Coca-Cola Ireland
Nora Torpey
Glanbia Consumer Foods
Sinead Coade
Unilever Ireland
Colette Coughlan
Largo Foods owns the Tayto brand, and the Mr.Tayto character was used by the company to create a higher brand profile for the product. PR was chosen as the main activity due to its cost-effectiveness. The PR objective for Tayto was to leverage the Mr.Tayto autobiography campaign with a view to maximising media profile and sales performance over the Christmas period. Television, radio, print and online channels were targeted to get attention, and this culminated in a number of television slots. The campaign led to high sales levels for the book, and heavy media coverage.
Winner
Coca-Cola Ireland
Nora Torpey
Coca-Cola remains one of the most successful and innovative brands in the world today, with ongoing brand and product innovation continuing to reinforce its leadership in the soft drinks category. In 2009 that was never more appropriate or relevant to consumers who felt doomed by the relentless bad news. Working with Universal McCann, the Coca Cola team devised a Christmas PR campaign called "A Gift of Giving" which involved radio and online mechanisms for consumers to nominate people who were working over Christmas for a special reward. Brand tracking scores showed significant positive movement.
Finalist
Garnier offers a range of beauty products enriched with naturally sourced ingredients. The Garnier Nutrisse product was lagging well behind the competition, and the marketing team chose to use PR to address this. Garnier collaborated with agency Slattery Communications to devise a comprehensive PR campaign to lift the brand's performance. The aim was to connect more fully with Irish consumers. The "Shade of the Nation" competition was launched to identify consumers' favourite Garnier Nutrisse shade, and featuring media personality Lorraine Keane. The campaign resulted the brand becoming reinvigorated and gaining a record market share.
Finalist
Glanbia Consumer Foods
Sinead Coade
Glanbia Consumer Foods is the largest food supplier into the Irish grocery sector, with more food brands in The Top 100 than any other provider. The company employs almost 800 people and supplies two million consumer packs daily. The Petits Filous product was under pressure from competitors and Glanbia responded by working with Edelman to create a strong PR programme to strengthen customer trust and loyalty. The Petits Filous search for "Ireland's Favourite Little Rascal" commenced, with comedienne Deirdre O'Kane as brand ambassador. The result was a massive turnaround in brand performance.
Finalist
Unilever Ireland
Colette Coughlan
2009 saw a decline in sales of the HB Classic range of products. Slattery Communications was challenged to devise a PR campaign that would reignite excitement, talkability and goodwill around the product and drive sales. The approach was to get consumers to remember the simple things that generated fun in their lives over the years, and the campaign was entitled "Relive those Summer Memories". Consumers were engaged in the campaign through press and radio coverage and online. The success of the campaign led to it being extended, and an uplift in sales volumes.
Finalist