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20th December 2016
12:18am GMT
Aaron Goodlife is the Creative Director at Full Service agency Simply Zesty. His role involves creating engaging ATL, digital and social campaigns for their clients. He's developed creative campaigns, TVC's, social strategies and online content for some of the biggest Irish and global brands. These include Bank of Ireland, Chevrolet, Full Tilt Poker, Failte Ireland, Vodafone Ireland, Britvic, News International, Betfair and Littlewoods Ireland. With an extensive background in video, he's had success with a number of "virals", as well as collecting several awards for video campaigns. So we caught up with Aaron to find out what he's been up to and his thoughts on the creative industry in Ireland.
Its always good to see a real impact from the work you produce
We've recently completed a global rebrand of poker and casino brand, Full Tilt. It was a massive undertaking, with multiple TVC's across several markets, Digital and OOH campaigns, as well as creating thousands of assets for all of their future comms. It was a huge undertaking but we're very happy with how they turned out.
We also just completed a Christmas campaign for retail outlet Kildare Village, with spots running online, in cinemas and on radio. Our campaign last year was a huge success and this year, the village has already seen an increase in footfall. Its always good to see a real impact from the work you produce.
As a side project, I'm working on a series of two minute shorts films under the moniker "Gusto". I've just completed the first film, which will be released on Valentines Day and currently in pre-production on the second. Always busy!
The constant exposure to adverts from America and the UK has really driven Irish brands to be more adventurous
I work in the office 90% of the time but when I'm brainstorming with the team and need a change of scenery, my favourite spots are Ely Bar in Grand Canal, Il Valentino and 3FE. Anywhere that's not too loud, has good coffee and preferably without Wi fi. Too distracting.
The emergence of digital, the reduced production costs and the constant exposure to adverts from America and the UK has really driven Irish brands to be more adventurous and in turn, allowed the quality of work to greatly improve.
Irish audiences have come to expect quality advertising and with media shifting year on year towards digital, it's crucial for brands to be as engaging as possible and to accommodate for every platform. Increasingly, we are seeing a decline in brands just retrofitting TVC's for online viewing.
Brand advocates are rewarded with exclusive content on specific channels, the mechanics of platforms are being used to dictate the creative approach. The insights and propositions remain the same, but these factors are allowing campaigns to transcend just a TV or radio spot.
Some of the best campaigns I've seen recently have utilised the sponsorship model and engaged consumers with quality content they actually want to see. Brands like Electric Ireland, Toyota Ireland and Vodafone Ireland are doing this well. While this quote from Craig Davis references a shift in advertising in general, it definitely applies to this approach: "We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in & be what people are interested in".
I'm iPhone for years now, had a very sad few months using a Nokia Lumia but will never be making that mistake again. Currently on the 5s and not really too pushed on upgrading to the 6, I like my phones as small as possible. I walk to work, so I never need a big screen to read long articles on my commute. I prefer my iPad retina for that.
Also have a Mac book Pro 15", an iMac in the office and just indulged myself with a PS4. I've also got a pair of Beats headphones that I bought years ago, have barely worn and am desperate to flog. If you would like to buy them, DM me!
In terms of apps, the most used on my phone are Spotify, Snapchat, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram. Recently deleted Facebook off my phone (but kept messenger), as the constant notifications were getting extremely annoying.
