ELLIS KOPEL PROJECT OF THE YEAR ENTRY

Presented by

BACKGROUND

• With 1.8 million customers, AIB is Ireland’s largest banking and financial services organisation.

• The Press Photographers Association of Ireland represents over 300 press photographers in Ireland.

• The Association’s annual Awards and Exhibition have been sponsored by AIB for the past eight years. The Awards have been running for 30 years and is the number one date in press photographers’ diaries.

• Two years ago, the Awards were renamed from “The AIB Press Photographers Association of Ireland Awards” to “The AIB Photojournalism Awards”. Last year, a book was published celebrating 30 years of the PPAI, in partnership with AIB – Beyond The Moment.

• The winning images form the AIB Photojournalism Exhibition - creating a superb platform for the work of the PPAI to reach a broad audience. It visits over 20 AIB branches and other locations around the country, in the ten months following the Awards and is Ireland’s largest touring exhibition.

THE BRIEF• The create a platform to showcase the very best in Irish

Photojournalism, through the prestigious awards ceremony.

• “Supporting clubs, supporting communities” is AIB’s main focus and the AIB Photojournalism Awards & Exhibition reinforce the bank’s already strong presence in the community and this was to be a main aim throughout the campaign.

• To secure positive and informative media coverage in a broad spectrum of media – national & regional – print, broadcast & online.

• To encompass staff and customers through the exhibitions.

• To develop the masterclasses and promote them on community level.

• The overall brief was to build on the sponsorship’s success – by creating an impactful awards ceremony, to take place on Friday, 5th February 2010, in The Burlington Hotel, followed by a strong media relations campaign on national and regional level.

OBJECTIVES• To continue to build on the mutually beneficially partnership,

between AIB and the Press Photographers Association of Ireland.

• To create an effective media relations plan surrounding the Awards and exhibition to generate maximum coverage and generate positive awareness - on national and importantly, on community level.

• To encompass staff and customers - by creating excitement and anticipation, on local level and building on AIB’s strong presence in the community.

• To positively communicate with staff, customers, photographers and the media - by feeding them information on the sponsorship - how they can experience it and on important news and developments.

• To foster photographic talent throughout Ireland by offering Masterclasses in selected venues.

PLANNING & STRATEGYPHASE 1: Pre-Awards & Judging

• Frequent meetings were held to plan out the direction of the forthcoming awards. The previous year’s event was again assessed and changes or alterations in planning were cemented.

• The International Judges were selected by the PPAI, assisted by Mary Crotty PR. Once the Judge’s are agreed. This year’s Judges were; Seamus Murphy, World-renowned Photographer and Per Folkver, a well-known Danish Picture Editor. Bride Rosney was the Chair of the Judging Panel, for the fifth year.

• The Judging weekend was planned during this phase, which took place in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel – this involved organising the rooms for the judging to take place, ensuring all AV equipment was in place and back-up systems were available in case of a crisis.

• In December, a large scale “entry email” was sent out to all PPAI members, with the awards entry form, rules and a joint letter from AIB and the PPAI.

• Meetings were also held with the hotel and other key suppliers including the catalogue printing company, stage designers, lighting team, sound and the logistics company who transport the exhibition and AV. Each supplier was confirmed and given a brief of the upcoming Awards.

• For a third year, top Irish sports broadcaster Des Cahill was selected as MC, a popular choice with the photographers – Des was confirmed and given an outline brief at this stage.

Phase 2: Judging Weekend (Mid-January)

Key elements of this weekend were:-

• -Compilation of a Judging catalogue –this was compiled in conjunction with the technology team who managed the entries online. The catalogue provided the Judge’s with a thumbnail of each entry and a description.

 • -Arrival of Judge’s & commencement of judging• Judging is completely anonymous – each photographer is assigned a code at the

entry stage and this number is used throughout judging.

• -Photocall• A creative photocall took place, including; the Judging Panel, Brenda Moriarty,

Head of Brand Management, AIB and David Sleator, President, Press Photographers Association of Ireland. A press release, with details on the Judges was drafted and issued with the photos.

• -Judge’s Dinner, hosted by AIB• The Judge’s dinner took place in The Burlington Hotel – the dinner provides a

good opportunity for AIB’s executive to meet with the Judges. The Picture Editors of all the national newspapers and members of the PPAI Committee are also invited.

Masterclasses

Regional photographic masterclasses have always played a key role in AIB’s

sponsorship and this year it was decided that a DVD would be prepared

by the PPAI to circulate amongst members wishing to do a masterclass in

their area – the DVD would include footage from the different stages of the judging process, the awards and also

give a slideshow of the winning images. The filming for the DVD began during

the judging weekend.

Phase 3: Pre-Awards • During the run up to the Awards, frequent meetings were essential –

this ensured that all parties and suppliers were aware of any changes which were made, or could voice any queries which they had.

• The Award invites were issued at this stage – lists included AIB, PPAI members and national and local media.

