Monthly Archive for August, 2011

RTÉ Guide campaign aims to build affinity among occasional readers

Published by CiaraM on August 19, 2011 in TV News. 0 Comments Tags: , .

A new campaign for the RTÉ Guide, which aims to build brand affinity among current occasional readers, launches this evening with a 30-second television ad. The ad will be broadcast on RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, TV3, 3e and Sky Group between now and 4 September and there will be a second burst of TV activity is planned for October.

In addition, the ‘Grab Life by the Pages’ campaign will include a 30-second radio campaign to run during Q4, online ads on RTÉ.ie, print ads in the title itself, and trade and consumer PR. There will also be competitions on the RTÉ Guide Facebook page, which has 17,000 fans.

Point-of-sale stands in Dunnes Stores, Supervalu and large independents will be refreshed with ‘Grab Life by the Pages’ creative. The campaign was developed by Leo Burnett Ireland. “The RTÉ Guide had done some great research and really understood the issues, so it made Leo Burnett’s task much more defined,” said the firm’s managing director, Shane McGonigle. “We knew that if a person was familiar with the magazine for all of its content then they would consider buying it. “Therefore it was Leo Burnett’s mission to dramatise the editorial reality of the magazine and the wide range of interesting topics it covered, from fashion to food, entertainment, programming and lifestyle. The creative concept is wrapped up in the expression ‘The RTÉ Guide. Grab life by the pages’. It is an immediate call to action to buy the magazine, get involved and up-to-speed with life in Ireland today

Decreases in the Out of Home market

Published by CiaraM on August 19, 2011 in Outdoor News. 0 Comments

The value of the out of home medium in the first half of 2011 was approximately €94.3m. That figure is based on display at rate card. This is down by a couple of million euro on the same period in 2010. However, a major factor in this decline in display value is down to the fact that this year cycle 11 was reduced to one week in length and therefore halved in value.

In real terms, we estimate the out of home sector to be down by about 5% on 2010. It has been a very difficult period for all concerned but we are very encouraged by the fact that the medium is not standing still in terms of product development and that our formats continue to be supported by many of the top advertisers across the island of Ireland.

Both the traditional and modern elements of the medium are in constant development and good examples of this were clear in the first half of 2011. JCDecaux introduced HD posting on 48 Sheets, thus improving the quality of the traditional large billboard. CBS Outdoor invested heavily in the digital DPods in Dundrum, which were launched in Spring 2011 and have impressed with their clarity and quality. What we are now seeing develop in the digital area is an established network of opportunities that now make the digital option a more viable one for many advertisers. With this in mind, at PML Group we have established the Digital out of home Centre, a division dedicated to the management of this growing strand of our industry. More details on this will be available soon.

There have been some interesting changes in the categories that use out of home the most. Confectionery is a major growth area for the medium. Food, not including confectionery, was the second most active category on the medium in the first half of 2011, second only to Telecoms and pushing Beers & Ciders into third place. If confectionery were to be added to the general food category, it would be the number one category. As it stands, confectionery lies 5th, having increased in value on out of home by over 40% in 2011.  Telecoms remains the top single category, with display values of over €12m. Vodafone, eircom group and O2 are all above €2m display value for 2011. Other notable movers in terms of categories are Beers & Ciders (down 36%) and films (up 10%). Soft Drinks and Health & Hygiene have also dropped in value quite a bit and both only just make the top 10.

TV3 plans new €4.5 million studio

Published by CiaraM on August 19, 2011 in TV News. 0 Comments Tags: .

TV3 is to build a new 500 square metre studio for live shows with high definition capabilities. The initiative will see the station double the size of its facility in Ballymount and allow TV3 reach its goal of producing half of its own content, which is currently at 40 per cent. The €4.5m studio is due to open by the middle of next year.

TV3 has also recently agreed Ireland’s first official product placement deal. The station has pioneered product placement and hosted a major seminar in the Aviva Stadium with Marketing.ie.

