These larger than life creatures were more real to us than some of our actually real family and friends. Even vying with our imaginary friends for their share of our attention. They inhabited our storybooks, lived in full colour illustrations and came to life on a regular basis – predictably, of course, at night.

As characters, they were imbued with all sorts of nasty attributes. They were mean. And sneaky. They didn’t walk, they crept. Silence and stealth were their modus operandi and even the larger limbed amongst them seemed to have the ability to melt effortlessly in to the darkness.

There were occasions when we could hear them advancing. We could feel the ground groaning beneath the massive, thumping feet, thundering hooves or firmly planted paws. The hot, stinking breath on the back of our necks, raising every last, tiny hair. The misshapen silhouettes standing out in the otherworldly landscapes.

These were the realer than real monsters that lurked nearby, always waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. Imagining them to be everywhere they weren’t, we became accustomed to uncovering one or other of them in all sorts of unexpected places.

And, strangely, they’re reluctant to leave us. Despite our best efforts to shake them. So, if you think you may be imagining things lately, seeing big monsters and hearing little voices, don’t be surprised. They’re all around us, after all.

Sinéad Kennedy is a senior copywriter with McConnellsintegrated

Established by Ronan Keating, after the death of his mother from breast cancer, the Marie Keating Foundation works tirelessly to raise funds for breast cancer awareness. The simple premise is that knowledge is power. The more we know about it, the more we can do about it.

Ballygowan’s own brand attributes of health and well being make the pure, Irish still water the perfect partner for this fund raising effort. It’s about coming together to achieve something great. That, being in it together, means we can make a difference. Be part of it is a gentle, rallying call that will hopefully see scores of people taking up the Ballygowan Pink bottle in response to a unique invitation.

So we’re here to remind you on TV and Radio (thanks to Ronan for lending his voice and his support), in consumer and trade press, on outdoor posters and on bus shelter wraps, that with every Ballygowan Pink bottle you buy, you’re helping the Marie Keating Foundation to raise funds for breast cancer awareness. You’re doing more than simply quenching your thirst. You’re making a difference. Come on, do you need a better reason?

Congrats to the creative team, Sinéad Kennedy and Sally O’Sullivan, as well as to Siobhan McNickle, Fiona O’Sullivan, Stuart Fogarty, Laurence Keogh and, of course, to our clients, Leonie Doyle and Sian Price.

For more information, and to get involved, check out these links -

Ballygowan to help cancer campaign

Ballygowan website

B part of it Facebook Page

Late one night in a coding frenzy completely unrelated to fruit, one of our digital ninjas, space invaders fan Colm Doyle had an idea: what if the sky was suddenly filled with falling fruit and bottles of innocent smoothies? Catch them in your picnic basket you’d score points. You’d score one point for an apple or a banana, two for a bottle of innocent (See…two a day?). Catch the falling junk food and you’d lose points.

Brendan, Ali and Helen down in Fruit Towers really liked the idea and so here it is. An online campaign, where you can play away to your heart’s content. We’ve also designed and built a facebook application through which you can publish your score and challenge your friends to play.

Unsurprisingly, Colm’s is the highest score so far. See how you fare at the innocent smoothies Facebook page

Well done to the agency team: Colm Doyle (tech. developer, the one with the idea), Andrew Moran (tech. manager), Lucy Ryan (account manager), Elaine Kinsella (flash developer), Greg McLoughlin (words) and Tim Mudie (pictures).

And of course thanks to our clients in Fruit Towers, Dublin.

You’ll work with some of the biggest Irish and global brands as well as groundbreaking innovators – across a range of sectors from banking to automotive to education to economic development to transport to alcohol to retail to FMCG.

You’ll be well able to research, plan, buy, traffic, analyse and optimise campaigns across display, paid search, social media and email programmes. You’ll work as part of integrated client service and media teams and show your creativity by feeling you have a stake in whole projects and not just your patch. And you’ll be joining a dynamic, growing team of digital specialists in Ireland’s first truly integrated marketing agency.

Our successful candidate will have 2-5 years’ experience in a similar role where you’ve demonstrated ambition while being a team player, a real passion for digital without losing sight of the bigger marketing picture and a personal commitment to results.

