MediaPLUS is your weekly update on all that matters in media and marketing
Vodafone Ireland will sponsor RTÉ's coverage of the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup, RTÉ Commercial has confirmed.
The tenth edition of the tournament starts in England on Friday (August 22) and will run into September with an expanded 16-team format making it the biggest Women's Rugby World Cup to date.
The deal was brokered by Dentsu Ireland and will see Vodafone Ireland credits appear alongside all transmissions of matches on RTÉ television and RTÉ Player (live and catch-up). The Vodafone logo will also feature on all promotional adverts.
“As a brand that shares in RTÉ’s commitment to celebrating women in sport, we are delighted to have Vodafone Ireland onboard as our sponsor of the Women’s Rugby World Cup," said Dara Meaney, head of sales for RTÉ.
"The support of a brand like Vodafone Ireland helps to ensure that these athletes get the platform they deserve, and that Irish audiences get to enjoy every moment of the upcoming tournament.”
Just Eat rolls with Oasis puns for OOH campaign
Just Eat carried out a prominent out-of-home (OOH) advertising campaign last weekend that revolved around Oasis' sold-out reunion gigs at Croke Park.
Developed in collaboration with Core and positioned by media agencies UM Ireland and Talon, Just Eat's campaign showcased visuals and food puns inspired by Oasis lyrics across formats such as digital bridge, digivan and live adshel.
The adverts were strategically placed in high-footfall locations close to Croker like Dorset Street and the Clonliffe House and the slogans included "Don’t Look Back in Hanger,” “Where Were You While We Were Getting Thai?”, “What’s The Story, Chicken Tandoori?” and "Did Somebody Say Maybeeeeeeeee".
Caitriona Ní Laoire, managing director at Core Creative, added: “With this campaign, we wanted to capture the nostalgia fans feel when they hear Oasis’ biggest hits.
"By combining bold visuals and clever food puns, we’re making sure Just Eat is part of the conversation during one of the biggest weekends in Dublin."
Mike Kettles to lead Verve
Mike Kettles has been appointed as group creative director of marketing agency Verve, replacing John O'Shaughnessy who has become a non-executive creative director.
Kettles will lead Verve's creative studio in Dublin, London, Amsterdam and Singapore, when a new office opens there later this year.
His appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the agency as it continues its international growth as part of The Opus Group, a global network of leading experiential and brand experience agencies.
With over 25 years of experience in creative leadership, Kettles has worked across a wide range of sectors and agency models, from global networks to independent creative studios.
A founding member of brand ideas agency Greenspace, his previous roles include senior creative and strategic positions at Momentum Worldwide (McCann) and Spiro (GES).
Speaking about his new role, Kettles said: “There’s huge creative momentum at Verve right now, and a real opportunity to push things further.
“The studio is packed with sharp thinkers and brilliant creators, and the energy across the business is palpable.
“With global expansion underway, I’m excited to help shape the next chapter and build ideas that move people in every sense.”
Hanafin makes 98FM weekday late morning slot her own
Leanne Hanafin has been made the sole presenter for the weekday 10am to 1pm slot on 98FM.
Hannafin and Paul Ryder replaced Brian Dowling and Suzanne Kane as the regular presenters of the three-hour bloc in June, but Hannafin will fly solo from next Monday (August 25).
“I am grateful for every opportunity I’ve had within 98FM and every person who has supported me and offered the most valuable words of advice in this industry," said Hanafin.
"Now I’m ready for this new and exciting chapter, and I hope you’ll join me for it.”
Ryder will host 98FM Dance on Friday evenings from 7pm to 10pm while Andy Preston will handle presenting duties in the same slot from Monday to Thursday.
Luke Thomas will start in a new on-street roving reporter role, giving live updates from around Dublin, visiting local businesses and sharing the Best of Dublin on-air.
