Budweiser Dream Job Launches in Ireland

Kevin Dillon helps launch Budweiser Dream Job

Budweiser today announced details of their latest marketing campaign, Budweiser Dream Job. The new project offers Irish fans the opportunity to kick-start their dream career. Basically, Budweiser are offering someone a prize fund valued at €50,000. The Dream Job prize fund is made up from a €40,000 cash prize, a €5,000 equipment bursary and practical mentoring sessions with experts in the winner’s area of interest. 4 runner-up finalists will each receive an equipment bursary of €2,000.

Star of ‘Entourage’ Kevin Dillon was in Dublin to launch the project. Dillon explained, “Budweiser Dream Job is an amazing opportunity for someone in Ireland to kick-start the career they’ve always dreamed of. The reality is most people don’t get the chance due to lack of funds, support or encouragement. I say if you have a talent and you’re passionate, go for it!”

To get involved, members of the public over 18 years can apply for their Dream Job on the Budweiser Ireland Facebook page by uploading a creative CV from today until 9th August.

Budweiser Dream Job has some well-known judges from various backgrounds to help with the shortlisting of applicants, all of whom are inspiring figures who have been brave enough to follow their passions in life. Once the judges have narrowed it down to the best five applications, the public will decide on the overall winner that inspires them the most.

The judges include Dave Harris, a well-known music mogul in Ireland, is Marketing Director at Universal Music Ireland. He recently joined Rihanna on her famous 777 tour and is coined as the man responsible for singer Imelda May’s rise to fame. He also selects the music for RTE’s The Voice of Ireland.

Alongside Harris, Budweiser is excited to have successful fashion designer and business woman, Heidi Higgins. Heidi graduated from NCAD in 2008 and less than a year later she proudly introduced her own label to the Irish market. Heidi’s Spring/Summer 2013 Collection has taken to the rails of several exclusive boutiques across the country including leading department store, Brown Thomas. Two additional judges will be announced midway through the application period.

Speaking about the Dream Job campaign, Budweiser Senior Brand Manager, Colin Donnelly commented, “The winning applicant must convey real passion, belief and determination to succeed. Dream Job is part of Budweiser’s new campaign ‘Today Is The Day’, which is all about inspiring some of the hugely talented and passionate people living in Ireland today to fulfill their dreams.”

The Budweiser Dream Job campaign is supported by ATL, Digital, and PR. The campaign will use the twitter hash tag #DreamJob.

Budweiser Dream Job Promo

Adtruism - The End of Slacktivism

Adtruism 'End of Slacktivism' Promo Video

Today sees the launch of social-tech start-up Adtruism. The new service allows anyone with a website or blog to effortlessly raise money for a worthy cause without asking for donations. An Adtruism widget, once placed on the website, displays commercial advertisements and Adtruism (a non-profit) transfers 100% of the ad-revenue to the chosen charity.

Student founder Brian McCormick hacked together a demo site in May of last year and got a great response from the online community. Developing the website and software in his spare time while studying law at UCD, he delayed launching the scalable platform until he had completed his finals.

Adtruism is being supported by Social Entrepreneurs Ireland through their Awards program and will receive between €33,000 and €200,000 worth of funding and support this October. Adtruism also receives pro bono support from companies including KPMG and ZEDO.

Worthy causes currently supported include the Make a Wish Foundation, UNICEF, and Doctors without Borders. Our growing network of socially responsible advertisers includes 123.ie and Horizon, and Adtruism is currently being run by a team of student volunteers from UCD and Trinity.

Digital Masterplan for Dublin

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Naoise Ó Muirí, today launched the Digital Masterplan for Dublin with the Vice President of the European Commission Neelie Kroes. The Digital Masterplan is a roadmap for Ireland's Smart Economy and society.

Integral to the Masterplan is the development of the Digital Maturity Scorecard (DMS), an analytical tool to benchmark Dublin’s digital performance internationally. The Scorecard is a world first and was developed by Intel, Maynooth’s Innovation Value Institute and Dublin City University.

The Masterplan lays out 7 “Big Ticket” actions to be completed.

The first action is to provide a minimum of 100MB speed fibre broadband to every home in the Dublin region by Easter 2016. Fast, reliable and cost-competitive broadband infrastructure is critical to the development of Dublin as a smart city region and an ICT hub for Europe. The aim is that Fibre in the home should be as easy as buying shelves in your local DIY.

The second action is the development of a flagship Digital Accelerator District (DAD) programme. This programme aims to build on existing digital hotspots and initiatives in Dublin including Launchbox.ie; Dogpatch Labs and the Digital Hub amongst others.

