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Archive for the ‘Creative’ 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 »

Anyone for lunch?

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Not long ago, Graeme Beere decided to come to the rescue and buy the master franchise for Ireland of the O’Briens sandwich chain.

As part of the rescue plan, TV chef and author Rachel Allen was ingeniously signed up on board to add filling to the O’Briens brand.

Rachel acting as creative consultant agreed to create her own ‘Signature Sandwiches’.  As you can image to have someone of Rachel’s calibre come on board not only brings heightened profile but instils renewed confidence in the O’Briens future, for both the public and for the franchisees.

As our creatives got to work they knew that Rachel Allen at O’Brien’s was a unique proposition. Her image is glamorous, warm and approachable and her name is intrinsically linked with premium quality. As such, the creative concept made full use of her personality, as well as her relaxed, calm style on camera.

Promoting Rachel single mindedly as the exciting new venture at O’Brien’s was undoubtedly an opportunity not to be missed.

Using a 30 second TV commercial, along with three separate 10 second executions, we created an air of anticipation around Rachel’s Signature Sandwiches and, at the same time, invoked all of the freshness and quality cues we wanted to impart to viewers. Rachel herself could not have been nicer on the day. Friendly and warm and didn’t mind signing a book or two for me!

Confident our national campaign will help fill some hunger  I’ll leave you with Rachel’s own words –   ”The food choices we make are more important now than ever, both for ourselves and those around us. If you are on the go and need a sandwich, shouldn’t it be an Irish one made in front of you and at a fair price? I’m delighted to help make that sandwich even tastier.”

We’ll I know where I’m going for lunch!

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Posted in Creative, TV, Uncategorized, Video Production | 1 Comment »

The Crush wins Best Short at Foyle Film Festival

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Our own Michael Creagh, award winning art director, is now an award winning filmmaker too.

His film The Crush scooped Best Irish Short at the recent Foyle Film Festival. 

Starring Michael’s son, Oran, it tells the story of 8 year old Ardal Travis who is so besotted with his teacher that he challenges her boyfriend to a duel – to the death. Michael wrote and directed the film which was shot last Spring in and around Skerries with director of photography Jim Creagh and producer Damon Quinn, from the Hole in the Wall Gang.

crush grab 2

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Posted in Awards, Creative, Saibh Hooper | 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 »

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 »

Another goal that broke our hearts

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Smithwicks TV commercial ‘Toto’
DRAFT
‘Goals that broke our hearts part 2’
In the quarter finals of Italia 90 another goal of infamy broke the Irish nation’s hearts.
Albeit a legitimate one.
In 39th minute of our match against Italy in Rome Salvatore Schillaci aka Toto scored the only goal of the match that knocked us out of the 1990 World Cup.
It was the end of a dream for the whole of Ireland.
10 years later Mcconnells was producing a series of ads for Smithwicks beer. The commercials were apart of a campaign that were to be shot in The Gravediggers pub in Glaswegian.
One script was based on the faithful Italia 90 goal.
During discussions prior to shooting between the creative team (Gerry Kennedy, Margaret Healion & Dave Murphy) & the director KJ Walsh the script was amended to include the real life Toto
The client agreed. The agent was contacted. A fee was agreed and toto flew in from Sicily to film the commercial.
The commercial was first broadcast in June 2000 & proved to be a great success with the public. It also went on to win many creative awards.
Ironically after scoring the famous goal in 1990 many people called their dogs Toto.
I wonder when walking in the park somewhere soon will we hear dogs owners calling out -come here ‘Thierry’

IMG_0539Thierry Henry’s “goal” was enough to make grown men cry and grown women try to add Thierry Henry to their list of people to kill in Mafia Wars on facebook, where within 10 minutes you could get some insight into the building rage about the “Hand of Frog”. [More about the Facebook effect next week - ed]

In the quarter finals of Italia 90 another goal of infamy broke the Irish nation’s hearts.  Albeit a legitimate one.

