Irish Rail will see presentations from media and creative agencies early next month and a decision is expected to be made on the reviews by the end of the month. The four creative agencies pitching are Irish International, Javelin, Publicis and the incumbent, Focus Advertising. Focus client director Shane Lynch has worked on the Irish Rail account for many years, going back to the days when the business was handled by AFA.
Focus is not pitching for the media buying and planning. Four agencies will compete for the media, namely WPP’s MediaCom and Mindshare, Core’s MediaVest and the Dentsu-Aegis agency, Vizeum. Irish Rail is seen as a much sought-after account. A number of famous names have been used in TV and radio campaigns, including British actor John Hurt for voiceovers and travel and sports TV presenter, Craig Doyle (above).
The Irish Rail review is managed by Empirica, whose director is Claire Cluskey.
