Niall O'Grady, general manager-marketing, Permanent TSB, is the winner of the most prized award in Irish marketing, the Marketer of the Year, for leading the bank's strategy in rejuvenating an aging customer base and ensuring that new customers recruited could establish a profitable and broad-based product relationship with the company.

Organised by Marketing and sponsored now by Alternatives, the Marketer of the Year is a singular salute each year to Ireland’s top marketers and has been running for 15 years. The winner is someone who through strategy, innovation, communications and impact on the marketplace has made their brand, service or organisation an outstanding success.

As general manager of marketing for the PTSB, O’Grady presided over a shake up of the most important product area in Ireland’s financial services, namely the current account market. In this country, the current account market was, up to 2005, dominated by AIB and B

ank of Ireland, with an 80 per cent share of new accounts opened each year.Since January 2005, PTSB has recruited over 200,000 new current account customers.

The PTSB share of current accounts doubled from ten per cent to 20 per cent in almost three years. The bank has moved from a ‘switchers’ choice to a current account provider of choice as shown by the fact that 61 per cent of new accounts are opened by first time customers, up from 35 per cent in 2005, the first year of the campaign.

O’Grady and his marketing team needed to create the most attractive and compelling reasons for consumers to bank with the PTSB. The key criticism which consumers had about current accounts was transaction charges. The bank did away with charges and the new product expected a write off of €6 million a year in fees foregone.

PTSB commissioned Index Creative Communications to produce a campaign with actor Frank Vincent of The Sopranos and Goodfellas fame. The prime objective of the in-your-face style, call to action ads was to portray a trusted incumbent with the audacity of a challenger financial services brand.

The approach featuring a Mafia hit man advising consumers that they must be mad not to switch providers was a radical departure from traditional bank advertising. While consumers had paid little attention to bank campaigns and assumed competition was non-existent, the PTSB strategy gave it a leadership position in respect of current accounts.

The business case provided for an investment of €1.2m in a best-in-class service centre. While the returns are confidential, the long term value of the business of attracting a rejuvenated customer base with the potential to cross sell a range of lending and investment products transformed the PTSB business model and increased profits.

During his acceptance speech at the Marketer of the Year awards lunch in Brownes restaurant, O’Grady said that marketing people should act more like chief executives. They should focus on the bigger picture and the direction of the business and spend less time at meetings talking at length about branding and the like.

Geraldine O’Leary of RTE, who chaired the panel of judges, said the quality and range of entries for Marketer of the Year continues to improve. “The award is not only about big budget clients,” O’Leary said. “The jury was impressed with a number of entries from smaller businesses who had interesting stories to tell and valid challenges to overcome.

“I would encourage those of you who didn’t make it this year to continue to work towards being a finalist or ultimate winner over the next few years. The more information you provide the jury, the bigger the story you are selling.” O’Leary made a special mention of Rosaleen Kelly of Bank of Scotland (Ireland), who sadly died recently.

O’Leary described Kelly as a truly decent woman and a genuine pleasure with whom to do business. The judges unanimously agreed to acknowledge the great work she did on the initial bank’s branding and the launch of Halifax in Ireland last year.

JUDGES
Geraldine O’Leary, RTE Television (chairperson); Michael Caraher, Association of Advertisers in Ireland (AAI); David Courtney, Bank of Ireland; Loretta Dignam, Kerry Foods; Anne Mulcahy, Diageo Ireland; Michael Hayes, Meteor; Bernadette Coyne, Research Solutions and Pat Kinsley, Neworld Associates.

TO BE MARKETER OF THE YEAR?
Candidates are judged on the marketing challenge faced; the key aims and objectives; the strategy adopted and implications for the business; key consumer insights driving the strategy; the key actions taken/tactics used, impact and how success was measured.

CONVINCING HITMAN Frank Vincent, who played mafioso Phil Leotardo in the The Sopranos, with Niall O’Grady during filming of the Permanent TSB commercials. PTSB was the first Irish bank to allow customers to personalise their Laser and ATM cards.

