There’s nothing quite like seeing a client’s hard work recognised on a major stage. We couldn’t be prouder to share that Bus Éireann swept The Changemaker 2025 awards, winning both the Marketing Initiative award and the coveted Overall Winner title for their brilliant “My best move, yours too” campaign.

The Marketing Initiative category honours those who have delivered powerful messaging that not only drives results but also resonates deeply with their audience, creating memorable and meaningful connections

How Connelly Partners Transformed Bus Éireann’s Recruitment

Connelly Partners delivered a game-changing recruitment campaign for Bus Éireann that went beyond traditional job advertising. Facing a nationwide talent shortage and urgent need for workforce diversification, the “My Best Move, Yours Too” campaign reimagined how public transport could attract and inspire career changers.

The Challenge

Bus Éireann confronted a dual problem: scaling their workforce while addressing significant gender imbalance in operational roles. Traditional recruitment methods weren’t delivering the volume or diversity needed, particularly among women who didn’t see themselves reflected in the industry.

The Solution

Rather than generic job ads, Connelly Partners centered the campaign on authentic employee stories, real drivers who had changed careers and found purpose, stability, and joy in public transport. This emotional storytelling approach reframed bus driving from a routine job into a fulfilling, future proof career path.

The campaign strategically deployed across multiple channels including VOD, digital audio, Meta, TikTok, and media partnerships, using data driven targeting to reach career changers and underrepresented groups.

Results

The campaign delivered exceptional outcomes: a 5x increase in applications, female driver representation rising to 11.2%, and 25% of trainee drivers now being women.

Beyond numbers, the campaign shifted perceptions, challenged stereotypes, and created lasting emotional connections between the brand and its people, proving that purpose driven marketing delivers measurable business impact.

This win reinforces something we’re passionate about: great marketing isn’t just about clever creative or smart strategy in isolation. It’s about bringing both together in service of something bigger, creating work that matters to real people and drives real change.

Have a look at the work below:

Nick Cronk, Co-Managing Director, CP West

The world’s premier tech conference is an overwhelming experience which requires athletic footwear and a well-organized calendar. Packed with talks, workshops, seminars, networking and social events, some 17,000 attendees gathered to ingest as much as they could on all things tech, digital and web.

The event is huge for the city of Vancouver, validating its already burgeoning tech scene and drawing thousands of visitors from across the globe. Here are my key takeaways from a dizzying few days:

1) No One Has a Clue About AI
Quite simply, I didn’t hear or speak to one person who has figured it out yet. We’re firmly in the infancy phase of discovery, and will be for some time. While there is (rightly) much hype around the possibilities of what it can do, we’re spinning in a world of trials and tests, with existing applications and uses remaining rudimental. The infinite incantations of where and how it manifests in your marketing world is paralyzing, so much so that actual implementation is slow. There’s no doubt, however, that if you can navigate this chaos, identify that sweet spot and take a leap into some unknowns, the net result and benefit will be huge. Attempting to do that as a side project or initiative means you’re going to come up short. It needs serious commitment, dedicated resource and courage to avoid the pitfalls of the discovery cycle.

2) The Agentic Age Cometh
This is going to fundamentally challenge the way we think of the customer journey, marketing funnel and experience within a frighteningly short space of time. While they might not yet be able to take out the trash, we’re increasingly familiarizing ourselves with the capabilities of AI agents to make other menial tasks a thing of the past. From booking flights or hotel rooms, to your weekly supermarket shop, the days of how consumers interact with brands, especially in the purchase stage, are about to experience a drastic change, comparable to the arrival of the internet. Brian Yamada sums up the opportunity well when speaking about Bionic Brands, where the marketers who win will find ways to increase relevance and personalization at scale. This isn’t just about making the future even more frictionless, it’s actually about using technology to make it more human.

3) ROI Is Dangerous
Marketers are increasingly falling into a trap where they chase efficiency and optimize for the incremental, says Joey Camire. It makes us myopic, he adds, leading us to do the same activity over and over again to maintain the status quo. Outcomes can be explained, good or bad. But in doing so, other critical metrics fall to the wayside: lessening differentiation, thwarting innovation, worsening customer experiences, and making it near impossible to drive significant growth. This isn’t to say that taking un-calculated risks is the solution, but instead a reminder to challenge ourselves as marketers to pursue opportunities outside of the ordinary. A timely reminder too, given the latest report from WARC (June ‘25), which explores Why Marketing Needs A New Measurement Mindset, and outlines how to embrace real-world nuances to help marketers make confident decisions. 

