Calling all marketers . . .

Rewarding marketing excellence in Ireland is what Marketer of the Year is all about and entries for this year are now being sought.

The award, organised by Marketing.ie magazine, salutes the best in Irish marketing in the past two years.

The winner is will be someone whose use of strategy, innovation, communications and impact on the target audience has made their brand, product or service an outstanding success.

Britvic Ireland's marketing boss Kevin Donnelly won last year for putting the fizz back in three of Ireland's best loved soft drinks – Club Orange, MiWadi and Ballygowan. The judges were impressed by Donnelly's focus on a localised strategy. He made some bold decisions and turned the business on its head, while never losing sight of Britvic's commercial needs.

For Club Orange, Donnelly had to make the drink trendier. In targeting teens and twentysomethings, he devised the five Bs – buddies, beer, books, burgers and birds. The Bs prompted the Best Bits viral ads created by Chemistry. Not surprisingly, suggestive posters fell foul of the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland.

UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business marketing professor Damien McLoughlin chairs this year's Marketer of the Year judging panel. AIB group marketing director Tom Kinsella joins the panel for the first time. Entries are open until September 27th.

The award will be presented at a lunch in Dublin in November.