A joint effort between businesses in Ballina, the chamber of commerce, the town council, and the community has helped the town reap the rewards of €50,000 worth of free radio advertising.
Regional radio station i102-i104 ran a competition in recent weeks inviting towns in the west of Ireland to re-brand shop premises and streets with themes incorporating their own message and that of the i-radio station. The Ballina business and local community went all out to win the prize with posters, mannequins, slogans and all sorts of clever ideas used to highlight the i-theme through messages such as ‘i wake up with....’, ‘i talk with....’, etc ,added to advertising hoardings.
This weekend the town is celebrating winning €40,000 worth of advertising attributed to Pearse Street which was the outright winner of the i-street competition, and an additional €10,000 for the individual business winner in Ballina who was to be announced for the weekend.
The competition, which ran in association with Connacht Gold, was open to the seven counties from Mayo to Donegal in the west and northwest served by the radio station. According to Sara Parke of Ballina Chamber of Commerce people in the town worked really hard putting together unique concepts to suit the competition which has now been vindicated by their selection as winners.
The CEO of Ballina Chamber of Commerce said the win comes at an ideal time with the reopening of Pearse Street next week, and she congratulated all involved in the co-operative effort. “Everyone came on board because the town had suffered with the enhancement works which took a while to complete but now it’s open for business and bigger and better than every before. So the street now looks fantastic and we will have official opening in near future. Meanwhile we can work on some sort of strategy to market the town to the radio listenership involved.” Congratulations Ballina!