• The fully branded catalogue was compiled by Mary Crotty PR –containing all of the winning photographs and captions. A welcome note from the sponsor begins the catalogue – the catalogue was printed a few days before the awards under strict secrecy, to be ready for the Awards night.

• A disc of the winning images was produced – complete with a fully branded and captioned inlay card.

• At this stage, AIB approached its branch network, with a view to hosting the AIB PPAI exhibition. From this, an initial schedule is drafted.

• Three weeks prior to the Awards a recce of the venue was done with the AIB team and all suppliers – including the event photographers.

• Prior to the Awards, Mary Crotty PR provided the photographers with a listing of where all of the winning photographers and highly acclaimed photographers, who had photos in the exhibition were from – so that they could ensure each were photographed. Other photos required were:-

-Social photos-Awards presentations photosPhotos to include key AIB team members  • A newsflash was sent out to all picture desks in advance.

• The ballroom at the hotel was booked for the day before the Awards also, to allow for stage building, sound checks and rehearsals.

 • A slot on the Late Late Show (Ireland’s national broadcasters prime time

Friday night chat show) was secured, with an appearance by the AIB Photojournalist to take place on the night of the awards. Mary Crotty PR, AIB and the PPAI met with the show team before the night to brief them. The day before the awards, the show was given the winning photos to choose from and the final media release.

Phase 4: The Awards Night

·   The Awards night involved ensuring that each member of the team knew their role – rotas and task sheets were handed out to each member of staff at a briefing meeting, which took place on the morning of the Awards.

 ·        A media room was set up in the hotel, with high-speed connection, so

that the winning photos and live social photos could be issued to the newspapers, immediately.

 A full rehearsal was held, with Des Cahill , in the afternoon.

In terms of media relations - discs with the winning images were delivered by hand to the media at 6p.m. with a STRICT embargo, in order to catch the morning papers. Mary Crotty PR also had discs, press releases and catalogues enveloped and labelled for Editors of each of the regional newspapers and these were put into the post that evening – to ensure that made it around the country to be on Editor’s desks on the Monday morning following the awards.

• A piece on that evening’s Late Late Show was secured which meant the event had to run on a very strict timeline.

• The AIB Photojournalist of the Year was named as Mark Condren, Sunday Tribune.

• Immediately following the presentation, Mark was taken by car to RTE for his appearance on the Late Late Show, with one of the Judge’s who attended the Awards – Seamus Murphy. The piece showed winning images and was greatly received.

• There was a live feed of the Late Late Show shown in the Ballroom at The Burlington, which added to the excitement of the evening.

Phase 5: Follow-up

• A follow-up was done with the photo agency the following morning, to ensure that no problems had been encountered and to ensure that the regional live social pictures had been issued.

• During the following week, catalogues, press releases and discs were sent following requests – from regional newspapers, magazines and international publications.

• Exhibition starts immediately visiting Bank Centre first and being viewed by over 5,000 staff before starting its tour of the countries branches

• The Photojournalism Book, which was launched by the Irish President, will be presented to the local Mayor or dignitaries at each branch

THE RESULTSTHE RESULTS

• The AIB Photojournalist of the Year appeared on The Late Late Show on the night of the Awards, reaching an audience of 750,000, during a 7-minute slot.

 • Over the weekend of the Awards the following national newspapers covered

the event: The Irish Times, Irish Independent, Irish Mirror, Irish Daily Star, The Belfast Telegraph, Sunday Tribune, Evening Echo and Evening Herald.

• Regional coverage of the Awards was in 40 regional newspapers, to-date.

• The regional newspapers strongly support the travelling exhibition and more coverage is expected over the coming months, as the exhibition tours.

• The media coverage achieved from the AIB PPAI Judging Weekend and Awards 2009 was evaluated against estimated ad spend and came out at a value of almost €240,000 and readership of over 7 million.

• Verbal evaluations are as important as factual ones. So an evaluation meeting with AIB, the PPAI and Mary Crotty PR assessed all aspects of the Awards to see what worked and what could be improved. It was agreed that the new venue worked extremely well for the event and all parties had received tremendous feedback on the Late Late Show appearance.

• AIB undertake independent market research by Amarach Consulting on an annual basis among staff and a representative sample of the population.  Unprompted awareness for the event grew to 10%, while prompted awareness was 16%. In terms of feeling closer to AIB, as a result of community/cause related partnerships, this campaign scored 63%, a staggering increase of 22%.

• Source: Amarach Consulting

PRESS COVERAGE RESULTS : 2006-2010

010203040506070

2009 2008 2007 2006

National RegionalFree Sheets PhotosBroadcast media

2010 PRESS COVERAGE EVALUATION

AIB Photojournalism

Judging & Awards 2009 Evaluations

Ad Spend€242,667

Impact Value€800,726

Total Circulation2,993,905

Total Measurement

5,674q cm

Total Coverage Print &

Broadcast

55

THANK

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