Ask any well-travelled advertiser to name a few creative agencies which they might consider asking to pitch in recent years and chances are – client conflicts aside – Irish International would pass the test. The agency ticks the boxes many advertisers want from such a relationship: great work, able bodies, sound management and a welcoming vibe.

Now located on the site of the old Brunswick Press in Sandymount, the agency was born in 1966. In the year Bobby Moore lifted the World Cup for England at Wembley, Royd's of London and Sun Advertising, the Irish agency started by Tim O'Neill in 1946, merged. Mack Kile, Wisconsin-born ex-serviceman, DJ and tireless self-publicist, became MD.

Kile held the reins for ten years after which he was replaced by Finbar Costello, who had been marketing manager of the Irish Glass Bottle Company. As Hugh Oram wrote in The Advertising Book, Irish International had a reputation for producing strong creative work, but scored less goals for account handling. Costello sought to address the balance.

Much has changed since then and the message nowadays revolves around two words: insight, excite. The words stare at visitors from the white wall next to Lorraine Fennessy in reception. “Take insight,” managing director Ian Young said. “For marketing communications to work, it must be based on real consumer understanding.

“Unfortunately, a lot of what passes as insight these days is just a distillation of available facts. Excite is a recognition of what we do, whether it's online, in-store or through traditional media. The job of communications is not just to inform, it's to provoke and excite response. The two words are there to remind us and our clients every day.”

Young believes that much of the work that adland has produced in recent years has been forgettable. True to say it has been well-produced, structured and glossy, but it has also been dull. Young does not exclude his agency from the criticism. For the last 15 years, the unspoken part of the brief was “just keep the ball rolling”, with everyone a winner.

Things are different now. The success of a brand which an agency handles has to be at someone else's expense. The work done has to be accountable in what Young calls “shifting the needle”, allowing the advertiser pick up volume and share and command a brand premium position which by definition means undermining its competition.

There is more clarity now as to what clients expect from an agency. For that reason, he believes the climate in adland is much healthier than it has been in the past 15 years. In that time, production techniques have improved, as has strategic thinking. But there should be more campaigns out there that communicate, engage and entertain consumers.

The better clients out there realise this and they know they can get more value and media rates and production costs are less. Many of the top agencies reported losses or modest results last year. Young believes media spend may have dropped by as much as 45 per cent over the last two years, with recruitment and property the obvious worst victims.

Last year the agency won the Road Safety Association (RSA). While there was quite a bit of TV and radio activity in the lead up to the Christmas and New Year holidays, RSA chief executive Noel Brett was reported as saying they would have to reduce their TV advertising in 2011 after the government cut €5 million in funding in the Budget.

CREATIVE PROWESS Irish International teamed up with BBDO London to devise the Guinness Dark Life TV commercial. The image represents a pint of Guinness as it settles over Hong Kong, New York and Columbia. The street drummer at the start of the ad was found on YouTube. The surge effect was achieved by constructing a special tank into which pieces of wood matching the shape of buildings in the specific shot were placed. Streets cannot be closed for filming in Hong Kong, so the ad was shot around the city's constant busy traffic.

As well as the ESB and the RSA, other new clients included F