The third action is to support improved ways of working between multi-nationals and indigenous SMEs. The Digital Masterplan outlines the need for indigenous SMEs to enter the supply chain of multi-national corporations in order to deliver a substantial expansion of eCommerce trading and digital business. This plan proposes to partner with the SME representative organisations (ISME, IIA, SFA, Chamber of Commerce) to develop a web based portal for Dublin based multi-nationals to auction packages of digital/innovation/R&D work to the local SME market.

The fourth action is an online ‘Dublin Storefront’ project. This will involve the activation and expansion of work already being undertaken by other organisations in developing an online presence and the use of digital systems by Irish business. There is a requirement to build on this work and create an eCommerce and digital adoption support platform targeting businesses in the non ICT sector such as food, hotels, construction and other small start-ups. This work will facilitate the development of a globally promoted digital ‘Created in Dublin’ brand.

The fifth action is to create a network of Digital Cities where ideas are generated and shared, involving a remodelling of the Citieslinked.com website and targeted at sister cities.

The sixth action is a commitment by Dublin City Council to make information in relation to all services ‘Available as Digital’.

The seventh action involves the commitment by Local and National Government to establish programmes to support the development of digital skills in communities, government organisations, young people and adults.

Commenting on the launch, the Lord Mayor said: “Spearheaded by Dublin City Council, the Digital Dublin Masterplan seeks to create a truly digital city – one which embraces technology and innovation as means to improving the way we live, work and enjoy Dublin. It challenges national and local government to put technology and innovation to the forefront of everything we do in Dublin.

He continued: “We, as citizens of Dublin, must work together to ensure the success of this plan, which will reap rewards for everyone in the city in terms of quality of life, business development and job creation. We want to see Dubliners becoming ‘DigiDubs’ - digitally active and engaged citizens - who will submit ideas to shape the digital future for the city of Dublin.”

AIB Unveils Dedicated Digital Banking Store

Launch of The Lab AIB at Dundrum Town Centre

AIB have opened Ireland’s first digital banking store, The Lab (Learn about banking). Opened in Dundrum Town Centre and launched by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Mr Pat Rabbitte, The Lab is an innovative learning environment designed to help customers to maximise their use of existing and emerging technologies in banking services. Through dedicated and specially trained staff, The Lab showcases the best in class digital banking. The Lab is open to the public seven days a week during the centre’s opening hours.

AIB’s Director of Personal, Business and Corporate Banking, Bernard Byrne said "The Lab is a live research centre where customers will have one-on-one support and advice when learning about, and becoming familiar with, new banking technologies. Our mobile and online banking offerings are market-leading, yet almost half our customers have yet to embrace digital banking. Based in Dundrum Town Centre which has an annual footfall of 19 million people, The Lab will be accessible to a huge consumer base to demonstrate the range of technologies that allow their best use of banking services. It will give current - and potential- customers an insight into the benefits of marrying technology with banking."

The Lab provides an environment where customers can experiment with, and be guided through, self-service banking platforms in four zones:
(a) A Product Browsing Zone with an interactive learning wall where visitors can browse through products and services and video booths where visitors can video call financial advisors seven days a week for advice on home mortgages and other products.
(b) The SME area with dedicated meeting rooms for customer and bank meetings and an area where customers can learn more about digitising their business beyond banking.
(c) The Innovation Zone where customers will have first access to trialing innovations in mobile and online banking.
(d) A Self Service Banking Zone with mobile and online demonstration installations. A social media wall will also sit in this area with live streams from Facebook and Twitter.

Importantly, from a customer and commercial standpoint a majority of day to day transactions banking services will also be available in the Lab.

Over the coming months, The Lab will be used by AIB to unveil the next phase of banking innovations including Person to Person payments, a Personal Financial Management tool, a new SME online proposition and alerting functionality to allow customers more control of their finances.

Sky Research Reveals Our Daily Digital Diet

The following research into consumer trends was conducted by Sky Ireland. It looks at when and how our digital consumption peaks on a daily basis.

Breakfast: Commuter Snacks
The research showed that during their commute:
· 81.8% of people use their tablet or smartphone
· 49.4% will check their social media sites up to three times
· 51% read the news online
· 46.5% play games
· 44.2% catch up on emails


Digital indigestion
However, patchy Wi-Fi and mobile connections were cited as major frustrations, interrupting commuters’ connectivity. To compensate, 55.5% download books or music in advance of their commute and now the recently launched Sky Go Extra app lets Sky customers download the latest blockbuster films from Sky Movies and TV content from channels such as Sky 1 and Sky Atlantic to watch when and where they want, without the need for a Wi-Fi or 3G/4G connection.


Dining Digitally At home
With recent Comreg figures showing that broadband penetration rates stand at over 65%, people still see the laptop as the main digital dinner plate. However, with ownership of tablets and smartphones set to reach 2.38 million by the end of 2013, we are set to consume online content in a more a la carte way.


