Jameson Irish Whiskey launched ‘Easygoing’, a new advertising campaign for the brand that shows Jameson drinkers to be the most easygoing fol
k in the world – even in the face of a national disaster.
The first spike of activity sees the launch of two ads Crocogaator and Meteor.
Crocogator depicts two men relaxing with a glass of Jameson after a day at work in New York, observing through the window a large animal – a human predator – emerges from a manhole. Rather than panic, one nonchalantly asks the other ‘Is that an Alligator or crocodile?’
In Meteor a group of friends relax on the balcony of their friend’s apartment, enjoying a Jameson as the sun sets. As a fiery hot meteor bursts into the evening 
sky, instead of running for cover, our easygoing Jameson drinkers comment that the meteor will make quite a splash.
The media placement will be focused on premium lifestyle print and leading national broadsheets. Heavy weight outdoor and on line activity will be used to further enhance the campaign. Also, look out for the Jameson competition on Facebook – Are you the most Easygoing person? You can win a trip for four to Barcelona on www.facebook.com/jamesonireland
Last month saw the big launch of the new IKEA catalogue for 2011. The campaign kicked off on the 13th of September with a heavy TV burst, Press and online display and competitions to communicate the message of the “Happy Inside”. The launch architecture was based around cats, since they are the experts in finding the furniture that makes them happy inside. That’s why the creative shows lots of cats left inside IKEA and each one picks up their own favorite furniture that makes them feel happy. The online competition mechanic was also based in the same idea. We ran microsites and expandable formats where people had to choose a cat and then choose an interior. The objective is for them to guess which item will make the cat happy for 30 seconds. After guessing , a cat will wander into the interior looking for the comfiest thing. Winners are directed straight to a free delivery form in the main IKEA website.
On Saturday there was another big launch by IKEA, the IKEA kitchens with a spot in XFactor. The 60’’ TVC reveals the message that kitchens are for living
in, not just cooking in, that’s why we always end up in the kitchen at parties dressed with Jona Lewie’s track release “You will always find me in the kitchens at parties”.The campaign is running on TV, newspaper supplements, Home Interest magazines for environment and online with interactive banners and microsite. The online interactive creatives show the durability of the IKEA kitchens. In the tool the user can toss various IKEA products into the kitchen to see them brake against the cupboards to stain the kitchen. Once this is done an IKEA employee comes in and wipes it all clean.
The online vehicles used were both to drive consideration and purchase intent.
LowLow have partnered up with the Style section of irishtimes.com. This is a three month partnership and LowLow ads will
be served on all style related articles. Style, fashion and health are very important to the core target market. So having a presence in all style related articles on the site is a very relevant and targeted platform for the “The Enjoy Being Healthier” campaign.
RTÉ One launched a multi-media campaign for their new four-part drama serial Love / Hate. Set in Dublin’s gangland, the drama portrays the tensions in a small-time drug gang, and how the effects are felt by family, friends and the community. The cast includes star of The Wire Aidan Gillen, along with young talent such as Ruth Negga and Brian Gleeson. The first episode kicked-off on Sunday October 3rd with 10 tvrs (120,000 impacts) for Adults 25-44s Multi-Channel, The 35-44s Multi-Channel age group performed extremely well with a quarter of all 35-44’s tuning in to watch it – a staggering 25 tvrs.
The campaign ran multiple outdoor formats in urban areas, featuring on 48 Sheets, Adshels, Metropanels and Commuterlites, along with national & regional radio and online streaming formats.
For the 7th year running, wannabe pop stars across Britain and Ireland are preparing to brave the panel of judges and the public to stake their claim to the winner’s title of X Factor – the viewing figures for this year’s show on TV3 have been going from strength to strength, with the opening show on Aug 21st achieving average viewing figures of 330,000 Individuals in multi channel homes – up 12% on last year’s opening show.
Each subsequent show has seen the viewing figures steadily rise culminating in last weekend’s opening live show achieving average viewing figures of 620,000 multi channel Individuals – this is almost double the audience of the opening show of the series. With the first two contestants eliminated and the competition starting to heat up, the viewing figures should continue to perform well as we cheer on Irish hopefuls; Mary Byrne, Niall Horan and Rebecca Creighton.
