The Publicis agency has been named as overall winner of the An Post IAPI Direct Challenge for its direct mail ad campaign for the Alzheimer Society of Ireland.

An Post and the Institute of Advertising Practitioners of Ireland came together to create Direct Challenge as a contest to reward the best direct mail campaigns, as judged by a panel of advertising experts.

The team from Publicis which won the award will spend a week at the Lions International Festival of Creativity in Cannes in the south of France, while the

Alzheimer Society will benefit from a €20,000 direct mail ad campaign from An Post.

An Post media mail manager Eibhin Eviston said: “With over 70 entries received for this, the first year of the award, we were highly impressed with the quality of the submissions.  Direct Challenge’s charitable objective played a big part in the focus of those who entered, and that passion generated some highly creative work, worthy of many future inspirational direct mail campaigns.”

In Association with

Runners-up for the main award included Core for their campaign ‘End Period Poverty Envelope’ for Homeless Period Ireland; McCann Blue for their campaign ‘The Story of the Snake’ for Medicins Sans Frontieres; and TBWA for their campaign ‘Home Catalogue’ for Women’s Aid.

Photo (l-r) Ronan Nulty, Eibhin Eviston of An Post, Charley Stoney of IAPI, Niamh Ryan and Matthieu Chardon