) or both (erm, Jedward again?), the public’s appetite for their programming was unwavering.  After a slow start, viewing to The Apprentice grew steadily from week two right up until Aoife’s departure in week ten, where an average 541,000 viewers tuned into the show. This translates as 13.1 TVRs.

Ratings increased as we got to know the contestants and as the various narratives unfolded, however after some of the more entertaining contestants fell by the wayside viewing levels actually dropped. This is counterintuitive given that we were nearing the closing stages. The final X-Factor was watched by an average 472,000 people but that at one point during the show a peak audience of 568,000 tuned in. Over on “The Apprentice: You’re Fired” Brendan O’Connor didn’t in his own words “take the b*****d” but he did come agonizingly close to outperforming Pat Kenny and Frontline. It is hard to imagine (or is it?) that on the 9th November Brendan O’Connor was just 20,000 viewers behind the veteran broadcaster.

In revenue terms, X-Factor was star performer for TV3. Given that TV3 aired live shows on both Saturday and Sunday, the station’s advertising inventory showed a significant uplift over the period. The results show on the 22nd November (where we finally saw the back of Jedward) was the most watched show of the series when an average 818,000 tuned in, presumably to ensure they were leaving. In fact, as the results were being announced over 1 million of us were glued to the screen – a phenomenal performance and a record for TV3.

Both shows proved so popular with advertisers that TV3 were in the enviable position of being able to auction off the last few remaining spots on the final shows.

TV3 has stepped it up, and advertisers are noticing.

The only thing to be decided at this point is the Christmas number one. If the Facebook Group “Rage against the X-Factor” (with 775,000 members) gets its way Joe’s win won’t convert to a Christmas No. 1. The group is encouraging members to download Rage Against The Machine’s new track in attempt to prevent X-Factor claiming a fifth consecutive Christmas No.1.

Ironically, Sony own the rights to both artists.

Nevertheless, all eyes are on TV3’s spring schedule launch on January 8th.

Posted in Advertising, MCM, Media | No Comments »

