Just the job: the power of adspeak

THIS YEAR'S Cedar Awards, run by The Irish Timesin association with CIPD Ireland and the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland, saw TMP Worldwide claiming three Cedars and Owens DDB landing two awards.

TMP scored two of its awards with heavyweight IT giants - Dell and IBM - in the information technology and engineering and technology categories respectively.

Owens DDB scooped its two gongs with Sigmar Recruitment in the medical section and with IRC in the series category.

The awards that were introduced in 1987 are celebrating their 21st year and honour the creativity, design and effectiveness of recruitment advertising.

This year's awards were presented to the various recruitment advertisers and the agencies behind their campaigns by Maeve Donovan, managing director of The Irish Times, at an event held at the Four Seasons hotel.

Addressing guests at the ceremony, Ms Donovan said the huge shift in the market over the previous 12 months meant widespread challenges had to be met over the short to medium term.

She said this meant that priorities had to change. While focus had shifted, people would remain central.

"Now more than ever, the right person in the right role is vital, up-skilling and training and development remain essential. As organisations it is important that we are not deflected by the short term to the extent that we lose sight of the longer term strategic needs of our business."

Ms Donovan said recruitment and the recruitment industry had always been a key barometer in measuring economic change, and would do so again.

In addition, she acknowledged the work of companies in recognising the importance of recruitment advertising and the role of the ad agency in delivering them into publications. "Print continues to provide the ideal environment to brand and promote to a focused and highly targeted market."

Well-known voluntary organisation Alone, with its agency YR, picked up the general management award. In the pharmaceutical section, IVAX (now Teva) and Ogilvy Recruitment Advertising won the accolade.

In the finance category the winners were Berkley Recruitment and Rubicon Advertising.

Another first-time victor was Gospel - winning for its "Welcome to sales-topia" campaign with Prosperity, in the sales and marketing section.

Trinity College added to its 2007 prize in the education category by picking up another honour for its work with Brindley Advertising for a clever numbers-influenced ad targeting accountancy jobs.

In the "other" section, Betaset and McConnells Recruitment Advertising won for its humorous, deliberately misspelt, advertisement for a proof reader.

The Cedar Awards also recognised the importance of branding in recruitment advertising.

A special merit award was presented to a company which the judging panel felt created an advertisement that had a strong branded message in a recruitment context.

This year's recipient was TMP and its client Abbott for an eye-catching communication that subtly combined a seasonal greeting with a recruitment message.

Paul Mooney, president of the National College of Ireland and chairman of the judging panel, said the judges had looked for advertisements that caught their attention and "drew them in".