The right person will have:

The right person will be:

• A really good negotiator
• A creative problem solver
• Team player
• Constantly learning
• Slightly obsessed with detail
• Checking the office nerd leaderboard to see where they sit
• Ambitious in a good way
• Work hard/play hard

If that sounds like you, drop Richard Delevan a line and let’s talk.

As part of the rescue plan, TV chef and author Rachel Allen was ingeniously signed up on board to add filling to the O’Briens brand.

Rachel acting as creative consultant agreed to create her own ‘Signature Sandwiches’.  As you can image to have someone of Rachel’s calibre come on board not only brings heightened profile but instils renewed confidence in the O’Briens future, for both the public and for the franchisees.

As our creatives got to work they knew that Rachel Allen at O’Brien’s was a unique proposition. Her image is glamorous, warm and approachable and her name is intrinsically linked with premium quality. As such, the creative concept made full use of her personality, as well as her relaxed, calm style on camera.

Promoting Rachel single mindedly as the exciting new venture at O’Brien’s was undoubtedly an opportunity not to be missed.

Using a 30 second TV commercial, along with three separate 10 second executions, we created an air of anticipation around Rachel’s Signature Sandwiches and, at the same time, invoked all of the freshness and quality cues we wanted to impart to viewers. Rachel herself could not have been nicer on the day. Friendly and warm and didn’t mind signing a book or two for me!

Confident our national campaign will help fill some hunger  I’ll leave you with Rachel’s own words –   ”The food choices we make are more important now than ever, both for ourselves and those around us. If you are on the go and need a sandwich, shouldn’t it be an Irish one made in front of you and at a fair price? I’m delighted to help make that sandwich even tastier.”

We’ll I know where I’m going for lunch!

On Sunday I was up to my elbows in Guinness-steeped currants and dates, making mounds of mince pies for my friends in the office. However, on presentation to my colleagues in our broadcast and creative departments, I didn’t quite get the gratitude I expected.

“Yeurch. I don’t like mince pies,” Michael Cullen told me.
“What do you want then?”
“My granny used to make these little things that were exactly like mince pies but they had coconut and jam in.”

I was pretty sure I knew what he was talking about so I set about doing a bit of research. Sure enough, I found a recipe – Manchester Tarts. They were nothing like mince pies but Mick was right; they did have coconut and jam in.

Being from the North West of England I have come across my fair share of Manchester Tarts and they are historically easy to knock up.

So I made a batch and brought them in alongside my mince pies. Once Kevin Murray got a sniff of them, word got round. And it turns out that Michael Cullen isn’t quite as unique as you’d think – the Manchester Tarts disappeared much more quickly than the mince pies.

And so, in the spirit of festive giving, here is my recipe for Mick’s Alternative Mince Pies. I tend to think it’s nicer to have several small tarts but this recipe will work to make one big tart should that be your preference. And any leftover pastry will freeze.

Merry Christmas all.

For the pastry:

• 225g butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 350g plain flour

For the pastry, beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until just mixed. Break in a whole egg and a yolk.

Beat together for just under 1 min – it will look a bit like scrambled egg.

Now work in the flour with a wooden spoon, a third at a time, then finish gathering it together with your hands.

Gently work the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film, and chill for 45 mins.

For the filling:

• 3 eggs
• 225ml pint double cream
• 50g caster sugar
• 90g desiccated coconut
• 75g jam
• ∏ teaspoon vanilla extract

Pre-heat the oven to 180C

Warm the cream with the vanilla extract to just below boiling.
Mix the eggs, sugar and coconut together, then pour the cream onto the sugar mix and stir.

Put to one side.

Grease a flan case/baking tray with butter. Roll out your pastry on a floured surface. If making small tarts cut out rounds in the pastry and line each hole in the baking sheet, if making one tart line the flan case with the pastry.

Put a small blob of jam into each case and pour the coconut mixture on top.

Bake in the oven until golden brown (around 15 mins for individual tartlets and 25mins for large tart.)

Allow to cool before serving.

The challenge was set: reaching our audience in the most relevant channels, in the most credible way.

With this brief in mind, UCD took the step this year of inviting their students tell their own story of UCD. In September 2009, twenty diverse UCD students were recruited to the UCD Video Squad. They were chosen from a group of over 100 applicants. We supplied them with camcorders and conducted production workshops with them. We asked them to create and produce short videos about their experience at UCD and we briefed them on covering both academic and non academic pursuits.

