up for the ‘lifestyle’ concept behind the project. Niall Benson is not certain that the car example translates meaningfully to his agency’s business. He observes, “Cars are a very experiential purchase. The requirement isn’t the same for grocery brands as can be demonstrated by the growth of discounters over the past few years. “ The debate widens into a discussion of where different agencies derive their budget from with some field marketers saying they get financed via cost of sales budget rather than business development, but further discussion of the growing sales demonstration sector seems to contradict this. Margaret Lyons and Killian Doherty both point towards the growth in requirements for instore demos. CPM, Doherty confirms, is highly successful when delivering instore demos and staff training in Ireland for Microsoft. Likewise, Lyons’ agency FMI has seen successful activity across Ireland on behalf on a major kitchen appliance. For Jonathan Woods, the customer activation area offers up great potential for experiential amplification. His agency Pluto sets out amongst its core strengths the ability to build emotional and social brand connections that lead towards purchase. “We aim to be right in the
middle of the brand story”, he says. Aoife Butler is enthused by the role that face to face marketing has in delivering dwell time to the shopper or consumer away from the clutter of other advertising and media: She adds “The power of word of mouth can’t go unnoticed when it comes to experiential marketing as once the customer has had a favourable encounter with the brand they will no doubt be willing to share this experience. Of course, these are positives for the channel that are shared across most European brand markets – but certainly in Ireland with its population spread, the knowledge that experiential marketers can bring about amplification coupled with what the shopping centres know about their reach and visitors, can help make Ireland – with a perception of brand loyal consumers – an attractive proposition. Adam Taylor has his eyes on that opportunity – the national proposition. He believes that the close relationship with the UK is a major issue. “Brexit is the elephant in the room”, he says, “Which way is it going to go? That is the gamble”. For Ian Shipley, however any brand can minimize the risk factor by looking at Ireland uniquely. “Brands have been known to fall into the trap of viewing Ireland as a second-tier market, which
is easy to understand when they are looking at activating across hundreds of stores in the UK, whereas they may only be looking at 50-150 key stores (within a single retail group) here in Ireland for a promotion. The key factor is that Irish consumers and retailers can be extremely brand loyal, and this should not be overlooked. The Irish market has to be dealt with as a market, to fully allow a brand owner to maximise the potential.” Unsurprisingly our panel agree that tapping local expertise should be the route to market for any brand expanding their way. “Come and pick an agency that is based over here”, says Niall Benson, “Choose a passionate agency that will do a fantastic job because of their capability, reliability, their local knowledge and their Irishness. Ireland is not just an outpost of the UK. Stick with the experts.” Margaret Lyons agrees: “We are an Irish business, not wanting to be dictated to by the UK.” Killian Doherty adds: “For the best success, it has to be a local business, with local relationships.” Says Aoife Butler: “Global brands competing in the Irish Market will strongly benefit from having an Irish agency on board when it comes to campaign planning and execution. They know exactly where the brands target
audience can be found, what their interests are and if there are any current ‘Irish trends’ the brand should look to leverage.” The table generally agreed with Margaret Lyons when she said that she anticipated growth in face to face sales and marketing in Ireland. “Technology can only go so far”, she says, “the best interaction is with people.” “People buy from people,” concludes Niall Benson. Certainly, the feeling around the table is that the Irish market is best built on trust and that communication online and via social media is, in the words of one participant ‘losing faith.” That said, further discussion from the experiential marketing contingent around the table showed that a balanced delivery of digital and face to face communicating is still the best way of justifying a fuller budget from aspirational brands. For Hammerson the feeling is that the shopping centre commercialisation process is well set to play a key supportive role in delivering benefits to all stakeholders. Sheonah Howlett concluded the round table stating: “We are focussed on personable and collaborative partnership with retailers or with shoppers. We’re here to talk, and develop ideas – we’re not just a rate card.”
This round table was hosted at Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin, the Hammerson property where Diarmuid Gavin’s award winning Garden of Pure Imagination was a summer attraction for shoppers
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Winter 2017