The award for Best Art Direction went to Gerry Kennedy and Emma Hogan of McConnells advertising agency.

The duo, who share the €5,000 cash prize, won the award for a series of five adverts featuring creative ideas of well-known figures ranging from Harry Potter author JK Rowling, classical music composer Amadeus Mozart, artists Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, and pop singer and former member of the pop group the Beatles Paul McCartney.

"This looks great in the large format of newspaper and, of course, it speaks to the power of the printed word, expressed in ink on good old-fashioned papyrus," said Luke Sullivan, who judged the competition.

"In particular, we liked Mozart's requiems while, being Beatles fanatics, we also loved Paul McCartney's Yesterday."

The five adverts featured in the "Ideas" campaign will be published throughout the NNI range of newspapers over the coming months.

Dublin-based McConnells is one of the Republic's largest full-service marketing communications companies.

The privately held company has worked on projects for clients including Tesco, Eircom, AIB and Kellogg's.