Between them they manage, orchestrate, lead & make vital decisions. This year for International Women’s Day, we decided to interview 3 of our women employee’s to find out what IWD, and its theme #EmbraceEquity, means to them.

Question 1: What does IWD and its theme #EmbraceEquity, mean to you?

International Women’s Day for me is an opportunity to celebrate women, our achievements, resourcefulness, and bravery.

#EmbraceEquity for me is about honouring authenticity, actively supporting differences, doing what’s right, not what it’s easy, showing empathy and just be kind.

Question 2: What are you most proud of?

I’m proud of the challenges I’ve overcome in raising two wonderful daughters as a young single mother. If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

Question 3: Which powerful woman do you admire the most?

It will have to be Oprah… her strength, resilience and courage are truly remarkable.  Her dedication to empower women from impoverished backgrounds through education and the way she uses her voice to stand against child and women abuse are just a few of the reasons I admire her.

Question 1: What does IWD and its theme #EmbraceEquity, mean to you?

International Women’s Day in my opinion is a day to celebrate all women globally. It’s about recognising our achievements, finding, and celebrating our values and being made to feel valued and more importantly being part of a tribe that promotes gender equality.  Raising the bar to support each other and be women’s greatest cheerleaders.

Question 2: What are you most proud of?

I would have to say hands down, I am most proud of being a Mum to my beautiful daughter Amy.  From very small beginnings arriving at 14 weeks early to a very independent and sassy 8-year-old, she has taken me on one of the greatest and most fulfilling journeys of my life to date, not to mention unexpected!  I’m excited for what’s to come!

Question 3: Which powerful woman do you admire the most?

There are 2 powerful women I really admire.  The first one is my Mum! A powerhouse, always thinking of and helping other people, from family to her community, always there at a moment’s notice when you need her.   

I really admire Michelle Obama as a powerful woman too.  I think she is an inspiration to all women as carved out a very successful career for herself, while raising 2 young children and becoming the First Lady, all while keeping her feet firmly on the ground and being the best version of herself.  Her book is really worth a read!

Question 1: What does IWD and its theme #EmbraceEquity, mean to you?

International Women’s Day is a day to acknowledge and honour the women’s rights movement globally and a day to celebrate the women in all our lives. #EmbraceEquity for me is about cultivating a mindset that promises inclusivity and a shot at equal opportunities.

Question 2: What are you most proud of?

Moving to a new country and starting from scratch.

Question 3: Which powerful woman do you admire the most?

Jacinda Ardern & Kamala Harris – A small percentage of the world’s leaders are women. Leaders like these two are unafraid, bold, and live life on their terms. One was the youngest female prime minister of a country and the other rose through ranks being a child of immigrant parents. They’re indeed an inspiration!

Talon, the global independent Out of Home (OOH) media agency, today announces that it is launching a new business division in Ireland called The Hub, designed to enhance Talon’s client offering with a focus on executional excellence.

The Hub’s main function will be to ensure that Talon is maximising capabilities for clients within their two key pillars of execution – investment and operations. It will bring together all of Talon’s expertise in execution to ensure it is delivering the most effective campaigns for clients.

The new business function will be headed up by Laura Pennington, who was recently promoted into the role of Buying Director. With over 20 years’ experience in OOH, Laura is a vital member of the team at Talon, and her expertise will be crucial as she oversees the new unit and leverages client’s investments into the medium.

Talon has been trialling the new structure since late 2022, and will be in full force from February 2023.

Andrew Sinclair, Managing Director of Talon in Ireland, said: “As we have entered another promising year in OOH’s renaissance, the team at Talon are constantly challenging ourselves to re-imagine the possibilities of OOH. This restructure allows us to better focus our efforts and capabilities in planning and investment as we scale our business and champion OOH’s unique proposition. We are delighted to promote Laura Pennington to lead this new business unit and drive our business forward in terms of delivering exceptional value, executional excellence, and maximising collaboration with our industry partners”.

Laura Pennington, Head of The Hub, commented: “I am excited about this new role. The set-up of The Hub marks a new approach to investment and operations which are key components in the backbone of our agency’s offering. With this new structure in place, we are driven to extend and build on our current capabilities in delivering client value and a seamless approach to execution”.

Taking on Interns is an integral part of our business, they tend to challenge the way “we’ve always done things”, while also bringing fresh, new ideas to the company. We also love being able to provide students with real-life experiences and introduce them to the OOH industry. After spending a month with the team, we asked Alannah to write up about her experience at Talon in Ireland.

My name’s Alannah Kelly and I am a final-year Advertising and Marketing Communications student at TU Dublin. I was thrilled when I was offered the opportunity to work with Talon in Ireland for the month of January 2023. I was excited to learn more about the world of OOH, especially after learning so much about it in college. I could finally see how things were done in the real advertising world!

As I have found during my time at Talon, the OOH advertising industry is growing at a strong and steady rate. I’ve learnt many invaluable lessons that I will take along with me in my professional career. It was interesting to learn about Talon in Ireland’s background – what exactly is OOH, why advertisers and brands should use it and who their media partners are. I also learnt about the different roles and what they involve such as marketing, PR, dynamic, creative solutions, operations, research, and Insights to name but a few. Learning about these roles allowed me to understand the day-to-day aspects of the company while also giving me an idea of what role I would like when I complete my degree.