As we grapple with the AI revolution and re-evaluate our measurement mindsets, one thing is clear: the future of marketing demands not just adaptation, but bold imagination. What’s your next brave leap? Let’s talk.

Gene Begin, Managing Director, Connelly Partners Education
Erin Mullaney, Media Director
Kim Mazejka, Sr. Media Planner

Colleges and universities are vying for the attention of prospective students who are bombarded with information from every angle. While “performance media” (driving leads, opportunities, applications, etc) is a must-have in a shrinking education-seeking market, institutions must also embrace a comprehensive, full-funnel advertising strategy to build a foundation for that performance, especially due to the intensifying market competition. 

The number of graduate and online programs grew 69% from 2005 to 2022 nationwide. Notably, online/hybrid programs alone contributed to 78% of the year-over-year program growth between 2021 and 2022, according to the Postsecondary Equity & Economics Research Project.

In my role, I’ve been seeing more and more institutions focusing on finding performance media partners for these programs, hoping to convince prospective graduate and online students to apply, enroll, and deposit. But do you know how you get them to take those actions? Moving students to action requires understanding the student motivations at each stage of their education decision journey and their mindset in that moment. 

The Power of Awareness: Planting the Seeds Early

Imagine a prospective student who’s thinking about advancing their career but hasn’t yet considered a graduate degree, or perhaps doesn’t realize the breadth of quality online programs available, even in their local area. You must build a relationship with them to first educate that your graduate and online programs actually exist, with the hope you will be one of the half dozen or less institutions they typically apply to. 

Awareness-building strategies are about planting seeds. They’re about getting your institution and its programs on the radar of individuals who might not even know they need you yet. In a saturated market with few differentiators between programs, being first and loudest can win consideration and loyalty, generating more “warm” prospects for future conversion. This isn’t about immediate ROI, but about long-term pipeline development. Given that more competition leads to increased costs, stronger awareness and wider reach allows for more prospects to enter the funnel and can lower your conversion costs at the bottom of the funnel.

For Graduate Programs: Think about the working professional looking to upskill, the recent undergrad considering further specialization, or even someone contemplating a career change. Are you reaching them through thought leadership content, articles highlighting industry trends your program features and benefits address, or even broad-reach digital campaigns showcasing the impact of your students and alumni?

For Online Programs: The online learning landscape is vast and sometimes overwhelming. Awareness campaigns can highlight the flexibility, quality, and diverse range of your online degrees, differentiating you from the myriad of options available. This could involve showcasing student success stories, highlighting the expertise of your online faculty, or addressing common misconceptions about online education.

Moving to Consideration: Nurturing Interest

Once awareness is established, the next step is to move prospects into the consideration phase. This is where you provide more detailed information, address specific needs, and demonstrate the value proposition of your programs.

Targeted Content: For graduate programs, this might involve info sessions and webinars featuring program directors, virtual open houses, detailed program brochures, or alumni testimonials that speak to career advancement.

Authentic and Personalized Experiences: For any and all programs, this could first be done through influencer marketing. We have seen student and alumni influencer content outperform branded content for all of our partners, given that it is more immersive to the prospective student seeing what their life might look like if they enroll. And for online programs, deeper personalization could mean offering free sample modules, virtual tours of your online learning platform, or personalized consultations with admissions advisors who can address concerns about work-life balance or technology.

Retargeting Campaigns: For both, effective retargeting of individuals who have shown initial interest (e.g., visited a program page, downloaded a brochure) can keep your institution top-of-mind and guide them further down the funnel.

Optimizing Performance: Converting Intent into Enrollment

Finally, performance media comes into play. This is where you convert engaged prospects into inquiries and applicants and ultimately, enrolled students.

Clear Calls to Action: Streamlined application processes, easy-to-find financial aid information, and clear deadlines are paramount. So much improvement still needs to be made to university websites to ensure they are clear, concise and easy to find next steps.

A/B Testing: Continuously optimize your ad creative, your CTA copy and your landing pages to ensure they are as effective as possible in driving conversions.

