TV3 announced in March that they have commissioned a new series of their hit in-house produced reality TV show, ‘Tallafornia’. 

So far, more than 1,000 people have applied to appear in the new series of TV3’s ‘Tallafornia’, which is due to begin filming later this year. TV3 have revealed that they have been inundated with applications since announcing last month that they were commissioning a new series of their hit reality TV show. They are currently short-listing candidates for the second series, which will begin production in the coming months and will be shot in as an as-yet-unrevealed “exotic location”.

Celebrity Come Dine with Me Ireland returned to screens on April 9th on TV3 with a new line up of Irish celebs cooking off for charity. Donning their aprons and gloves in the latest series were Holly Sweeney (better known as Rory McIlroy’s ex girlfriend), Pippa Connor, Michael O’Doherty, Shane Byrne and Madeline Mulqueen.

As you can see from the below chart, it rated well for TV3. MC HW+CH did very well with an average of 53,000 viewers and 11TVRs across the week. An average of 266,000 MC Adult viewers tuned in for the final night to see Pippa O’Connor and Shane Byrne crowned joint winners.

The Forum took place on 19th April in Chartered Accountants House, with speakers including Colin Crawford (Media 7 Consultancy and former head of MAC publishing), Ross Burridge (Boto Media) and Rupert Turnbull (Publisher of Wired magazine/Conde Nast).

The Forum 2012 brought the realities of the new digital future for magazines “crashing through the front door” for all present.  Digital platforms are not merely optional for publishers; the ways in which readers are accessing content is tangibly changing from being in purely print form to being across print, social media, web aggregation, tablet and mobile.  The printed magazine still has a role to play but digital platforms are also an imperative.  The critical issue for Irish publishers will lie in accessing funds to actively develop their digital offering (hiring talent, developing appropriate technology, etc.) within the current harsh economic climate.

From Friday 20th April, the Belfast Telegraph will print just one single edition of the paper.  The paper, which up until now published both an A.M. and P.M. edition, will publish a morning edition only.

Their official statement reads: “Changes will come into operation later this week which will see the presses rolling earlier, the delivery vans reaching the shops earlier. The final edition was needed in a time of troubles, when the paper was updated with new stories, but our website, iPad and mobile news services have joined our newspaper to offer unparalleled news access to an ever increasing number of people. The Belfast Telegraph will continue to give the news when you want it, whether it be in the morning, afternoon or even in the middle of the night!  There are also a number of branding campaigns currently running on TV, Radio and Outdoor and these campaigns are booked throughout 2012.”

While there are obviously cost savings here as an influencing factor, INM are also clearly developing a strategy for the Belfast Telegraph in terms of the roles that their printed and online offerings play in delivering content to their readers across the day.  However, the move is also risky as the final/evening edition of the paper comprised 60% of the paper’s current ABC circulation (for the period of July-December, 2011).  The key task for the Belfast Telegraph will be ensuring that this evening readership is maintained within the morning edition of the paper going forward and that these readers are not lost to other titles or entirely.

Every Monday Tubridy catches up with the judges from The Voice of Ireland to chat about the previous night’s show: the highs, the lows and the latest vote-off.  On Monday 16th April, 2fm staged a Voice of Ireland special show in front of a live studio audience in the Radio Centre in RTÉ. Ryan Tubridy played host to performances from the finalists and the judges. A video of the show can be viewed here on the 2fm YouTube channel.

As the station continues to grow audiences in both the North West and North East and Midlands they have put together a team focused on creative solutions for both national and local clients. From 16th April  iRadio will take responsibility for all  station sponsorships and major promotion activity which will be handled by their creative services team. All airtime and promotion activity will be handled as normal by Independent Radio Sales.

Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg’s seemingly bottomless pockets, Instagram, a company that has existed for considerably less than two years, is now more valuable than the entire New York Times company. The $1bn acquisition has given rise to talk of a second dotcom bubble with many commentators pointing out that Bebo, Friends Reunited and MySpace were all bought for huge sums – then offloaded for a fraction of the price.
In fact the purchase of Instagram makes complete financial sense for Facebook, which is looking to grow its value from $100bn to $500bn.

