A challenging speech at the third Irish Times Property Advertising Awards gave a packed audience a lot to think about

The third Irish Times Property Advertising Awards lunch rolled around again last Friday and judging by the turnout in the ballroom at the Berkeley Court Hotel in Dublin, the event has become an important social event in the property calendar.

Over 300 guests were present at the lunchtime awards ceremony which began with a keynote address from Anglo Irish Bank chairman, Sean Fitzpatrick, highlighting the success of the Irish economy over the past 15 years.

The attendance included Geraldine Kennedy, editor of The Irish Times, and advertising sales manager Liam Holland. The awards coincided with the publication of the newspaper's biggest ever property supplement.

Estate agents from the major Dublin estate agencies were present along with property developers, advertising executives and representatives of countrywide franchise networks such as Property Partners, Property Team and Real Estate Alliance.

Overseas property agents also turned up in the hope of receiving an award in the overseas residential property category.

Awards were made in sevencategories: New Homes Development; Resale Residential Property; Overseas Residential Property; Office Development; Development Land; Fine Art and Corporate Advertisement.

The judges did not make awards in a number of categories (Retail Property; Leisure Property; Industrial/Warehouse Property and Property Financing) because while there were many entries in each category, they failed to reach a sufficent standard.

A total of 313 advertisements were submitted for the awards, significantly up on the previous year.

The judging panel, chaired by JP Donnelly, group chief executive, Ogilvy, included Des Byrne of the Society of Chartered Surveyors; Brendan Donoghue, past president treasurer of the Irish Auctioneers & Valuers Institute (IAVI); Noel O'Connor, a senior executive of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF); Gerry Kennedy, creative director of McConnells Advertising; Ian Doherty, joint managing partner of Bonfire; Laura Raleigh, education liason officer of the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers (IPAV) and Orna Mulcahy, Property Editor of The Irish Times.

Banker Sean Fitzpatrick's keynote address on the economy was amusing, thoughtful and challenging, attributes which could also be applied to this year's winning entries.

Sustaining the country's economic performance by supporting business was the main theme of his speech.

The media was criticised for its "negative view" of Irish business and financial advisor Eddie Hobbs in particular was given a thorough lambasting.

Explaining how the judging panel came to their decisions, Gerry Kennedy of McConnells Advertising spoke of the sameness of many entries and how the company logo was often the only differentiating factor.

The awards were presented by broadcaster Mary Kennedy.

New homes advertising is one of the most competitive categories and the construction industry was represented by some of the country's top developers.

Everyone rightly suspected that Gunne New Homes and Hooke & MacDonald were a shoo-in for an award for their Chocolate Factory advertisement for an apartment development on the former Nestlé site in Kilmainham, featuring . . . a chocolate bar.

The advertising campaign resulted in a sellout for the Dublin 8 scheme.

Lisney carried off the award for Corporate Advertising with its simple strip advertising, designed to run underneath television listings.

The simplicity of the message was part of the company's overall change of design direction, which has seen them introduce a new logo for both its salesboards and its advertising campaigns.

Douglas Newman Good walked away with the award in the Residential Resale Category with its well-composed advertisement for a handful of good-looking houses.

While agents often try to cram in as many properties as possible into a one page advertisement, this approach showed that using just a few interesting houses can have more impact.

Harcourt Developments won the Office Development Award for an impressively restrained ad for Park West.

Hamilton Osborne King/Tom McGrath Overseas' advertisement for a Spanish new homes development, Realia, was the winner in the category of Overseas Property Development, while CB Richard Ellis Gunne won the Development Land advertisement award.

In the Fine Art category, John Weldon Auctioneers took the award for a low key but effective advertisement for an antique jewellery sale.