This content is live, and will be continually updated on UCD Life.
This bespoke website was designed by McConnellsintegrated where a mixture of Video Squad videos and other UCD videos will let its audience see what UCD is really like. Content produced by the people who know it best – its students.
We could talk about the videos, how they were produced and who the stars of our squad are but you’re better off having a look for yourself. Better yet, send the link onto someone you know doing the Leaving Cert. next year.

Big thanks to Colm Doyle, Jennifer Hord, Saibh Hooper, Andrew Moran and of course our clients Eilis O’Brien and Claire Percy in UCD.

We are closed for Christmas holidays from 1pm Wednesday 23^rd December 2009 until 9am Monday 4^th January 2010. If you need to make contact with the agency during that period, please call Stuart on 086-2577510. We would like to take this opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Ratings increased as we got to know the contestants and as the various narratives unfolded, however after some of the more entertaining contestants fell by the wayside viewing levels actually dropped. This is counterintuitive given that we were nearing the closing stages. The final X-Factor was watched by an average 472,000 people but that at one point during the show a peak audience of 568,000 tuned in. Over on “The Apprentice: You’re Fired” Brendan O’Connor didn’t in his own words “take the b*****d” but he did come agonizingly close to outperforming Pat Kenny and Frontline. It is hard to imagine (or is it?) that on the 9th November Brendan O’Connor was just 20,000 viewers behind the veteran broadcaster.

In revenue terms, X-Factor was star performer for TV3. Given that TV3 aired live shows on both Saturday and Sunday, the station’s advertising inventory showed a significant uplift over the period. The results show on the 22nd November (where we finally saw the back of Jedward) was the most watched show of the series when an average 818,000 tuned in, presumably to ensure they were leaving. In fact, as the results were being announced over 1 million of us were glued to the screen – a phenomenal performance and a record for TV3.

Both shows proved so popular with advertisers that TV3 were in the enviable position of being able to auction off the last few remaining spots on the final shows.

TV3 has stepped it up, and advertisers are noticing.

The only thing to be decided at this point is the Christmas number one. If the Facebook Group “Rage against the X-Factor” (with 775,000 members) gets its way Joe’s win won’t convert to a Christmas No. 1. The group is encouraging members to download Rage Against The Machine’s new track in attempt to prevent X-Factor claiming a fifth consecutive Christmas No.1.

Ironically, Sony own the rights to both artists.

Nevertheless, all eyes are on TV3’s spring schedule launch on January 8th.

L to R: Tom Trainor FMII, The Marketing Institute of Ireland – Michael Carey FMII, Chairman of the board of the Marketing Institute of Ireland – Stuart Fogarty FMII, McConnellsintegrated

From the Marketing Institute:

The Board of the Marketing Institute of Ireland has announced the names of eleven members who are to be conferred with the highest category of membership, that of Fellow of the Institute. Fellowship is awarded in recognition of a members contribution to marketing and/or to the work of the Institute itself. The new Fellows for 2009 are:

Conor Carmody, Meteor
Stuart Fogarty, McConnellsintegrated
Kate Uí Ghallachóir, DIT
Deirdre Houlihan, FBD Hotel Group
Paul Kelders, Jump!
Pat McDonagh, Supermacs
Pauric McGowan, University of Ulster
Fanchea O’Byrne, J&J
Geraldine O’Neill, Edelman
Kieran Rumley, Batchelors
Tom Trainor, Marketing Institute of Ireland

It has also been announced that Tim McNulty MMII is to receive the 2009 Pat Cahill Award.

Stuart Fogarty is a major figure in the world of advertising in Ireland. He is a shareholder in McConnells integrated, the largest communications group in Ireland (incorporating AFA O’Meara and MCM). Stuart is a Fellow and past President of The Institute of Advertising Practitioners (IAPI), former Council member of The Publicity Club, and a former Chairman of The Advertising Press Club. He was also a founder of Club Internet (floated NASDAQ March 2000) and the founder of internet advertising agency, ICAN. Stuart’s links with the Marketing Institute of Ireland go back many years. His late father Aubrey (deceased 2002) was Chairman of the Institute and President of The Rotary Club and The Publicity Club. He was also the founder of ‘Irish Marketing Journal’ IMJ. Stuart joined the Marketing Institute of Ireland in 1989, and he has served on Council and on the Executive Committee.

Congratulations to Stuart and all the newly minited Fellows.