CRM Integration: Seamlessly connect your advertising efforts with your CRM system to nurture leads and provide personalized communication throughout the application journey. While some systems and institutional processes are easier than others to connect the dots, it’s absolutely essential to eventually measure the return on your ad spend and investment.

Caution: if you only play in the conversion part of the funnel, it’s about who can outspend, not outsmart. You and your competition are vying for much of the same audience on the same platforms using the same algorithm. Awareness media can sometimes be less expensive, can properly penetrate your target audience, and can ensure you are top of mind and/or on their short list when they decide it’s time to apply.

The Bottom Line: Invest in Your Future Pipeline

By embracing a full-funnel strategy, colleges and universities can:

Expand their reach: Tap into new audiences who may not have previously considered higher education or your specific programs.

Build stronger brand recognition: Establish your institution as a leader and innovator in key areas to create more memorable associations.

Develop deeper pipelines: Ensure a consistent flow of qualified leads for all your programs, cross-promoting when necessary.

Maximize ROI: While awareness campaigns may not show immediate returns, they significantly enhance the effectiveness of your performance media in the long run.

Moving students to action requires media choices and tactics that students will intersect with at each stage of their decision journey. Our holistic approach requires consistency with brand but flexibility in message, thinking outside the ad, measurement at each stage, and respecting how people consume media today.

JoAnne Borselli, Group Brand Director

There’s a shift happening this summer that’s going to have a much louder impact than people realize: significantly fewer Canadians are traveling to the U.S.

According to Tourism Economics, visitation from Canada is expected to drop by 20.2% in 2025, part of a broader 9.4% decline in international arrivals. At first glance, it might seem like just a tourism issue. And it is. But it’s also much bigger than that.

Canadian travelers are a steady, reliable presence every summer, especially in key destinations in the Northeast and border regions across the northern portion of the U.S. They’re not just filling hotel rooms and lining up at attractions — they’re shopping, dining and spending in communities that count on their return year after year. So when they don’t show up, the ripple effect is real.

According to USA Today, a 10% dip in Canadian tourism alone could cost the U.S. $2.1 billion in spending and put 140,000 jobs at risk. That’s not just hotel and airline jobs — it’s restaurant staff, retail workers, drivers, seasonal employees and small-business owners who build their year around summer.

We’ll definitely feel it here in Boston, and in classic summer tourist towns in Massachusetts like the one where I live part of the year. Canada is Massachusetts’ No. 1 international tourism market during the summer, and when those visitors don’t come, it shows: fewer bookings, emptier tables, lighter foot traffic. It all adds up. For many local businesses, summer isn’t just the busy season. It’s make-or-break.

And the truth is, the impact doesn’t stop when vacation season ends. Less visitor spending means less local revenue. It affects everything from job creation to city budgets. And it’s often the smaller, family-run businesses without deep pockets or backup plans that feel it the most. When their income shrinks, so does their own household spending, creating a cycle that touches everything from grocery stores to gas stations.

For businesses that rely heavily on Canadian visitors, it’s easy to feel like this shift is completely out of their hands. But while you may not be able to change the border traffic, you can take steps to adapt your marketing strategy and build resilience during the slowdown:

• Lean on your own customer database to re-engage past Canadian customers directly.
  Use your own data to reach out with personalized offers. Highlight what makes your business worth the trip, and consider adding incentives like loyalty perks, bundled packages or flexible booking terms to help bring them back.
• Tell your story in a way that resonates with values.
  People choose destinations that feel authentic and connected. Share what makes your business unique — whether it’s a generational family story, your commitment to sustainability or the ways you support your community. These narratives build loyalty through human compassion and connection.
• Double down on U.S.-based local markets.
  With cross-border travel down, look closer to home. Target customers in nearby regions that are within a few hours’ drive. Emphasize convenience, value and the kinds of experiences people can’t get elsewhere, especially for weekend getaways or spur-of-the-moment summer plans.
  

These kinds of efforts won’t replace lost international traffic overnight. But they can help stabilize revenue, deepen connections with your audience and position your business for stronger recovery down the road.

Because the bottom line is this: when travel slows down, a lot of other things do too. That’s why it’s so important to keep the bigger picture in mind. Travel isn’t just a business sector — it’s a spark that powers so much more.