Its first growth area will be mobile, which currently accounts for around 30 per cent of page views in web-centric markets like the US and Europe – and far more in APAC and Latin America.
Future growth is set to come from mobile, but Facebook’s current mobile offering is poor. The purchase of the largest mobile-only network therefore makes a great deal of sense.

The second growth area for Facebook is in personal data, which will drive data-led advertising. The potential to add photo-recognition technology to analyse personal interest data in photographs is hugely valuable. A user who posts large volumes of photographs of snow is going to be of high value to travel and ski companies, for example. Facebook already owns the best photo recognition technology and talent available outside the military, as it acquired Polar Rose some 18 months ago.

Taken at face value the acquisition of Instagram smacks of dotcom bubble.But acquiring the technology and talent to lead two of the major growth drivers for a company aiming for a $500bn valuation in a 12-15 quarter period, for a mere $1bn, suddenly looks like a complete steal.

Online advertising in Ireland continues to grow by double digit figures with the latest Adspend figures from IAB/PwC showing a 19.6% growth to €132m in 2011.

According to figures from Nielsen, advertising spend in other media in 2011 amounted to €897m down 4% year on year on this basis. Online now ranks number 3 in total media spend, outperforming radio, outdoor, cinema and magazines although still behind TV and press.
According to the figures, online display continues to grow with advertising on social media sites now accounting for a significant portion of the display market. Display advertising represented 38% of total online adspend in 2011. Advertising on social media sites was estimated at €5.8m according to IAB Ireland. 

Search marketing, meanwhile, continues to be a trusted direct response tool for advertisers with paid-search advertising growing by an estimated 16% year on year and now represents 42% of the total 2011 online adspend. Online classifieds, however, remained flat in 2011, and as a result, its share of the online advertising market has slipped to 20%.
The figures also show that firms operating in the telecommunications, FMCG, entertainment and media sectors are the top spending advertisers in display, with telecommunications coming out on top at 12%. FMCG, entertainment and media came in joint second place with 11% of the display spend each.

Commenting on the study results Eamon Fallon, Chairman of IAB Ireland, said: "The strong performance of online advertising recorded in our 2011 Adspend Study is good news for the Irish advertising industry. IAB predicts that the growth of online adspend in 2012 is set to break the €150m barrier and see online account for 20% of total adspend".

(Pictured: Bartley O’Connor, PWC, Eamon Fallon and Suzanne McElligot, IAB)

Just as you thought you were getting your head around all the ways you could possibly interact with an ad (QR codes, augmented reality, checking-in etc.), along comes an ad that, quite simply, grows a beard based on the number of likes it gets, reports Simply Zesty. The billboard was launched by Bronx Shoes and it’s currently sitting in Cape Town:The campaign is being run on the Bronx Facebook Page, where for every like, they’ll add another strand of hair onto the billboard. And you can even watch it via the livestream if you can’t quite believe what you’re reading (Warning – it’s not the most thrilling livestream). People are also being incentivised to invite friends to the page so they can be entered into a competition to win Bronx shoes. You can get involved with the campaign by visiting the Bronx Shoes Facebook page

The annual Institute of Advertising and Design Awards night took place in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on April 12th. ICAD’s mission is to foster, promote and reward creative excellence in Advertising and Design.

The big winner on the night were Publicis QMP, with a total of 13 Bells across almost all juries. The other big winners on the night were Chemistry with 9 Bells and Ogilvy and Mather. FBD received the prestigious Client Award ‘for the support and encouragement of creative excellence’. Carat also scooped a Gold for FBD Little Big Gestures at the 2012 Media Awards, a campaign brought to life with ambient/experiential activity by Pictureworks.

An Post TV screens are now available to advertisers. There is a universe of 270 screens across the national network of An Post offices. Most offices have one screen, while some of the larger ones may have multiple screens. Advertising will appear within a 6-8 min loop, complemented by An Post’s own advertising. There will be a maximum of 2 external advertisers permitted each cycle. The recommended spot length is 20 seconds. Campaigns can be tailored to specific locations/regions depending on campaign.