TV3 chief executive David McRedmond has denied reports that more job cuts were planned at the station. He said that following a €14m refinancing package by owner Doughty Hanson last year, there were no plans for compulsory lay-offs. Staff had been offered a choice of year-long breaks or redundancy packages. TV3 will launch its autumn schedule in Dublin’s Royal College of Physicians at lunchtime today.

Spending in freefall, but confidence on the up – Consumer Market Monitor

Published by CiaraM on August 19, 2011 in General News. 0 Comments Tags: .

Consumer spending fell by 1.9pc in the first quarter of 2011 and, according to the Bank of Ireland Quarterly Economic Bulletin Q3, is set to decline by 2.4pc in the year as a whole, but confidence is reasonably high, the Consumer Market Monitor Q2 has revealed.

Tom Trainor and Mary Lambkin Released today, the report, which is published by UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and The Marketing Institute of Ireland (MII), finds that the retail sector has been hardest hit with a continued decline in sales in the first six months of 2011. Second quarter figures show a decline in retail sales of 1.7pc, wiping out a modest recovery in the first quarter. Excluding the motor trade, which was heavily influenced by the scrappage scheme, no retail category has grown in value.

“The latest official forecast by the Central Bank is for consumer spending to level off in 2012 at -0.6pc with a return to growth of about 1pc per annum after that,” said Mary Lambkin, Professor of Marketing at UCD Smurfit School. “It would be nice to believe that this is correct but reality suggests a less favourable picture against a continuing downward trend in incomes and employment.

Residential mortgage lending, which accounts for 85pc of all personal sector credit, has, according to the monitor, continued to drop in 2011 with loans to households down 4.8pc year-on-year to May 2011.

Loans for house purchases were 2.1pc lower, while lending for other purposes declined by 13.6pc, which the monitor concludes as indicating that consumers are reluctant to borrow and prefer to either save or pay off their current debts.

The number of houses for sale has remained flat at about 60,000 nationally since the middle of 2008, with 33,000 empty or incomplete new houses. The monitor suggests, however, that the higher than expected rate of new household formation, of 41,000 per year between 2006 and 2011, gives some cause for optimism that demand and supply will come back into balance over the next few years.

“Although the retail sector fared quite badly in this quarter’s monitor, it has been encouraging to see that the motor industry performed quite well even with the end of the scrappage scheme,” said Tom Trainor, chief executive of the Marketing Institute of Ireland. “My concern is that, with prices of essential items rising substantially in areas such as housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (9.3pc), miscellaneous goods and services (8.3pc), communications (4.1pc) and health (4pc), marketers will have to work harder than ever for a share of consumers’ disposable income.”

Advertising agencies are invited to swim with the Sharks for the first time

Published by CiaraM on August 19, 2011 in General News. 0 Comments Tags: .

Irish media agencies will for the first time take part in the Sharks advertising awards festival in Kinsale next month. Up to now, the Sharks was an adland event solely aimed at saluting creative work. But the organisers are keen to bring the festival in line with other international shows by honouring other advertising and marketing services.

Sharks organiser Tanya Cawley said the new media category comprises six sections — integrated media strategy with budgets under €100,000 and another with spends over €100,000, a return on investment award and a prize for innovative media strategy.

There will also be awards for the best use of single media and best use of earned media. The UK’s Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) chairman Richard Eyre will head up the festival’s media jury. He will be joined by Starcom MediaVest’s Iain Jacob and Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s planner Kevin Brown. Representing Ireland on the jury will be UCD Smurfit School of Business’ marketing professor, Damien McLoughlin.

Chacho Puebla from Leo Burnett Madrid and Jake Walshe from Screen Scene in Dublin will judge creative entries. Britain’s top adman John Hegarty will return to Kinsale as honorary chairman. He has described the Sharks as “the Glastonbury of award shows”. Despite the continued economic downturn, Ms Cawley said the festival is fully booked in terms of delegates, and traditional entries are up on last year. Next year’s Sharks is the show’s golden jubilee. Overseas media agencies will be invited to enter for the first time.

