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

Captain Morgan Kicks Off The Party Season

Captain Morgan Switches On Christmas lights On Board Jeanie Johnston

Last Night, Captain Morgan commandeered and lighted up an Irish ship, the Jeanie Johnston on Dublin’s north quays, to officially kicks off party season in Ireland. The party lights decorating the ship will remain switched on into the weekend to inspire Irish people to go forth and party.

Helping to switch on the Christmas party lights was newly recruited ‘Morganette’ Georgia Salpa, who was wearing a specially commissioned dress made from Christmas party lights for the ceremony.

Captain Morgan said, “I’ve been to all the party capitals of the world but the parties in Ireland are by far the best. Forget Christmas shopping season, I am officially declaring the kick off to Christmas party season in Ireland today and what better place to get off to a legendary start than on the quays of Dublin. Oh, and If you are going to party make sure you do it responsibly, Captain’s orders!”

Georgia Salpa commented, “What an honour to help switch on the Christmas party lights with Captain. I’ve been to other Christmas lights ceremonies but this is definitely the most unique. Lighting up a ship was inspired; always expect the unexpected with Captain!”

After switching on the Christmas lights, Captain Morgan hosted a special Christmas party with some of his loyal shipmates and fans.

Keep up to date with Captain Morgan’s adventures on: www.facebook.com/captainmorganireland.

Eason’s Virtual Book Shop

This week sees one of Ireland's most recognised high street names take a bold new step in the world of retail. Eason, Ireland’s leading bookseller, who started its retail legacy with news stalls in train stations across Ireland in the late 1800s, is returning to its roots as it launches Ireland’s first ever Virtual Book Shop at Connolly Station in Dublin to allow commuters to buy bestselling books by simply scanning QR codes with their smartphones.

The Virtual Book Shop resembles the shelves you'd see in an Eason store, displaying images of book covers with corresponding QR codes. Once scanned they will bring users to an online mobile shop where they can purchase the book. Everything from bestselling Sport, Food and Drink, Kids and Fiction titles will be available to purchase at the Eason Virtual Book Shop including a pre-order option for what are expected to be some big hits for Christmas.

Speaking about the Virtual Book Shop, David Field, Group Head of Marketing and Retail Development, Eason said, “We’re delighted to be bringing the first ever Virtual Book Shop to Ireland. While the traditional physical store is still very much at the heart of Eason, we recognise the ever-growing need to further develop our online shopping experience and to create a concept that is not only innovative and a first to Irish market but that very much demonstrates that we are as contemporary multi-channel retailer. To bring the Virtual Book Shop concept to life we’ve put social at the heart of the solution by deeply integrating with Facebook.  Not only can people shop in a totally new way, they can share their experience via Facebook, make recommendations and see what titles their friends have bought which really brings that word-of-mouth marketing to social platforms.”

Also speaking at the launch of Eason’s Virtual Book Shop, leading Irish author, Cecelia Ahern said, “As an author there is no greater feeling than seeing your book on the shelves. But today seeing my new release One Hundred Names available in Ireland’s first ever Virtual Book Shop – it’s really exciting and I am delighted Eason has invited me to be part of this.”

Developed by VendorShop Social, the Eason’s Virtual Book Shop takes integration with Facebook a step further than most brands by using the Facebook Open Graph as a key part of the mobile store application. The result is a much more personalised experience for users and a more viral solution for Eason.

“We all know the power of word of mouth marketing and Facebook’s Open Graph functionality enables a business to embed word of mouth into their marketing and e-commerce activities. Open Graph is an extremely powerful tool to turn people’s interactions with your brand and products viral, but many businesses simply don’t realise what is possible”, said Chris Small CEO of VendorShop Social.

Ireland’s first ever Virtual Book Shop will be situated in Connolly Station from Monday 22nd October until Christmas with plans to bring the mobile shopping experience to other locations throughout the country.