FINALISTS

DEIRDRE ASHE, VIVAS HEALTH Deirdre Ashe, marketing director, Vivas Health, continued the strategy in growing the Vivas share of business in Ireland’s competitive health insurance sector.

BETTER HEALTH OPTIONS
While inertia and big spend were obstacles facing Vivas Health since launch, overcoming market instability has been their most recent challenge. Bupa’s exit from the market meant Vivas now more than ever needed to show its level of commitment and they must stand out from rival brands and maintain dialogue with existing customers.

Vivas Health had to stress the need for more choice. The proposition had to convey why the brand allows people greater control of their health. Awareness of the brand over the past year was at 86 per cent prompted and 49 per cent spontaneous. For new market entrants, Vivas attracts a 45 per cent share, five times more than their natural share.

The company now has a seven per cent share of a market which insures over two million people. They have over 1,000 corporate accounts. Web traffic is up by 170 per cent since launch three years ago. Financial results lodged with the Financial Regulator showed a profit of over €2 million. Turnover was up by 300 per cent over the past two years

MORE COVER FOR WOMEN
Research had told Irish Life that women are more likely to admit to an active role in managing the household finances, with 73 per cent of women involved, compared with just 58 per cent of men. But when it comes to planning for their own financial future with pension cover, only 47.5 per cent of working women over 30 had a pension.

A more alarming statistic was that three out of four Irish women are reliant on someone else for their retirement income. The Pensions Board reported that 79 per cent of women between 20 and 54 were aware that the state pension would not be enough to live on. Given the greater life expectancy among women, pension plans should be a priority.

Using marketing and PR, Irish Life aimed to make their brand top of mind for consumers considering a pension, highlight the gap in pensions coverage among women in the media, specifically target women aged 25 and over and educate them about the need for a pension and increase the company’s proportion of pension sales to women.

The campaign kicked off with a PR campaign from MRPA Kinman. A photocall with high profile women, research on women’s attitudes to pensions and a free guide to women’s pensions by personal finance journalist Jill Kerby were among the tools employed. Chemistry was hired to create the breathtaking ‘Diver’ TV commercial.

Post-campaign studies showed high levels of brand effectiveness, likeability and cut-through. Irish Life’s salience rose by 50 per cent to become the second most popular financial brand during the period. Irish Life enjoyed a 72 per cent increase in women’s policies taken out and 47,000 copies of the pensions guide were distributed.

CAROLINE TOWNSEND, IRISH LIFE Caroline Townsend, advertising and research manager, Irish Life, led the strategy behind the pensions for women campaign, raising awareness of the need for more women to start saving for their retirement, as females normally have lower pension cover than men.

SHARON WALSH, COCA-COLA IRELAND Sharon Walsh, marketing manager, flavours, Powerade and media, was recognised for showing local ingenuity within a large multinational for her new pack designs and a new bottle size in Ireland as part of the ‘Do Your Thing’ Diet Coke campaign.

GENERATING FIZZ
As senior brand manager for Diet Coke, Sharon Walsh was responsible for the brand’s turnaround in Ireland after a local re-defining of strategy, clear and relevant positioning and consistent messaging and local innovations. Volume had dropped during 2004 and 2005, even though the diet carbonates market in Ireland was in growth mode.

Diet Coke had a 54 per cent share of the light carbonated markets. The strategy last year was to increase consumption among existing 20-34 year old females and provide more reasons to drink Diet Coke. The ‘Do Your Thing’ campaign involved TV advertising, a new 350ml bottle and the limited-edition Design Can initiative, a first for Coca-Cola.

Volume was up by six per cent – after two years of decline and Diet Coke grew share carbonates by one per cent. The brand’s affinity/equity reached record levels, up 16 points in the Republic and profits increased by as much as 7.5 per cent.