Sky seeing strong uptake of its Apps
According to Sky Ireland’s own download figures, this digital diet trend has seen total iOS downloads of its most popular Apps reach over 1.2 million in Ireland, including:
· Sky Go App - 295,782 downloads
· Sky News App - 318,259 downloads
· Sky Sports News App - 144,798 downloads
· Sky+ App - 177,326 downloads


“We are seeing a massive change in our digital diet,” says Mark Anderson, Director of Sales & Marketing, Sky Ireland. “Our research and download figures combined show that Irish users are very discerning when it comes to consuming digital content on the move. More and more often users are using home broadband to download content to mobile devices for later consumption – it’s the digital equivalent to a home-packed lunch! With unlimited broadband now available nationwide from Sky, and increases in multi-device usage by consumers, we expect that our digital diet will feature more media meshing as time goes on.”

Electric Ireland: Powering Kindness Week

Electric Ireland Launch Charity Initiative Inspired by Kindness to Donate €100,000 to Charity

This Saturday sees the start of a week long campaign from Electric Ireland with the main objective to to generate good will around Ireland. Simply, for the week, people are being asked to do a kind deed. Like I said, simple.

Each kind deed is then logged and assigned to one of three charities. At the end of the week, Electric Ireland will convert these deeds into donations to the charities totaling €100,000. The three charities are: Special Olympics Ireland, Concern Worldwide and Focus Ireland.

You sign up and register your interest at www.poweringkindness.ie and then every deed that you log is passed onto friends, family or strangers and the kindness is shared. There is no limit to the number of good deeds you can do and the charities will benefit from every act of kindness completed during the week.

At the end of the week, the charity with the greatest number of good deeds done in their name will receive a donation from Electric Ireland for €50,000 with the other two charities receiving donations of €25,000.

Deeds can be as simple as making tea for your friend, giving up your seat to a stranger on the train, calling into a an elderly neighbour for a chat, topping up someone’s parking if you see the clampers patrolling, paying for coffee for the person behind you, offering an umbrella to someone being soaked by the rain, the list is endless.
Poweringkindness.ie will host all the details you need to know during the week, including:

• Some inspiration with a list of suggested good deeds
• Check out what good deeds have been logged to date, there may be some well-known faces taking part
• An update on how each charity is doing and how many deeds are assigned to them
• A deed tracker to show where deeds are travelling to – around Ireland, around the world and the route they are taking

The Electric Ireland Powering Kindness week will culminate in an announcement event that will take place on Friday November 23rd in the city centre. At this, the announcement of the charity with the largest amount of kind deeds done in their name will be made.

The campaign will be hosted primarily through www.poweringkindness.ie but you can get live updates through the Electric Ireland Facebook Page, Twitter Account (@electricireland) and following the #poweringkindness hashtag!

Smirnoff: Yours For The Making

Sarah-Jane Wai O’Flynn, lead singer of the Dirty Epics is pictured under the world’s largest free-hanging mirror ball to announce the Smirnoff “Yours for the Making” campaign.

Smirnoff's latest campaign, Yours for the Making, is a challenge to all their customers and fans, throughout Ireland, to make more of our free time by trying something new on nights out. To drive this, Smirnoff have brought together a collective of the most creative and innovative nightlife experts, including Dirty Epics front woman Sarah-Jane Wai O’Flynn, to uncover extraordinary nights.

To amplify the campaign and create real engagement and feedback, club promoters, night owls and partygoers are being called upon to fuel the search by tweeting their suggestions for new nights to @SmirnoffGB_IRE using #yoursforthemaking. Whether it's a silent disco or rubiks cube party, Smirnoff will reward the best submissions by turning suggestions into reality.

To celebrate the launch and to get people to make the most of the extra hour this weekend, Smirnoff has created a giant mirror ball suspended over London.  Sarah Jane Wai O’Flynn who attended the impromptu set by DJ Maya Jane Coles under the mirror ball, commented, “With an extra hour this weekend, it’s a great opportunity for people to get out and make the most of their night.  I am really excited to be involved in the Smirnoff Yours for the Making campaign in Ireland to find the next big thing in nightlife, I can’t wait to start seeing the ideas coming through and hopefully getting to see some of these ideas become a reality.”

The Smirnoff mirror ball is currently the World’s largest free-hanging mirror ball.

Situated in the centre of London, the giant Smirnoff mirror ball marks the clocks going back this weekend and calls on the 80% of Irish who plan to sleep for longer, to make the most of their extra hour. With over half the population likely to forget the clocks going back all together, the world’s largest mirror ball spinning is not just a bold reminder to set our clocks but also to feel inspired to try something new.

