Inside the Jury Room: The Deliberations Behind Ireland's 3 Immortal Finalists

As The Immortal Awards 2025 continues its tour of the world's creative capitals, the Irish jury met in Dublin to select the market’s Finalists on Tuesday October 21st.

Held in partnership with The Brill Building, Rubberduck and Screen Scene, the day brought together a diverse jury packed full of brand, agency and craft talent. It was the jury’s task to decide which projects, if any, were to receive Irish Finalist status and qualify for the regional European round of judging.

This year’s Irish jury was made up of Jenni Barry Duke, founder, Rubberduck; Jonathan Bates, creative director, Catapult; Carina Caye, creative director, Droga5 Dublin; Peter Dobbyn, creative director, Publicis Dublin; Rosalind Healy, global marketing and innovation director, Diageo (Guinness); Louise Hegarty, business director, TBWA Ireland; Roisin Keown, CEO, The Brill Building; Hubert Montag, COO, Screen Scene; and Eimear O'Sullivan, head of design, The Public House.

The session featured a shortlist of 13 projects, which had scored highest in the initial round of online judging, and were discussed and debated by the jury.

Ultimately, three projects were identified and championed as the best of Irish commercial creativity from the past year.

Watch some of the jurors reflect on their experience here:

And here's what the jurors thought was particularly compelling about the Ireland Finalists.

Concern Worldwide - It's Our Concern
(Entered by Droga5 Dublin)

Eimear O'Sullivan, head of design, The Public House

I've liked Concern from the very beginning. The craft that went into that was was excellent, how it was produced. It was really hard hitting, and felt kind of not what you'd expect in that category, and something I haven't seen before. That was really beautiful. A little bit more restraint and a little quieter than maybe some of the others, but I love that you don't have to be loud to be immortal.

Hubert Montag, COO, Screen Scene

Concern is a beautiful piece of work. Coming from post production [I can see that it] is a beautifully made, beautifully edited piece of work. The research and the effort that went into choosing those pieces of footage - I can very much respect that that was a very well put together piece of work. So that's in my wheelhouse. I understood that one very clearly, it's craft that took some time. It's not just random old footage. It's working really beautifully, so well considered. And, of course with what's going on at the moment, it's so important, and it's been so important in Ireland - a remarkable movement around the disaster in Gaza.

Heineken - Pub Succession
(Entered by Publicis Dublin and LePub Milan)

Roisin Keown, CEO, The Brill Building

Heineken ‘Pub Succession’ is an Immortal Finalist this year, and very deservedly so. It's very rare to see a piece of work from Ireland, about Ireland, travel so far in both the world's creative community and around the world as PR. We have a certain amount of arrogance in Ireland that we think all of our stories are amazing, and everyone loves us, and Ireland is going through a little bit of a cultural renaissance at the moment. But whenever I've sat in international jury rooms, often Irish stories don't travel the way you think they might. So I think it's a testimony to the power of the simplicity of the idea, the appeal of the idea, really bringing back the mythology of the Irish pub in a worldwide standing. And for Heineken to do that when pubs are challenged, it's a very important piece of work, and a powerful piece of work. I am delighted to see]the creatives behind it and Irish creativity lifted in that way. It lifts the whole industry. When we see global careers made from Ireland, I get very emotional about it. I'm really glad to see it.

Lidl Ireland - You Look a Lidl Like Paul
(Entered by Droga5 Dublin)

Rosalind Healy, global marketing and innovation director, Diageo (Guinness)

The one that was just slam dunk to me from the moment I saw it in the wild was 'You Look a Lidl Like Paul'. What I adore about that is just how how timely it was, how they did the thing that they really had to do. They put the thing into culture, and saw how reaction and real consumer and cultural response built around it, and then they came in with the brand story. And so I thought that was incredibly well done. They went all the way. They fully committed to the idea. It had the brand, the product truth woven all the way through it - super funny. And they just absolutely backed themselves, committed; it went all the way. And I just think that will make me smile for many years to come. I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

Eimear O'Sullivan, head of design, The Public House

I loved the Lidl one because it was small budget, really low-fi, wasn't super slick. It felt totally on brand, really unique, and and everything about it was cohesive. From the actual idea, which is really responsive, to the case study, which was not overly produced, and the overall craft, it all just fitted together and felt completely on brand for Lidl.

Jonathan Bates, creative director, Catapult

Such a clever idea. There's a strong affinity with the audience. I think there's a youth culture that comes into that, that gained it enormous traction very quickly, made headline news. You can tell the budget was incredibly small, but what it really goes to show all creatives in the whole wide world is that budgets don't don't mean recognition, don't mean KPIs aren't hit. It's not about budget. I think we can often get side-tracked by that. It really rose to the top. I thought it was funny. It was on brand. It captured the imagination of popular culture. And you could tell by the results that it drove real traction in the in the market. 

The three projects went up against the six German and eight UK Finalists, plus the best work from the rest of the region, at the European round of judging on Thursday, October 23rd. They were competing for a place in the final, global round of judging and ultimately a chance at winning an Immortal Award or Commendation.

The rest of the work that made it to The Immortal Awards 2025 Ireland Shortlist but didn’t make it through to the next round included:

Brand - Project (Entrant Company)

• Allianz - Dead Flower Shop (Forsman and Bodenfors Dublin)
  
• Allianz - Real Life (Banjoman)
  
• Deep RiverRock - That's Better (TBWA Ireland)
  
• EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum - Dear Erin - This Is Not Us (The Public House)
  
• Guinness - Glassphemy (VML UK)
  
• Guinness - Guinness FanFair (Catapult)
  
• National Museum of Ireland - The Mincéirí Archives (TBWA Dublin)
  
• Road Safety Authority - Drink Driving (Forsman and Bodenfors Dublin)
  
• SPAR - SPAR Breast Before Dates (Publicis Dublin)
  
• The Marie Keating Foundation - Pay Attention to Your Pee (Boys+Girls)