An association has been formed to promote the value of local quality online content in Ireland.
The Association of Online Publishers Ireland (AOP Ireland) has been established to represent Irish digital publishing companies that create original, local, branded, quality content. According to the association, there is an immediate requirement, not currently being addressed, to promote the particular value delivered by publishers that provide local quality content through a trusted online environment.
The association, founded by irishtimes.com, independent.ie, RTÉ.ie and entertainment.ie, aims to ensure advertisers and the public clearly understand the differences between various online activities and the benefits that members of the association provide.

Julian Douglas, managing director of entertainment.ie said in a statement: “The AOP Ireland will allow us to promote quality local content. From our perspective, it is important to make more research available that illuminates the significant role that our websites play in advertising campaigns.”
The association will undertake research, collaborate with existing online associations overseas and organise local events to promote these messages. Working and collaborating with other media industry bodies in Ireland, AOP Ireland will seek to develop and uphold industry standards and will contribute to advertising effectiveness and audience measurement.
Its main aims are to:  Increase awareness of the advantages and benefits for both advertisers and users engaging with websites that create quality, local, unique content; promote the value of this unique content its members produce and to help make clients aware of the opportunities available.

More than 20 creative directors in Ireland have signed up to review portfolios in a speed-dating style setting for the first Portfolio Night on Thursday May 20th.

Portfolio Night is the world’s largest simultaneous advertising portfolio review event, and next week will be held in 40 cities around the world. In Ireland it is also a rare opportunity to pull both creative directors together and the emerging creative community together.
This is the first year that the event, devised by ihaveanidea.org, takes place in Ireland. Hosted by Ogilvy in Dublin, the participation of so many creative directors means that based on a 3:1 ratio more than 60 students, emerging creatives and freelancers will get to have their portfolios reviewed.
JP Donnelly, chief executive, Ogilvy Group in Ireland told the Prosperity digital media ezine that the aim is for each individual to get to three portfolio review sessions with various creative directors on the night. He hopes it will give out the message to Irish industry in general that there is a budding and growing vibrant talent here, bursting with new ideas.
Of note, there will be a range of creative directors participating. “It’s not just advertising, we’re hoping for design as well as digital agencies to be taking part in this event. We’ve also included a number of production specialists as well who will be there on the night and bring certain skillsets and expertise that again would be very useful for students or emerging creatives to engage with during any downtime or spare time they may have on the night.”
There will also be informal networking opportunities on the night and there is a good chance, based on experiences in other countries on previous Portfolio Nights, talent will be identified and new hires made.
“This is an internationally proven model. It is very successful in identifying talent and recruiting talent in the agency industry.”
The main reason that the event is taking in place in Ireland this month is because Ogilvy has gotten involved internationally and has been sponsor of events in cities sprinkled around the globe.
“They were so impressed with the talent and the engagement that was had on the night that they encouraged other offices in the Ogilvy group to roll it out,” explains Donnelly.
Tickets for Dublin Portfolio Night 8 cost just €20. Emerging creatives with an advertising portfolio must register online at www.portfolionight.com. See also Portfolio Night 8, Dublin on Facebook

Win a ticket!
If you are an emerging creative or student and would like to be in with a chance to win a ticket for this event email your contact details to info@prosperity.ie by 5pm on Thursday May 13th with the subject line Portfolio Night. The first two emerging creatives who reply directly to Prosperity with correct answers will win one ticket to this event. The two prize winners will be notified on Friday May 14th. The event takes place on Thursday May 20th in Dublin.

Is it for me? Before you register for Portfolio Night 8 or enter our competition, read this page to find out whether Portfolio Night is for you: http://portfolionight.com/8/tickets-faqs/faqs#10

Cybercom’s Coca-Cola eBoy campaign has been selected as an Official Honoree for the Best Integrated Media Plan Category in the 14th Annual Webby Awards. The Webby Awards is the leading international award honouring excellence on the Internet.