Electric Ireland’s Dublin Web Summit Treat

Meet The Speakers at Electric Ireland’s Tweet Café

Electric Ireland will, again, be bringing a unique coffee experience to the Dublin Web Summit. Powered by Twitter, Dublin Web Summit delegates will be able to enjoy a nice break from the talks and schmoozing by ordering simply by tweeting.

Following on from last year's extremely popular (and award winning!) addition to the summit, Electric Ireland’s Tweet Café will have lots of little doors with numbers corresponding to various coffee orders so you simply tweet the hashtag (#TweetCafe) with your order number. An electronic queuing system will then let you know when your order is ready and you simply head to the door and pick it up.

Beyond just the delicious coffee experience, the Tweet Café also provides delegates with an excellent opportunity to network with key speakers who will be available at the Tweet Café. Some of the speakers lined up include film director Barry Sonnenfeld, blogger Robert Scoble, Moshi Monsters’ Michael Acton-Smith and internet activist Wael Ghonim among others.

Speaking in advance of the two-day conference Margaret Colton, Head of Marketing, Electric Ireland said, “We’re really looking forward to this year’s Dublin Web Summit and are delighted to be powering innovation through the Electric Ireland Tweet Café. The response from delegates at last year’s summit was overwhelming and to make the experience even better this year we’ll be creating an incredible networking opportunity for delegates with some of the conference’s key speakers. The Dublin Web Summit is a wonderful gathering of creative and innovative minds and we’re thrilled to be a part of it.”

"The Tweet cafe is a real highlight of the summit, not only does it reward tweeters with a coffee but it is a great opportunity to meet our speakers. We're delighted to have Electric Ireland as a partner of Dublin Web Summit", said Paddy Cosgrave, founder of Dublin Web Summit

Another highlight of the Dublin Web Summit is the Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award, the winner of which will be announced at the Dublin Web Summit on October 18th 2012 with a prize fund worth €100,000. The competition, now in its third year, focuses on the most promising high potential startups. Nearly 1,000 entries have been shortlisted to 100, who will be offered an opportunity to pitch to leading international investors (Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Atomico, Accel and many others), industry leaders, startup experts at the Dublin Web Summit taking place at the RDS on the 17th and 18th of October.

For information on the year’s Dublin Web Summit taking place on 17th and 18th October and to book a place visit www.websummit.net.

Guinness: Arthur's Day

----- Press Release -----

Over 600 International and home grown artists perform across Ireland for Arthur's Day

Mumford & Sons, Tinie Tempah, Ellie Goulding, Example and more make Guinness 2012 Arthur's Day celebration the biggest yet

September 28th - Yesterday saw a record number of GUINNESS® lovers worldwide come together to celebrate Arthur’s Day 2012. Fans from 55 countries across the globe, spanning six time zones, raised a toast to the founder of the legendary stout, Arthur Guinness.

The global events kicked off on 27th September across Europe. Spanish festivities were led by the former lead singer of popular rock band Pereza as 1,200 GUINNESS fans raised a toast to Arthur. While in Germany and Italy, Revolverheld and Max Gazze continued the Arthur’s Day celebrations.

An hour later, GUINNESS lovers at Senate House in London were treated to an exclusive gig from music icon Tom Jones performing a one-off collaboration with R&B superstar Wretch 32. To top off the evening, a silent disco and an impressive light projection of the St James’ Gate brewery in Dublin allowed fans to feel like they were almost at the home of GUINNESS. GUINNESS lovers at Senate House in London were treated to an exclusive gig from music icon Tom Jones performing a one-off collaboration with R&B superstar Wretch 32. To top off the evening, a silent disco and an impressive light projection of the St James’ Gate brewery in Dublin allowed fans to feel like they were almost at the home of GUINNESS.

Simultaneously, surprise gigs from the likes of Mumford & Sons, Professor Green, Example, Fun Lovin’ Criminals and Fatboy Slim took place in pubs across Ireland giving fans a once in a lifetime opportunity to get up close to these renowned music stars for a truly remarkable evening.

Ellie Goulding shot a music video using audience participation at her Arthur’s Day TV Special in Cork’s Crane Lane while Mika did a unique performance of some of his songs with Dublin Gospel Choir.

Irish Highlights
·  Texas surprised locals with an early performance in Smyth’s Bar, Denmark Street, Limerick before heading for a late gig in a local pub in Galway city
·  The Coronas played a surprise gig in Geary’s Bar, Charleville, Co Cork
·  Mumford & Son’s performed to a packed Toner’s pub, Baggot Street, Dublin
·  Primal Scream turned up at The Silver Granite, Palmerstown, Dublin
·  Mika showed up at The Graduate, Dun Laoighaire, Dublin
·  Tinie Tempah played to a surprised audience in Whites Tavern, Belfast city
·  Fun Lovin’ Criminals turned up at Kazbar in Waterford City

Celebrations will continue in countries including Singapore, Malaysia and Australia over the next 24 hours with performances from Asian superstars such as Shin, Della Ding Dang and Paul Wong.