Financial services sector unimpressed by proposals

Published by CiaraM on August 19, 2011 in General News. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

 The industry is unhappy with the Central Bank’s ‘overperscriptive’ draft code on product adverts. Intended new regulations from the Central Bank of Ireland to govern how financial institutions can advertise their products have been criticised as unworkable by banks, building societies and insurance companies.

About 30 per cent of the space allocated to a financial product advertisement on radio or in the printed press is compliance wording. The new rules will mean longer broadcast adverts and bigger press adverts, adding further cost to the advertiser.

 The industry says the revised compliance requirements will mean that specific products will not be able to be advertised on radio at all. Stung by criticism that they were asleep at the wheel as the Irish banks went into meltdown, the industry argues the Central Bank is now going too far the other way, with plans to suffocate financial providers with bureaucratic red tape.

The regulator’s proposed new advertising code includes a raft of rules that stipulate the prominence of financial health warnings. The warnings must not be obscured or disguised in any way by the content, design or format of the advertisement, and all advertisements will have to state clearly any qualifying criteria of a product or service.

These warnings will not be allowed to be put in small print if they relate directly to the product. Small print or footnotes will only be allowed to supplement or elaborate on the key information in the main body of the advertisement and they must be of sufficient size and prominence to be clearly legible.

 The Irish Banking Federation says the proposed code will make it “very difficult to advertise effectively at a time when advertising will be even more essential in a smaller market”. The federation argues that the proposed rules would hamper effective web-based banner advertising as the regulatory disclosure would take up the majority of the banner. “Where a lot of detailed information is contained in an advertisement and all information is given equal prominence, there is a real danger that consumers will beunable to absorb all the information or the key information in it.

Central Bank press officer Nicola Faulkner counters: “In light of recent events, a review of the code is timely. There have been two industry consultations on the proposed update. No more consultations on this specific code update are expected. “None of the financial institutions will be aware of any recommendations we have taken on board from them until the final code is published. The Central Bank plans to finalise its new Consumer Protection Code by the end of this year. Once implemented, it will provide for a range of penalties, including fines of up to €10 million for any company found to be in breach.

14 million Americans scanned QR or bar codes in June

Published by CiaraM on August 19, 2011 in Online News. 0 Comments Tags: , .

In June 2011, 14 million mobile phone users in the US, or 6.2pc of the total mobile audience, scanned a QR (quick response) or bar code on their device, according to a study by comScore.

The study found that men (60.5pc of code scanning audience) were more likely to have scanned a QR or bar code during the month, as were those aged between 18 and 34 (53.4pc) and with a household income of over US$100,000 (36.1pc).

Users were most likely to have scanned codes found in newspapers/magazines and on product packaging and do so while at home or in a store.

“QR codes demonstrate just one of the ways in which mobile marketing can effectively be integrated into existing media and marketing campaigns to help reach desired consumer segments,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile.

“For marketers, understanding which consumer segments scan QR codes, the source and location of these scans, and the resulting information delivered, is crucial in developing and deploying campaigns that successfully utilise QR codes to further brand engagement.”

Internet Giant Google swallows up Motorola firm for $12.5bn

Published by CiaraM on August 19, 2011 in Online News. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Internet giant Google is buying US smartphone maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn (€8.7bn) in cash in a bid to boost its mobile operating system. Under the terms of the deal, Google will pay Motorola Mobility $40 per share which represents a 63pc premium on the stocks closing price Friday. In statements, the companies said the board of the two firms had unanimously approved the deal.

Google’s chief executive Larry Page says that the deal will “supercharge the entire Android ecosystem.” The deal gives Google direct control over the manufacturer of many of its Android phones. Mororola Mobility makes smartphones and tablets while it also manufactures wireless accessories and video and data delivery products.

JNRS Figures Show 3% decline

Published by CiaraM on August 19, 2011 in Press News. 0 Comments Tags: .