Despite the evolving media landscape and continual doomsaying about the death of linear, upfronts arguably remain the most pivotal week of the year for TV networks. Billions of dollars in ad commitments take shape during the annual industry showcase, providing a view into the evolving dynamics of media buying—and the tech that will measure those investments.

Ad tech played a pivotal role in the 2025 upfronts and NewFronts, with Google, Yahoo, Netflix and Fox driving home the importance of AI- and data-driven ad tools for marketers. Gen Z once again dominated the demographic conversation, with tailored lineups and targeted content, while the dynamics between streaming and legacy networks continued to play out against a backdrop of Trump’s tariffs, increasing economic uncertainty and a fragmented media landscape. Amid so much disruption and reinvention, we turned to the experts for their key takeaways from TV’s biggest week.

Live Programming Is Essential Business

Michelle Capasso, Partner & Chief Media Officer

No surprise: Live tentpole events, especially sports, are still king of the hill—and played a big role in the upfronts. But this year’s focus on ad tech and new ways to buy recognizes the importance of ad-supported metrics. Ad buyers have always cared about performance and transparency, and now the platforms are finally responding. Netflix, once the champion of ad-free experience, is now touting the importance and relevance of their ad-supported tiers, and Amazon featured their ad-supported growth in streaming as a centerpiece in their pitch. This shift hopefully means more transparency for buyers—all that star power on stage touting programs in development means more when advertisers can finally get a piece of it.

The rush to sports should help support upfront spending as budgets get tighter with economic uncertainty. Big brands need it to capture large audiences. Deals will likely be more concentrated, while advertisers try to consolidate into “sure things” like live sports to reach audiences that continue to fragment, driving up pricing. But the heavy focus this year on ad tech and more ways to buy programmatically could ding upfront spend and incentivize advertisers to not lock up those budgets now.

Read the full AdAge article here.

Media-savvy colleges and universities are moving past their traditional communications teams to tap into the hot market of influencer campaigns that resonate with Gens Z and Alpha. Instead of recruiting A-list celebrities or internet personality moguls to champion their campuses, however, institutions have found a more effective (and cheaper) spokesperson.

“Current students and alumni are our biggest advocates,” says Chandra Carson, executive director of content marketing at the University of New Hampshire. “They already love the university, and so they’re able to share their stories and experiences with prospective students.”

Higher education spent over $200 million on advertising via mobile web video in 2024, the highest among all media, according to a recent report from Education Dynamics, an enrollment management service. It found that the trend is primarily driven by short-form video content, often called “reels,” which is ubiquitous with the new social media titan TikTok. One source claims TikTok is more popular than Google’s search engine among Gen Z.

Institutions must appeal to advertising to Gen Z in new ways. These young, media-savvy consumers, well-versed in the trappings of corporate content, desire authentic expression, says Alyssa Stevens, Public Relations and Social Media Director at advertising agency Connelly Partners.

“That content is best created by either creators or real people, a.k.a influencers, and in this case, students and alumni of the organization, so they have an authentic connection to the organization that we’re promoting.”

Influencer content created by the University of New Hampshire in collaboration with Connelly Partners has a 22% higher engagement rate than brand content created internally, she says. Its latest campaign reached over 90% of its target audience.

Some of the most popular types of influencer videos show students roaming around campus and pointing out different amenities offered by the institution. This format could captivate prospective first-generation students who may have no other resource to help them visualize the college atmosphere, Carson says.

“These point-of-view videos give them a behind-the-scenes, almost voyeuristic, look at what it’s like to be a student,” Stevens says. “You familiarize them with the environment to ease them into taking action.”

How to Build an Influencer Campaign

Colleges and universities are spending various amounts on influencer campaigns. Institutions can build an effective grassroots movement by pushing marketing materials seeded from students’ social media feeds and boosting their posts to capture a broader audience.

Another way is by recruiting students or alumni with a strong following to serve in a more robust influencer campaign strategy, in which the institution feeds its newfound spokesperson with key messaging points.

However, a savvy social media user may still smell an advertisement from an influencer if a university’s marketing team isn’t careful, Carson notes. “You have to find who is speaking positively about the university, who’s authentically already saying these things. What you don’t want is to utilize somebody who has never spoken about the university and suddenly they’re a talking head and it doesn’t make any sense.”

Article and images from University Business.

