Bord Bia Bloom, Ireland’s most celebrated festival of gardening, food, and sustainable living, has returned for its 20th year this June bank holiday weekend across a 70-acre site in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. The annual event consistently attracts over 100,000 visitors during the five-day June Bank Holiday weekend.
This weekend sees Citroën return as the Official Motoring Partner alongside sponsoring a new show garden!
The 2026 ‘Citroën Family Flexible Garden’ is designed by Joshua Fenton, former winner of BBC Gardeners’ World Live, and the RHS Chelsea 2025.
This dynamic garden has been created, like Citroën cars, to adapt seamlessly to the evolving rhythms of family life. Designed around three core modes of living – Chill, Host, and Play – it transforms effortlessly to meet the needs of every family member.
Trevor Hunt, Head of Marketing at Citroën Ireland with Niamh Daly, Client Director, PML
Love is all around a very special build Spangley billboard at Usher’s Quay targeting festival goers. The display, created by Bloom, melds bold automotive styling with a textured, shimmering “Love” overlay, this build is designed to stop traffic and remind drivers that comfort and design are always in season. The current heatwave certainly helps showcase the highly reflective Spangley finish to best effect in the summer sunshine.
The wider OOH campaign, planned by EssenceMediacom and PML, is running large across the city on roadside 48 Sheets, D48s, Digipoles, Golden Squares and Metropoles, not to mention the Bloom Bridges. The association is amplified by messaging which encourages viewing of the full Citroën range and booking of a test drive online. All told, the OOH burst is a best-in-class example of event-based marketing in the real world.
Return for Children at Bloom
Re-turn and Bord Bia have renewed their partnership for Bord Bia Bloom 2026, with festivalgoers once again encouraged to ‘Re-turn it Right’ by donating their empty cans and bottles in support of Return for Children.
Bord Bia Bloom will feature dedicated orange Re-turn donation bins located across the festival site, making it easy for visitors to recycle drinks containers the right way, while supporting six of Ireland’s leading children’s charities under the Return for Children initiative.
The initiative supports Barretstown, Barnardos, Childline by ISPCC, Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation, LauraLynn Ireland’s Children’s Hospice and Make-A-Wish Ireland.
A takeover at nearby Heuston Station, planned by Zenith and PML, promotes the partnership and encourages attendee participation targeting the many of the one hundred thousand or more attendees who travel by train. The posters by Boys+Girls introduce ‘BOT-CAN-ICALS’, an ingenious visual metaphor to relay the message.
More than 13,000 drinks containers were collected at Bord Bia Bloom 2025, with deposits donated to Return for Children. Since launching in June 2024, the initiative has raised €440,000 nationally, directly supporting over 165,000 children and families across Ireland.
Commenting, Re-turn Chief Marketing Officer Dermot Mulligan said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with Bord Bia Bloom and Return for Children for 2026. Bloom is one of Ireland’s leading sustainability-focused events and provides a fantastic opportunity for festivalgoers to support both the environment and children’s charities through the simple action of returning their cans and bottles. The strong engagement we saw last year highlights the public’s willingness to support both sustainability and charity initiatives through the Deposit Return Scheme.”
IMPACT Q1 Analysis
PML Group’s latest IMPACT analysis of Out of Home (OOH) performance in Q1 2026 provides a compelling snapshot of what resonated most effectively with Dublin audiences during the period. Drawing on insights from nearly 300 campaigns independently researched by Ipsos B&A between cycles 1-7, the research highlights the creative, contextual, and strategic elements driving standout performance across recall, relevance, design, and call to action.
Leading the quarter in overall recall was the McDonald’s Double Big Mac campaign, underlining the enduring power of strong brand recognition combined with clear, appetising visuals. McDonald’s ability to cut through demonstrates the continued importance of simplicity and iconic product focus in OOH execution, delivered via a multi-format media strategy.
Design excellence is another key measurement of our IMPACT service. Among male respondents, Guinness 0.0 Rugby on 48 Sheets (Cycle 3) emerged as the top-rated campaign, reflecting a strong alignment between sporting context and brand storytelling.
For female audiences, Maltesers’ creative on Adbox formats stood out, suggesting that visually engaging and playful executions continue to perform strongly in more targeted environments. These results reinforce the value of optimising design aesthetics to both audience and format.
Relevance, a critical driver of effectiveness, was led overall by Dunnes Stores, which resonated most strongly with both all adults and female respondents. The retailer’s focus on everyday value struck a chord. Among males, however, Burger King’s price-led billboard campaign took the top spot, highlighting the continued appeal of clear, compelling value messaging.
This trend extended into younger demographics, where Burger King was also deemed most relevant among 16–34s. In older cohorts, relevance shifted toward more functional and category-driven messaging, with Nuromol leading among 35-44s and Heinz Beans among 45-54s.
Clarity of communication remains a cornerstone of OOH effectiveness, and here Goodfella’s excelled with male audiences, delivering the most easily understood messaging. Among females, Burger King again performed strongly, demonstrating the brand’s ability to communicate its offering quickly and effectively across multiple dimensions.
Finally, in terms of driving action, Avonmore Super Milk on T-Sides proved most persuasive for males, while SuperValu’s 48 Sheet campaign (Cycle 7) generated the strongest call-to-action among females. These findings highlight the continued importance of pairing strong creative with clear behavioural prompts to convert attention into measurable outcomes.
Overall, the Q1 2026 results reaffirm that successful OOH campaigns are those that balance standout creative with audience relevance, clarity, and a strong call-to-action. Consistent with outcomes over many years, the most effective campaigns are those that use multiple formats and environments to communicate with audiences across various daily touchpoints. As brands continue to navigate an evolving media landscape, these insights provide a valuable roadmap for maximising impact and engagement in OOH.
IMPACT is PML Group’s post-campaign effectiveness measurement service. It has researched almost 30,000 OOH campaigns since 1996.