In 39th minute of our match against Italy in Rome Salvatore Schillaci aka Toto scored the only goal of the match that knocked us out of the 1990 World Cup.

It was the end of a dream for the whole of Ireland.

10 years later McConnells was producing a series of ads for Smithwick’s ale. The commercials were part of a campaign that were to be shot in The Gravedigger’s pub in Glasnevin.

One script was based on the faithful Italia 90 goal. During discussions prior to shooting between the creative team (Gerry Kennedy, Margaret Healion & Dave Murphy) & the director KJ Walsh, the script was amended to include the real life Toto.

The client agreed. The agent was contacted. A fee was agreed and Toto flew in from Sicily to film the commercial.

The award-winning commercial was first broadcast in June 2000 & proved to be a great success with the public.

Ironically after scoring the famous goal in 1990 many people called their dogs Toto.

This time, the ISPCA may want to take dogs called Theirry into protective custody. Have a look:

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Posted in Classics, Creative, TV, Video Production, Work | No Comments »

Stuart Fogarty: BMW Blazes a Trail

Friday, November 13th, 2009

The recent BMW and Mini announcement of substantial price cuts makes one of the world’s most desirable brands, affordable. It’s also significant in that it further demonstrates that in the current economy, marketing needs to re-focus on the brand investment (by way of price reductions) rather than just, more communication.
BMW have indeed, blazed a trail.
It is a price market first and foremost with Tesco (“Ireland’s biggest Christmas”) continuing to lead the way as is Unilever’s price campaign (Domestos now 50% off!).  If we can’t get our products right, then frankly, the advertising or communication doesn’t matter. Exactly as these clients of McConnellsintegrated have shown and perhaps more clearly in that more desirable BMW market sector.
The world has changed, the loyalty to brands is affected. Reduced incomes will mean a continual demand for affordability through lower pricing. The ability of brands to deliver on that challenge, will be the difference before the agency even puts pen to paper.
*May not resemble Stuart Fogarty today.

*May not resemble Stuart Fogarty today.

The recent BMW and Mini announcement of substantial price cuts makes one of the world’s most desirable brands, affordable. It’s also significant in that it further demonstrates that in the current economy, marketing needs to re-focus on the brand investment (by way of price reductions) rather than just, more communication.

joy-blazes-a-trail
BMW have indeed blazed a trail.

It is a price market first and foremost with Tesco (“Ireland’s Biggest Christmas”) continuing to lead the way as is Unilever’s price campaign (Domestos now 50% off!).  If we can’t get our products right, then frankly, the advertising or communication doesn’t matter. Exactly as these clients of McConnellsintegrated have shown and perhaps more clearly in that more desirable BMW market sector.

The world has changed, the loyalty to brands is affected. Reduced incomes will mean a continual demand for affordability through lower pricing. The ability of brands to deliver on that challenge will be the difference before the agency even puts pen to paper.

Stuart Fogarty is head of client services at McConnellsintegrated.

stuart.fogarty@mcconnellsintegrated.ie

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Posted in BMW, Creative, Digital, Media, Stuart Fogarty, Work | No Comments »

Creativity and exotic plants

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Tim Mudie, Senior Art Director here in McConnellsintegrated, shared the below video with all of us in the office this morning: the wonderful John Cleese talking about the conditions necessary for creativity. Some years ago I heard creativity being described as an exotic plant. We need to carefully tend it. Place it in a greenhouse, water it, and watch it flourish*. We, the communications planners, the account handlers need to enable creativity. Our role is to facilitate, inspire and guide. If you put a tropical flower in the back garden in winter no matter how much you will it to grow and no matter how much you plead with it or ask it sternly to grow …it just won’t. Wilting is inevitable. John Cleese has a not too dissimilar take on creativity.

Watch it here:

*there is one caveat: pruning is sometimes necessary.

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Posted in Creative, Saibh Hooper | No Comments »