Chartered Accountants Ireland is the largest and longest established accountancy body in Ireland. We have been its media partner since January 2022, handling campaigns, video, photography, audio and the live and hybrid events that bring its members together across the island.
The challenge
The institute represents a large membership spread across the whole island, along with the students working towards the qualification. Reaching all of them takes more than one channel. It takes video, social media, print, broadcast, radio and cinema, and it takes events that work as well for someone watching from home as for someone in the room.
That work runs all year. Then, at the end of December 2023, it had to move very quickly indeed. Chartered Accountants Ireland and CPA Ireland were putting a proposal to their members that the two bodies amalgamate. The vote had to take place no later than 21 February at a special general meeting, so the campaign strategy and every asset behind it had to be created in a matter of weeks. The credibility of the leadership of both organisations rested on it, which left no room for delay and none for error.
The amalgamation campaign
We built the campaign from a standing start in January and February 2024, working across strategy, web, video, photography, social and live events at the same time. It carried the case for a yes vote to members wherever they were: online, in print, and in person at town hall meetings around the country.
- Campaign strategy, visual concepts and the overall look and feel
- A campaign microsite, designed and built to run at a custom URL
- More than 20 video assets captured, edited and produced for web and social media
- More than 40 pieces of social media advertising, in both graphics and video
- Photography for use across the campaign
- Audio and video support for in-person town hall events in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Belfast
- Broadcast management, audio and video for the hybrid town halls, the special general meeting and the AGM
- Online and print advertising
The student recruitment campaign
The institute’s annual student recruitment campaign is a major piece of its education outreach. It promotes the qualification to students and to people already in work, and sets out the different routes to becoming a Chartered Accountant.
We have worked on it across successive campaigns, taking it from concept through to finished assets for every channel it runs on.
- Campaign concept development
- Photography
- Video capture and audio recording
- Video and audio post production and mastering
- Cinema, TV and radio advertisements
- Digital out of home advertising, including billboards
- Social media content, static and video
- Brochure and PowerPoint design
- Podcast recording, editing and distribution
Online and hybrid events
We support the institute’s events throughout the year: council meetings, annual general meetings, regional conferences, and educational events such as the CPD Blitz sessions where attendees earn CPD points.
For each one we create the video assets that carry the branding through the broadcast, including graphics, slides, advertising loops and lower thirds, and we provide broadcast management alongside in-house video and audio support for the hybrid sessions.
How we work with the team
We report to the institute every week across all projects, with progress updates, asset delivery and performance measured against agreed KPIs. The reporting includes engagement metrics and user interaction data, so decisions about what to run next are based on what is actually working.
We also use AI tools where they improve the finished asset rather than replace the craft. In audio post production they clean recordings and improve tonal quality and resonance. In video and graphics they help us enhance imagery.
The result
Members backed the amalgamation with CPA Ireland. The campaign combined digital and social media marketing with a series of town hall meetings around the country, and it delivered the majority the leadership needed, on a deadline that could not move.
The institute records the student recruitment campaigns as its most successful to date, exceeding targets year on year.
Running events in person, online and in hybrid form has widened the institute’s reach, increasing attendance and participation among members who might not otherwise have been in the room. The relationship has run since the start of 2022 and continues today.