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 - 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 - Mumford & Sons, Primal Scream or Fun Lovin' Criminals at Your Local

Today Guinness announced a raft of new additions to the confirmed Arthur's Day lineup. From Mumford & Sons to Primal Scream to Fun Lovin' Criminals, there are now even more top name acts and stars who you might see down your local. Not forgetting surprise performances, this September 27th is shaping up to be the biggest Arthur's Day yet.

Don't forget though, this year's Arthur's Day has no tickets. All you need to do is grab your mates and pop down to any one of 500 free Arthur’s Day music events taking place in local pubs across all 32 counties.

Of course, to shape which of these artists will appear in which local you'll need to join the 55,000+ people who have already voted. Though best hurry as voting will close on 16th September. The winning pubs will remain a secret to the public until the night itself so you never know who might walk through the door.

Fun Lovin’ Criminals, who are no strangers to Ireland said, "Doing things the normal way just ain’t us. That’s why we’re excited to be a part of Arthur’s Day this year. We’ll be putting on a special performance in a secret location and that’s all we can say. Ireland, you had better get ready for us."

Without doubt Arthur's Day promises to be a remarkable night of live music featuring hundreds of home grown artists and, as usual, a night full of surprises.

The Arthur Guinness Fund

Arthur's Day isn't just about music and entertainment. Through the Arthur Guinness Fund, Arthur’s Day supports social entrepreneurs in Ireland and around the world who are in the business of changing communities for the better. This year, for every ‘check-in’ to an Arthur’s Day Facebook event in any of the 500 locals, a €5 donation will be made to the Arthur Guinness Fund by Guinness.

Confirmed Headline Artists:

• Mumford & Sons
• Primal Scream
• Fun Lovin’ Criminals
• Example
• Tinie Tempah
• Ellie Goulding
• Mika Professor Green
• Fatboy Slim
• Texas
• Amy MacDonald

A selection of the other artists performing:

• Rubberbandits
• 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 Geen
• Ruaile Buaile
• Willie Byrne
• Gentry Morris
• The Muldoons
• Shane Butler
• Jaker
• Hush Warley
• Ghost Estates

Note: The list of pub artists will continually be added to between now and Arthur’s Day on 27th September

Meteor: Facebook For Free

Last week, Meteor launched a brand new offer, Anytime Online. The new deal gives customers free data with their top ups. Specifically aimed at social media users, the deal is designed as a budget-friendly way to stay connected through all your social channels. Basically, Meteor is giving free data with online top-ups at every level from €5 to €20. This is a first in the Irish market.

Deirdre Currid, Meteor’s Marketing Communications Manager said, “We know our customers would love to connect with their friends on the go with Facebook and Twitter more often, but have the perception that mobile internet is out of their price range. In response to this, we created the Anytime Online campaign to show them that they no longer need to put themselves in awkward situations to avail of free WiFi. We’re offering them free data with top-ups at every level, from €5 to €20 to help enjoy being more connected for less. With this new plan, Meteor has written the book on value!”

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.

It's Not MiWadi, It's Emma's Wadi

MiWadi today announced the launch of a new limited edition addition to their range: Emma’s Wadi. Emma Dorgan from Cork is the winner of MiWadi's latest marketing initiative, the MiWadi MiWay Competition. Emma suggested the creation of a new flavoured MiWadi, Bananaberry Split. Emma's flavour is described as a deliciously fun, tasty and mouth-watering blend of blackcurrants, bananas and ice-cream.

The MiWadi MiWay campaign gave kids the opportunity to enter a virtual MiWadi factory to select the fruits and flavours for their ‘Wadi’ and name their new flavour . This campaign reflects MiWadi’s vision of seeing the world through the eyes of a child and bringing more fun and excitement to the squash category.

23,000 children from all over the country mixed, matched and combined ingredients to create their very own MiWadi. The MiWadi team went through each and every entry before choosing the three flavours to make it on to our shortlist. Then, following nearly 300,000 votes cast over 3 days, the winner was selected – Emma Dorgan.

