New Media Offers, Opportunities & News
Paul Farrell to Leave Virgin Media Television in December
From IMJ
Well known and liked within the media, advertising and marketing industry Farrell was appointed managing director of Virgin Media TV in May 2020 having served as vice-president of commercial at Virgin Media Ireland since 2015. During this period he has overseen a considerable period of growth at the broadcaster, including the introduction of new channels and digital platforms, yielding higher viewership and increased share of commercial revenues. Prior to joining Virgin Media, he held senior roles with O2, The Irish Times, IPG Mediabrands and Davy.
“I’m very grateful to our entire team at Virgin Media Television for all that has been accomplished in recent years including our focus on exciting content, new channels, and our renewal of the public service TV broadcasting licence,” says Paul Farrell.
“In particular, I wish to pay tribute to the immense hard work and contribution of all our Virgin Media Television team. Their unwavering dedication and energy have been the driving force behind our success and has allowed us deliver excellent television programming to our deeply valued audiences. Áine has been a great colleague and is a fine leader and I wish her every success in her incoming new role as managing director.”
“Paul has guided Virgin Media Television through a significant period of development and growth. Under Paul’s leadership, Virgin Media Television has provided exceptional television programming, engaged Irish audiences and further strengthened the transition to digital. He has also assembled an exceptional leadership team and it is fitting that he is handing over the baton to Áine who will lead the team from strength to strength,” says Tony Hanway, Virgin Media Ireland CEO.
Get more Bang for your Booking! One day Flash Sale this Friday 20th only!
Book any 2 media packages on this platform from 1am Friday morning to midnight Friday night on October 20th and we’ll give you an identical package for FREE!
Tripling your Advertising in time for Christmas or 2024. Radio, TV, Press, Digital, OOH.
If you book 2 different packages (say one Radio, one Press), we’ll give you the Free identical package on your lower cost option.
All media RTE, Today FM, Sunshine, Newstalk etc, all Outdoor, RTE/Sky/Virgin TV, All Press (Irish Times, Independent etc), All Digital (Tik Tok, Meta, LinkedIn, Premium digital etc). Everything!
One day only and package must be booked and paid on Admatic.ie October 20th.
Use the homepage chatbot to contact us too or Stuart@Admatic.ie. We are standing by!
This is a first anywhere in Ireland.
We do accept Media Kickbacks. Never have Never will. Unlike 90% of Media Agencies.
“The story in The Sunday Independent June 26th, that media agencies received media kickbacks in this case from RTE, we are fully familiar with and indeed, other forms of inducements to prefer one media owner over another.
Rather than as independent arbiters of media, advising impartially, on what’s the best recommendation.
The difficulty is that Media kickbacks are not transparent and create a potential conflict of interest when recommending media choices to Clients. In other words, advising what media is best to tackle a project, rather than, be clouded by other Agency financial considerations or inducements. Kickbacks for example.
Admatic do NOT accept kickbacks from ANY media owner for exactly that reason.
Never have, never will.
We remain your impartial, independent advisers of media. The whole commission system should rightly be questioned now. But totally assured of our independence and we’re very grateful for your support”.
Stuart Fogarty (former President IAPI and Fellow IAPI).
Irish Times Group posts €1.1m loss for 2022 due to rising energy prices and printing costs
From Examiner (bold notes are ours):
Group saw a 10% growth in digital subscriptions revenue, with the total number of new subscribers growing by 3.9% over the year.
The s parent company The Irish Times Group has reported a loss for the 2022 financial year, citing increasing costs of energy and newsprint.
Over the course of the year, the group’s turnover increased to €109.7m — compared to €107.5m the year prior.
However, the company has posted a loss of €1.1m compared to a profit of €2.9m in 2021.
This is before other exceptional items and other losses are taken into account.
Losses in investments came to 2.7m, while exceptional items such as redundancy costs totalled just over €1.6m. These, along with rising energy and printing cost, means that total losses last year for the Group came to over €5m.
According to the results, additional expenditure for the year came to €4.7m, due mainly to increasing energy unit costs as well as the cost of printing newspapers.
The company’s investment in core technology and a modest increase in headcount resulted in total spend rising by €6.2m compared to 2021.
Deirdre Veldon, managing director of the Irish Times Group, said following a cost review conducted earlier this year “we are finalising a range of measures to manage our costs effectively, including the introduction of a voluntary parting programme”.
“Energy and newsprint prices remain stubbornly high. The reduction in Vat on print and digital subscription revenues in 2023 is a very welcome boost against continuing inflationary pressures,” the group said in its results.
Despite the loss recorded, the group saw a 10% growth in digital subscriptions revenue, with the total number of new subscribers growing by 3.9% over the year.
There was a 5% increase recorded in advertising revenue and revenue from third-party printing contacts increased by 12%.
Ms Veldon said that the Group’s revenues were back up to 2019 levels in 2022 “thanks to growth in our digital subscriptions, advertising and increased revenues from printing contracts for other publishers”.
“That increase is the result of the hard work, creativity and commitment of all our staff. That said, we experienced a major increase in costs, particularly those we can’t control, including electricity and costs associated with printing our publications.”
Print circulation across the entire group fell by 6% in the year, however, this was ahead of the market volume declines of 10%.
