Archive for the ‘Digital’ Category

a bit of innocent fun

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Every single 250ml innocent smoothie contains two full portions of your recommended five a day. Considering how difficult it is to actually consume five portions of fruit and vegetables every single day, this is some feat. Therefore, our brief was to communicate innocent’s health credentials in a way that really engaged with people. The last thing we wanted was to sound like we were ordering people to be healthier, or to sound smug, self-satisfied or preachy. That’s not very innocent, after all. We wanted our audience to choose to spend time playing with the brand, and we took that very literally.

Late one night in a coding frenzy completely unrelated to fruit, one of our digital ninjas, space invaders fan Colm Doyle had an idea: what if the sky was suddenly filled with falling fruit and bottles of innocent smoothies? Catch them in your picnic basket you’d score points. You’d score one point for an apple or a banana, two for a bottle of innocent (See…two a day?). Catch the falling junk food and you’d lose points.

Brendan, Ali and Helen down in Fruit Towers really liked the idea and so here it is. An online campaign, where you can play away to your heart’s content. We’ve also designed and built a facebook application through which you can publish your score and challenge your friends to play.

Unsurprisingly, Colm’s is the highest score so far. See how you fare at the innocent smoothies Facebook page

Well done to the agency team: Colm Doyle (tech. developer, the one with the idea), Andrew Moran (tech. manager), Lucy Ryan (account manager), Elaine Kinsella (flash developer), Greg McLoughlin (words) and Tim Mudie (pictures).

And of course thanks to our clients in Fruit Towers, Dublin.

Tags: Andrew Moran, app, Colm Doyle, Creative, Digital, Elaine Kinsella, Facebook, Greg McLoughlin, innocent, Lucy Ryan, Tim Mudie
Posted in Digital, Saibh Hooper, Social Media, innocent | 2 Comments »

Wanted: Digital Media Planner/Buyer

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Are you an experienced digital planner/buyer looking to take the next step in your career? To develop digital strategy for some of the world’s best brands, right here in Ireland? The kind of person whose first thought seeing Foursquare (after becoming mayor of your office) was how you could make it work for a client? Then you might be the person we’re looking for.

(more…)

Posted in Digital, Jobs, Mobile, Online Display, Richard Delevan, Search, Social Media | 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 23^rd December 2009 until 9am Monday 4^th 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.

Tags: 2009, card, christmas
Posted in Advertising, Video | No Comments »

The stakes could not be higher

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Mary Robinson: Keynote speaker at Oxfam's Climate Change Event in Trinity College

‘The stakes could not be higher’

These were the words used by Tony McMullen, chairman of Oxfam Ireland, to describe the situation the world faces in relation to climate change and the importance of world leaders reaching a fair, safe and meaningful deal in Copenhagen this December, where the next UN Climate Change Conference is taking place. Tony was speaking in Trinity College at an event organised by Oxfam Ireland and the Trinity International Development Initiative. The event was attended by Katherine Sheils, Ciara Buckley and Lucy Ryan of McConnellsintegrated.

In Ireland in recent weeks we have seen the destruction that heavy rainfall and flooding has done to some local communities and businesses. Keynote speaker Mary Robinson commented that ‘it is devastating to see people trying to cope’ but added that ‘we’re going to have to develop new coping mechanisms’.  Mary also said that ‘climate change is fundamentally a human rights issue’ and relayed some of the stories she has heard while travelling through Africa where livelihoods have been utterly devastated due to the effects of climate change, plunging people into desperate circumstances:

Ciara Buckley and Katherine Shiels of McConnellsintegrated

Constance from Uganda said “there are no seasons anymore, its drought, flooding, drought, flooding”

Woman in Malawi “Things are so bad women are selling themselves. But I can’t sell myself as I’m HIV positive”

Woman cotton farmer “Flooding and drought are devastating cotton production”

Mary finished with a message of hope, stating that ‘we can make a difference if all of us who care enough take up the cause’.

Too much focus in the past has been placed on the science of climate change, the human dimension was lost.  Oxfam Irelands Lets Face It Campaign focuses on highlighting the human cost of climate change.

Oxfam Ireland are collecting as many names as possible before next weeks UN Climate Change Talks in Copenhagen to show the Irish government that Irish people want a fair and safe deal for everyone.

Please add your name to the campaign at http://faceit.oxfamireland.org/

Thank You.

Tags: climate change, climate change copenhagen, copenhagen conference, let's face it, mary robinson, Oxfam Ireland
Posted in Ciara Buckley, Digital, Experiential, Katherine Shiels, Lucy Ryan, NGO, Oxfam Ireland, Website, Work | No Comments »

@ the heart of the matter

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Claude Garamond first started to produce commercial fonts in France in the early 1500s. It was a process that would transform not just the fledgling printing industry, but give rise to the design, production, and shape future of the printed page. He cut classic fonts that still bear his name and are used to this day. At that time, a little figure appeared in  some Italian documents and was indeed included in many font collections from then on. However, it was very rarely used until in 1971 Ray Tomlinson inserted the @ sign to separate user names from host names when developing Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It was a small gesture by a computer programmer that would catapult the humble @ to become one of the most used characters of the digital age, and arguably the most important. Today, it’s inseparable from all modern communication and responsible for bringing millions of people and organisations together.

Tags: Andy Mollard, Betaset, Claude Garamond, McConnellsintegrated, Studio, Typography
Posted in Andy Mollard, Digital, Innovation, Studio, Typography | No Comments »

Should Ireland lift the ban on political ads?

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

(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.

Tags: BAI, Kevin Rafter, Political advertising, Politics, RTE
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

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

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.

Tags: Be the Difference, Branding, Brando, Dillon McKenna, Golden Spiders, Integrated agency effort, O2, rugby
Posted in Advertising, Awards, Creative, Damian Bell, Digital, Innovation, Integration, News, Outdoor, Work | No Comments »

Stuart Fogarty: BMW Blazes a Trail

Friday, November 13th, 2009

*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.

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

Tags: BMW, Knorr, Recession, Tesco
Posted in BMW, Creative, Digital, Media, Stuart Fogarty, Work | No Comments »

The Next Twitter?

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

It’s something we often get asked. And usually tricky to answer. But Foursquare may have a case.

What’s Foursquare? A mobile-based social network that allows the user to connect with their friends in particular places. It launched earlier this month in Dublinand already has a pre-populated list of businesses and locations. Near to us at McConnellsintegrated are listed everything from Facebook’s headquarters down the road on Hanover Quay to the Grand Canal Dart station to the Eurospar across the road. Foursquare already lists Cybercom’s Christian Hughes as ‘Mayor’ of Eurospar. We’ll see about that. Which is sort of the point of Foursquare – it’s built in the mechanic of a social ‘game’ in order to make you feel competitive and incentivise you to ‘check in’ – note your location – as frequently as possible. If for no other reason than to be king of the geeks.

The combination of location-based information, links to local businesses and ultimately the potential for location-based advertising make Foursquare look like a real contender.

Damien Mulley recently wrote up about his own insights into and experience with the service – and of course his own (then) status as the market leader in using it, also noting the recent Google acquistion of AdMob and location-based ads’ potential.

Ultimately we think Foursquare’s potential is based on the fact that, like Twitter, it makes it possible for people to make new connections in an entirely different way, and over time can allow a community to build up content that can become self-sustaining.

Tags: Damien Mulley, Dublin, Foursquare, location-based, Mobile
Posted in Digital, Mobile, Social Media | 1 Comment »

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