MediaPLUS is your weekly update on all that matters in media and marketing
Guinness won three awards and RTÉ’s The Traitors and Sky Ireland picked up two prizes each as Irish brands and rights holders came up trumps at the European Sponsorship Awards in London.
The drinks brand was recognised in Sponsorship with a Social Purpose for its ‘Never Settle’ Boot, the first women’s-specific soft ground boot made in collaboration with IDA Sports.
Guinness and the Premier League triumphed in the Sport Sponsorship category, and the brewer also won Gold in ESA Best of Europe for its ‘Lovely Day for a Guinness’ campaign.
Meanwhile, The Traitors was rewarded for its brand partnerships with Centra and Very, ‘Suss or Sound? Centra Content Champions of the Traitors Ireland; and ‘A Very Proud Sponsor of the Traitors Ireland’.
Sky Ireland also excelled with two wins for its ‘Bound by Belief, Sky and Irish Football’ campaign, including Best Use of Measurement & Insight.
In all, 26 categories were decided at the 18th edition of the awards, which celebrate the best of European sponsorship. The full list of winners can be viewed here.
Folk VML celebrates the freshness of Brennans Bread
Folk VML has launched an integrated brand campaign for Brennans Bread that has been designed to reestablish the brand’s authority for freshness and showcase the breadth of its range for modern Irish households.
Running across TV, VOD, out of home (OOH), social and in-store from Monday (16 March), the campaign centres on an advert that celebrates Brennans’ “irresistible softness” while bringing to life its promise of “Today’s Bread Today”.
The light-hearted creative plays on a familiar behaviour among bread shoppers — the instinctive squeeze test — turning it into a playful demonstration of Brennans’ famous freshness.
“Brennans is one of Ireland’s most loved brands, but we saw an opportunity to reconnect it with something incredibly powerful – real, sensory freshness,” said Jonny Cullen, creative director of Folk VML.
“Everyone knows the instinct to give a loaf a squeeze to check how fresh it is, so we turned that simple behaviour into the creative idea. The result is a fun, slightly surreal film that dramatises just how irresistibly soft Brennans bread is.”
(l-r) Susan Daly, Gemma Teeling and Sinéad Manly.
Teeling named Omnicom chief client officer
Omnicom Media Ireland has announced three key appointments, including the promotion of Gemma Teeling to chief client officer.
Teeling was most recently managing director of subsidiary PHD and a member of the Onnicom board.
As chief client officer, Teeling will be responsible for ensuring the quality of output across the business and work with individual agency leadership to optimise talent.
“’I knew PHD was a special place from the day I joined in 2014. The clear focus on strategy and effectiveness shone through from the global network and in the Irish offering, even when we were a much smaller agency,” said Teeling.
“Contributing to the incredible growth of PHD Ireland as Managing Director has been the highlight of my career. In my role as Omnicom Media Board Director, I’ve always been impressed by the standard of work delivered by OMD for their clients.
“In my new role as CCO I look forward to taking an active role in our delivery for the amazing local and global brands in the OMD portfolio whilst continuing to support our PHD clients.”
Sinéad Manly, currently head of client and growth for Omnicom Media Ireland, will replace her as managing director of PHD.
Fiona Field has decided to step down as managing director of OMD, and she will be succeeded by Susan Daly.
Rick O’Shea. (Pic: RTÉ)
O’Shea becomes permanent Arena host
Rick O’Shea has been named as the permanent host of RTÉ Arena after stepping in on an interim basis following the death of Seán Rocks last July.
RTÉ said that 200 people submitted applications to become the presenter of the Radio 1’s flagship weeknight arts and culture programme, some of whom will stand in for O’Shea when he is on leave.
O’Shea has been a radio presenter with RTÉ since 2001. He presented The Rick O’Shea Show on 2FM for 16 years. He also hosted a weekday afternoon jazz programme, The Gold Lounge, on RTÉ Gold.Â
The Rick O’Shea Book Club has over 40,000 members and has held interviews with writers, artists, and performers around the country at festivals such as Cúirt, the International Literature Festival Dublin, the Dalkey Book Festival, and the Dublin Book Festival.
He is part of the voting academy for the An Post Irish Book Awards and is the literary curator for the annual UCD Festival.
He has also been a judge of various awards, including the Costa Book Awards, the Dalkey Literary Awards, and for the Dublin Fringe Theatre Festival.
“Normally in this situation someone says how much they’re looking forward to a new challenge,” said O’Shea.
“Having been stand-in presenter of Arena since our wonderful and much missed colleague Seán Rocks died in July of last year, I can already tell you that presenting the programme is the most wonderful job on radio and that the Arena production team are the best in the business.
Â
“Having spent most of my career talking to writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians in many settings, it will be an absolute honour getting to continue to shine a spotlight on work from them, as well as composers, artists, animators, conductors, playwrights, and curators every night on RTÉ’s flagship arts programme.”
Irish actress Jessie Buckley accepts the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for “Hamnet” onstage during the 98th Annual Academy Awards. (Pic: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)
Oscar viewership down 9%
Sunday’s Oscars ceremony was watched by 17.9m people in the US, a fall of 9% from last year’s 19.7m despite box-office hits such as Sinners being in contention.
One Battle After Another was the night’s big winner with six awards, including Best Picture, and Jessie Buckley became the first Irish woman to win Best Actress.
Despite the somewhat surprising decline in viewership, the show is the top-rate primetime entertainment telecast of the 2025-26 television season.
Both the Golden Globes (-6% to 8.66m) and the Grammys (-6% to 14.4m) witnessed similar reductions in viewership.
ABC and Hulu, the Disney-owned television channel and streamer, that hosted the broadcast reported social impressions were up 42% to 184m, and the Academy social platforms also saw a boost.
The Oscars will air in the US on ABC and Hulu for two more years before YouTube takes over broadcast with the 101st Academy Awards in 2029 as part of a five-year deal.