Katie Flores, Associate Director of Programmatic Media Investment

According to a report published by AI Digital, 83% of digital ad revenue is projected to be controlled by Walled Gardens by 2027¹. A walled garden refers to how platforms such as Google, Meta, Apple, and Amazon control their platform insights and information such as ad inventory, user data, and performance metrics, limiting outside access.

The report also states that 90% of consumers spend their online time within these walled garden environments. Wow, 90%! That means only 10% of users spend their online time engaging with media that we can gain insights from and create leverageable audience segments to optimize against. Walled Gardens can pose a risk to the media ecosystem but also have undeniable benefits.

What is a Walled Garden & Why Are They So Attractive?

Walled Gardens have dominated the media industry for years. But why? Well, the attraction of working with Meta or Netflix for example should be obvious. The latter reported that their daily average viewing duration was two hours and in 1H’24, consumers streamed over 94 billion hours of content². Mass reach is an understatement. And Meta has mass reach locked down. Facebook has over 3 billion users. The rich, complex, and extensive user data stores gathered from those 3 billion users are just one of the many things that sets Meta apart. 

With the further deprecation of cookies and tracking capabilities, these Walled Garden’s first-party data stores will become even more sought after by marketers looking to gain deeper insights into their consumers. Their precision targeting capabilities are vast, the platforms are widely recognized and engaged millions of times a day, and buying on a platform such as Meta allows for a complete campaign journey from launch, campaign optimizations, and campaign wrap-up measurement. 

Along with the ease of working with a partner throughout the campaign cycle, Walled Gardens can also provide a full view into the consumer journey from discovery to purchase

The Dark Side: Transparency and Black Box Measurement

All of this sounds incredible, but what does it mean for a platform that isn’t a Google or Apple, or Meta? Well, sometimes the grass isn’t always greener inside of these Walled Gardens. Issues such as transparency, data collection and ownership, inflated inventory and fee costs, and trust are just the beginning.

Transparency has always been a hot topic when it comes to the Googles and Metas of our world. These companies have the right to withhold or provide a client with any information or data that they choose. And the transparency issue goes far beyond data but also applies to how the company’s ad tech algorithms work, how ads are served and where, and what audiences are seeing them. This is often referred to as Black Box Measurement and it’s something that the advertising industry is just starting to unpack and examine. How do you challenge and trust a platform that acts as judge, jury, and executioner without third party validation? This is a question that we as media buyers and planners should ask ourselves daily.

The Automation Illusion: When Simplicity Hides Complexity

Since third party measurement partners aren’t allowed to be utilized within these platforms, brands must rely on the honesty of the publisher, that they are providing them with the correct data, and that the data that brands can ingest into the platforms are actually being used for their intended purposes. The lack of transparency seems to be only increasing, under the guise of enhanced performance through automation. 

For example, Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+ are newer products that significantly reduce advertiser control of where ads are serving and how they are appearing. While these platforms promote simplicity and automation, allowing their algorithms to handle the work as ‘best practice,’ good advertisers must scrutinize these directives, recognizing the platforms’ inherent drive for monetization. 

While we can’t directly track and validate these platforms with 3rd parties, we can conduct test & learns and other forms of measurement to make our own informed decisions. 

Scrutiny around transparency has come from not only platform users but government officials as well. This pressure has led to some closed ecosystems experimenting with ‘clean rooms’ to provide partners with more insights than ever before. For example, in 1H’24, Amazon launched AWS Clean Rooms ML. 

This product allows Amazon partners to use AWS’s proprietary machine learning technology to create audience modeling and predictive insights without Amazon having to disclose any of their raw data. It’s a step in the right direction but is it enough?

History Repeats: From Prime Time TV to Prime Video

I often compare Amazon Prime and Netflix, who just recently announced they will stop reporting paid subscribers come 1Q’25, to how media buyers viewed the Prime-Time daypart ‘back in the day.’ Before we had the granular and specific audience data reporting tools, us media buyers would pay ABC, CBS, and NBC exorbitant costs to air in those three to four hours of content a night solely because Nielsen’s Household reporting panel of 0.01% of the US population told us those shows had the highest ratings on tv. 

We trusted this data because of Nielsen’s longtime standing as a consumer reporting titan, similar to how we in the media industry trust the statistical data that Meta and Amazon supply us with. Looking back, we now know that Nielsen’s murky in-home panel system fraudulently reported inaccurate age, sex, and content data resulting in millions of ad dollars lost to inaccurate targeting tactics³. Even when it comes to billion-dollar, household institutions, question, examine, and challenge everything.   

Thus far we have covered issues with transparency, concerns over data ownership, and Black Box measurement processes. Which leaves us with one last thing to discuss, and that’s money. The premium content that a Netflix or an Amazon Prime provides to us consumers sure does come at a premium cost. 

In addition to award-winning content, their large user bases/scale, time spent in-platform, white-glove service offerings, measurement capabilities, and high-quality ad experiences mean that our bargaining power goes out the door if we want to continue engaging with our clients’ in-platform target audiences. 

All in all, Walled Garden pricing can be as inflated as these companies want since media buyers must purchase their content via Direct IO and not on the open market. Demand is high and supply is low. Econ 101!  

Regulatory and Industry Pushback: Cracks in the Walls

We are at the whim of these Walled Garden companies, and they know they hold the chips, but some government officials, tech companies, smaller publishers, and media buyers are trying to reclaim some of this power. On a global scale, the EU’s Digital Markets Act of 2023 has put a spotlight on creating fairer and more competitive marketplaces by regulating Walled Garden platforms from abusing their position in the market. 

In the United States, the California Consumer Privacy Act allowed California residents the right to share or exclude their data, and US antitrust laws aim to reduce monopolization of certain sectors where it has occurred. 

On a smaller scale, publishers, agencies, and ad tech companies are coming together to collaborate on solutions such as clean rooms, contextual and AI predictive targeting methods, building identity alternatives like UID 2.0, and sharing transparent rate/fee cards to challenge the way these closed ecosystems operate. 

For example, LiveRamp is continuing to grow its global data community to help solve inadequacies in available measurement and audience insights. While these Walled Gardens are closing in, innovations in data collection and collaboration from every corner of the industry are expanding.

Looking Ahead: Will 2026 Bring More Openness?

As we look at the rest of 2025 and 2026, will we see Walled Gardens continue to grow or will we see open access to their inventory across different platforms and increases in data and measurement transparency? 

For example, smaller-scale DSPs plan to start selling Amazon Prime inventory beginning in 2H’25, which will remove the costly commitments and barriers of entry of buying directly with these partners. Hopefully, this trend continues in a forward direction and more and more Walled Garden platforms will follow suit as we move into 2026.

Balance the Power but Don’t Ignore the Value

In conclusion, Walled Garden companies are necessary for the industry and economy, have undeniably advanced targeting capabilities, captivating and alluring content, and billions of users who engage with their platforms for hours on end. 

However, the lack of transparency, accountability, data ownership and measurement, and insights into where and when ads run is a problem that simply cannot be ignored. When planning for 2026, keep an eye out for publishers with ad tech partnerships that can provide complete clarity into their data control and usage capabilities, reporting and measurement potential, transparent cost and fee structures, and last but not least, partners you can trust.

1. Liveramp; eMarketer ↩︎
2. Netflix 3Q’24 Shareholder Letter, Netflix.com, What We Watched the First Half of 2024 ↩︎
3.  MNTN – How Nielsen Got It Wrong – and Performance TV Gets it Right, Stephen Graveman ↩︎

On That Great Business Show with Conall Ó Móráin, Co-Creative Directors Sam Moorhead and Mikey Fleming talk about the current state of advertising. They dive into the sheer volume of ads, the explosion of platforms, and the evolution of targeting. They also share their thoughts on how small businesses can build their brands – by using distinctive assets, choosing the most suitable platforms, and leaning into humour and a strong personality to help people connect.

Catch the full episode here.

This year, on International Epilepsy Day, Epilepsy Ireland and Connelly Partners joined forces once again to launch a powerful nationwide campaign focused on one clear message: Time. Safe. Stay. It’s a simple mantra — but one that could make all the difference if you ever witness someone having a seizure. 

Turning Stats Into Stories

How do you take a public health message and make people really care? You make it personal.

Backed by robust research from Amárach, the campaign centred around the lived experiences of people with epilepsy. Research showed that 88% of people in Ireland believe there’s a lack of understanding of epilepsy amongst the general public. So we got to work – putting real voices, real faces, and real emotions front and centre. These weren’t just testimonials. These were open, honest conversations about life with epilepsy. Fear. Frustration. Strength. Hope.