Ms Veldon added that the market remains “challenging” and “there is significant pressure on cost right across the business”.
“We plan to accelerate the growth of our digital reader revenues by enhancing our product and by continuing to exploit the opportunities at home and internationally
The group’s net cash at the year end remains strong at €19.7m — down from €23.7m last year.
While the group’s investment portfolio reported losses of €2.7m in the year, the Group said this performance was ahead of the market which experienced a very challenging and volatile year.
The group said losses were “hedged somewhat” by tactical investment in “US dollar held equities throughout the year”.
“Our strategy remains to build a digitally focused news and information business, anchored in the Objects of The Irish Times Trust, which has subscribers, readers and listeners at its core and where paid content is the primary source of revenue,” the group said.
IMRO awards take place next Friday. October 6th.
The 2023 IMRO Awards take place next Friday. The awards recognise the very best in Irish radio broadcasting and the categories include Radio DJ of the Year, Music and Entertainment Presenter of the Year, News Story/News Event of the Year, News Broadcaster of the Year, and Local and National Station of the Year. The winners will be announced on Friday evening at an awards ceremony in the Lyrath Estate, Kilkenny.
Study of Marketing Agency Professionals, shows they’re not.
From Marketing.ie
“A survey of Ireland’s marketing professionals by WPP group media planning agency EssenceMediacom has found that the main issues facing the sector are staff burnout, recruitment, working from home and measuring the impact of social media. As many as six in ten of the Irish marketers interviewed found the pace of work relentless, while 58 per cent said team engagement is more challenging due to working from home.
A huge number of marketing professionals expressed caution about social media advertising. An overwhelming 72 per cent said that social media platforms overclaim the impact of paid activity, while 57 per cent said they were cautious over digital platform audience data. No longer being able to measure social media engagement via cookies was flagged as a key concern for 62 per cent of the sample.
Four in 10 marketers surveyed said that recruitment was their biggest challenge, with many citing a lack of traditional marketing skills as a problem. The study found that 53 per cent agreed that Ireland had a shortage of experienced staff in marketing agencies while 43 per cent said there there was a lack of basic brand building skills
Spend
The research also found that the majority of marketing professionals are planning to spend more on social media, digital video and radio ads, while less spending is planned on newspaper, magazine and cinema advertising. The survey shows that while 58 per cent of all advertising spend is non-digital, there are clear trends towards companies spending more on online and digital ads. Spend on influencers and podcasts is increasing.
Radio and out of home are the only traditional forms of advertising seeing increased spends.
Ed Ling chief growth and operations officer at EssenceMediacom Ireland, said the results show that the effects of the pandemic are lingering on, with the industry still trying to adapt to working from home and hybrid models coupled with ongoing shortage of talented staff. Also discussed was the problem with burnout and the fast-paced, relentless nature of marketing.”
From Admatic
This is the problem with Agencies as well as, the media kickback issue. Poor quality of staff without training, to understand key brand issues.
The study found that 53 per cent agreed that Ireland had a shortage of experienced staff in marketing agencies while 43 per cent said there there was a lack of basic brand building skills
Permanent TSB to Sponsor The Late Late Show for Two Seasons (but at a discount)
From IMJ:
With new host Patrick Kielty, Permanent TSB has been announced as the new sponsor of the show for the new two years.
The sponsorship agreement with Permanent TSB will include a total of 730 credited stings per season which will air across RTÉ One and RTÉ One +1, as well as the series repeat, and 30-day catch-up on RTÉ Player. It will also include the sponsor’s logo on all dedicated promos on television and social media channels.
According to Stephen Jackson, head of customer & marketing, Permanent TSB: “We’re delighted to become title sponsor of The Late Late Show, the world’s longest-running live chat show and a national institution, as it begins an exciting new chapter in the show’s history. Permanent TSB has proudly served Irish communities for more than 200 years and with over 1.3 million customers, we look forward to the opportunity to connect with customers nationwide in their homes each week. With 25 new branches and over 185,000 new personal and SME customers joining Permanent TSB over the past 18 months, our sponsorship of The Late Late Show supports us in continuing to grow our business and our reach, enabling us to achieve our ambition of being Ireland’s best personal and small business bank.”
“RTÉ Commercial are delighted to announce our two-year partnership with Permanent TSB for the 61st and 62nd season of this unique and iconic show with new host Patrick Kielty. We are really looking forward to the new look Late Late Show and the opportunity for our Sponsor to connect and engage with Irish audiences on a massive scale across RTÉ television and RTÉ Player,” adds Dara Meany, head of sales, RTÉ.
New Late Late. How did it go?
Late Late Show first night 2023 vs 2022
Patrick Kielty’s first ever Late Late Show on Friday the 15th of September got off to a great start, 614,000 viewers and a 60% share!
2023 vs 2022 opening night of the LLS for Adults, Ads2544, HKWK and AdsABC1. Big increases for all audiences; +56% Adults, +52% Ads2544, +45% HKWK and +43% AdsABC1. See the stats above by clicking the headline on this post for the opening night 2nd of Sept, 2022 vs 15th of Sept, 2023.
So generally that’s more than good but you might expect that, given the ‘noise’ around it….the key issue will be to sustain it, but that’s a great start!