The 11th annual NewsBrands Ireland Power of Planning competition and education day has taken place in Dublin, bringing together 12 media agency teams to explore how news brands can help advertisers build attention, trust and stronger audience connections.
Teams from Dentsu Aegis, WPP Media, Core, Starcom, Zenith, Spark Foundry, Omnicom and Havas took part in the event at Medley in Dublin.
This year’s competition challenged participants to develop a three-month media plan for a new convenience food brand targeting adults aged 24 to 65.
Under the brief, “Make It Impossible to Ignore,” teams were asked to devise a high-impact campaign using the advertising environments provided by news brands.
The education day included a presentation from Heather Dansie, insight director at Newsworks, who shared research on the role journalism can play in generating cultural relevance, trust and attention, and how these qualities can contribute to advertising effectiveness.
Dansie also outlined Newsworks’ work in demonstrating the role of journalism and news brands within the wider media mix, including research examining how news environments can contribute to brand and business outcomes.
Christine Matthews and Daniel Read from TGI also presented audience insights and data designed to help the teams better understand news brand audiences and inform their planning.
Participants also took part in a networking session with representatives from NewsBrands Ireland’s member publishers, including The Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Business Post, Irish Farmers Journal, DMG Media Ireland, Mediahuis, News Ireland and Reach.
Lisa Buckley, communications and programmes director, NewsBrands Ireland, said the competition was designed to give emerging media planners a better understanding of the role news brands can play for advertisers.
“The Power of Planning competition gives the next generation of media planners an opportunity to really explore what news brands can deliver for advertisers,” she said.
“This year’s brief – ‘Make It Impossible to Ignore’ – is all about attention and challenging the teams to think creatively about how they can use news brands to make a campaign stand out.
“Today was about giving the teams access to the research, data and people they need to build a genuinely ambitious plan.”
The 12 teams will now develop their proposals, with five to be shortlisted to present to the judging panel next week.
The overall winner will be announced on October 8.
The judging panel comprises Christine Matthews, head of TGI customer success, 55 Blue; Helen Beecher, head of performance and measurement, dunnhumby Ireland; and Lisa Buckley, communications director, NewsBrands Ireland.
The Power of Planning competition is designed to give media planning teams practical experience of working with news brands while demonstrating the role trusted journalism can play in advertising campaigns.