The SVP and the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Well we’re all very excited about our new TV commercial – first airing last night – for the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.
It confronts the same issue as every other ad you’ll see for a charity this Christmas.
Namely, how to demonstrate the connection between the donor that you’re hoping to recruit and the people that their donation will go to help. Which is a challenge – mainly because the donor and the recipient are not likely to meet. There’s a necessary distance between them.
But what if that distance were made to disappear, courtesy of the old ‘here’s-me holding-up-the-Tower-of-Pisa’ trick? Every tourist knows it: stand in front of an object – the Tower of Pisa, for instance – and hold out your hand. At a certain distance, it can look like your hand’s actually stopping the building from falling over.
It’s by a similar trick of perspective that this ad works, courtesy of brilliant direction by LA-based, Irish-American Oscar nominee Steph Green (at Rocket productions).
As you’d expect of an ex-assistant to Spike Jonze (the Being John Malkovich director), Steph herself is a veteran of this sort of cinematic playfulness. Having worked with an actual real live bear before (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zvqf3sF0b4), direction of the largely non-professional cast* caused her no problems – in fact she’d already endeared herself to producers Dave Murphy and Emma Ellis and ourselves by shooting a demo of the ad on her i-phone!
Like Steph’s film New Boy – the one that sent her up the red carpet at the Oscars – the SVP commercial builds that all-important emotional with the audience in a sensitive and positive sort of way. Just as importantly, we reckon, it doesn’t do what 90% of charity advertising tends to – which is bang the viewer over the head with misery-inducing scenes of over-dramatized hardship.
As it happens, the work of the SVP was something that Steph already had an interest in. The director spoke eloquently on the subject of social responsibility in a recent interview: “The Oscar nomination brings just what you’d hope,” she said. “It opens doors to lots of meetings, of course. But also seeing how intensely the film could affect people changed my notions of socially conscious filmmaking. It’s easy to become too focused on yourself, on what you want to say, and to focus less on how your films are actually affecting the audience. But it’s a really powerful and important thing to be able to make groups of people think and feel something. There’s a responsibility there whether you want to admit it or not.”
In times like these, the wider community is in dire need of effective advertising
for the SVP. So thanks to clients Kieran Murphy, Liz Roche and Robbie McFarlane for trusting us to do our best to help. And here’s hoping this ad works as hard as it’s meant to.
Laurence Keogh, Paul Barrass, Deborah Brannelly, Ivan Hammond
*Although the commercial features seven cast members, one of them was not actually present on set. Can you guess which one?
Well we’re all very excited about and proud of our new TV commercial — first airing last night — for the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.
It confronts the same issue as every other ad you’ll see for a charity this Christmas.
Namely, how to demonstrate the connection between the donor that you’re hoping to recruit and the people that their donation will go to help. Which is a challenge – mainly because the donor and the recipient are not likely to meet. There’s a necessary distance between them.
But what if that distance were made to disappear, courtesy of the old ‘here’s-me holding-up-the-Tower-of-Pisa’ trick? Every tourist knows it: stand in front of an object – the Tower of Pisa, for instance – and hold out your hand. At a certain distance, it can look like your hand’s actually stopping the building from falling over.
It’s by a similar trick of perspective that this ad works, courtesy of brilliant direction by LA-based, Irish-American Oscar nominee Steph Green (at Rocket Productions).
As you’d expect of an ex-assistant to Spike Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are, Being John Malkovich), Steph herself is a veteran of this sort of cinematic art. Having worked with an actual real live bear before, direction of the largely non-professional cast* caused her no problems – in fact she’d already endeared herself to producers Dave Murphy and Emma Ellis and ourselves by shooting a demo of the ad on her iPhone!
Like Steph’s film New Boy – the one that sent her up the red carpet at the Oscars – the SVP commercial builds that all-important emotional connection with the audience in a sensitive and positive sort of way. Just as importantly, we reckon, it doesn’t do what 90% of charity advertising tends to – which is bang the viewer over the head with misery-inducing scenes of over-dramatized hardship. With little room left, in the post-traumatic stress, for hope.
As it happens, the work of the SVP was something that Steph already had an interest in. The director spoke eloquently on the subject of social responsibility in a recent interview: “The Oscar nomination brings just what you’d hope,” she said. “It opens doors to lots of meetings, of course. But also seeing how intensely the film could affect people changed my notions of socially conscious filmmaking. It’s easy to become too focused on yourself, on what you want to say, and to focus less on how your films are actually affecting the audience. But it’s a really powerful and important thing to be able to make groups of people think and feel something. There’s a responsibility there whether you want to admit it or not.”
In times like these, the wider community is in dire need of effective communications for the SVP. To remind us as consumers that we can make a difference in the lives of people around us. So thanks to clients Kieran Murphy, Liz Roche and Robbie McFarlane for trusting us to do our best to help. And here’s hoping this ad works as hard as it’s meant to.
To that point, make a donation to SVP right now.
*Although the commercial features seven cast members, one of them was not actually present on set. Can you guess which one?

Laurence Keogh is a creative director with McConnellsintegrated.

with thanks to Paul Barrass, Deborah Brannelly and Ivan Hammond

And a special thanks to the good people at ESB Customer Supply, whose support helped SVP to get this appeal on the air at a time when it’s most needed.

Posted in Advertising, Creative, Deborah Brannelly, ESB Customer Supply, Ivan Hammond, Laurence Keogh, Paul Barrass, SVP, TV, Video Production, Work | No Comments »

Should Ireland lift the ban on political ads?

