Daily Mail announces new ad platform

The Daily Mail announced this month that they will be launching iPad and iPhone platforms in October, with Android platforms to follow in December. Mobile devices currently account for 17% of Mailonline site traffic in Ireland. Available formats will include landscape and portrait as well as click-to-play video.

Irish Daily Star announces new entertainment hub

Starplus.ie is the name of the new entertainment website from The Irish Daily Star, created in conjunction with Click Media. Content on the site will include interviews from OK TV! As well as exclusives from the sites music partners at Muzu.tv.

The Irish Daily Star notched up a healthy operating profit of €4.3m on a turnover of €40.63m in the year to the end of December 2010. The launch of Starplus.ie is a welcomed move into digital content from the leading youth title.

Irish Times launches new advertising campaign

Irish theatre and screen actor Stanley Townsend has become the new voice of The Irish Times, which this month announced the first phase of a new branding programme with the launch of a comprehensive radio campaign.

The radio element of the campaign, which will run across national and regional channels for an initial one-year period, will extend to online, mobile and TV projects, according to the paper. The campaign is being built around the existing Irish Times slogan, ‘For the times we live in’. 

Katie Molony, Marketing and Promotions Manager, The Irish Times said “this campaign platforms our strategy as a multi-media player, with digital growth and investment at the forefront of our agenda. 2011 will see us continuing to innovate and grow our audience and readership in new and exciting ways” 

Impacts / Revenue

RTÉ revenue continues to fall and is estimated to be down by -8% in August. Impacts across varied across all stations, with the increase in TV3 impacts driven by the kick off of Americas Got Talent and also the continuation of Celebrity Head Chef and Come Dine with Me Ireland. The increase in Sky’s impacts was mainly due to the return of the Premiership and the US Open on Sky Sports, the coverage of the London Riots on Sky News and new programming on Sky 1 including Strike Back, Trollied and Mount Pleasant.

The BAI Children's Commercial Code review

The BAI held a meeting in August at which it announced it will be undertaking a review of the Children's Commercial Code. The Code allows the BAI to prohibit the advertising of certain foods and drinks if it considers it appropriate to do so. The BAI have given very strong impressions that in the amended code it will be proposing very specific measures to define HFSS  (High content of Fats, Sugars and Salts) and restrict advertising, and also that it is seriously considering the UK Ofcom model. They anticipate producing a revised code, if needed, some time in February 2012.

Xfactor on TV3

The highest performing audience for Xfactor is Housewives + Children (Multichannel) which is to date averaging at 21 TVRs (or 104,000 viewers). This is a significant increase on last year which saw an average of 18 TVRs (88,000 viewers) for the first five weeks of the show.

MasterChef Ireland

The much talked about MasterChef has eventually arrived to our TV screens, airing Tuesday & Thursday nights on RTÉ2.  The first episode kicked off on  the 6th September and did not disappoint with the highest performing audience HW+CH MC averaging  13 TVRs (68,000) on  Tuesday night and 10 TVRs for Thursday (53,000).  The following week saw a slight decline with the HW+CH MC audience on the Tuesday night averaging 8 TVRs (43,000) but picking up on the Thursday night to 13 TVRs (68,000). Adults 25-44 MC is averaging approximately 10 TVRs (126,000) across the month so far.  Time will tell if these figures will be sustained as week by week as we follow the contestants battle it out to win the coveted title of MasterChef Ireland.

Rugby World Cup 2011 & Euro 2012 Qualifiers

The Rugby World Cup kicked off on Friday 9th September in New Zealand; the largest sporting event ever held in the country. The competition is running for seven weeks and will finish up on Sunday 23rd October in Auckland. The first game televised on RTÉ saw the host nation New Zealand take on Tonga.  With kick off at 9am the viewing figures were averaging 6 TVRs (33,000) on RTÉ for Men 15-34 MC.

Ireland’s first game was against the USA on the 11th September and despite the very early kick off time, this didn’t deter the Men 15-34MC audience from tuning in.  The highest rating break for this match was 12 TVRs (Men 15-34MC). This month also saw Ireland take on Australia and, despite never previously beating the Australians in the last five World Cup games, we saw a truly fantastic performance from the team. Kick off time was at a more respectable time of 9.30am and the highest rating break saw 14 TVRs for  Men 15-34MC (76,000) and 15 TVRs for Adults 25-44MC (187,000).

The other sporting event that took place at the beginning of this month was the Euro 2012 Qualifiers which saw Ireland take on both Slovakia & Russia. The Slovakia game saw an average rating of 11 TVRs (60,000) for Men 15-34 MC and the Russia game saw a slight decrease to an average of 10 TVRs, or 57,000 people. 

Skype to sell Irish ads

With over 90,000 regular users in Ireland, the internet telephony giant Skype is to sell Irish advertising in the home tab of Skype for Windows. Details of Skype's new large format advertising in Skype software were announced this week by digital agency AD2ONE which has been appointed to sell the inventory on behalf of Skype. Advertising on the Skype platform will support large-format, rich and interactive ads. Formats include large masthead space of 650 × 170 pixels expandable to 650 × 340 pixels to display ads that can include audio and/or video. 

According to Skype, typical users spend around an hour and a half on Skype per month. Although advertising on Skype was introduced to other markets earlier this year, this is the first time it has been rolled out to an Irish-targeted audience. The first international advertisers to sign up with Skype included GroupOn, Nokia, Universal Pictures and Visa.

Expanded Premium Ads

The new expanded Premium Ads offer a more engaging way to reach both fans and non-fans. When people have friends who are fans of your Page, your ad will expand to show what people are saying about your brand alongside your brand's message, all in one. The expanded Premium Ad creates a seamless experience between interactions on your Page, in your ad, and in the News Feeds of people and their friends.  

Google Wallet

This month, Google announced the development of Google Wallet, an Android app that makes your phone your wallet and works by storing virtual versions of your existing plastic cards on your phone.

Google Wallet has been designed for an open commerce ecosystem and will, in time, be capable of storing thousands of payment cards and Google Offers without the bulk. Eventually loyalty cards, gift cards, receipts, boarding passes, tickets, even keys will be seamlessly synced to your Google Wallet. And every offer and loyalty point will be redeemed automatically with a single tap via Near Field Communication (NFC).

The security feature requires that the user enters a Google Wallet PIN before making a purchase, which prevents unauthorized access and payments via Google Wallet.

Burberry host fashion’s first Tweetwalk

After previously staging 3D and shoppable live-streams, Burberry partnered with Twitter this month for a world first at London Fashion Week: The Tweetwalk.  The event gave Burberry’s Twitter followers a chance to see the collection moments before everyone else as backstage Tweetpics of every look before it went down the runway were posted on the brand’s Twitter page. The company also streamed its show live in HD on burberry.com and also through their Facebook page. A Mashable article on the subject argues that live-streaming is transforming Fashion Week from what was once a largely private trade event for press and buyers into a global, consumer-facing experience.