Emma, who starts senior infants this September in Rathcormac’s Scoil Bhríde, entered the MiWadi MiWay Competition after her older sister Kate entered. Emma’s father Don commented; “The reason behind Emma’s choice of flavours is simple – blackcurrant is the MiWadi she takes to school each day, bananas are her favourite fruit, and she always picks ice-cream when ordering dessert. Emma has been so excited about the squash being made before she goes back to school, so she can bring her MiWadi in and show it off to all her classmates.”

When Emma’s not busy inventing flavoured squashes, she loves playing with her dolls with her big sister Kate, and is now set to be very popular with her new found ‘fame’. “I can’t wait to start school so I can show all my friends my Wadi” said Emma.

Speaking today at the official launch of Emma’s Wadi, Dee Cunniam, Senior Brands & Activation Manager said; “We are delighted to launch our new limited edition Emma’s Wadi, to the Irish market. Emma’s Wadi is simply a creation that only a child’s imagination could conjure up! Her blend of delicious flavours, certainly has a distinctive taste from any other squash. Even at a young age Emma has shown that creativity and imagination are key to successfully producing a new and exciting product that both children and indeed all the family can enjoy.”

The prize for Emma’s creative efforts is a trip for herself and her family to Disneyland Resort Paris with €1,000 spending money. Emma’s mother Lynda commented; “The kids are so excited about going to Disneyland and can’t stop asking when we are going. We plan to go in September as it will mark our 10th wedding anniversary, so it will be very special. We are so proud of Emma.”

Emma’s Wadi is available in a 1l single concentrate pack nationwide from the beginning of August.

Calor Announces the Shortlist for Community Champion 2012

At the announcement of the shortlist for the Calor Community Champion 2012 were
TV & Radio personality, Hector Ó hEochagáin and legendary GAA and sports broadcaster,
Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh and Jennifer Fagan, Marketing Executive, Calor.

Yesterday, Calor announced the shortlist of nominees for the inaugural Community Champion 2012. Without doubt the calibre of nominations has been very strong and clearly highlights the exceptional and largely unrecognised contributions people are making to their local communities. These local unsung heros, who have gone above and beyond in giving back to their communities, and are now in with a chance to be crowned Community Champion 2012 and win €1,500 and a bursary of €7,500 to give to their nominated charity or local organisation. On top of that, Calor is also throwing in €500 for the person or organisation that nominated them.

Voting is now open to each and every member of the public through the Calor Facebook page. Visit the Gallery of Nominees and you can see who is representing your county and who the organisation is that they have selected to receive the prize. You'll also find their ‘pitch’ for your vote. Voting is open until August 20th.

Speaking at the shortlist announcement, Hector Ó hEochagáin, TV personality and head of the Judging Panel said, “We asked for nominations from every corner and boreen on the island and you have not disappointed! All of us on the judging panel have been heartened by the stories of unseen work going on across our local communities. This initiative has been a platform to shed light on these truly deserving people. We now have a gallery of what can only be described as real life community heroes. Now it is time to see what each county is truly made of and who the best supporters are, so visit the Gallery of Nominees and get voting today!”

Jennifer Fagan, Marketing Executive, Calor Gas said, “At Calor we have been overwhelmed by the quality of work going on across the country and the numbers of nominations which have been flooding in to us. These people help to raise aspirations and create a feel-good factor within local communities. Choosing the local champions has been a hard task, without them it is clear our communities would be much poorer places. Calor wants every county to get behind their local champion and provide them with the reward and recognition they deserve.”

The Calor Community Champion 2012 will be announced on September 4th.

Rosanna Davison Competes in Captain Morgan Volleyball Match

Yesterday, London commuters and visitors were treated to a series of pop-up beach volleyball matches hosted by Captain Morgan. The matches, featuring Ireland's very own Rosanna Davison with a host of European models and dancers, took place at a variety of locations around London’s city center including; Leicester Square, Westminster Bridge and Jubilee Gardens.

Speaking in London Rosanna said; ‘I was delighted to get the chance to take part in Captain Morgan’s volleyball team. Myself and the girls had a fun day meeting people in London. There’s a real buzz about the city’.

