Quinn Group sees potential for more growth in 'Trees'

MEDIA & MARKETING:ONE YEAR on from the controversy surrounding Seán Quinn's investment in Anglo Irish Bank, which resulted in the Financial Regulator imposing a €3.2 million penalty on Quinn Insurance for breaches of regulatory requirements, Quinn Group has stepped back into the limelight with a swish new TV ad to promote its commercial and business insurance division, writes SIOBHÁN O'CONNELL

Trees, a 60-second commercial with the strapline “Supporting Irish Business, Growing Irish Jobs”, debuted during last Sunday’s All-Ireland Football Final and will run for several months. The commercial is targeted at SME business customers who, according to research, don’t know much about the commercial arm of the Quinn Insurance business. Says Mark Hogan of ad agency Owens DDB, which made the ad: “Our strategy is to focus on the diversity, success, longevity and history of the Quinn Group itself.”

Trees comes across as part insurance ad and part corporate video. According to Kevin Lunney, group development director at Quinn Group: “We have over one million customers in Ireland and the majority of them do not have an appreciation of the scale and diversity of the Quinn Group or knowledge of the history of the group.”

Lunney believes that when SME decision-makers learn about the depth of experience that Quinn Group has within a range of industry sectors they will have a greater affinity with the company and will be more likely to buy insurance from Quinn.

Though many business categories have reined in advertising spend due to the recession, not so insurance. According to ad agency OMD, the insurance sector increased ad spend by 24 per cent in the first half of the year, with Hibernian Aviva and FBD more than doubling their spend. Press share dropped by 30 per cent, while outdoor saw a 5 per cent increase.

Dublin-London is the busiest international airline route with about four million passengers each year. About 45 per cent goes through Heathrow and 30 per cent through Gatwick. CityJet’s current share of Dublin-London is just 4 per cent, a performance that chief executive Geoffrey O’Byrne White hopes to improve with a new €5 million ad campaign in the UK.

Despite the competition between Aer Lingus, Ryanair, bmi and CityJet, bargain prices are hard to find if you book at short notice. Book today for a flight going out from Dublin midday on Friday and returning on Sunday afternoon and you’ll face with return fares ranging from about €270 to €370.

CityJet comes out quite well in price terms, so why isn’t the airline busier? “Mainly it’s inertia and a lack of knowledge about the proximity of London City Airport to the city of London,” says O’Byrne White. “But once people sample the airport, they like it. We just have to convince them to try it.”

Leisure passengers who use CityJet to fly to Dublin are predominantly of Irish origin and O’Byrne White is seeking to persuade “George and Mildred” of London City Airport’s convenience. But he realises he is up against it. “Anywhere in east London, they still associate with Jack the Ripper,” he says.

Turnover at Zamano plc, the Dublin company which provides interactive applications such as ringtones for mobile phones, collapsed by 40 per cent in the first half of the year. That’s partly due to the recession, but mostly due to the company scaling back its advertising spend.

The challenge facing chief executive John O’Shea is how to reach the company’s core market of teenagers. As tabloid advertising and TV spots are delivering less effective response, Zamano has substantially reduced such advertising and shifted more spend to online and mobile portals. However, O’Shea complains of “a lack of suitable mobile portal advertising inventory”.

Most modern mobile phones can deliver internet access and teenagers are using the facility. Mobile operator 3 reports that 43 per cent of mobile internet usage on its network is going to Facebook and Bebo. However, tiny phone screens can only show so many ads and it seems that too many advertisers are chasing the same space.

O’Shea hopes that inventory availability will grow in line with adoption of mobile internet, although he concedes that much depends on mobile operators reducing their data charges.