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High standards at 20th awards

Caroline Madden

Judging chairman praises entrants in the Cedar Awards, which reward the best in Irish recruitment advertising High standards at 20th awards

TMP Worldwide scooped four awards at this year's Cedar Awards, while the National Lottery and its advertising agency DDFH&B were recognised in two categories for their imaginative recruitment advertising campaign.

The Cedar Awards, which are now in their 20th year, reward creative and effective design in recruitment advertising.

Ten awards were presented to recruiting companies and the design or advertising agencies behind their campaign by Maeve Donovan, managing director of The Irish Times Ltd at a ceremony in Dublin's Four Seasons hotel.

The National Lottery was the only recruiting company to receive two awards at this year's ceremony, winning both the "information technology" and "series" categories for its series of print advertisements.

The winning advertisements made clever use of colourful lottery balls subtly altered to suit the particular job vacancy.

In an advertisement for a management accountancy position, lottery balls were incorporated into an abacus, and accompanied by the slogan "So many pluses". Another advertisement in the series, which aimed to recruit an internet-application development manager, featured lottery balls displaying the numbers zero or one (symbolising binary code used in computer programming), with the logo "Your winning Lotto numbers".

Ireland has come a long way over the last 20 years since the Cedar Awards began, Ms Donovan told guests at the ceremony.

She pointed out that the vibrant economic growth that the country has enjoyed has been driven by the ability to attract and retain quality staff, and recruitment has played a key role in this.

Employer branding and effective recruitment advertisements are not only key differentiators in the race for talent, but also enable employers to communicate with a wider audience, she said.

Chairman of the judging panel and chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission, Kieran Mulvey, observed that 20 years ago Ireland was losing every college graduate, but has transformed into a country of net immigration.

The challenge now is to recruit, retain and retrain staff. "We must learn to harness diversity," he said. "We must create positive experiences of integration."

Mr Mulvey was impressed with the high standard of this year's Cedar Awards entrants. "It was great to see some real gems this year and good to see them rewarded," he said.

In addition to language, layout and design, the entries were judged on the basis of the objectives of the advertisement and the extent to which these objectives were met.

The fourth largest bank in the world, Wachovia, and Ogilvy Recruitment Advertising were selected as the winner of the general management award. The eye-catching advertising slogan used in the bank's campaign to recruit staff for its IFSC operation was: "The biggest company you've never heard of is now in Ireland - Wachovia."

The pharmaceutical category was won by IVAX and Ogilvy Recruitment Advertising. IVAX develops inhalers and asthma treatments, and its advertisement's slogan read: "With you on board, we'll all breathe easier."

PricewaterhouseCoopers and TMP Worldwide scooped the finance award with their recruitment advertisement for a non-life actuarial position. Meanwhile, the engineering and technical award went to the Public Appointments Service of the Office of Public Works, together with Brindley Advertising.

The Health Service Executive and TMP Worldwide were named as winners of the medical awards, while Tesco and TMP won the sales and marketing category.

Trinity College Dublin and Brindley Advertising won the education category. Their advertisement featured the slogan: "Vision is the art of seeing what's invisible to others - Jonathan Swift, Class of 1686."

In addition, a special merit award was presented to HP Manufacturing and agency TMP Worldwide

Along with Mulvey, the judging panel comprised: Bríd O'Brien, HR director of Meteor; Peter Mulholland, group head of human resources RTÉ; Conor Kennedy, creative director at Javelin Y&R; Carol Soutar, art director at Publicis QMP; and Una McCaffrey, assistant business editor, The Irish Times.

The awards are run by The Irish Times in association with CIPD Ireland and the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland.