Back in May at the height of the Covid19 lockdown, Sky Media launched a €250,000 AdSmart SME Support Scheme for businesses in Ireland. The fund provided 25 businesses with a free €10,000 TV advertising campaign on AdSmart to support them during the current pandemic.
The purpose of the scheme was to help SMEs reach potential customers through the power of TV advertising and was open to businesses that have been operating for at least one year and have up to 50 full time employees.
The level of interest exceeded expectations and the winning entries represent a variety of businesses across the whole of Ireland that are new to TV or haven’t advertised on TV in the last 12 months.
“The purpose of our SME initiative was to support local businesses across Ireland at a time when they were facing some of their toughest ever challenges. From the feedback we’ve received, I’m delighted that businesses who have never used TV advertising before, have experienced first-hand how localised TV campaigns can build awareness, drive store visits and increase web traffic,” says Malcolm Murray, director of Ireland Sales, Sky Media.
Here is a flavour of some of the advertisers who are appearing on TV for the very first time!
Gym + Coffee
Gym+Coffee is a fast growing Irish athleisure brand. Adjusting to new circumstances, Gym+Coffee have been striving to remain flexible and continue to deliver a quality product and service. Adsmart allowed the business to deliver their community message to households across Ireland using the power of TV.
Diarmuid McSweeney , Co-Founder at Gym+Coffee “We had created digital assets during lock down and we worked with AdSmart from Sky to bring these assets to TV. It was an amazing opportunity to get the brand on TV for the first time and particularly with a message that we felt was very fitting for the time. It was invaluable for us to communicate this type of campaign to a wider audience”.
 The Skin Nerd
Skingredients, an Irish range of active skincare products is just a year old and the objective of a TV campaign was to broaden audience reach, build brand awareness and drive trial through their e-commerce channel, as well as supporting 200+ stockists across the country.
Paul Gillart, MD, The Skin Nerd “We developed a fully integrated 360 marketing campaign around the TV commercial to make the most of the opportunity. The campaign delivered against its objectives, plus now we also have a great TV commercial for use in the future.”
 Lucy Nagle Cashmere
Starting with just three designs back in 2013, Irish fashion designer Lucy Nagle has since grown her brand to luxury status. Her label is stocked in Brown Thomas and online and has earned her a loyal following. A TV campaign brought the brand to a much wider & bigger audience.
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Lucy Nagle, Creative Director/Founder at LucyNagle “We were delighted to be part of the Sky SME Scheme. It was a TV debut for us and the results were super. It was fantastic to see the brand come to life on TV. We experienced a strong increase in brand awareness and received lots of great feedback from our customers.”
Cuando
ie is a premium Irish online gift marketplace that brings together in one place a range of fabulous gift by makers and designers all over Ireland. TV exposure brought this unique online retail proposition to a wider audience , supporting not just Cuando.ie but the 100+Â small creative businesses nationwide whose products are featured on the site
Karen Naidoo, Founder and Director, Cuando.ie  “The whole process was very straightforward, with the assistance of a knowledgeable and helpful AdSmart from Sky team. We have achieved increased brand awareness and we can also attribute a significant uplift in website traffic from brand search terms to AdSmart from Sky activity.”
McElhinneys Department Store
McElhinneys is a long established department store located in the north west of the country. Lockdown measures forced closure of the department store in Ballybofey. Luckily, investment in their Ecommerce platform over the last number of years allowed McElhinneys to keep the lights on! A TV campaign promoting the online store provided critical support at this difficult time for retailers.
 Martin McElhinney ,GM of McElhinneys Department Store and Mcelhinneys.com) “The TV campaign gave us the opportunity to reach new customers through a medium that we have never used before. Targeting homes in Dublin and the Northwest of Ireland, we’ve seen an increase in organic visits to our website which resulted in increased orders. When we re-opened our store in Ballybofey, we had several customers comment and congratulate us on our TV Ad.”