Example who performed at the celebrations in Dublin commented; “Well, what better way to come back to Arthur’s Day than with my mates P Money, AlunaGeorge and the boys from Rudimental in tow. I was excited to see where we would all be playing and loved meeting all you Guinness fans! Thanks for having me back Ireland.”

Fatboy Slim said, “27th September only means one thing…Arthur’s Day! I knew it was going to be a big day for Ireland and the fantastic Irish crowds didn’t disappoint. Thank you for having me!”.

Fun Lovin’ Criminals, commented “Wow THANK YOU Ireland. We put on a spectacular little show for those of you who were lucky enough to be in the right pub. To Arthur!”

Nearly €8 million has been donated to the Arthur Guinness Fund to date thanks to Arthur’s Day and other GUINNESS projects. Contributions were made on behalf of people who “checked-in” to Arthur’s Day events via Facebook, so that this year, the celebrations continued the philanthropic legacy of Arthur Guinness and were true to the long standing tradition of the brand, to support those who are in the business of doing good.

With the 2012 festivities celebrated in style across the globe and a record number of people raising a toast to Arthur Guinness, plans are already beginning to ensure Arthur’s Day 2013 provides yet another night to remember for all those involved.

Ellie Goulding said, "Wow – what an incredible experience Arthur's Day was… Cork you were unbelievable! It was a night full of surprises all across Ireland – a great way to bring the whole country together in celebration of one incredible man. To Arthur!"

Guinness: Arthur's Day - Paints The Town Black App

Fans To Reveal Arthur’s Day Message and Raise
Over €30,000 for Arthur Guinness Fund

I've posted a lot about Arthur's Day, and will probably post some more, but this is definitely one of my favourite things happening around Arthur's Day this year. Today the Guinness Storehouse launched a brand new Facebook application that allows fans to paint a pixel on a canvass in the digital world that will trigger the spray painting a huge canvass in the real world action in the Guinness Storehouse to reveal an Arthur’s Day message.

The app also helps raising funds for charities as, for each pixel painted, Guinness will donate €5 to the Arthur Guinness Fund, generating in excess of €30,000 for the fund on completion of the painting.

Each pixel correlates to an area on the canvass that is hanging on the 1st floor of Guinness Storehouse. With 6600 pixels to paint, it is estimated that the final image will be created by midday tomorrow (Wednesday 26th September).

According to Lisa Fitzsimons, Marketing Manager of the Guinness Storehouse, ‘We are delighted that we are able to involve thousands of people in the creation of the real-world canvass at Guinness Storehouse. Fans of Guinness and the Guinness Storehouse can play their part in the creation of this canvass while continuing Arthur Guinness’ philanthropic legacy and generating funds for the Arthur Guinness Fund  benefiting many worthwhile social entrepreneurs in Ireland.’

Visitors to the Guinness Storehouse can interact with the application through teams of staff with iPads to claim their pixel and fans throughout Ireland can do so through their Facebook profile. Those who wish to see the real-world reveal can witness it on the 1st floor of the Guinness Storehouse.

The ‘Paint The Town Black’ can be found on the Guinness Ireland Facebook page and was developed by Tribal DDB London. Matt Oxley, Head of Creative Technology, Tribal DDB, London, said ‘This is a truly innovative campaign that blends technology and creativity to bring to life a traditional medium in a modern way’.

Guinness: Arthur's Day - TV Specials

Stuart Kinch, Guinness Marketing Manager, Diageo Western Europe

Following on from last week's announcements, today Guinness announced details of eight more music events for Arthur's Day: Arthur’s Day TV Specials. These events will take place in Cork, Dublin and Belfast, and will be part of Guinness's bid to put live music into 500 pubs across Ireland. The Arthur’s Day TV Specials will be recorded for later broadcast, both in Ireland and around the world, to give people who couldn’t be there, the opportunity to experience Arthur’s Day.

These events will feature some amazing home grown and international talent such as Rudimental, Jessie Ware, Willy Moon, P Money, Aluna George, This Club, The Riptide Movement, The Original Rudeboys, The Minutes, Lilygreen And Maguire, Josh Osho, Jake Bugg, Smiler, Dream Mclean, The Milk and Dublin Gospel Choir. As well as surprise performances from some of the headline Arthur’s Day artists.

Speaking about his Arthur’s Day visit, Professor Green said; "Myself and a few mates are heading to Ireland on September 27th to host a unique night at a surprise location to celebrate Arthur's Day. Expect a special night of music and more! Here's to Arthur!"