Over the last three weeks, I’ve worked on numerous projects and gained many new skills. My first project was on mapping where I learnt all about the tools used to place campaigns to best target consumers. I also worked on some competitive reviews which I loved as they gave me an excellent insight into the many trends that can be seen in OOH. It was also great seeing the many clients Talon in Ireland work with. I enjoyed participating in brainstorming meetings for upcoming campaigns, these meetings allowed me to see just how creative OOH can be. During my time, Talon’s People Forum organized several nice gestures and activities to coincide with Blue Monday. The activities were a global mental health talk, a team lunch, grabbing a colleague for a walk and a boardroom transformed into a chill-out area for the afternoon.

My time at Talon has been great, I have had the chance to meet so many amazing people while also seeing the process of their incredible work. From working at Talon, I have developed many skills and gained great confidence working within the OOH industry. I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity and thankful I was so lucky to have such an amazing company to work for!

Thank you so much Talon in Ireland for being so welcoming and for the amazing opportunity!

In recent years, Out of Home (OOH) advertising has shown massive resilience in reinventing itself and staying relevant. Technological advancements and the digitization of media assets are transforming how and why advertisers use the medium. With digital fatigue one of the main challenges to be faced by advertisers and today’s consumers smarter and more tech-savvy than ever, they have more control over the ads they would like to see. Companies that want to stay agile, need to return to more established channels such as OOH. A recent study conducted by Talon UK and OnDevice Research recorded that OOH had the largest increase in trust across any medium, jumping from 14% to 57%, while 40% of people were more positive towards Out of Home compared to 16% for online ads. Looking ahead to the 2023 OOH forecast, we predict modest double-digit growth in the OOH channel. As new technologies continue to emerge, and consumer behaviour evolves it has become clear that OOH is now perfectly positioned to take its rightly place as a lead channel in the communications mix.

Prediction: The road to net zero.

2023 must be the year of sustainable innovation for the media and advertising industry. Whether that’s rethinking the way we plan and buy, looking at energy consumption, or offering brands more green products and services in the planning process such as recycled material for posters or using electric fleets for billposters, sustainability should dominate conversations across all media channels.

Prediction: Programmatic will be one of the most promising advertising opportunities in 2023.

Digital Out of Home has created huge opportunities for brands. We now have a format that holds the necessary tools to drive a more targeted, memorable, innovative, and measurable campaign. With continued investment from media owners in the digital out-of-home space, this channel has untapped potential going into next year, which brands need to take hold of.

Prediction: Growth in Multi-channel integration.

Looking ahead to next year, we see Out of Home advertising integrating with other channels especially, TV and online. According to BARB Mediaplanner+ 2020, investing 26% of TV budget into Out of Home has a positive outcome on reach, with OOH and TV working most effectively at different times throughout the day. When looking at OOH and Online, a recent 4^th space project, from Talon UK shows that by adding FMDOOH to a social campaign increased effectiveness across the brand funnel by 23%. Exposure to FMDOOH had a positive impact on the whole brand funnel from awareness through to call to action, not only generating desire and interest but generating consumer action. In fact, it was in consumer action that we saw the largest shift (+48%) when FMDOOH was added to a social plan.

Prediction: Data & Technology will supercharge the campaign planning process.

2023, will deliver numerous new technologies and further enhance existing tech.   

To date, data has powered both dynamic and programmatic campaigns and, although, in the early stages of this market, it’s set to continue but in more innovative ways. We envisage more clients using clever data sources to capture audiences on the move with impactful and attention-grabbing campaigns. 

Applying a prescriptive approach to the campaign planning process is a high priority for 2023. At Talon, we have plans afoot to invest and launch new platforms that will ensure that our planning process is second to none and will give clients a more granular level of measurability and accountability.

Prediction: Advertisers will get creative.

Grabbing and maintaining attention will be huge for brands heading into next year. The longer a brand can stay top of mind with consumers the better, because of this we will see more brands shift spending from performance marketing into brand building, making OOH the perfect canvas. Talon’s research shows that special builds not only position a brand as exciting and innovative but positively influence consumers’ purchase behaviour. In 2018, Talon UK conducted a special build campaign effectiveness research study whereby they compared those exposed to special builds vs those that were exposed to standard OOH formats. The results showed a +15% increase in positive impression of the advertising, +17% increase in consumer action and +35% increase in purchase consideration.

Summary

“2023 promises to be another exciting year in Out of Home’s renaissance.  With a wider industry lens on areas such as data & tech, programmatic, creativity and of course sustainability, we believe Out of Home is uniquely placed to take a leadership role in each of these spaces.  As we begin to shift focus to next year, the team at Talon Ireland are excited to lead that renaissance and champion Out of Home’s unique proposition, all kickstarted early with our new branding and new office move” – Andrew Sinclair, Managing Director, Talon Ireland