Kate McKeown joined Brightwater Group, one of the country’s leading recruitment consultancies, after completing her marketing studies at college. Her main role has been to create innovative campaigns for Brightwater Support to enhance its brand awareness. In an environment that changes daily, Kate has had to be able to react quickly, as well as being proactive in developing campaigns. One of her most visible successes has centered on leveraging the internet. With offices in Dublin, Belfast and Cork, Brightwater provides specialised recruitment services to a wide variety of clients ranging from small indigenous companies to blue chip organizations, covering all business functions.

As a newcomer with Oui Can Do, which sells French property to Irish consumers, Laetitia Leonhardt’s challenge was to deploy online marketing tools to generate new sales leads, a significant challenge in a cautious market. She was also tasked with developing new partnerships with suppliers and ensuring a flow of new properties. Laetitia strengthened the firm’s web offering, including a newsletter, online surveys, themed banners linked to matching properties, and the use of referring websites and Google AdWords, as well as introducing a referral system to get leads from recommendations by previous customers. This resulted in a strong finish to 2007.

Stephen Conlon was hired by Sales Online to address a market opportunity in the self-sufficient advertisers segment, i.e. in-house online marketing teams. With less than two years experience in the market, Stephen had to learn fast. Starting with a detailed survey of target customers, he segmented the audiences and built specific propositions for each group. His efforts resulted in over achievement of his sales revenue goals. Sales Online is a leading supplier of digital advertising and media services, and the company sells online advertising space on behalf of over 100 media owners. It also provides expertise in web marketing and online campaign management.

Adam Baker works for Shamrock Foods, part of the AIWS Group and one of Ireland’s leading sales, marketing and distribution companies. As a new Assistant Brand Manager, his first major tasks included supporting a new product launch of the Just range of snacking products, and a rebranding project for the leading Roma brand. Helped by experience gained through working on The Persuaders radio show, he quickly got to grips with the challenges and made a strong contribution to the design and printing of marketing collateral, and the development of an engaging consumer website, for which he now carries responsibility regarding content.