Here’s What’s Exciting The Brill Building About Irish Creativity Right Now

The Immortal Awards is proud to be partnering with The Brill Building for this year’s Ireland jury day, which will see a host of the market’s finest minds from the brand, agency and craft spheres championing the best of Irish advertising. 

In the run up to October's session, Peter Snodden, the agency’s chief partner, takes us on a whistle stop tour of the Irish advertising scene, pointing out the creatives, companies and projects that are making 2024 an exciting time for the market.

The entry system for The Immortal Awards’ 2024 competition is now open. As always, entry is free for Little Black Book members and more information on how you can enter - and start your path to creative immortality - can be found at the bottom of the article.

LBB > What's exciting you most about Irish creativity this year?

Peter > I think the ambition and confidence to grow beyond our shores. There's a serious renaissance going on in the disciplines that surround our industry, in film and music. We worked with Locky McKenna over the past year, for example, while his film 'Two for the Road' was doing great things internationally including being shortlisted for the Oscars. In our creative discipline we have a way to go to become a force on the world stage but the ambition is growing every year - thanks to the example of those who are achieving it. Boys+Girls continue to get lots of great work out there and a resurgent Publicis is demonstrating that Irish smarts, coupled with global network firepower, can leverage Irish work onto the main stage.

LBB > Which Irish creatives and companies should we be keeping an eye on this year? 

Peter > We’re lucky there are so many talents emerging in Ireland in so many disciplines. It’s also true to say there are many talents who’ve been around for a while who are now being recognised. There are a host, of course but to name a few: 

Roisin Keown, founder and ECD of The Brill Building, is one example. At a time when the traditional agency model was actually changing, Roisin had the vision to establish The Brill Building, a creative-led agency. Our product is creative intelligence and finding a way to put that at the heart of brands and business, achieving so much for our clients and talent we work with. With a strong strategic foundation, which means that marketing effectiveness can be achieved creatively, quickly and memorably, there’s loads more to come here. 

James Fitzgerald is an emerging director, across the disciplines of promos, shorts, adverts and has a feature in the works. His work has strong performance at its core and he’s also a collaborative enthusiast.

GABHA Studios is a post production company with a base in Dublin, led by Daniel Morris and Dafydd Upsdell. It’s a new company with a foundation of experience. Seeing under the bonnet of some of their recent work for Lego, they’re definitely one to watch.

Screen Scene. We’re big fans of Jake and the team and have made some of our best work there over some 20 years. Now back under Irish ownership, we’re excited to see what the next resurgent chapter holds

Recently I was involved in the judging of the IAPI Female Futures, an initiative designed to nurture, retain and propel outstanding female talent within our industry. There’s a long list of recipients this year. People like Johanna Towesten, head of social at Forsman & Bodenfors Dublin, who demonstrated hard work and determination and who continues to set big goals for her career. Along with her peers, the programme shows that the industry here is crammed with ambition and talented thinkers, the future is quite literally bright. 

LBB > Which projects should our Irish jury be looking out for at this year's Immortal Awards?

Peter > Heineken ‘Pub Museums’ by Publicis

This is a campaign that has set a bar for us going forward. Highlighting how the Irish pub is part of our social history and bringing this notion alive using new technology. It was a brief that was neatly answered and delivered in a clean, cool way. 

EBS Mortgages by TBWA\Dublin (formerly BBDO Dublin)

In the potentially dull world of selling mortgages, Rob Boyle and Eoin Conlon brought a well-directed, brilliantly acted advert, it’s a simple campaign that sticks in the head.

Gas Networks Ireland ‘Kevin the Badger’ by Publicis

The vision of creative team Isabel Harvey and Ivona Poljak, it’s a campaign that uses humour to deliver a serious message. It’s also a showcase of nuanced production design by Joe Fallover combined with a great script and a most excellently puppeteered performance.

Marie Keating Foundation ‘The AR lens to save a life’ by The Brill Building 

Thinking about solutions as applied creativity instead of traditional ad media is central to our approach. Harnessing new technology and always driving the teams to pioneer innovation is another tenet of everything Brill. For this campaign we partnered with Meta to create the world's first social media filter to educate on cancer symptoms. With 53,000 shares and 2.5 million impressions, it was so successful that Meta used an adapted version of the lens to launch its AR function on Instagram. Each one of those interactions had the potential to save a life.

LBB > Why do you believe creativity is so important for the Irish market right now?

Peter > At The Brill Building we put creative intelligence at the heart of our business so that we can put it at the centre of the brands and businesses we achieve success for. It’s always been important and always will be. We've a rich history in the arts and now our creative tool kit is expanding with A.I., rapidly, just as it did when the Apple Mac came along and shook up the landscape. So in a world where there are increasing numbers of content creators, and people with the tools to create, it has become critically important that our creativity is based on sound foundations and ace solutions, that can be judged not just within Ireland but internationally.

LBB > Why are you supporting the Immortal Awards in Ireland this year?

Peter > As I type this, I’m keeping a keen watching eye on the Olympics, tuning in more intently when the Irish flag comes into play. It’s the same with shows like the Immortals; despite what can sometimes be challenging budgets, when putting pen to paper on any brief we should be thinking “how’s this going to be best of the best on a world stage?”