The Webby Awards presents two honours in every category –The Webby Award and The People’s Voice Award — in each of its four entry types: websites, interactive advertising, online film and video and mobile web. In addition it honours excellence in more than 100 website, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web categories i.e. Official Honorees.
Out of the nearly 10,000 entries submitted to the 14th Annual Webby Awards, less than 15% are awarded the status of Official Honorees, a status reserved for those with talent worth commending that didn’t make it to the final.
In this category, Coca-Cola e-Boy is in the same league as NY Times’ 2009 Inauguration Day Campaign on Facebook, Lynx Lounge After Hours from TMW, and CNN iPhone app amongst others.
Orla O’Keeffe, account director at Cybercom and account director of the Coca-Cola eBoy campaign says: “They receive about 10,000 nominees every year so we were delighted with that level of recognition.”
The eBoy campaign started with an outdoor poster, ‘The Coke side of Dublin’ in 2008 which teens absolutely loved, she explains. Feedback showed that teens wanted to engaged more with this pixel art created by an artist company eBoy which agency McCanns would have worked with. As a result, the poster was brought online in 2009, featuring four cities of Ireland. “It’s a great example of a global brand becoming very local,” explains O’Keeffe.
Cybercom’s brief was to bring it online and it was embedded into Bebo, then the social media platform of choice for the target audience. It was only live for four weeks and in that time 77,000 visits were recorded to the game and 18% of total teens in Ireland were exposed to this online. “There was very positive chatter on the Bebo page about it and calls to extend it,” recalls O’Keeffe.
“The real thing that was appealing to teens was the game play we had a treasure hunt and then we had quite a lot of incentives built into it, so they could win this poster by playing the game, which they did at a great level.”
There were over 54,000 game plays with very high engagement minutes online of 11 minutes.
Click here to see an archive version of this hugely popular game.

Martin Wright is the recent recipient of a lifetime award from ICAD. He is Founder and Creative Influence at his company Gospeltm Limited which has been in existence since 2005. Gospeltm Limited is an independent creative network of local and international creatives and strategic planners.
http://www.Gospeltm.com

Job description: It was a long held dream of mine to open my own agency. So I’m Founder and Creative Influence and I get to open the post. I manage the business and play a big part in the creative strategy behind all the projects we are involved in. I would lead presentations and pitches. A lot of my time involves project management and direction.

Likes: I’ve never considered it a job. I’ve been involved in some of the most exciting creative agencies in the country and internationally. I love the challenge of providing a creative solution to a business problem/opportunity. I’ve worked on some of the most iconic brands in the country and globally. I’ve met and worked with some of the most creative professionals in a wide sphere of creativity, writers/directors/photographers/illustrators/designers amazing creative people. I’ve learned a lot from some of the most professional marketeers around and had the good fortune to be able to present ideas in most boardrooms in the country – fantastic.

Career ladder:
1970s
I started in this great business in Jan 1970. Arks was my first ad agency. I was hired as a Production Assistant. I knew about printing blocks, stereos and typesetting for my first days of employment in the Irish Independent. I spent 4 years there – the last 2 in the creative department.
Then in 1974 McConnells called and I spent the next 2 years there, learning more about my craft as an Art Director. I went to London in 1977. I went to Beirut in 1978 then on to Kuwait then back home in 1979 to work at Bell Advertising.

1980s
Back to McConnells in October 1980 for the next 8 years. The eighties were creatively one of my best. Great working with Catherine, Michael, Gerry. My creative director was Jimmy Strathern, John Fanning was great, still is. We launched Ballygowan, Kilmeaden, Ryanair. Fantastic work for the IDA, Aer Lingus, Bus Eireann. Did some great work with Conor on Great Southern Hotels, phew!

