Veteran makes strategic return to ad industry

Media & Marketing: His decision to return to adland has proved as much a talking point as his resignation from Irish International Group (IIG) last year, but today marks the return of Peter McPartlin to agency business as he assumes the role of strategic director at Carat.

Recognised as one of the most able people in media advertising, McPartlin has spent the past year handling projects for the likes of UTV Radio. For many years at IIG, he worked closely with Independent Newspapers.

McPartlin said he had been considering a return to agency work for several months. "There's a lot going on just now in Irish media, particularly online," he said. "The changing nature of media is that if you're not engaged in it every day, you lose out."

McPartlin said his 14 months as a media consultant had allowed him look at things "dispassionately".

"I didn't say I'd never return to work in an agency and this move gives me the chance to play in the big house with a big library!" he added.

McPartlin was deputy managing director at IIG and has extensive experience in agency media. Carat Ireland, along with Vizeum and Brindley Advertising, is part of the UK-owned Aegis Ireland group and is headed up by Liam McDonnell.

McPartlin replaced McDonnell at IIG when the latter left to join Pat Donnelly at AIM, now Carat. Carat clients include Bank of Ireland, Dunnes Stores, Vodafone, Cadbury and National Lottery. The hiring of McPartlin follows the controversial departure of ex-Carat boss, Alan Cox, whose proposed move to Starcom Mediavest recently was blocked by Aegis as his contract allegedly ruled that he could not join a competitor for a year.

McPartlin will be busy at Carat as the agency tries to hold on to Bank of Ireland, which has been put out to pitch. Normally, media work accounts for 80 per cent of the client business.

AIB has also invited agencies to pitch for its media. Among those in contention are Starcom Mediavest, Universal McCann and incumbent McConnells' MCM Communications. Vizeum had shown interest.

Joanne Lee of AIB said it was the first media review the bank had undertaken in five years. She expects a decision will be made by July.

McConnells will hope to hold on to AIB media as it has lost some lucrative accounts since the start of the year, including National Lottery, Masterfoods and Kellogg's.

Bank of Scotland (Ireland) will see presentations from agencies next week.

BoSI incumbent Language will compete with Hunter/Red Cell, Owens DDB, QMP Publicis and Rothco for the business. A decision is expected by September.

Renault exits show

After a week in which some radical changes were announced to the RTÉ radio schedule, RTÉ Television has confirmed that it must find a new sponsor for The Late Late Show when it returns in September.

Renault ended its five-year run last Friday, with an audience on the night of 680,000 viewers.

Bill Cullen of Renault Ireland said that "all good things come to an end", but the deal was one of the best things he had done in his 50 years in the motor industry. The initial deal was for three years, but it was then extended for another two years.

Sources suggest that Renault paid about €1 million a year to RTÉ, which was "good value".

SuperValu pitch

SuperValu has put its creative advertising out to pitch and many agencies not serving Dunnes, Tesco, Superquinn and Spar will be expected to pitch for the Musgrave-owned chain, currently with Grey Helme.

Musgrave itself is looking for PR partners, having parted with Fleishman Hillard. Financial Dynamics and Edelman are in the running for the corporate account, while vying for the consumer end are Grayling, Plunkett Communications, Slattery Communications and Weber Shandwick.

AFA's media unit

AFA O'Meara has set up a dedicated media division. Precision Media is headed up by Joe Dalton, where clients include Iarnród Éireann, 98FM, Panorama Holidays, Stena Line and Irishjobs.ie.

Michael Cullen is editor of Marketing magazine, cullen@marketing.ie. Emmet Oliver is on leave.