McConnells continues to pick up accounts quietly. It pitched against Des O'Meara and Partners for the Tesco account and is due to start work on the account next month. A little later, Flora will move to the agency from Ogilvy & Mather. Later in the year, the Hellmans account will go to McConnells. WHPR will continue to work on the Flora PR account.

Both Flora and Hellmans are part of the Unilever/Best Food stable. Such a migration of accounts usually means there's a takeover in the air and, as it is the largest independent agency in Ireland, McConnells has long been seen as ripe for a takeover bid by an international network.

Irish companies use their websites mostly to communicate information in relation to new product information, customer service information and news/press announcements, while relatively few companies utilise it for promotions and incentives.

The findings come from a new survey conducted by NewWorld Commerce and the Marketing Institute of Ireland (MII) to measure the penetration of online marketing in the Irish marketplace.

Fifty-three per cent of Irish companies have an e-marketing strategy. However, only 18 per cent of those surveyed saw any measure of repeat business (i.e. more than 10 per cent) being generated through the Internet.