To get hold of tickets to these events, fans just need to apply through the Guinness Facebook Page from Wednesday 19th September.
 
Arthur's Day Social Media:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Guinnessireland
Twitter: @GuinnessIreland
Hashtag: #ToArthur

Arthur’s day TV Specials -  Pub venues and acts
Dublin
Dakota:
·  Headline artist
·  Rudimental
·  P Money
·  The Original Rudeboys
·  Willy Moon
·  AlunaGeorge

Market Bar:
·  Headline artist
·  Lilygreen & Maguire
·  Josh Osho
·  Dublin Gospel Choir

Grand Social:
·  Headline artist
·  Kassidy
·  The Minutes
·  Jake Bugg

Whelan's:
·  Headline artist
·  Leaders of Men
·  Jake Bugg

Cork
Crane Lane Theatre:
·  Headline artist
·  This Club
·  The Riptide Movement
·  Hudson Taylor

The Old Oak:
·  Headline artist
·  Funeral Suits
·  This Club

Belfast
Lavery's:
·  Headline artist
·  Dream Mclean
·  Smiler
·  The Milk

Botanic Inn:
·  Headline artist
·  The Milk
·  The Wonder Villains
·  Jessie Ware


Confirmed Headline Artists
·  Amy Macdonald
·  Ellie Goulding
·  Example
·  Fatboy Slim
·  Fun Lovin’ Criminals
·  Mika
·  Mumford & Sons
·  Primal Scream
·  Professor Green
·  Texas
·  Tinie Tempah


500 Arthur’s Day Music Events
A selection of artists performing at the 500 music events include;
·  Delorentos
·  Royseven
·  Key West
·  Little Green Cars
·  Picturehouse
·  We Cut Corners
·  The Shoos
·  Jerry Fish
·  The Hot Sprockets
·  Mundy
·  Walking on Cars
·  Dove
·  The Vals
·  The Rapparee
·  The Bonnevilles
·  The Heads of State
·  Ard Ri
·  Midnight Graffiti
·  Fiddlers Green
·  Ruaile Buaile
·  Willie Byrne
·  Gentry Morris
·  The Muldoons
·  Shane Butler
·  Jaker
·  Hush Warley
·  Ghost Estates

A full list of 500 Arthur’s Day music events taking place in pubs across all 32 counties is available on Guinness.com.

Irish Tweets To Boldy Go

As a celebration of Robert Boyle and to promote the availability of EU funding for Irish Scientists, this week saw the launch of talktoEU.ie's #TWEETSINSPACE campaign. The campaign involves a balloon, Junior Cert Physics and tweets from Irish people.

talktoEU.ie, the public information initiative funded by the European Commission, is tasked with highlighting the significant funding currently available to Irish scientists through EU programmes. #TWEETSINSPACE is designed to communicate this to young Irish people through discussing the benefits of EU funding in science, innovation, and research.

Of course the campaign also celebrates Robert Boyle, who is one of Ireland’s most well known scientists, by demonstrating the impact he has made on the scientific world and testing the limits of Boyle's world famous law.

European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said: "The European Union needs a million more researchers by 2020 if we want to stay ahead of the game in research and tackle major issues like climate change and food shortages. EU funding is supporting many young scientists to further their careers and really make a difference."

The weather balloon that will travel to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere will have Boyle’s face printed on it and will be filmed as it expands until it eventually bursts, as Boyle's Law predicts. The experiment will also display a number of tweets from the public when it reaches the edge of space via a screen attached to the balloon, making them the highest tweets ever sent in Ireland.

When the balloon bursts, the talktoEU team, using GPS, will then attempt to locate the balloon payload and recover the HD video footage showing the experiment in action. Anybody interested in the process can follow the #TWEETSINSPACE live blog that charts the research behind the launch, as well how it is being constructed and the predicted flight path of the balloon here : talktoeu.ie/tweetsinspace

Weather permitting, the balloon and it's payload will launch on September 10th.

To find out more about this event, and have your tweet displayed, send your tweet to #tweetsinspace or visit talktoeu.ie.

Guinness: Example's Arthur's Day 2012 Challenge

As I mentioned in my previous post, Example will be one of this year's Arthur's Day artists. So ahead of his surprise performance in one of the 500 'Vote For Your Local' pubs on Arthur’s Day, Example created this exclusive video in response to the challenge to name the 500 Arthur’s Day pubs in the time it takes to pour a pint of Guinness...

Guinness: Arthur's Day 2012 TV Ad

To promote Arthur's Day 2012, Guinness today launched a new global TV ad. The new creative entitled ‘Paint The Town Black’ made its global TV premiere in Ireland today during the half-time break of the All-Ireland Hurling Championship Semi-Final on RTÉ Two.