By showcasing these stories, we aimed to create empathy, spark curiosity, and ultimately, leave a lasting impression about the importance of seizure first aid — Time. Safe. Stay.

A Multi-Platform Approach That Hit Home

To maximise impact, we launched a multi-channel campaign — from powerful digital storytelling to social media, DOOH and more – ensuring visibility at both national and regional levels. Media volunteers bravely stepped up to share their experiences with press. Interviews delivered a deeply human look at epilepsy’s daily challenges.

Listen to the full Supercharged (RTE Radio 1) interview here.

A video campaign, voiced by legendary Radio DJ Rick O’Shea, was broadcast on Sky Television. 

Digital out-of-home adverts brought the message into busy shopping centres and high-footfall areas throughout the Capital and regionally, as well as in Galway’s Eyre Square. 

Digital Display ads featuring our media volunteers ran across various digital platforms, providing lots of touch points for the Irish public to engage with this important message.

Social media lit up – and were amongst the most successful strands of this multi-faceted campaign. TikTok alone delivered 1M+ impressions,  reaching 538k accounts with an exceptional 17.36% engagement rate — well above platform norms.

Across META (Facebook and Instagram), the campaign reached 570K users, blowing past the original goal of 157K, with an impressive 2.78% engagement rate, significantly above the 0.20% industry benchmark. 

Our Digital Audio campaign over-delivered – achieving a 90% Listen Through Rate (LTR) and reaching 40K+ unique users. 

The results proved that human connection is still at the heart of effective storytelling.

Read The Irish Times feature here. 

Abby Versaggi, Assistant Programmatic Media Buyer

I recently attended Scope3’s inaugural Landscape conference in New York City, where I had the opportunity to explore not only Scope3’s new and potentially game-changing ad tech but also the key challenges facing our industry—brand safety, supply chain optimization, sustainability, and the evolving role of AI. Here are some of the top takeaways from the conference:

The key themes of the day were safety, sustainability, and growth, with a strong focus on implementation. If a new technology can’t be demonstrated, used, deployed, and mastered, it won’t be adopted effectively—making proper execution essential for industry-wide change.

The Challenges of Brand Safety in Programmatic Advertising 

Current brand safety tools have fallen short, and the industry—particularly in programmatic advertising—continues to struggle with transparency.

Sustainability, media quality, and brand safety are all interconnected. A lack of innovation has made it difficult for advertisers to access URL- or page-level data, creating significant challenges in transparency. 

AI-Powered Solutions for Brand Safety

Recognizing the need for a better approach to brand safety, Scope3 announced an AI-powered brand safety and suitability product. This new tool gives advertisers greater control over the content their ads appear on while reducing unnecessary content blocking.

We know AI uses a lot of energy to make decisions. So does the current digital advertising ecosystem, especially programmatic. The differences are:

1. We have the chance to develop AI systems with sustainability in mind, unlike how the programmatic ecosystem was developed. 
2. AI can also replace and streamline tech, as it is more forgiving of inconsistent data due to its ability to learn and model.

For example, blocklists and category filters have traditionally flagged keywords on a page without considering their context, often leading to the blocking of safe content. Scope3’s AI-powered brand safety agent addresses this by analyzing the full context of any piece of online content, ensuring that decisions align with a brand’s exact requirements. Advertisers can also provide feedback to refine the model over time.

Low-quality and Made-for-Advertising (MFA) sites host excessive low-value content and drive inefficient ad spend. With custom AI agents, advertisers can avoid bidding on these sites; therefore, reducing unnecessary energy consumption and wasted ad dollars. 

Custom AI Models For Greater Transparency

This new ad tech allows brands to build their own models based on their business goals, and criteria for brand suitability. It can be integrated into Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) and Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) to offer a more comprehensive view beyond just a site name. 

Additionally, it explains to advertisers and publishers why content was blocked and allows them to adjust parameters as needed. This helps solve the black box problem that many AIs face by making data-driven decisions more observable and understandable. 

AI’s Role in Sustainable Programmatic Advertising

If we don’t address the inefficiencies in programmatic advertising, we risk wasting millions of tons of carbon. AI has the opportunity to add to these emissions or counteract these inefficiencies. Scope3 has developed a way to do the latter, ensuring sustainable evolution of the programmatic landscape.