Thanks for visiting my portfolio, let me briefly introduce myself. My Ireland adventure started in 2019 as I moved to Dublin from Istanbul to study MSc Marketing at Trinity College Dublin. During my studies, I had a chance to take advertising and brand management classes which further increased my desire to build a career in strategy.
Since late 2020, I’ve been working as a strategist at BBDO Dublin. My main clients are Eason, CCPC, Calor, Make-A-Wish and Dublin City University. However, my experience isn’t limited to that as I support some of my colleagues’ clients on a project basis. Tourism Northern Ireland, Eir and Barry’s Tea are just some of them.
I’m also the main research resource of the company, actively conducting primary and secondary research for our clients, pitches and even areas we would like to explore (i.e., gaming).
I have a special interest and experience in brand building and re-branding, one example could be soon to be launched Deep River Rock Sports. I’ve also worked on very innovative projects including Dublin Simon Community’s AI-powered Unfair City and RSA’s Metaverse Education Hub.
My purpose is to contribute to the wellness of the society by challenging the status quo by doing things differently.
WORKS
Project: B2C Current Account Switching
Client: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is the statutory body responsible for promoting compliance with, and enforcing, competition and consumer protection law in Ireland.
Challenge: Ulster Bank was about to leave the Irish market. Therefore people in the Republic of Ireland were asked to switch their current account to another financial provider. CCPC wanted people to visit their Money Tool on their website, but there was a problem, many people weren’t aware of it. Customers had a tight deadline to take action - switching to a new current account had never been this urgent.
Insight: People tend to postpone things they don’t want to deal with, but CCPC made it easy.
Idea: “On To Better Things” emphasises the fact that going through a breakup is painful, even if it is your bank. The good news is that CPPC’s free, independent money tool can help you find your new better match.
Campaign: We’ve delivered Google Discovery ads, radio and digital audio, social ads, website icons and YouTube videos. To get people’s attention and interest, we’ve used the language of a romantic relationship.
Results: We’ve surpassed the objectives as the page visits have increased 300% more than the KPI.
Project: Christmas Campaign 2022
Client: Make-A-Wish Ireland
Make-A-Wish Ireland has one simple aim – to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions, to bring hope, strength and happiness.
Challenge: Make-A-Wish was getting ready to attract donors in Christmas 2022. But as there are over 11.000 registered charities in Ireland, it was difficult to stand out in the crowd. There was also a misperception that needed to be corrected - the general public was thinking that Make-A-Wish children were terminally ill and there was no hope for them, which brought negative, pitiful feelings.
Insight: Looking at the category, we noticed that Irish NGOs show children as imagery, and overlook the efforts of children in their own recovery.
Make-A-Wish needs to put children at the centre of everything they do and show Ireland how important the mental state of children is to fight against their life-threatening disease.
Idea: “When we expect to fail, we’re more likely to fail.”
If these children could be motivated to believe in themselves, they’d more likely put their effort into fighting against their life-threatening disease.
If these children could be motivated to believe in themselves, they’d more likely put their effort into fighting against their life-threatening disease.
To stand out in the saturated charity market, we made sure everything had a distinctive look and feel to give hope instead of getting donors to pity the children.
Campaign: We told wish child Ruadhan’s story - a young boy diagnosed with cancer, who had lost his will to believe. He is an avid birdwatcher and his wish was to see puffins in real life. Make-A-Wish made this happen and Ruadhan now believes even a cure to his cancer.
For the sake of a distinctive look and feel we did several things in our communication. Competitors were using pale colours, so we made everything bright to energise our targeted donors. They were using real images of the children with serum/cables, we told the story of Ruadhan through an animated version of him to draw attention to his hope-giving story, rather than his disease.
Results: We’ve collected 30% more donations than the targeted amount.
Project: Christmas 2022
Client: Eason & Son (Eason)
Eason is an Irish retail company best known for selling books, stationery, cards, gifts, newspapers and magazines.
Challenge: While the gift-giving season was increasing monetary concerns due to inflation, Amazon was securing its place by providing the best price and fast delivery. Eason needed to step up in this game.
Insight: Amazon is a machine with purely cold data. Eason on the other hand is a budget-friendly, family-owned Irish bookstore that knows the pulse and taste of the nation since 1819.
Idea: “We know you. We know books. And we know good value.” We wanted to beat Amazon by showing Eason’s competitive advantage.
Eason has a wide range of Irish authors in their collection. Unlike Amazon, Eason has retail stores all around the country. The prices are as affordable as Amazon and Eason provides next-day delivery too.
Campaign: This is a tactical sales campaign, that's why it had to be simple, yet effective. Therefore, we wanted to tell a story of unwrapped books by Irish authors, where the pages of the books floated like Christmas magic.
Results: Sales have doubled compared to last year’s Christmas period.
