Media & Marketing/Emmet Oliver: The Aer Rianta account, which attracted pitches from about 20 agencies, has been awarded to the Irish agency Owens DDB.
The Irish Times understands the account is worth about €2.5 million a year and Owens is getting the account on a "rolling" basis for not longer than five years. Owens will handle all creative work, strategic thinking and media buying (via its Mediaworks subsidiary) as part of the deal.
The account is one of the biggest in the area of aviation and some very large agencies lost out during the pitch. Aer Rianta has been increasing its advertising presence in recent years, with its retailing operations being particularly emphasised.
The account was previously held by the giant Leo Burnett (formerly CDP), one of the 10 largest ad agencies in the world.
Owens will be rolling out a new campaign across all media over the next few months. Fewer and fewer Irish agencies are able (or allowed) to handle all parts of a contract, from start to finish. But the Aer Rianta deal hands over all of the work to Owens and its subsidiary Mediaworks.
Owens already holds the accounts for McDonalds, Volkswagen Audi, Carlsberg, O2, Friends First and Bord Bia. Last month it won a large contract with Nestlé, worth €300,000 to €500,000.
Texting takes off
Texting is fast becoming a serious advertising and marketing channel. Last year's 50 per cent increase in text volumes has delivered plenty of business for the few small but ambitious firms in the area.
The public sent six million text messages last year, says Mr Dawood Ghalaieny, of txt4info, one of the fastest-growing companies, and further growth is likely. While there are some dubious operators in the area which send unsolicited texts (usually for premium lines), those which operate in the mainstream market are doing very well.
Contracts in the area, while small by industry standards, are not to be sneezed at, with some deals worth more than €250,000.
Mr Ghalaieny says his company has already done deals with McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Maxwell House and Masterfoods and others are in the pipeline. He says the major advantage of texting is that it is 100 per cent accountable.
In real time, through a Web browser interface, the number of texters getting involved in a campaign can be gauged. Also text is personal, private and can be sent at any time.
About 77 per cent of the adult population are believed now to have a mobile phone, compared with just 35 per cent with access to a PC on a regular basis. While the saturation point may have been reached for mobile ownership, companies in the text game (Return to Sender, Saadien, Gigtext) believe their market can grow further. So called "silver texters" (older people coming to texting for the first time) are one of the groups likely to be targeted in future campaigns.
Mr Ghalaieny says his firm would like to move into Britain and Holland based on its experience in the Republic. The more profit text marketing and advertising firms make, the more likely it is the bigger agencies will move in to get their slice. The banking sector is likely to be the next battleground, with limitless possibilities for banks to use such technology.
Slight rise
Advertising for 2002 rose by 2.5 per cent, according to the latest figures from the Institute of Advertising Practitioners Ireland (IAPI), but press and radio had a very poor year.
While €489 million was spent on press advertising, this was actually a 1 per cent decrease on the previous year. Mediaworks, however, believes the fall was about 3 per cent, because the IAPI figures rely on published rate cards that can sometimes overvalue the overall spend.
Radio spending was down (at €64 million) 7 per cent, although these figures are mainly for national radio franchises, not local operators.
Bucking the trend in a major way was cinema and the outdoor market. Advertising in cinemas rose by an impressive 38 per cent. Not bad in such a sluggish market, while outdoor was up 14 per cent at €98 million.
Contributing factors to the small rise in 2002 included the General Election, Ireland's performance in the World Cup, the Nice Referendum and a number of high-profile launches including O2 and Vodafone.
Mediaworks, meanwhile, is forecasting a total media market spend decline of 1.5 per cent for 2003 compared with 2002.
Online Government
The Department for Communications will allocate 10 per cent of its advertising budget towards online advertising this year in a move to drive internet demand.
At a conference in Dublin yesterday, the Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, said he had directed his officials to set aside a minimum of its advertising budget to online advertising.
Mr Ahern also called on IBEC, the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, and their members to do likewise. Corporate entities should start backing the internet, he added. "To drive demand, we have to really start showing people that the internet works," he said. The potential of online advertising, which during the late 1990s was the great white hope, has so far failed to meet the lofty ambitions of technology entrepreneurs. Except in a few niche areas, such as recruitment and property, the rewards for online advertisers have been sparse.
