It was produced by Antidote and directed by the great Ken Wardrop. It was shot over 4 days in various locations around Dublin and Wicklow. And we’re very happy with the way it turned out .

The brief was to shift the perception of engineering in Ireland and to inspire the next generation of engineers.

Enter The Thursday Club a concept created by us that comprises – a series of events aimed squarely at our target audience and reflecting our core values of anticipation and female fabulousness!

The events cater for a unique need (ie planning the weekend) and utilise a breakthrough innovation in mobile vouchering and Facebook integration. We have created a promotion that not only reinforces and celebrates our pole position as the unashamedly female alcohol brand, but also delivers on real relevance for our audience – after all, what girl doesn’t want to get free make up and nail tips plus the opportunity to win a whole new wardrobe for the weekend?

Not only were our West Coast Cooler girls thrilled by their new Thursday fashion, the bars were equally happy to see their seats filled with gangs of girls having a good time – which is a great win for IDL-PR Channel Sales team

We utilised press, radio and online display advertising to promote the Thursday Club as well as retagging our brand TVC. We also leveraged our 25000-strong Facebook fanbase (now 28000 after a week of activity) to spread the word!

Below are some examples of the advertising creative along with screen grabs of the Facebook and mobile activity and a video of one of the events. Thursday will never be the same again.

West Coast Cooler Spread Metro Herald

Thursday Club Facebook App

Thursday Club Facebook App Voucher Generation

Thursday Club Smart Phone App Screens

Thursday Club Status Update Automatically Triggered By Voucher Redemption

4FM is re-positioning itself as a Classic Hits station.

We redesigned the logo, came up with a new brand colour and developed the re-launch ad campaign.

To set the scene: the country is going through a bit of a tough time at the moment. First there was a banking crisis, which led to a disastrous Government bank guarantee. This meant that the state and by extension the tax payer were on the hook for the debts of the banks. Then there was a recession and the collapse of the housing market. These all combined into the mother of all perfect storms which led to a financial crisis that in turn led to an IMF/EU bailout. Unemployment  sky rocketed and our old friend ‘emigration’ made an unwelcome return. To say the least the Irish public was angry.  Then the  Government collapsed and a General Election was called.

In Ireland the rules governing elections are quite specific. No campaigning can start until the Dail (the Irish Parliament) dissolves. The Dail was dissolved on the 3rd of February last and the election was called for the 25th – leaving an election campaign of just over 3 weeks. It was tight to say the least. Opinion polls showed a collapse in support for the outgoing Fianna Fail party. So the election was shaping up to be a contest between Labour and their rivals to see which party could attract the most voters. The Labour team were competing with a much bigger and better resourced rival – the Fine Gael party. Therefore Labour had to make their communications work harder.

We started by communicating Labour’s position on various issues. We employed tactical outdoor posters which were used as backdrops to the party’s daily press briefings and policy launches. The strategy was to use advertising to drive PR -to get the posters onto the news and into the press.

There was Labour’s position on cuts

Labour’s position on the bank bailout.

Their position on the education cuts

Their position on third level fees

We then set out the party’s vision for Government with a series of posters featuring the leader Eamon Gilmore. Eamon was riding high in the leadership opinion polls and was therefore one of the party’s best assets.

Fighting a General Election  is in many ways like fighting a war. Towards the end of the first week the Fine Gael spokesman for Finance labelled the Labour as a high tax party. The label stuck and was starting to do some damage in the polls. The Labour team decided to fight back. On week two we launched a series of attack press ads in the main Irish newspapers. The purpose of theses ads was to point out that Fine Gael were planning a series of stealth taxes.

The attack ads started to work. For a day or two it seemed as if the whole country was talking about them. They made the headlines on the RTE evening news as well the front page of many of the daily newspapers. The Labour team had successfully re-framed the debate and turned the media agenda. It was now time to turn the message positive, we led with the Party Political Broadcast

and followed through with a series of “call to action” messages on outdoor posters and press

So how did it go on the big day? Well, Labour won an historic 37 seats. (Their previous high was 33). They are currently negotiating the formation of the next Government with the Fine Gael party. And we’re just proud to have played our part.

As for the advertising, did it work? Well RTE ran this graph during their coverage of the election count. It shows when people made up their minds to vote for Fine Gael and Labour. As you can see there was a swing towards Labour in the last week of the election. That’s when most of the advertising kicked in.

Damian

Check out our new campaign for Radio Nova 100FM – Dublin’s newest radio station. The station goes on air today.  Our campaign breaks this week. For those who like to rock then Radio Nova 100Fm is the station for you. It’s playlist will feature AC/DC, Guns n’ Roses, Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd to name but a few.

Our campaign runs on TV and on outdoor in the Dublin area (apologies to our readers in the rest of the world but Radio Nova 100FM only broadcasts in the Dublin region but you can tune in online at www.nova.ie )

The 15 second television ad was directed by Luke Franklin and produced by Fiona Kinsella at Jumper Production.

The outdoor posters communicate the type of music you will hear when you tune into Radio Nova. Each execution is based on famous band logo. There is a big prize sitting here on my desk in bloom central for the first reader who can show their true rocker colours and identify the original bands.

48 sheet outdoor poster

6 sheet outdoor poster

Transport interior card

Bus rear poster

PS: We had nothing to do with an outdoor poster for a certain Danish lager that appears to be inspired by the Sqeez ads – though we are very flattered!

Damian

The music is a track called “Fixin’ to thrill” by Dragonette.

This is our fourth TV ad for West Coast Cooler in five years. We’re kinda proud of it.

There are more in this series to come, so watch this space!