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Adforce.ie wins BBC.com contract

Stephen — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 11:12:07 +0000

Mobile and web advertising network, Adforce.ie, has won the ad sales contract for BBC.com in Ireland following a competitive pitch. The contract covers sales across BBC.com and the BBC.com mobile site from this month. BBC.com has 1.5 million unique users in Ireland, and currently generates over 23 million page views each month.
Isla Macleod BBC.com digital account director for EMEA said, “Ireland is a key market for us and having a local sales house with expert knowledge of the market is of paramount importance for us in growing our business and providing the best possible service to our clients.”
Colm Grealy, CEO of Adforce.ie (above) said, “Both the web and mobile incarnations of BBC.com are bang on trend for how media is being consumed today. This gives advertisers a unique opportunity to connect with BBC.com’s Irish audience on their chosen device with a combination of video, mobile and web ad formats.”
According to BDMS Opinion Leaders, BBC.com is the largest international news provider in Europe, with a higher reach than all competitor websites across target audiences.

The Commuter – phoned in

Edward — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 12:23:10 +0000

I went along to the Irish “Première” of The Commuter, a lovely short film shot entirely in HD using the Nokia N8 on Tuesday evening. The event was held in Denzille Lane, Dublin 2 in a fantastic for hire private cinema and hosted by Nokia Ireland.

The film is a seven minute short about a young man’s nightmare commute to his new job. Hight speed foot chases, fights and acrobatic montages showcase the new phone’s camera and HD capability while the cast is really top class. Slumdog millionaire’s Dev Petel joins every lad’s dream lady Pamela Anderson and the bad guy from The Last Airbender.

The film was first shown in London back in October and you can have a look at the full version of the film below.

Also, have a look at the making of video that give you an idea of how to make a HD quality action movie using only a phone. Good job internet.

Very enjoyable evening all around, more of this type of thing I say.

Call to boycott Bus Eireann ad pitch process

Stephen — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 13:19:40 +0000

The Institute of Advertising Practitioners of Ireland (IAPI) has called on Irish ad agencies to boycott the Bus Eireann pitch process. IAPI guidelines propose that no more than five agencies be selected for the final stage selection of work for the public sector. This is limited to three agencies for private sector work. It costs a creative agency on average €80,000 to pitch for business to a government agency.
Bus Eireann has called for a short-list of eight agencies for its advertising contract, which has just gone to tender. In response, the IAPI Board agencies have boycotted the pitch, and this has been meet with universal acceptance. “It is time that Government agencies got real about the realities of doing business in Ireland today,” said Sean McCrave, CEO of IAPI (pictured). He added “The collective cost for the agencies to pitch for this contract would be almost €1 million – in an economic environment where cash flow, revenues and resources have never been scarcer”.
IAPI is calling on Government Departments and State Agencies to amend their procurement policies, in a manner which reflects the current economic realities and eliminates unnecessary waste.

New shirt, buff CV and a cleanly-shaven Facebook

Edward — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:49:29 +0000

What we have long suspected has been confirmed by a Eurocom worldwide study. 40% of companies looking to hire staff check the social media profiles of interviewees. “Those party or holiday photos that seemed such a good idea at the time to post on social media websites could damage your career prospects,” commented Ronnie Simpson of Simpson FT PR. “37% of tech firms examine social media profiles to determine potential employees’ suitability for the job.”

In addition to the fair warning on social media the Eurocom Worldwide survey also finds that over a third (37%) of technology companies surveyed have a corporate blog, only slightly more than last year (33%). The major barrier to corporate blogging is that it is too time consuming, cited by 39% of respondents. Almost a third (32%) don’t see the value of it.

Pat Phelan of Cubic Telecom, who was recently named as Irish tech blogger of the year, (www.patphelan.net) commented, “It is surprising that 60% of technology companies do not blog. Despite the significant time commitment it is a highly cost-effective way of generating global profile and website traffic.”

56% of those who blog do so to improve interaction with customers. Over a third (34%) blog to raise profile and thought leadership. If you are working and like to social network – keep the personal apart from the professional; don’t add your boss to your Facebook page as in the example above.

Googles first US TV ad

Edward — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:01:33 +0000

Google spending money on TV advertising? What’s happening to the world? It’s Monday morning so we thought we’d share the ad Google paid $2.5 million dollars to air. It was shown during the US Superbowl yesterday.

It truly is a simple brand campaign, but a good one at that. This is part of a campaign called Google’s ‘search stories’. What’s very interesting from a media and marketing perspective is that for over ten years Google dismissed brand advertising as a waste of cash. Eric Schmidt described it as the ‘last bastion of unaccountable spending in corporate America’.

So why the sudden and dramatic change of heart? Could it be the arrival of Bing? Probably not. Could it be Twitter? Perhaps. Could it be the fact Google is fast becoming a technology company that sells phones and has plans to make its own iPad? Most likely.

If Google is to full compete with Apple in the mobile marketing and technology sectors it is going to have to spend money on its brand. As Schmidt tweeted: “Hell has indeed frozen over”. By the way, in polls taken after the Superbowl the Google ad was deemed ‘most popular’.

Muzu.tv signs deals with 12 more publishers

Edward — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:15:04 +0000

Muzu.tv announced today it has signed video syndication deals with a number of large publishers inclduing: AOL Music; The Irish Independent; Communicorp; Spinner UK; Drowned In Sound; Telegraph Media Group; Bebo; Habbo Hotel; Virtual Festivals; Mama Group; Meanfiddler and The Fly magazine (featured below).

These publishers will have access to MUZU.TV’s video library and video player to power music video on their sites, including editorial. The partnership will also include an advertising revenue share agreement through premium advertising formats.

Muzu says the deals bolster its relationship with its music industry partners and independent record labels. The site claims its traffic is growing 20-30% month on month and is currently serving over 14m music-related videos per month in the U.K.