Pat Gill, managing editor of 98FM, said: “These changes bring fantastic talent to key slots across our schedule, ensuring Dublin listeners have a dynamic, entertaining, and music-filled experience every day.
"Leanne, Andy and Luke join a brilliant team of on-air presenters and we’re excited for them to get started.”
MSNBC rebrands as MS Now
US cable news channel MSNBC will changes its name to MS Now (short for My Source News Opinion World) as it is spun off from Comcast-owned NBCUniversal.
Comcast announced last year that it move most of its declining cable television networks, including MSNBC, CNBC, USA, E!, SYFY and the Golf Channel, to a separate company called Versant.
Comcast will retain NBCUniversal assets such as the main NBC channel, NBC News, NBC Sports, the streaming platform Peacock and the cable brand Bravo.
MSNBC launched in 1996 as a joint venture between NBC and Microsoft, but the tech giant eventually sold its stake.
The branding changes represent Versant’s emphasis on “building our individual identity and vision for the future while laying a foundation for the continued growth and success of our businesses,” Mark Lazarus, chief executive of Versant, said in a memo to staff.
“This gives us the opportunity to charge our own path forward, create distinct brand identities, and establish an independent news organization following the spin.”
Rebecca Kutler, president of MSNBC, said the station would not change editorial direction as it builds a separate news-gathering operation to NBC News.
“While our name will be changing, who we are and what we do will not,” Kutler said in an internal memo. “Our commitment to our work and our audiences will not waiver from what the brand promise has been for three decades.”
Vodafone has retained Carat as its media buying agency in Ireland, along with 11 EMEA markets.
Following a competitive review, the telco reappointed the Denstu-owned agency on a three-year contract starting next January.
Dentsu said the renewal marked "a strategic evolution" in its six-year working relationship with Vodafone, expanding Carat's remit from media buying to "a broader media-led transformation partnership."
"Carat will continue to support Vodafone’s in-housing strategy and scale tailored solutions powered by data, AI, and audience insight, with a focus on delivering accountable, business-driven results," Dentsu continued.
"This win reinforces our shared vision for long-term growth, operational integration, and innovation across EMEA."
Bank of Ireland keeps viewers engaged and lifts emotion at the right comedic beats
Every week, Amárach and Future Proof Insights share exclusive findings from their PRIZM+ ad testing service, showcasing best practice creative advertising in Ireland.
Bank of Ireland’s latest spot trades in high-energy humour, framing everyday banking through the lens of absurd adventure.
Two friends bungee-jump, face giant spiders, and even cross paths with a mischievous monkey, all while one calmly worries about his lost bank card.
The reason for his state of calm...A simple tap on the Bank of Ireland app to freeze it.
The creative uses spectacle and comedy to convey the brand promise of security: “Simple, Seamless, Secure.”
From a brain-response perspective, the ad keeps viewers engaged and lifts emotion at the right comedic beats.
Motivation and memory encoding are strongest when the app feature is introduced and when the product benefit is reinforced in the closing frames.
For its younger audience, the ad effectively pairs reassurance with entertainment, making banking functionality memorable in an unexpected way.
Overall, mental effort stays in a healthy range, memorisation is particularly strong, and the ad works through short bursts of attention and emotion rather than long sustained highs.
These bursts line up with the big comic moments, ensuring the brand message is encoded when it matters most.
The creative cleverly leverages the interplay of a few different dimensions to drive this response, such as conceptual closure (reward when the story comes together), benign violation (humour that feels safe and entertaining), and novelty bias (the brain’s heightened response to rapid new information).
For more information on this ad, CLICK HERE
Photo: (l-r) Dara Meaney, Head of Sales, RTÉ; Ciara Lawler, Business Director, Dentsu; Jacqui Hurley, Presenter, RTÉ Sport with Gerry Nixon, Head of Sponsorship & Insights, Vodafone Ireland and Thomas Heeney, Agency Sales Manager, RTÉ. (Pic: Fintan Clarke/Coalesce)