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

LinkedIn Poll

(now with corrected link)

The newly-formed Broadcasting Authority of Ireland recently issued a report written by veteran journalist and media lecturer Dr Kevin Rafter that reviewed the longtime restrictions that prevent political advertising from reaching the Irish TV and radio airwaves. On its website, the BAI headlined the report “Independent Report Confirms Majority Support for Retention of Prohibitions on Political Advertising in Ireland”, citing a Red C poll commissioned for the report.

In its press release the BAI chief executive was quoted as saying, “The outcomes of the Red C poll contained in the report appear to support a continuation of the existing prohibitions. It is important to emphasise that this is an independent report and the recommendations contained therein are the personal views of the the author and have not been considered by the Authority”.

But is it really the open and shut case the BAI press release suggests?

Kevin Rafter, writing in the Irish Times on the day of the report’s publication, seems to argue otherwise — or at least just state the obvious:

The blanket ban has been reaffirmed in several pieces of broadcasting legislation approved by the Oireachtas over many years, including the new Broadcasting Act passed into law last July. It was surprising that the Oireachtas did not engage more fully with the status quo, given technological advances and recent European Court determinations that may leave the current regime open to legal challenge on freedom of expression grounds.

The ban in countries like Ireland and in the United Kingdom was conceived in a different era. The discrimination between print advertising (permitted) and broadcast advertising (banned) was justified due to the particular power of the broadcast medium.

But the internet has assumed an important role in political communications and has provided new ways of communicating political messages. Many political parties, candidates and interest groups are now using the internet to distribute advertising that cannot be placed on television stations. Only last month, the Conservatives in the UK because the first political party at Westminster to run a marketing campaign on internet music service Spotify to target younger votes.

In an era of media convergence between the various strands of broadcasting – television, radio and the internet – it does seem timely to review the blanket ban on political advertising on television and radio. To do otherwise would be to be locked in a policy and technological time warp.

If the current regime is open to European legal challenge, and if the blanket broadcast advertising ban is “locked in a policy and technological time warp” as it is made farcical by the growing importance of unregulated online communications for political campaigns, clearly the BAI headline doesn’t make a lot of sense. It shouldn’t be a settled matter in Ireland. The recent Lisbon referendum campaigns showed how difficult it can be to reach a large percentage of low-information voters with important information about issues of major importance.

What do you think? Cast your vote about whether the ban should be lifted in our LinkedIn poll.

Richard Delevan is deputy managing director and head of digital at McConnellsintegrated.

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Posted in Advertising, BAI, Digital, Media, News, Politics, Radio, Richard Delevan, TV | No Comments »

Be the Difference wins Golden Spider Award

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Dillon at Golden Spiders

McConnellsintegrated art director Dillon McKenna holds the Best Interactive Marketing Campaign Golden Spider.

Full jersey 2

An extraordinary rugby season that got extraordinary support from an extraordinary campaign that went through the line. Signatures taken in O2 shops around Ireland as well as online became the building blocks for ultra-high-resolution images that lived in outdoor and POS media as well as on a fully interactive website that allowed users to find where their names appeared inside the image. Some 80,000 fans signed up to make a difference with the Irish squad.

The idea was taken to its ultimate conclusion when the names of fans who signed up became part of the numbers that appeared on the back of the players’ jerseys in the matches that saw Ireland clinch the Grand Slam.

At last night’s Golden Spider Awards, O2’s Be the Difference campaign took home a Grand Slam of its own by winning the Best Interactive Marketing Campaign of 2009.

Art Director Dillon McKenna was on hand at the Burlington Hotel for last night’s ceremony, where O2 graciously shared credit with Dillon for his idea and with Brando for part of its execution.

Congrats to Dillon and the McConnells team who worked on the project, O2’s marketing team and Brando for a truly integrated effort that maximised the campaign’s impact with consumers above the line, online, in PR, in shops — and on the pitch. Click on the picture below and enjoy the video from O2 telling the story of the campaign.

Be the Difference

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Posted in Advertising, Awards, Creative, Damian Bell, Digital, Innovation, Integration, News, Outdoor, Work | No Comments »