For more information go to the Captain Morgan Facebook Page.

Three Ireland Launch #3HubTalk

Three Ireland have launched an exciting new Facebook App, Three ‘Hub Talk’. The app provides a space where some of Ireland’s favourite celebrities (including Roz Purcell, Bernard Dunne, Pippa O’Connor, Conor Mortimer and the not-so-real Marty Morrissey) will be revealing exclusive content via their own Facebook and Twitter pages. Fans will then have the opportunity to interact with these personalities.

Each day the celebs will post a link to the app of an exclusive personal video or picture. Fans will then upload their own version of the video/picture in order to win a whole host of daily, weekly & grand prizes. The celebrities themselves will each select a winner at based on how entertaining the data shared is.

Prizes up for grabs include Samsung Galaxy Minis, official Republic of Ireland jerseys and €20 top-up vouchers. Also, everyone who enters the app, even if it’s just for a nosy at the celebrity content, will be in with the chance to win the grand prize of a brand new Samsung Galaxy SIII with bill paid for a year and two VIP tickets to see Ireland take on Germany in their World Cup qualifier in October (including an overnight stay and dinner in a top Dublin hotel).

Commenting on the launch Bernard Dunne said: “Three ‘Hub Talk’ is a really clever idea from Three. It not only gives fans a chance to interact with each other in a fun and competitive way, it also means they can win really great prizes every single day. I’m a big Twitter fan and I’m always looking for different ways to interact with my followers. It’s also great for Three customers to be able to use their phone to upload data without any charges!”

Speaking about the campaign, Elaine Carey, Sales and Marketing director at Three, said: “We’re very excited to be launching Three ‘Hub Talk’ to promote our latest prepay offer. The Hub will be the perfect place for our customers to come to make great use of our ‘All you can eat’ data offering by sharing all sorts of content. From Wednesday 1st August, as well as having a place to come and share exclusive content, Three Prepay customers can snap up the Samsung Galaxy Mini on Prepay for just €69, an amazing price for a great Smartphone, with the ‘All you can eat’ data plan allowing Three Prepay customers to make the most of its enhanced social media functionality.”

For further information on Three visit www.three.ie

Survey Reveals 1 in 5 of Irish Parents Don’t Read to Their Children

This week sees the launch of the Eason ‘Get Into Reading’ campaign. The campaign aims to highlight the importance of reading, especially with children, and is supported by leading Irish authors Cathy Kelly and Ireland's new children's laureate Niamh Sharkey. To kick off the campaign a survey

As part of the campaign, Eason commissioned Amárach Research to carry out a survey, which revealed some very interesting results. The stand out insights were...

• While four-in-five (84%) Irish people were encouraged to read by their parents and almost seven-in-ten members of the Irish public (69%) were read to as a child, almost one in five (18%) of Irish parents never read to their children.
• Close to two in four parents ‘pass the buck’ to their partner when it comes to reading to their children – men (42%) are more guilty of this than woman (34%)
• More than half of Irish parents of kids under 8 have felt badly about not having time to read with their child.
• One third cites time pressures as the main reason for not reading more to their child.
• A quarter of Irish people read for five or more hours each week and those who were read to as a child are 30% more likely to spend this amount of time reading than those who were not read to as child – 24% of those who were not read to as a child read for an hour less each week.
• Almost all (93%) of respondents concur that reading increases one’s vocabulary and close to half (46%) have listed reading as an extracurricular activity on their CV.
• 79% of those surveyed would like more time in the day to read more.

Dr. John Sharry, child psychotherapist, commented on the research findings, “Establishing a daily reading time with your children is the single most important ritual, benefiting not only their learning and communication but also creating an important connection between you. The research describes the barriers to reading with children with ‘having no time’ being the most cited reason by parents. This highlights the importance of building a daily routine of reading with the ‘bedtime story’ being one of the most important of these. Bedtime reading not only provides all the educational benefits of reading, but also is an important ritual in gaining a good night’s sleep and usually a special moment of connection between parent and child.”

