McCann-Erickson has won the £10 million (A12.7 million) Tourism Brand Ireland account. When the account came up for review at the start of this year, Owens DDB, which held the global advertising account for the past four years, added its name to the original tender list but pulled out at the "strategic" round two stage, as did Irish International.
The final choice was between four agencies - McCannErickson, DFH&B, Ogilvy & Mather and McConnells - which were asked for creative pitches.
McCann's marshalled the considerable force of its international network and, in all, 45 staff members were involved in its Dublin, London, Paris and New York offices.
The current campaign devised by Owens DDB will still be used until the end of this year and McCann's new work will be seen from the start of 2001.
There are some significant personnel changes at McCann's. Universal McCann, the company's media wing, has lost two of its most senior people. Managing director Frances Marsh has left to pursue other interests, while her deputy, Ruan McGloughlin, is leaving to join Des O'Meara's as media director.
The advertising account for the Euro Changeover Board is now out to tender and, with a budget of £4.25 million (A5.4 million), interest is likely to be strong for what is perceived by the industry as both a lucrative and prestigious account.
The budget breakdown is £250,000 for the remainder of this year and £4 million over the following two years.
As this is a Government tender it is open to agencies from outside the State, but the feeling is that because of the nature of the account, it will go either to an Irish agency or an agency with an Irish division.
RTE scheduling is mysterious at the best of times but why it has chosen to run its new highly acclaimed series The Sopranos on RTE1 against Ally McBeal on Network 2 on Monday nights is puzzling.
Michelle Duff from Mediaworks points out that the programmes overlap in terms of their core target audience (15-34-year-olds) and that Ally McBeal is winning.
Among adults aged 15-34 years, Ally McBeal reached 14.3 per cent last Monday whereas The Sopranos reached only 4.1 per cent.
Not surprisingly, Ally McBeal's audience has a noticeable female bias. Last Monday's episode, while delivering 14.3 per cent of 15-34 year olds, managed to deliver 19.3 per cent of women aged 15-34 years. In this "sub-audience", The Sopranos delivered only 3.5 per cent.
