April 14, 2021

Should Advertising be Informative or Entertaining?

The Marketing Society of Ireland’s Future Council returns on Wednesday 14 April 2021 at 5:45pm with its Spring event: Should advertising be informative or entertaining? The evening event will take place remotely and is open to a limited number of attendees.

The Future Council provides thought leadership and networking opportunities through events and talks specifically created for marketing practitioners in the first five years of their careers. The Spring event will take the form of an interactive discussion on Zoom, with an opportunity for guests to debate the merits of branded entertainment, providing a platform for young marketers to network virtually while developing their own views on this emerging topic. Both sides of the debate will be presented for guests to consider and attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions during a Q&A session.

The event will feature speaker Aoife Murphy, Executive Strategy Director and board member at creative agency, Boys+Girls. With over 12 years’ experience in Ireland and overseas, she has directed work for clients like Kellogg’s, MARS, Cadbury, Diageo, Samsung and Fitbit. Her belief in the strength of an integrated approach has resulted in several effectiveness awards including ADFX and Effies.

Speaking ahead of the event, Aoife Murphy, Executive Strategy Director and board member at Boys+Girls said: “The role of advertising is to bring attention to your product or service in order to make it more desirable, enact a response and / or promote sales. But should that be achieved in a way that's informative or entertaining? Is advertising more successful when it speaks to the right, creative brain or the logical, left brain? Which method is more effective at getting your audience's attention and, more importantly, influencing their behaviour?”

Jay Reid, Strategy Director at Core and Chair of the Future Council said: “While advertising has been entertaining audiences for many decades, branded entertainment as a concept has come to the fore again in recent months. We’re looking forward to a lively debate and to giving guests the opportunity to share their thoughts and insights on the topic.”

April 22, 2021

The Truth About Fake News

Price: Members €10 Non Members €30

A panel of experts will explore ‘The Truth About Fake News’ as traditional and new media roll out policies to safeguard end users. The session will provide the latest insights and guidance around how to combat misleading information/fake news. Finally, the session will explore consumer sentiment and behaviours in response to fake news and it impacts on brand perception and trust.

FULL DETAILS TO FOLLOW

May 13, 2021

Is Convenience the new Narcissism?

Join us as we explore how brands must continuously evolve to make themselves more convenient, more personalised and more accessible at every stage of the buying process in order to stay relevant and continue to grow. For decades research has focused largely on brands, asking questions about brand saliency, brand features, and benefits, product developments, and hypothetical scenarios surrounding brand loyalty. Now, we must start to align our research with the real world and focus on connections with an increasingly elusive audience. We’re operating in an environment where the consumer is in control, technology is making their lives easier, and this new reality creates barriers to traditional brand marketing. Brands have to build a much deeper understanding of their customers.

We must start to navigate this tension between convenience technology and brands in an entirely new way. Convenience has taken on a whole new meaning. With a tap of your phone screen, it’s possible to order and pay for your milk in a matter of seconds – and drones will soon be able to deliver the milk to your door in less time than it would take you to walk to your local shop. But while connected devices have undoubtedly made tasks like ordering milk more convenient, they’ve also made the process much more complicated.

For brands, it’s easy to see why this is a scary prospect. How can you build a relationship with consumers when they no longer have to visit your store – or even your website – and they are being presented with a bigger range of retailers, products, services and service providers than ever before?

Decision fatigue

Clinical studies have proven that our capacity to take decisions is finite, meaning we find it harder and harder to make choices over the course of the day. As modern life becomes ever more connected, consumers are bombarded with an exhausting array of choices and offers, which continues to grow. In this environment, it’s hardly surprising that people want more personalised offers and services which are convenient, tailored to their need, and simplify or even remove the decisions they need to make about what to eat, what clothes to buy and where to go on holiday. It’s now common to use apps and other technology to help us combat this “fatigue” and make choices or recommendations on our behalf. Brand loyalty may be harder to come by in the digital age, but those that embrace technology and data, and use them to simplify our lives at every touchpoint, can make it easier than ever for consumers to say “yes”.

Our Panel includes:

Deirdre Bourke Marketing & Ops Director Microsoft

Ronan Mc Evoy Consultant FREE NOW

Paul Sweeney Co Founder & EVP Product Webio