Irish advertising should offer more creativity and focus, conference told

Media&Marketing: Irish advertising needs to offer clients better creative ideas, and both agencies and marketers must promote brands and change the focus from the cost of input to the success of output, speakers told delegates attending the inaugural Advertising Works Forum, organised by the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI) and held in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.Michael Cullen

Tim Broadbent, director of London's BrandCon agency, criticised the way ad agencies were valued these days, and compared their declining reputation to contract cleaners, security firms and caterers. "All agencies are three calls away from disaster," Broadbent said, "and their declining value represents a crisis."

Broadbent added that when an agency said it worked as a partner with its clients, it was untrue as there was no risk on the part of agencies. With a corporate failure rate of more than 60 per cent in some markets, a growing middle class in China and India producing brands and not just products, it was essential that ad agencies come up with new ideas for growth.

Colin Gordon, managing director of C&C, said the workings of advertising failed to feature on the boardroom agenda. Marketing existed to make selling easier and advertising was only one part of a wider spectrum. Gordon questioned the sense of international campaigns with strong production values, where the brand was just "glued on" at the end.

"A brand manager is a guardian, and the truth doesn't change as such - the way you tell it does," Gordon said. "We need an integrated approach and only cocksure brand managers ignore that. If agencies are three calls away from disaster, we're just one away, where a retailer tells us 'you're gone!'"

Gordon said the size of the Irish market was a problem in that advertisers like C&C needed campaigns of an international standard to compete with the likes of Coca-Cola. Tesco internationally was putting huge pressure on brand owners, but they needed to "give us a chance" and allow suppliers to put drama into marketing campaigns.

Mathew Bull, chief creative officer of Lowe Worldwide, criticised the standard of Irish advertising, accusing agencies of being too conservative. Irish people had the right characteristics to produce more provocative work.

"The size of your office doesn't determine your ideas - Ireland could be a creative hub, the new Amsterdam," he said.

Brian Sparks of Agency Assessments said Irish agencies generally provided good presentations, but they should avoid pitching if they were too busy. On the issue of clients paying agencies for pitches, Mr Sparks said advertisers in Switzerland paid a fee of about €4,000 and it was an arrangement which sat well with both parties.

IAPI president Brian Hayes, of Young Euro RSCG, said he hoped the forum would become an annual platform for debating industry issues. Chaired by Damien Kiberd, the event was sponsored by Independent Radio Sales (IRS), The Irish Times, JCDecaux, Poster Plan, RTÉ, Sky, Today FM, TV3 and UTV.

Online driver

Irish media and entertainment is expected to grow by 5.6 per cent each year, touching €2.75 billion by 2009, the latest Pricewaterhouse-

Coopers outlook report has predicted. The key drivers will be internet advertising and spending on online subscriptions.

Online spend in Ireland is due to grow at a rate of 13.4 per cent a year, reaching US$60 million (1.2 million) by 2009.

Currently, Ireland's online display market is worth about €9 million, but growth lags well behind the UK, where online spend has outperformed cinema and radio.

The first IAPI figures indicate that online spend for September stood at €639,510, accounting for 0.06 per cent of all ad revenue for January-September. But Gary Power of Saor Commun- ications said a more viable figure would be €1.3 million.

Recently, internet spend overtook outdoor in the UK, with €1 billion in annual revenues. Industry observers now believe online can see credible growth, leaving behind the early days of the internet when its promise was marred by hype.

Hoping to win dividends from an upswing in digital advertising is a newly-launched agency called Brando. The three founders are managing director Darren McGrath, ex-BT Ireland; planner Ciarán O'Reilly of Pulse; and Brendan O'Flaherty, creative director.

Out to research

Amárach Consulting, the research and forecasting agency run by Gerard O'Neill, has acquired the Edinburgh-based Market Research Partners (MRP), in a bid to compete in the UK's €1.9 billion surveys market. MRP has more than 1,000 interviewers on its books.

Accenture is moving into marketing services by buying Media Audits, the UK agency which measures media spend for advertisers, particularly TV campaigns. Run by George Patten, Media Audits competes in Ireland with Billetts and Fairbrother Media.

Gusto Research is a Leeds-based agency now looking for openings in Ireland. Damien Flannagan, formerly of TNS mrbi, said Gusto was "cold calling" potential clients in Dublin, including Diageo and O2, promoting its Brainwave qualitative omnibus.

First call

BBC Advertising, the agency founded in 1987 by Conor Bofin and the late Harry Byers, has changed its name to First Advertising. Bofin said the change came about as the name no longer reflected where the agency was today. "The team here is relieved," he added, "as no longer will we have to explain to people: 'no, we're not that BBC'."

Michael Cullen is editor of Marketing magazine