Media & Marketing: Diageo - owner of Guinness Ireland - is planning a major new TV, press and outdoor advertising campaign focusing on responsible drinking. The move comes as the Government considers banning alcohol advertising altogether or at least severely curtailing it on TV.
The Dublin-based agency Language has been appointed to design the campaign, which is expected to have a significant spend behind it. The campaign airs in late October.
It is the first campaign produced for the Irish market that focuses on sensible drinking. An earlier campaign, which used the strapline Knowing When To Stop, was produced originally for the US market by Smirnoff. It was later adapted by the Irish agency DDFH&B.
Language is one of several advertising agencies that have worked with Diageo in recent years. It was set up in 1989 and employs 14 staff. Ms Loretta Dignam, head of consumer communications, Diageo Ireland, said the company had undertaken several initiatives to encourage sensible "drinking", including the recent opening of the Choice Zone, an interactive exhibit at Guinness Storehouse.
Critics of the drink industry have questioned such campaigns. Does the drink industry truly want consumers to reduce consumption of their products?
However, Diageo argues that its campaign is aimed at encouraging consumers to question their consumption patterns and this should lead to less abuse of alcohol generally.
Meanwhile, the Government continues to toy with the idea of banning drink advertising. According to the Taoiseach's last pronouncement on the issue, a ban on alcohol advertising before a 10 p.m. watershed is more likely.
Mr Ahern claims one way to tackle the issue of alcohol advertising on stations such as Sky, ITV, Channel 4 and E4 would be to amend the EU Television Without Frontiers Directive. He has set this as an objective of the EU Presidency.
Future in Irish brands
Since the early 1980s, the conventional wisdom in advertising and marketing has been that global brands are likely to dominate more and more markets because cultural differences are breaking down.
Not so, according to the chairman of McConnells, Mr John Fanning. In a paper delivered to a European conference recently, Mr Fanning delivered a robust defence of the local brand and said the now fashionable rejection of big multinational brands could bolster Irish brands such as Smithwicks, Fiacla, Club Orange, Goodalls, Kerrygold, Boru and Ballygowan.
Mr Fanning, a non-executive director of The Irish Times Ltd board, said global capital was able to overcome the limitations of time and space, but this was not necessarily a threat to local brands. "This is likely to strengthen rather than weaken the sense of local identity. Local brands are a form of local identity and, if properly managed, can be used by consumers as a balance against excessive homogenisation."
He said the way Club Orange coped with the global cola giants Coca Cola and Pepsi was one example. "Club Orange is a much loved carbonated orange drink long associated with the orange bits in it, so that you can taste bits of orange when you drink it. Some are still visible on the sides of a finished glass. The brand could never aspire to the kind of marketing budgets of the major colas, nor could it hope to compete with the international imagery associated with these brands. But it stuck to the product quality story, always reminding its audience of how close it remained to real oranges and, as a result, has retained an 11 per cent share of a highly competitive market."
However, he warned that Irish brands could not simply prosper because they were Irish.
Shark awards
McCann-Erickson and Heineken have won six "shark" awards at this year's international Advertising Festival in Kinsale. The awards were for the Heineken Green Energy music festival campaign.
Inspired by the shark fishing tradition of south Cork, the awards are the most prestigious in the industry.
Heineken brand manager Mr Shane Hoyne said: "The transformers' story brought the whole festival alive and effectively communicated the sense of fun and anticipation people associate with the weekend."
Tabloid 'Independent'
The tabloid version of the London Independent will be on sale in London next week. It will be sold alongside the broadsheet version and will retail at 60p. The content will be virtually identical to the broadsheet edition. The paper's management said it would appeal to commuters who find the broadsheet too bulky while travelling. The initial print run will be 85,000.
Dell shifts PR account
Dell Ireland has moved its PR account to Q4, which opened earlier this year. The account, involving corporate and product work, was previously held by Financial Dynamics. One of Q4's partners, Ms Angie Kinane, worked on the account in Financial Dynamics. The value of the account was not disclosed.
