Irish International BBDO steps up to the plate with Donegal Catch campaign

MEDIA & MARKETING:The agency has just won a top award for Donegal Catch ads that cast a net around consumers, writes Siobhán O'Connell

CREATING A captivating advertising campaign for packets of frozen fish is not the kind of brief that would excite most creative types. But advertising agency Irish International BBDO stepped up to the plate when Northern Foods came calling with Donegal Catch.

Over the past five years, sales of the brand have soared, propelled by television marketing.

According to the agency, profits at the unit have risen by a factor of six and the resulting boost in the value of the enterprise is 15 times greater than the brand spend since 2003.

These figures impressed the judges at last weekend's Advertising Effectiveness Awards, organised by the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI) and sponsored by The Irish Times.

For its work on Donegal Catch, Irish International BBDO won the main Grand Prix award, a reward as much for connecting Irish consumers with the idea of buying fish as for pleasing the client.

Northern Food's original brief to Irish International BBDO was to create an advertising campaign based on three Donegal Catch products: Chunky Cod, Salmon with Pesto Crust, and Cod with Vegetables.

The agency's idea was to build the campaign around three Donegal fishermen: Donal, the captain whose word is law; Connor, his right-hand man, who can't understand why he is not in charge; and young Eoin, described as "about as bright as the bottom of a very deep hole".

The thinking was that, as people became familiar with these characters, they might over time evolve into bona-fide spokesmen on Irish life.

The agency explains: "We chose a suitably philosophical-sounding endline - another world altogether - to refer not just to the fish they endorsed and the life they led, but also the values they represented."

Later, however, the tagline changed to "It's all about the fish".

The idea of real fish from real fishermen has been the advertising platform for Donegal Catch since 2003.

According to Irish International BBDO, the advertising spend by the brand's main rival, Birds Eye, is six times higher. However, the agency claims that recall for Donegal Catch advertisements is better than for Birds Eye and that, in the year to June 2008, Donegal Catch grew value sales by 14 per cent while value sales for Birds Eye declined.

Irish International BBDO won five awards on the night, including the gold awards in both the fast-moving consumer goods and long-term categories for the Donegal Catch campaign; two silver awards in the alcohol beverages category for campaigns with Carlsberg and Guinness; and the overall Grand Prix for Donegal Catch.

Other gold winners at the awards included Cawley Nea\TBWA, which won the top award in two categories for the Power of One energy conservation campaign. Now in its second year, the multimedia, multimillion campaign, championed by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, may not solve the world's energy crisis but, according to the judges, "it communicated the power of one individual and the difference one change can make".

The other gold award went to advertising agency Chemistry for its Irish Life campaign promoting pensions to women.

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Walk into a newsagent any day of the week and you're lucky if you don't trip over the bundles of British newspapers piled high on the shop floor. But for all the efforts of the British newspaper barons, consumers here still prefer a paper with some local news.

Recently published ABC figures for British newspaper sales in the Republic during September show the Observerto be the biggest seller on a Sunday, with sales of about 11,390. The next-biggest seller is the weekly Racing Post, with sales on a Saturday of about 7,620, followed by the Financial Times, with average daily sales of about 4,940.

Title - ABC

Observer- 11,390

Racing Post- 7,620

Financial Times- 4,940

Guardian- 4,870

Daily Telegraph- 3,600

London Times- 3,670

Sunday Telegraph- 3,070

Independent on Sunday- 2,650

Independent- 2,320