Boys + Girls’ Margaret Gilsenan and Bonfire’s Seán Hynes Appointed to IAPI Board

At the IAPI AGM on 29th November, congratulations were extended to Seán Hynes (Bonfire) and Margaret Gilsenan (Boys + Girls) on their successful election to join the IAPI Board.

Margaret Gilsenan has more than 25 years’ experience in planning. She was board planning director in McConnells Advertising until 2009, when she and five others set up Boys and Girls, building the agency business, client base and people from scratch. In that time, the agency has gone from strength to strength, built around a strong strategic and creative ethos.

Over the years Margaret has worked on some of the biggest accounts in the country winning numerous creative and effectiveness awards. Margaret has been on the Board of the Marketing Society, Plan International Ireland and worked until last year on the Peter McVerry Trust Wexford Cycle. She also guest lectured at DIT, UCD and the Smurfit Business School.

Margaret is looking forward to what she can contribute as an IAPI board member. “My years of experience, both as a planner and agency owner, give me a unique view of the industry which I feel could really benefit the IAPI organisation. I am a firm believer in giving back and supporting the industry, especially up and coming talent, and the IAPI Board gives me the chance to do that.” 

Margaret also feels that planning has been an underrepresented group within the industry and that she could make a significant contribution to this as an IAPI board member. “Planning is 50 in 2018, and the data landscape has completely changed. For Irish agencies to deliver world class work, it is important that our strategic thinking and training is fit for purpose in the new world. This excellence won’t be achieved without a planning/strategic focus in IAPI."

In a packed career to date, Seán Hynes has moved seamlessly from junior art director to creative director to agency owner, producing campaigns for many of Ireland’s blue-chip accounts along the way. In fact, if Seán had been sentenced to ‘life’ in advertising, he would have been out by now.

Seán also has a passion for design and has created brand identities and the visual language for numerous Irish brands and his work is award-winning both here at home and internationally.

Seán Hynes praised IAPI’s work to date in showcasing the best of our industry and demonstrating how advertising plays a vital role in contributing to the success of business in general.

Seán comments: “I’d love to help continue with this work and drive even further the conviction that great ideas have great worth and contribute definitively to the bottom line.

"I believe there is a real appetite within marketing departments today for ideas that are different, highly creative and effective. So, as an industry, we should be doing everything we can to supply them with ammunition to convince those further up the decision-making process that our ideas are worth investing in and believing in.

"There’s no shortage of great examples, both at home and abroad, of this in practise and I’d like to do my best to bring many of these convincing examples to the attention of decision makers and influencers in our client companies.

"Everything we do as an industry begins with ideas, whether that’s clever strategic thinking, clever planning, clever ways to communicate or clever ways to engage. I plan to dedicate my time and energy towards ensuring that this thinking is valued as highly as it should be.”

The new board members join the existing IAPI board of Jimmy Murphy - IAPI President (Publicis), Garret O’Beirne - IAPI Vice President (Omnicom Media Group), Charlotte Barker (Dynamo), Arthur Byrne (Core), Fiona Field (Mediaworks), Gemma Gilmore (Spark Foundry), Mark Nutley, John Mathews (In the Company of Huskies) and Ray Sheerin (Chemistry).

IAPI extends its sincerest gratitude to outgoing Council members Emma O’Doherty (Mindshare) and Patrick McConville (Wondr) for their dedication to IAPI and valued contribution to the board over the past few years.