Paint The Town Black, created by Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by Daniel Wolfe, is set around a sleepy little village as it prepares for an extraordinary celebration. The ad follows the towns people as they come together and begin to paint everything with a black distinctive liquid, before raising a pint to Arthur Guinness.

Guinness Marketing Manager, Stuart Kinch said: “We wanted to create an advert that brought to life the remarkable spirit of Arthur’s Day and encouraged people from around the world to be a part of the annual celebrations by raising a toast to the man behind our iconic pint, Arthur Guinness.”

Kate Stanners, Creative Partner, Saatchi & Saatchi said: “To paint the town is all about celebration. Instead of red, we painted it black in celebration of the black stuff and Arthur Guinness, the man behind the pint. We wanted to depict a tradition that has been going on for years, one where the whole town, gets together. We wanted to elicit the response of "I want to be there', and I think we have done that.”

The ad was shot in and around the Transylvania area of Romania over a period of 4 days, using more than 350 local people and 2,000 kilos of a specially made black liquid consisting of alimentar glucose mixed with water and black glucose

The ATL campaign will also include digital, outdoor and print executions of the creative theme, 'Paint The Town Black'.

For more information on Arthur’s Day please visit the Guinness Ireland Facebook page or Guinness Ireland website.


Soundtrack information
Title: Asfalt Tango
Artist: Fanfare Ciocarlia
Composed and arranged by Adrian Sical
Published by Piranha Musik / Administered in the UK & Ireland by Carthage Music Ltd
From the album "Baro Biao" (Piranha Musik – CDPIR1364)

Ad Credits
Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Executive Creative Director: Kate Stanners, Paul Silburn
Copywriter: Gavin Torrance
Art Director: Danny Hunt
Director: Daniel Wolfe

Electric Ireland Tweethunt

Next Tuesday, 14th August, Electric Ireland will announce their activity for Electric Picnic 2012. The announcement will include news about a very special guest. Building on their success from last year’s Tweethunt, Electric Ireland have decided to again give fans the chance to win tickets to Electric Picnic.

Starting Monday 13th and running until Friday 17th August, one fan each day will win four tickets to Electric Picnic – that’s five days, five winners and four tickets each!

Again the competition will be run through the Electric Ireland Facebook page using a custom app. First, however, fans have to tweet the Share the Energy hashtag (#SharetheEnergy). Then live on the Tweethunt map on the Electric Ireland Facebook competition app the location of the daily codeword location will start to be to revealed. This works through a map display. The more times #SharetheEnergy is tweeted, the closer the map zooms in on the daily codeword location.

Participants then need to make their way to the actual location where the codeword will be revealed on anything or anyone. Once it is spotted it just needs to be sent, via a Twitter DM, to @ElectricIreland. The first person to do so wins the four Electric Picnic Tickets.

I'll have more info on Tuesday so stay tuned.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the ISPCC's new hard hitting new campaign to combat the emotional abuse of children. Well, the next stage of the campaign is on the way and I think this is going to be something really special.

The campaign is centred around the notion that children believe what they are told, and the terrifying fact that emotional abuse shatters childhoods. In the gallery we have installed a sheet of glass on which is written one of the most resonant phrases of the campaign; ‘You stupid little bitch.’

The ISPCC's 'Break the Glass' installation and event in The Copper House Gallery will see a very large sheet of glass illustrating the campaign's message placed within Barry McCall's Pho20graphy exhibition, which is also supporting the ISPCC. Artist James Earley will be responsible for the artwork.

Members of the public are being asked to support the campaign too by tweeting #ispcc. Through a tweet counter counting down from one thousand to zero that is attached to the glass, the installation will come to life and the glass will shatter, revealing a message of hope behind the glass. This will all happen at a special event hosted this Friday (8th of June). The whole thing will also be filmed and captured in slow motion using a special high speed camera.

Be sure to check it out - this is a really cool campaign IMHO.

View the live feed here: http://www.ispcc.ie/art-installation/1791

Planning, Creativity & Planning For Creative Campaigns

A really great presentation given by Heidi Hackemer for the Account Planning Group.

hat tip to Neil Perkin for sharing this :)

Three Expands Free Bitbuzz Wi-Fi To All Smartphones

Pippa O’Connor revealing Ireland’s biggest Wi-Fi hotspots this spring

Today, Three announced that they will be expanding their partnership with Bitbuzz to provide free Wi-Fi to all their Smartphone customers. Since July 2010, all Three’s iPhone customers have been able to avail of free Wi-Fi through Bitbuzz, but today's news means that Three’s Android users can also avail of Bitbuzz Wi-Fi. The agreement marks the most significant data offload deal to-date in Ireland.

