15th March 2010

OMA Awards announce judges for 2010
The panel of judges will be headed up by Simon Learman, Executive Creative Director, McCann London. Simon has won a range of industry awards, including Cannes, British Design & Art Direction, British Television Advertising Awards, One Show, The Creative Circle, Campaign Press, Poster and BIG awards. He has created some of the best loved advertising campaigns for Guinness, Volkswagen, Sony, Budweiser, Vodafone, Philips, Spillers, UPS, Reuters and Heinz and serves on the British Design & Art Direction Executive Committee and is a regular contributor in the media. Simon is joined by an esteemed panel of judges which includes
Aidan Greene - Managing Director, MediaVest
Brian Swords - President, IAPI; Managing Director, Cawley Nea\TBWA
Catherine Donnelly - Freelance Copywriter and Author
Diamantis Economou - Marketing Director, Reckitt Benckiser Ireland
James Barry - President, Outdoor Media Association; Managing Director, Bravo Outdoor
Stephen Lamb - Media Director, Fire IMC
The panel will be judging four categories. Grand Prix - Best Outdoor Campaign, Best Poster Design, Best Industry Newcomer Poster Design, and Most Innovative Campaign.

New digital advertising format introduced
CBS Outdoor has rolled out the first Mall Digital formats in Ireland in the Square Town Centre in Tallaght. In all there are a total of 30 DEPs (Digital Escalator Panels) leading from the Central Plaza on level 2 to level 3, split between 20 on the travelator and 10 on the escalator. Five LCD screens complete the digital offering. According to Marie Lawlor, sales and marketing director of CBS Outdoor, "the Square Digital formats offer advertisers a fresh and vibrant opportunity to engage with audiences in one of Ireland's largest shopping centres. Advertisers have access to 10 second commercials on all 30 DEPs for two weeks with similar campaigns available on 5 LCD Screens."
Maeve Donovan, Irish Times replacement announced
Liam Kavanagh has been appointed as the new managing director of the Irish Times, replacing Maeve Donovan who stepped down from the job recently. The 50 year old Kavanagh has been with the Irish Times since 2000 when he joined as chief financial officer. He was appointed to the Board in 2001 as finance director and company secretary and was appointed deputy managing director in 2006.

New Sponsors for St Patrick’s Day festival
Irish League of Credit Unions and Discover Science and Engineering have been named as new sponsors for the St Patrick’s Day festival for 2010 after the fun day sponsor Denny did not renew its contract this year. The National Lottery will continue to sponsor the Fireworks display in Limerick. The Dublin City Council and Foras na Gaeilge also provide some funding, but the bulk must be sourced from corporate backers. Susan Kirby, festival chief executive said ‘‘like everyone else, our funding has been reduced this year, so it has been challenging. Our team has worked very hard to engage with existing sponsors and find new one…..What we have are some very attractive properties and we are finding that a lot of brands want to realign themselves with Brand Ireland and Ireland Inc, so that’s a market we can appeal to."

British Television Award winners announced
T-Mobile's flashmob-style advert at London's Liverpool Street station won the TV commercial of the year accolade at the British Television Advertising Awards last week. The commercial, created by the ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, beat competition including Comparethemarket.com's TV campaign featuring the meerkat Aleksandr Orlov.VCCP, the ad agency behind Comparethemarket.com's ads, won four gold awards for its work including the prize for best series of commercials. Bartle Bogle Hegarty won the coveted ad agency of the year award. BBH picked up a total of seven gold awards for work including Robinsons' Wimbledon sponsorship, which played on the chance of a first British men's singles champion in almost 75 years and a hard-hitting TV ad for Barnardo's about sexual abuse. The agency also won the award for best viral for the five-minute ad made using a single shot, called "The Man Who Walked Around the World", that featured Trainspotting actor Robert Carlyle walking down a mountain path in the Highlands to tell the story of Johnnie Walker whisky. Production company Rattling Stick won the award for best production company for the third year in a row