Irish Water's €100,000 price tag for rebrand
The national water body has spent €100,000 so far on advertising, logo and web design to support its change to Uisce Éireann, a Freedom of Information request reveals.
A rebrand from Irish Water to Uisce Éireann has cost the water authority a total of €94,000 ex VAT in advertising, logo redesign and website upgrade so far, returns from a Freedom of Information request by Tripe + Drisheen have revealed.
Since January, Irish Water has been known by its Irish name, Uisce Éireann, and has been the body with sole responsibility for public water systems.
But the price tag of converting to its Irish language version has included €64,030 for an advertising campaign in print publications as well as on radio stations and social media. Publicis, an advertising agency, were paid €7,492 and OMD, a media planning agency, were paid €56,460 for this work.
Other costs include:
€7,200 to a digital design agency
€22,800 for “work on new brand identity and logo for Uisce Éireann”
Uisce Éireann could not confirm that this would be the sum total of costs associated with the rebrand, but a representative told Tripe + Drisheen that they will “continue to engage with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to ensure any future costs associated with the name change are kept to a minimum.”
Earlier, last summer, during consultations on the practicalities of the name change, an advisor wrote that
“Although the use of Irish names is to be welcomed, practical considerations mean that translation into English is required for those sections of society who may not otherwise understand who a body is, or its purpose. This is particularly so for a national authority for water services, whose remit extends nationally and to many customers who may not have grown up in Ireland, and will not speak Irish. This could impact on customer care and service delivery.”
“As an example, our Welsh equivalent, Dwr Cymru, also has “Welsh Water” in its logo. The use of language that differs from that in section 9D also creates ambiguity as to what we can and cannot do e.g. if our name is “only” Uisce Eireann, does that mean we can no longer use our water.ie website? The equivalent Irish domain, uisce.ie, is not available for use.”
The move to an Irish name was included in the government’s Framework for Future Delivery of Water Services published last June.
As Tripe + Drisheen has reported, not all local authority water staff are happy to move from council employment to working for Uisce Éireann, and some also say that the framework agreement is “laying the groundwork for privatisation”:
Tripe + Drisheen has also reported that both Cork city and county councillors have raised concerns in recent months about the water body’s transparency, communications and the rate at which they are upgrading water schemes in towns and villages across Cork city and county:
What a pack of lucsheadáiníns