Rewarding marketing excellence in Ireland is what Marketer of the Year is all about and entries for this year are now sought. The award salutes the best in Irish marketing for work done in the last two years. The winner is a person whose use of strategy, innovation, communications and impact on the target audience has made their brand a major success. Last year’s winner was Britvic marketing director Kevin Donnelly (pictured above).
Donnelly won last year for how he put the fizz back in Ireland’s best loved soft drinks – Club Orange, Miwadi and Ballygowan. The judges were impressed by Donnelly’s focus on a localised strategy. He made some bold decisions and turned the business on its head, while never losing sight of Britvic’s commercial needs.
For Club Orange, Donnelly had to make the drink trendier. In targeting teens and twentysomethings, he devised the five Bs – buddies, beer, books, burgers and birds. The Bs prompted the Best Bits viral ads created by Chemistry. Not surprisingly, ‘upfront’ posters fell foul of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASAI).
Club Orange overtook 7Up and placed it second only to Coke ‘on the go’. A plan to relaunch Miwadi squash with natural ingredients and new packs was rolled out. Ballygowan’s Pink push was targeted at 25-45 year old women and supported the Marie Keating Breast Cancer Foundation. Cawley NeaTBWA created the ads.
UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business marketing professor Damien McLoughlin chairs this year’s Marketer of the Year judging panel. Entries are open until Friday, September 27. Organised by Marketing.ie and sponsored by Alternatives, the award will be presented at an industry lunch in November.
For more details, see the September issue of Marketing.ie.