Ireland's leading female author and mother to nine year old twin boys, Cathy Kelly offered her thoughts, “‘It’s hard to find time to read to your children. At night time, I’m often shattered, want to throw myself into bed and am not in the mood for another chapter of the wonderful Harry Potter. But I do it and I can see the enormous difference reading has meant to my sons in terms of learning.

She continued, “Both of them now love books. When they were little, the bedtime story was part of the lovely bedtime routine. Now, it’s a fabulous time to read – and talk. Children tell you what they really feel at night. Reading gives you a lifetime of joy and even ten minutes each night can make such a difference to your children.”

According to David Field, Head of Marketing and Retail Development at Eason, “We at Eason are hugely committed to supporting literacy in Ireland, particularly among children. ‘Get Into Reading’ really draws on the importance of reading from a young age and the role of the parent in nurturing their child’s love of the written word. We recognise the passion many people share for reading and we simply want to encourage kids and adults alike to read more, one book at a time.”

In order to facilitate the campaign, Eason are calling on the Irish public to pledge their support for reading by visiting the Eason Facebook page or website. All who pledge will be entered into a weekly draw to win a €500 Eason voucher.

‘Get Into Reading’ is part of Eason & Son’s commitment to literacy and will include weekly in-store reading events for children and parents throughout the year. Each Saturday morning, participating Eason stores will host ‘Get Into Reading’ Story Time events where a dedicated member of staff will read a preselected book to the children. ‘Get Into Reading’ Story Time kicks off this Saturday 28th July.

The Eason ‘Get Into Reading’ campaign is a year-round initiative and takes place in line with other initiatives supporting literacy such as the Eason Spelling Bee which was met with huge success this year receiving entries from close to 300 schools from all 32 counties of Ireland. Later this year, Eason will also announce details of a partnership with Barnardos Children’s Charity in support of child literacy.

Electric Ireland: The Road To London

Electric Ireland have launched a new Facebook game to celebrate their involvement with Team Ireland at London 2012. There are lots of prizes to be won including an all expenses paid trip to the Olympics!

Check it out for yourself here.

A really nice feature to the app it that it also allows you to customise your Facebook cover photo at the end to show your support for the Irish Team.

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 :)

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.

Coca-Cola Launches Move to the Beat London

Last week, Mark Ronson and Katy B unveiled a giant 25m wide, 10m tall new piece of urban art right in the center of London in the shadow of the Olympic Stadium. The artwork marks the launch of Coca-Cola's Move to the Beat campaign and their London Olympic sponsorship. It was created by Neil Edward, Hadley Ever and Smug, and is situated in Hackney, East London. The Beat Wall, as the piece of art is known, tells the story of how the sounds of sport and music were fused together by Mark Ronson with lyrics and vocals by Katy B, to create the official Coca-Cola song for the Olympic Games.

The song, Anywhere in the World, will provide the soundtrack for mobile and digital platforms and all Coca-Cola events during the games. The Beat Wall is the visual dramatisation of how Mark Ronson travelled the world searching for the inspiration to create it, while meeting young athletes and recording the sounds of their sport to use in the song. The campaign itself is Coca-Cola’s global campaign, focused on teens, to celebrate the beat of London 2012. The campaign ambition is to bring teens closer to the Olympic Games by encouraging their passion for music, and drawing inspiration from London’s musical heritage.

“As the longest continuous supporter of the Olympic Games Movement, our ambition at Coca-Cola is to bring teens closer to the Games and to sport in general,” said Sanjay Guha, Marketing and Olympic Games Director for North West Europe & Nordics. “The Move to the Beat™ campaign is all about bringing the Olympic Games to life in a way that engages a teen audience, bringing the social side of the Olympic Games to teens everywhere by tapping into their passion for sport and music live online and providing access to fantastic content via Track the Beat.”

