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Archive for the ‘TV’ Category

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 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 »

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 »

Jedward Makes TV3 a Chart-Topper

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Based on last week’s result in the X Factor, posh Dublin twins, John and Edward Grimes, are looking unlikely to have the Christmas number one slot in the UK singles chart. Station bosses are well aware that column inches in the red-tops are translating into TV ratings, and with the car-crash performances of Jedward helping the show reach record audiences, it is perfectly understandable that the show’s main producer and alpha judge Simon Cowell has gone against his principles and given the twins another lifeline.
Even if the twins don’t make number one, it increasingly possible that TV3 could consolidate their number one slot from their arch rivals, RTE, as the biggest station in the country.
We took a look at last week’s top rating shows for adults 25-44, and The X Factor is leading the charge, with TV3 accounting for 8 of the top 10 programmes, up from 4 out of 10 last year.
This valuable audience are moving away form the more serious programming on RTE such as News, The Frontline, The Panel and are opting for more light programming offered by TV3 such as X Factor, The Apprentice and V (which was the 16th highest rating show last week)
(see table 1)
The success of TV3 looks set to continue with the new series of I’m  A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here starting this Sunday at 9, pushing the X Factor to a later 10pm slot. Our sources tell us that Sam Fox, Jordan,  Missteeq,  Lucy Benjamin and Jimmy White are due to star in the jungle reality show.
Last week TV3 accounted for 39.6% share, ahead of RTE 1 on 33.9% and RTE2 on 13.5%, compared with 21.5%, 26.3% and 12.1% respectively a year prior.

Based on last week’s result in the X Factor, ‘posh’ (editor’s note: wha?) Dublin twins, John and Edward Grimes, are looking unlikely to have the Christmas number one slot in the UK singles chart. Station bosses are well aware that column inches in the red-tops are translating into TV ratings, and with the car-crash performances of Jedward helping the show reach record audiences, it is perfectly understandable that the show’s main producer and alpha judge Simon Cowell has gone against his principles and given the twins another lifeline.

Even if the twins don’t make number one, it increasingly possible that TV3 could consolidate their number one slot from their arch rivals, RTE, as the biggest station in the country.

We took a look at last week’s top rating shows for adults 25-44, and The X Factor is leading the charge, with TV3 accounting for 8 of the top 10 programmes, up from 4 out of 10 last year.

This valuable audience are moving away form the more serious programming on RTE such as News, Frontline, even The Panel and are opting for more light programming offered by TV3 such as X Factor, The Apprentice and V (which was the 16th highest rating show last week)

The success of TV3 looks set to continue with the new series of I’m  A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here starting this Sunday at 9, pushing the Xtra Factor to a later 10.30pm slot. Our sources tell us that Sam Fox, Jordan,  Missteeq,  Lucy Benjamin and Jimmy White are due to star in the jungle reality show.

Last week TV3 accounted for 39.6% share, ahead of RTE 1 on 33.9% and RTE2 on 13.5%, compared with 21.5%, 26.3% and 12.1% respectively a year prior.

Top Programmes, 25-44

Top Programmes in the first week of November among adults 25-44, comparing 2008 to 2009.

  2009   2008  
1 X Factor Results (Sun) - TV3 19.7 Desperate Housewives - RTE2 18.3
2 X Factor (Sat) - TV3 15.5 X Factor - TV3 16.7
3 Xtra Factor Results - TV3 15.5 X Factor Results - TV3 15.1
4 The Late Late Show - RTE 15.5 Coronation Street - TV3 13.9
5 The Apprentice - TV3 14.4 Xtra Factor - TV3 12.4
6 Xtra Factor - TV3 11 Buyer Beware - RTE1 11.7
7 Coronation Street - TV3 10.9 9 News - RTE1 11.6
8 Champions League - TV3 9.7 Fair City - RTE1 11.5
9 Apprentice You're Fired - TV3 9.2 The Clinic - RTE1 11.4
10 6 News - RTE1 8.2 The Late Late Show - RTE1 11.3

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Posted in Media, Paul McCabe, TV | No Comments »

DVRs: TV’s Unlikely Ally

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Who knew?

When DVRs (Digital Video Recorders – aka Personal Video Recorders or branded units like Sky+) first went mass market the numbers were looking grim for broadcast TV and the TV commericals that support it. Users were fast-forwarding over the ads as soon as they got the chance – or programming them to avoid them entirely. But a funny thing has happened. It turns out that up to half of people who watch TV programmes they’ve recorded don’t bother to fast forward through the ads.

The New York Times reported:

Against almost every expectation, nearly half of all people watching delayed shows are still slouching on their couches watching messages about movies, cars and beer. According to Nielsen, 46 percent of viewers 18 to 49 years old for all four networks taken together are watching the commercials during playback, up slightly from last year. Why would people pass on the opportunity to skip through to the next chunk of program content?

The most basic reason, according to Brad Adgate, the senior vice president for research at Horizon Media, a media buying firm, is that the behavior that has underpinned television since its invention still persists to a larger degree than expected.

“It’s still a passive activity,” he said.

A few observers pointed to this as evidence that the the threat to traditional advertising was overblown. But Bill Carter of the New York Times took a slightly different tack in an interview recently: yes, when people record an episode of ‘House’ and order in a Chinese takeaway, they don’t want to be bothered putting down the chopsticks to pick up the remote.

But it’s also true that the commercials are slightly better than they used to be, and they’re trying to make them more entertaining.

Aware of the threat that a viewer can easily opt-out of watching a commerical, advertisers have had to up their game.

Listen to the whole interview with Carter on NPR’s On the Media programme, below:

But maybe not terribly surprising for those of us who never got our VCRs to stop blinking 12:00.

Posted in Digital, News, TV | No Comments »