Elaine Carey, Sales and Marketing Director at Three commented: “Three are delighted to expand our partnership with Bitbuzz, offering free Wi-Fi connectivity to all our smartphone customers. Three is committed to leading the smartphone marketplace forward and see this enhanced offering as not only offering our customers more choice but also continuing to deliver on this promise.”

“Following our success with the initial offering for iPhones, we are confident that the demand for free Wi-Fi will increase with our expansion across Three’s other smartphone customers,” said Shane Deasy, Managing Director, Bitbuzz. “It is very clear that Three has a real belief in Wi-Fi, and this agreement underscores that. It is also a fact that handhelds are a significant force in the explosion in demand for Wi-Fi.”

The partnership, which features hotspots nationwide, including all Three’s thirty retail stores, is open to both Three prepay and bill pay customers. This also means that on top of Three’s iPhone Bitbuzz Wi-Fi App, Three will now also offer a Bitbuzz App in the Android Marketplace. Both these developments represent a significant strengthening of the strategic partnership between Three Ireland and Bitbuzz.

Click here for a full list of Bitbuzz hotspots in the Republic of Ireland.

Ballygowan Launches 'Drink It In' Campaign

Ballygowan has just launched a brand new campaign, "Drink It In", celebrating the brand's new look and design and driving uptake within the 20 to 30 year old market. The campaign not only features a TV ad, but also utilises radio, PR and social media.

Speaking today at the official launch of the new campaign, Head of Marketing for Ballygowan, Leonie Doyle said “Water boasts so many benefits to both body and mind that help you to feel your best inside and out, and we wanted to celebrate this power and brilliance with a whole new look for Ballygowan, encouraging the nation to drink it in."

She continued: “Our ‘Drink It In’ campaign brings this celebration to life. We wanted to create something that would resonate with our target consumer and the result is a really uplifting, positive and engaging production that we are really excited about sharing. It shows water doing some amazing things and people having fun with it.”

Meeting House Square in Dublin’s Temple Bar was selected as the location for the ad for its fresh new look, offering an undeniably Irish contemporary backdrop. The advert dives into the everyday lives of modern Irish people who have been delighted and captivated by the power and brilliance of water using an innovative water display mechanism called “Aquagraphics”. The technology creates aqua visuals which tell the story of Ballygowan’s journey from rainclouds to the bottle.

Speaking about the making of the ad, Director, Gavin Kelly of Piranha Bar said “Ballygowan set us an exciting challenge and we are thrilled with how the piece has come together. We searched for something that would allow us to use water in an impactful way and decided to let water do the talking. Using Aquagraphics are telling the powerful story of a great Irish brand – the clouds coming in from the Atlantic, filtering through limestone for centuries and flowing into Ballygowan, the pure mineral water as we find it today. The end result is an outdoor water spectacle that celebrates both Ballygowan and water itself, and is the centrepiece of the ad that we believe will draw viewers in.”

The chosen track to accompany the ad titled “Outdoors” by up-and-coming County Down band Kowalski, was selected for its “sense of vibrancy and flow that works in perfect harmony with the movement and energy of the water”.

The Ballygowan campaign was developed by Irish advertising agency Cawley Nea TBWA and post produced by Piranha Bar, a Dublin based Creative Content Studio and Production Facility.

“Drink It In” will air on television screens for the first time tomorrow, Thursday, 12th April 2012.

For more details and behind the scenes footage log onto Facebook.com/BallygowanIrishWater.


Making of the ad FACTS:

• It was filmed over a 15 hour shoot day. It required two days transcoding, 4 days editing and several days compositing and grading, together with several days animation time also.
• It is a sophisticated blend of high end digital film with green screen compositing, computer generated assets, relighting tools and skilled retouching.
• The final look of the film is created with Lustre - a film grading tool regularly used on blockbuster films like Lord of the Rings and King Kong!
• The ad would not have worked using CGI along - which augmented the real thing, so when people get wet in the ad – they really do get wet!
• The Aquagraphics installation consists of two layers made up of 380 separate nozzles per metre (the main screen was 9 metres long!) which are linked to a computer which then triggers the action of the nozzles by scanning the lines of a computer image. The nozzles trigger on and off in a fraction of a second, creating 'water pixels' which cascade downwards in the pattern of the original image.
• The Aquagraphic screen recycles all of the water it uses from a small reservoir making it completely sustainable.

The Interest Graph

A great piece here from Gary Vaynerchuk discussing the explosion of Pinterest, something Gary predicted at the start of the year. While Facebook may be king of the Social Graph, Gary sets out his belief on how Pinterest, and indeed Tumblr, are both offering users interest driven experiences. Well worth a watch...