The unveiling of the Beat Wall also marked the launch of the Beat Facebook app and the Move to the Beat television commercial. The Track the Beat app engages teens by encouraging them to ‘collect beats’ through Facebook to gain access to exclusive content and prizes. Teens will be able to discover the beats that feature in the Move to the Beat song, download wallpapers and screen savers of imagery from the wall. The Move to the Beat TV ad, which features the song, will be broadcast globally and sees Mark Ronson and Katy B performing alongside some of the international athletes whose sporting sounds have been used to provide the beat of the track.

The athletes whose sounds form the beat of the track and whose images appear on the wall, are:
Darius Knight, 21, table tennis player from Great Britain
David Oliver, 29, 110m hurdler from the United States
Kseniya Vdovina, 24, 400m sprinter from Russia
Dayyan Jaffar, 17, archer from Singapore
Maria Espinoza, 23, taekwondo athlete from Mexico

'Paid Owned Earned: maximizing marketing returns in a socially connected world'

Yesterday I got an email from Nick Burcher about his new book. Nick describes the book, 'Paid Owned Earned: maximizing marketing returns in a socially connected world', as an "exploration of the different aspects of Paid Owned Earned and how everything links together - with the text split into individual chapters around 'Listening', 'Community Management and Content Hubs', 'Content', 'Optimization', 'Seeding and Distribution', 'Broadcast', 'Performance', 'Responding' and 'Measurement'".

He goes on to say, "[that] Paid, Owned, Earned is about the complexity of media channels confronting brands, agencies and advertisers. With a multitude of case studies and original thinking it provides a clear framework on how best to approach the fragmented media landscape."

I was absolutely delighted to find out that Nick has released a free editorial sampler featuring excerpts about linking paid owned and earned media together as well as an exploration of how TV and social can be linked.

Paid Owned Earned by Nick Burcher


The full book blurb:
“The complexity of media that now sees multiple channels accessed through multiple devices has created major challenges for today's marketing and advertising professionals. Consumer time is split between TVs, laptops, iPads, X-Boxes and smartphones, with traditional media, websites, videos, social networks and apps all competing for attention, meaning it's difficult for brands to decide how best to reach and engage their audiences. Paid, Owned, Earned defines the constituents of each area of 'paid', 'owned' and 'earned' media and shows how they are linked together. It proposes a blueprint for how to think and navigate across this space using a framework made up of key elements such as communities and content, social media optimisation, seeding and viral distribution, broadcast mass media, social performance media and measurement.”

Paid Owned Earned is available for pre-order now with an official on sale date of the 3rd March 2012 from from both online and offline retailers.

Chinese New Year And Kildare Village

It's hard to believe it's been a year already, but Chinese New Year is here again and Kildare Village is right in the middle of celebrations for the year of the Dragon.

This year, for the year of the dragon, Kildare Village has launched a really cool augmented reality smartphone app*, the “Chic Dragon”, to celebrate the festival. The app, which marks the first use of augmented reality by a luxury outlet retailer, is free to download and features an animated dragon that takes users on an interactive journey through scenes of the nine Chic Outlet Shopping Villages. Customers just scan the code on posters around the Village and watch the dragon come to life on their screens. In addition, everyone who interacts with the app and watches the “Chic Dragon” video are in with a chance to win a €500 shopping spree.

Beyond the app and competition, no Chinese New Year would be complete without the official ceremonies that surround the festival. Kildare Village is getting into the spirit again this year by decorating the pedestrian streets of the Village in their festive best. Fortune cookies will also be distributed in the boutiques, restaurants and the tourist information centre from Friday 27th until Sunday 29th January.

Over the weekend of the 28th and 29th January there will be a number of traditional and contemporary entertainment acts in the Village such as vibrant Lion and Dragon Dance displays and Chinese opera performers. For further information on Dublin Chinese New Year Festival please visit www.cny.ie and for events happening at Kildare Village please see www.kildarevillage.com.


* The Chic Dragon app for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android is free to download from the App Store and the Android Market from 16 January 2012.

100 Things To Watch In 2012

Great presentation from JWT