The BBC may soon be airing public service announcements for the British government. A spokesman for Ofcom said to do this there would need to be a change to the BBC’s Royal Charter to enable government ads to run on the corporation’s TV and radio channels, but this could be done with secondary legislation. Francis Maude, who is the Cabinet Office minister in charge of Whitehall’s efficiency drive, has said “We can do things very differently in future. Instead of paying more than £200m [a year] to buy ad space in the media, why shouldn’t we use publicly owned channels, such as government websites, to deliver public service messages?”. He has begun talking to the BBC about publicising next year’s census, but it is understood he is also considering campaigns to combat smoking, obesity and excessive drinking. The BBC does not carry advertising in the UK and is funded by the UK’s TV licence fee.
The former CEO of Quinn Direct Insurance, Colin Morgan, has joined Setanta Sports as head of its Irish operations. He takes up his new position on October 11th. Morgan resigned from Quinn Insurance in May after the company was placed into administration by the Financial Regulator. An accountant by profession, he has worked with a number of companies within the financial services sector over the last 15 years including stints at PQWC, Credit Suisse, Dresdner Kleinwort and Moneybox Corporation. He joined Quinn Direct in 2003, initially as finance director, but was later promoted to CEO. Last month, Setanta Ireland announced that it will become the first indigenous TV channel to broadcast in HD when it launches its HD new service in January 2011. The Setanta HD channel will initially be launched on the UPC cable platform with a satellite launch via Sky
slated for a later date.
On 98Fm between 6am until 10am is where you’ll find the brand new Morning Crew with Aidan Power and Claire Solan. You will know
Aidan from his work on RTE TV, BBC and Nickelodeon – including The Cafe & Winning Streak and Claire who will be familiar to many from her on-air work in SPIN and also she is the female promo voice of RTÉ 2 Television. The award winning show with Dermot & Dave has moved from the morning slot to the later time of 4pm – 7pm on weekdays.
After nearly 4 years away, Jim Jim has returned to his spiritual home, FM104’s Strawberry Alarm Clock. Jim 
Jim is back presenting the all new Strawberry Alarm Clock with Mark Noble. The new show is jam packed with comedy bits as well as other features including ‘Kids in the Car’, Noddin’ Your Noggin’, and Uncovered Unplugged. With the return of Jim, FM104 are looking forward to expanding their audience. Listen out for the lads from 6-10am weekdays on FM104.
Independent Radio Sales boss Dan Healy is hoping new research commissioned by the company will prove to advertising agencies and big brand marketing directors that rural listeners aren’t just a bunch of country bumpkins. IRS sells advertising on behalf of 18 local and regional stations. At the height of the boom, IRS was selling 40 per cent of advertising airtime for its member stations and was pulling in €20 million annually. In 2010, IRS is selling about 35 per cent of airtime for its members and revenue is down 18 per cent.
“Ad spends have shrunk dramatically,” says Healy. “In the last number of months IRS stations have not been getting the amount of advertising revenue from advertising agencies that they deserve. “There is an obsession with urban audiences. “But IRS stations have a larger prime time audience than RTÉ Radio 1 and a larger audience than 2FM and Today FM combined.
“Our Red C research shows that there is absolutely no difference in consumption patterns between someone living in Malahide and someone living in Clonmel.” IRS spent €60,000 on its lifestyle research and has put aside another €70,000 for more research in 2011. While Healy says September has been a good month and October is looking good too, most of the growth is coming in sponsorship and promotions activity from direct clients. Healy wants advertising agencies to buy all stations in the IRS platform instead of cherry picking stations, which is what he says they currently do. He is looking to introduce higher advertising rates for those agencies who pick and choose stations. The problem for IRS and other radio owners is that there is not enough money to go around everyone. “The other problem is that IRS does not have a big station in Cork.” Paul Moran, director of ad agency Mediaworks, says agencies do not favour Dublin stations over rural stations. “If we are interested in advertising on a local radio station, we ring up the sales team and ask them to e-mail us a sample of the programming content to listen to.”