The latest set of figures from the Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS) showed that 2.94m people or 82% of the adult population regularly read a newspaper either on a daily or weekly basis. While this compares with 85.9% at the end of June 2010, the decline mirrors a trend that is evident in pretty much every other mature newspaper market in the world.

 The JNRS, which is carried out by Millward Brown Lansdowne covers the 12 month period up until the end of June 2011.

“There’s no evidence that people are giving up reading newspapers,” says Frank Cullen chief executive of the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI). “If there’s a slight dip in the readership figures it’s mainly down to economic issues, in particular the fact that there are now fewer people in work and therefore fewer newspapers being shared around the workplace.” He goes on to add that, “the latest JNRS is actually very encouraging, with 64% of people saying they are completely loyal to their newspaper and would not change.

“Cullen points out that the latest figures also show that 75% of all students and 77% of 15-24 year olds regularly read a newspaper. “Like in other countries, our young people source their news and information from a variety of media including the internet, social media and television. Unlike most other countries, however, our young people are also extremely enthusiastic readers – that’s a positive reflection on our society and it’s something we can be very happy with. We have a range of Newspapers in Education initiatives going on, and in that context the latest JNRS is very encouraging.

In the daily market, all the main papers shed readers during the period under review with the exception of the Irish Daily Mirror which saw a 1.5% increase in its daily readers to finish on 207,000.

 The Irish Independent, remained the most widely read daily newspaper with a readership of 500,000, a decline of around 10.7% on the comparable figure in 2010. It was followed by the Irish Daily Star on 372,000 while The Irish Times, meanwhile, weighed in with an average readership figure of 324,000, a drop of around 9.7% on the previous period.

The JNRS figures also show that the most widely read newspaper in the country continued to be the Sunday Independent with 971,000 readers. It was followed by its IN&M stablemate the Sunday World on 807,000. With 539,000 readers at the end of June, the now defunct Irish News of the World demonstrated that there’s readership gains to be made by the other newspapers over the next six months.

Elsewhere in the Sunday market, which has seen the departure of the Irish Star on Sunday and the Sunday Tribune since the last book, the Irish Mail on Sunday weighed in with 330,000 readers while the Sunday Times. The only Sunday title to record growth during the period was the Irish Sunday Mirror which added 13,000 readers to finish at 159,000.

 More in dept figures on the JNRS will be made available to clients in the near future.

Fortunegreen annual loss narrows to €630,000

Published by CiaraM on August 19, 2011 in Press News. 0 Comments Tags: , .

The annual loss recorded by the morning freesheet newspaper publisher Fortunegreen Ltd narrowed significantly last year to €630,458, latest accounts show. This compared with a loss of €2.3 million in 2009 at the company, which publishes the daily Metro Herald freesheet in Dublin.

Fortunegreen is owned equally by The Irish Times Ltd, Independent News & Media (INM) and DMG Ireland Holdings Ltd, which publishes the Daily Mail.

Managing director Paul Crosbie said the newspaper was budgeting to reach breakeven this year. “We’ve had a good first half of the year and are on budget,” he said. “If that continues in the second half of the year then we’re hoping to achieve a non-loss-making scenario.” Mr Crosbie said the improved financial performance resulted from increased sales and tight cost management control. Metro Herald had been “self sufficient” since January 2010 following the merger of the then rival freesheet titles, Metro and Herald AM. “There’s been good progress made since the merger and 2010 was a step in the right direction.” Mr Crosbie added that turnover rose last year by 10 per cent to €4.2 million and it has increased by 8 per cent in the year to date.

The abridged financial statements show that Fortunegreen closed 2010 with accumulated losses of €14.7 million. This compared with a deficit of €14.1 million at the end of 2009. Fortunegreen’s accounts state that purchases from The Irish Times Ltd amounted to €647,220 during the year while sales to the company were €974. Purchases from companies related to DMG Ireland Holdings Ltd amounted to €722,893 while sales to those companies were €44,215. Metro Herald’s average circulation for the past 12 months was 63,250.

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