Late 1980s to mid 2000s
Then a call came in from Bell and Michael and I went off to become Joint Creative Directors. Another great period for ideas and creative work – who for one moment would believe that Peter Mark would allow us to put a perm on a sweeping brush. More great ads followed and Ogilvy the owners of the agency were so delighted that they put us on the international creative roster to help out of big campaigns. I stayed in Ogilvy for 16 years. I made it to Executive Creative Director. In between I was Creative Director of Bell Recruitment. I enjoyed working in this area, we made recruitment ads creative. Added some creative flare to the recruitment pages of The Irish Times and the Irish Independent, won lotsa awards. I resigned from Ogilvy in August 2004, spent November in Sydney with Bernadette and then opened Gospeltm in Jan 2005. Began to lay the creative credentials down, won some great projects: Won two of the three National Newspaper of Ireland competitions’ creative awards for Prosperity. Branding workshops for Dublin Zoo. Relaunching Digital Agency. Was President of ICAD in its 50th year and still working on ideas, who could ask for anything more.

Qualifications: I have an Inter Cert and a Leaving Cert; a Cert and Diploma in Art Direction and Advertising from DIT; an education in Branding from Ogilvy and am still very much a student of life.

Working hours: My first Creative Director informed me that no one in this business got famous between the hours of 9-5. He was right. A spontaneous, inspired creative idea can arrive at any time, anywhere, any place.

Breaktime: Something light to eat. Then off on a walkabout, a museum. A gallery. A music store, maybe into Champion Sports to have a look at what Nike are doing in store. Then pop over to HMV have a look at some CD covers, good for type and direction. Things like that over lunch.

Social media credentials: Not very good at that, don’t Twitter. Working on my Weedle profile at the moment, want to get that right. I have a look at Linkedin, not hot on Facebook.

News: The Digital Agency – great guys there. Keeps me right up to date on things. I keep an eye on the Prosperity site and the ezine.

Onsite or offsite: The odd travel away. I like to have my meetings out of the office. Brooks hotel in Drury Street is my favourite place. Sometimes the Morrison, sometimes The Queen of Tarts, great coffee there.

Why do you love Mondays? I’ve never considered it a job. I’ve been very fortunate to be in a position where my creative talents have been appreciated and awarded. I’ve worked with some of the most creative people in a wide creative field. It’s been a real joy. Don’t get me wrong it been up and down, where hasn’t. But I wouldn’t change the last 40 years for anything else. The first series of ads I did was for CIE, a campaign of filler ads for Rambler Tickets. The last one I did was the rebranding of a digital agency, cant wait for the next one.

The mystifying square black and white 2D matrix codes that you may see popping up everywhere from butter tubs to advertising have a name: they’re called QR codes.
The codes, once scanned by smartphone owners that have installed appropriate QR code-scanning apps will provide access to instant and extra information on their handsets.
Invented in 1994 in Japan, QR codes, which are already available in North America and mainland Europe are set to become ubiquitous in Ireland.
Mobile services company Digital Reach Group (DRG) has signed a deal with Scanbuy, a leading global provider of these mobile barcode solutions, to begin offering the service exclusively in Ireland, through its system ScanLife.
The Scanlife app is available for download on most popular phones including Nokia, iPhone, Samsung and handsets using Google’s Android system.

Consumers in Ireland can expect to find these barcodes displayed alongside a printed ad, editorial, on merchandise or displays. Informative content, competitions, promotions, timetables, music and games can now be easily accessed by pointing and scanning.
DRG’s CEO Colm Grealy says: “With mobile internet and smartphones becoming the norm there is an increasing expectation from the public to be able to get the information they have on the internet at home straight to their handset quickly and with no fuss. The service we are bringing to Ireland will truly integrate mobile internet browsing into consumer’s daily lives.”
The company is already in discussions with a major publisher to start using the system to offer additional value to printed ads and editorial content.
According to DRG, the system is set to give print advertising in Ireland boost by making ads truly interactive and rewarding audiences with content they want.
“QR codes are a very exciting development for print and outdoor advertising. For example, we can enhance a movie ad that will allow for someone to see a trailer on their phone instantly, download a movie wall paper and also find out where the next showing of the film will be.”
The service is aimed at advertisers, ad agencies, retailers and traditional media publishers. QR codes can be bought as an add-on to traditional ad campaigns, packaging and merchandise displays.