Month: April 2025

Irish Pro Share Association

Post author By adam@ofmm.ie
Post date 25/04/2025
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As part of our longterm relationship with the Irish ProShare Association (IPSA), 4TC highlighted an issue that is of significant importance to Ireland’s business, banking and political communities.
It followed Ulster Bank’s decision to withdraw from the Irish market, which put at risk the future of one of Ireland’s most popular employee share schemes.

Save As You Earn (SAYE) is a Revenue-backed share scheme that has financially benefitted tens of thousands of ordinary Irish workers by letting them save salary in a tax efficient manner to buy shares in the companies they work for. However, only Ulster Bank accepted SAYE savings accounts and when it left Ireland, SAYE would be rendered non-viable unless another lender stepped in.

The loss of SAYE would have been a major blow to many Irish companies and IPSA, which advocates for increased employee share ownership in Irish business, wants the Government to safeguard SAYE.

4TC worked with IPSA to bring this important issue to the business community, legislators and general public alike. We distilled the technical complexities of SAYE and the legislation around it to create and communicate a clear and accessible story, before approaching specific media and preparing our client for interview.
The outcome was coverage which communicated the parlous situation and the raising of awareness in government and the financial services sector about what was at stake.

In 2024, it was announced that AIB would enter the market as a savings carrier for SAYE.

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Adoption Authority of Ireland

Post author By adam@ofmm.ie
Post date 25/04/2025
No Comments on Adoption Authority of Ireland

The Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) engaged 4TC to develop a public relations strategy and activity to accompany the enactment of the Birth Information and Tracing Act, and the rollout of services under this landmark legislation.

Our consultants worked closely with the CEO and senior members of the AAI team, delivering a broad range of services over a six-month period that included communication strategy, messaging, story development, content generation, national and international media relations, media training, issues management, and stakeholder relations with relevant government departments and organisations.

The Birth Information and Tracing Act provided, for the first time, a full and clear right of access to birth certificates, birth and early life information for all persons who were adopted, boarded out, the subject of an illegal birth registration, or who otherwise have questions in relation to their origins.

By telling the story of how the AAI could now provide individuals with information about their past – and help reunite them with their genetic family members – 4TC and the AAI were able to secure considerable engagement among the general public and the media in Ireland and abroad, and play an important role in ensuring the success of the AAI’s public information campaign.

Within three months of the enactment of the Birth Information and Tracing Act, more than 2,000 adopted persons, birth parents, and other relatives had registered with the AAI to state their preferences about making contact with birth relatives.

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Spry Finance

Specialist later life lender Spry Finance was launching two exciting new equity release products on the Irish market.

Spry’s core Lifetime Mortgage product enables homeowners aged over 60 to release value in their home without relinquishing ownership, selling up or moving out. The new products – the Second Home Lifetime Loan and Buy-To-Let Lifetime Loan – provide increased financial choice for older people extend this concept to property assets other than the borrower’s primary residence.

4TC has been providing communication services to Spry since 2022 – delivering on key objectives including raising awareness of the company and its products, increasing understanding of the reasons why older people choose equity release products, building trust with consumers, and enhancing the Spry’s reputation as a champion of later life.

Key audiences for the launch of Spry’s new products were the media, personal finance professionals, and consumers.

4TC’s consultants developed messaging around the new products, created a suite of written and video content for Spry’s digital communication channels and those of the company’s mortgage broker partners, prepped Spry executives for media interviews, and engaged in extensive media relations to ensure the story gained traction across national and regional media outlets.

The successful execution of the strategy resulted in extensive digital, print, and broadcast media coverage – including radio and podcast interviews – elevated awareness of the new products among consumers, greater buy-in from personal finance professionals for Spry products, and improved understanding of the equity release sector in Ireland and the reasons why an increasing number of older people are choosing Spry products.

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National Dairy Council

The National Dairy Council, the Irish farmer-funded marketing organisation working on behalf of Ireland’s 17,000 family-run dairy farms, briefed 4TC on its goal of bringing the consumer closer to the farmer.

While as many as 71% of people trust farmers to care for the environment, they don’t know what Ireland’s dairy industry is doing to reduce its carbon footprint and they don’t understand the threats and challenges it faces.

The task was to establish a voice for the NDC in the ‘contested space’ – that’s the earned media space, where your presence is dependent on the story you have to tell and your ability to make it interesting and relevant.

4TC recommended upping the issues content of the NDC’s communication, focusing on the nutritional, social, economic and environmental initiatives which make Irish dairy farming sustainable.

Ongoing activity – including consumer research, messaging and positioning, media relations and executive media training – positions the NDC as an industry voice with something to say and a willingness to lead the conversation.

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Echelon Data Centres

4TC has been meeting the communication requirements of large-scale data centre provider Echelon on an ongoing basis since the company launched in 2019.

Echelon had become one of the leading data centre developers in Ireland and the UK when, in 2024, leading global private equity investment firm Starwood Capital Group acquired a 50% stake in the company.

The €850m transaction was one of the largest M&A deals in Ireland that year. It assigned an enterpise value of approximately €2.5bn to Echelon, provided the company with material capital for its continued growth, and primed it for accelerated growth through a new €900m debt facility.

This was one of the largest M&A deals in Ireland in 2024, and 4TC worked with Echelon’s senior executives and representatives of Starwood Capital to ensure this story was told in a controlled manner which met the requirements of both parties and leveraged the news value of the deal to enhance Echelon’s burgeoning reputation in relevant media both in Ireland and internationally.

4TC continues to provide communication services to Echelon in areas including media relations, content development, issues management, internal communication, and public affairs.

Sample Coverage

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