Media & Marketing: "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in the old man's hat."Whilst the old man and his hat have been replaced by people carrying tins, buckets, and barrels, charities have had to become ever more inventive in their attempts to maximise their revenues from the public at this time of year, writes Alex Gibson.
With a growing number of single-issue charities seeking to get their message out to a highly fragmented audience, the challenge faced by a charity that is 160 years old is particularly acute.
The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) has launched a new marketing campaign this year devised by Stuart Kenny Associates. The well-documented decline in Mass attendance has had a knock-on effect on the charity's coffers, with its church collections suffering a 4 per cent hit in revenue last year versus 2001, though this was more than offset by increased revenues from fundraising activities and other donations.
With church collections representing one-third of SVP's annual revenue of €24 million, the need to look for other streams of revenues poses interesting marketing challenges.
Whilst direct mail has become an increasingly important part of the marketing strategy, SVP continues to use traditional advertising to bolster its claim to be Ireland's largest voluntary organisation of social concern. Using the tag-line "It's wonderful what we can do - SVP and you", the current campaign features the work of the society's 9,000 members in key areas such as families in need, the elderly alone, the homeless and young people.
Cause for cheer
The creative team of DDFH&B have cause to be cheery this Christmas, having picked up a much coveted Epica award for their work on Smirnoff Black Ice. The awards, to be presented in Guinness Storehouse next month, are the largest European advertising agency awards and are judged by the advertising trade press.
The winning advertisement, which was developed specifically for the Irish market, centres on the "handover" of a couple's daughter to her boyfriend for a holiday, with the interplay between boyfriend and father being particularly well executed. Despite the fact that English actors were used - apparently to reinforce the international Smirnoff image - the campaign was devised and shot entirely in Ireland.
Whilst we are famed for punching well above our weight in the creative arts such as music, dance and literature, Irish agencies have not achieved similar acclaim in the advertising arena. One explanation for this may be a reluctance to showcase Irish talent in international advertising awards.
Deputy managing director at DDFH&B, Jeremy Crisp, predicts a change in this, and points to growing business confidence over the last five years as acting as a stimulus to a growth in international-standard creative work from Irish agencies. Certainly, there must be potential for Irish agencies to grab a greater slice of the international advertisement production market and, in the process, provide a fillip to the broader film production industry here.
As the advertising sector becomes more globalised, the Irish-based arms of international agencies will have the opportunity to make their mark. This may be further enhanced by what seems to be happening on the client side of the business too.
Speaking at a recent Marketing Society seminar, Karen Hand of Curly Enterprises, pointed to the strong Irish representation on the international brand teams of companies with multi-million euro advertising budgets to allocate. Let's hope that we may see a McColgan/Doherty-like team emerge from Ireland's advertising sector.
Need to review tourism
Hopefully the implementation of the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism move to Killarney will not take Minister O'Donoghue's eye off the pressing need for a more general review of the regional structures of Irish tourism. We need to have structures that are more appropriate in scale to the relatively small size of Ireland, supportive of marketing strategy and are rooted in the concept of destination branding.
The development of an Atlantic Ireland brand, embracing the entire western seaboard, is one idea that should be considered carefully. The implications for the regional structure to implement such a sub-brand are many, but at least we would have a consumer proposition of scale and substance that had international visitor appeal, recognition and differentiation.
Macy's chooses Boru
Well-known department store Macy's has chosen Boru Vodka for its holiday display throughout the store. The company has errected 8 ft-high Christmas tree pyramids featuring the Irish vodka and has decorated five of its windows with the drink. A special Boru martini bar has also been erected on the eighth floor.
Datapac sponsorship
Datapac, one of the Republic's independent computer services providers, is to continue its third level GAA sponsorship for a further three years. The sponsorship is worth around €100,000. This year, the Datapac Sigerson Cup will be hosted by St Mary's College, Belfast and the Datapac Fitzgibbon Cup will be hosted by Athlone IT.
ICAD awards
The advertising community continues to absorb the outcome of this year's ICAD awards. The awards are highly coveted by creatives in all the advertising agencies. Due to space limitations last week, the following awards for agency Owens DDB were omitted: Silver Bell for Aer Rianta Press; Bronze Bell for Carlsberg 'Dreams' TV; Craft Bell for Carlsberg 'Dreams' TV; Bronze Bell for Volkswagen Polo Outdoor; Bronze Bell for Knorr Fresh Soups TV
Alex Gibson is a senior lecturer in marketing at the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, DIT. He presents the Persuaders, a marketing/media show broadcast every Monday from 12.30 pm-1 pm on Dublin City Anna Livia FM 103.2 (www.persuadersonline.com).
Emmet Oliver is on leave
