10 Years of the Guinness Storehouse

10 years ago on 2nd December 2000 Guinness Storehouse first opened its doors to the public. Those humble beginnings weren’t all that humble either, with former US president, Bill Clinton being the first in a long line of famous faces to pay a visit. Today the Storehouse is recognised as Ireland’s No.1 visitor attraction and has received over 8 million visitors.

Managing Director, Paul Carty, speaking about the auspicious milestone, said “We are delighted to mark 10 years since we first opened our doors back in December 2000. We have welcomed millions of people from countries all over the world, and this year we were particularly delighted to see a 25% increase in Irish people coming to visit Guinness Storehouse, to learn more about their own genealogy and an important slice of Irish culture.”

Paul continued “2011 promises to be another exciting year for Guinness Storehouse as we will be undertaking a €2 million investment in a new restaurant and catering facilities on our fifth floor. We’re obviously hoping that plenty of Irish visitors also take the opportunity to come and enjoy a great meal here, accompanied by the fantastic views we have out over Dublin.” Further details of these exciting plans will be made available in the New Year.

Beyond Mr. Clinton, some of the other famous faces to make up the 8 million happy patrons that the Guinness Storehouse has enjoyed over the past decade are Chris Rock, Will Ferrell, Susan Sarandon, Dermot O’Leary, Adam Sandler, Beyonce Knowles, Pink and Sean Penn. Each of whom had the pleasure ofa complimentary pint of Guinness the Gravity Bar, the highest viewpoint of Dublin City.

Interestingly, it is estimated that in total over 7,086,142 pints of Guinness have been served up in the Gravity Bar over the ten year period.

If you’re somehow unaware, the Guinness Storehouse is a seven storey treasure trove of everything Guinness –allowing visitors to gain an understanding of why Guinness has become one of the world’s most iconic and best loved brands. For further details on Guinness Storehouse visit www.guinness-storehouse.com.

Guinness Storehouse Over the past 10 years

• Has welcomed approximately 8,336,638 visitors
• Over 1.6 million visitors have tasted Guinness for their first time
• Over 400,000 visitors have learned how to pour a pint of Guinness
• The Guinness Archive has collected over 7,500 linear meters of paper records
• Has provided nearly a quarter of a million servings of Beef & Guinness stew

General Guinness Storehouse Facts

• General building was erected between 1902 and 1904 for use in the fermentation process
• The building is 125 feet high, 170 feet long and 151 feet wide.
• It would take 14.3 million pints of Guinness to fill the giant glass atrium in centre of the GUINNESS STOREHOUSE building
• Gravity Bar is the highest bar in Dublin located 46 metres off the ground
• The interactive genealogy pods contain the records of nearly 20,000 former Guinness Brewery employees dating back to the 1880’s.

Absolut's Drinkspiration Home Edition

About a year ago I wrote about Absolut's iPhone 'Drinkspiration' app. There was a huge amount of interest and I thought that you’d be interested to know that there is now a 'Drinkspiration Home Edition' app available exclusively for the iPad.

Where the mobile Drinkspiration was the perfect going-out bar companion, the iPad Drinkspiration app is the ideal at-home entertaining tool. With more than 3,000 drink recipes and images, six pre-installed drink collections, drink suggestions based on ingredients, a shopping list creator, social media sharing, and even 'how to' videos the home edition app is a totally inspirational resource for all party hosts and bartenders.

Fredrick Tallroth, Senior Manager Interactive Marketing, at The Absolut Company, said: "At ABSOLUT, we continuously want to make the most out of new technology, and learning to mix drinks has never been this fun. With its large high-resolution display, and multi-touch functionality, the iPad is the perfect platform for making drink mixing a social happening at the party."

Check out the app's promo video below and go here to download the app.

Smirnoff 'Be There' - Nightlife Exchange Project

So last night..... WOW! I couldn't even begin to tell you how brilliant last night was. I was surprised last week by being invited to host a Smirnoff warm-up party. As is tradition in Argentina before a big night out, people through warm up parties for all their friends to get together and plan out what's happening, listen to a few tunes and enjoy a drink or two. Well I was lucky enough to be one of 3 people invited by Smirnoff to host such a party.

So last night basically kicked off in my apartment with 12 close friends and I. We enjoyed a few, extremely tasty Smirnoff Mules (Argentina style - see below) expertly mixed and served by a Smirnoff barperson and listening to a little mix that I put together. From here we all boarded taxis and set off for The Wright Venue in Swords.

To say that The Wright Venue was spectacular would be a grievous understatement. Upon arrival we were greeted by pyrotechnics, a mechanical horse and a venue that begged to be entered and explored. We were welcomed inside by our Smirnoff hosts and shown to a private suite overlooking the dancefloor. The thing is, as difficult as this may sound, the rest of the night just got better and better.

As well as having our own room and bar to chill out in between nightclub expeditions, we also got to sample the best of Argentinian nightlife as selected by the people of Argentina and curated by DJ Ale Lacroix. From cocktail glasses of fresh fruit to Argentinian BBQ delights to free-styling football skills, we spent the rest of the evening having a thoroughly wonderful time. For me personally, a huge part of this was the opportunity to meet the folk from Smirnoff and really get an understanding of why all this was done, what the inspirations were and how they themselves were enjoying the event.


As an extra bonus I also got the chance to catch up with the Irish curator, Siobhan O'Dowd. While I'm sure Siobhan would have loved to join her crate in Argentina, she was definitely as excited as all of my guests and I to experience an amazing Argentinian night out.

And with all of that said, I for one am very, very happy to be able to say that I was there. And there, was very, very fun and exciting. I'm not sure what Smirnoff will do next, and I'm not even sure I can imagine what will top this, but I said that before about the their Wedding Night and the Masquerade Ball. So basically, I don't know what is next but you can be certain I will be waiting in eager anticipation.

Serious hat tips to all involved. You've got a fan for life :)

Smirnoff Mule Argentina
Ingredients:
35.5ml Smirnoff Vodka,
20ml Pomelo juice,
2 fresh wedges of lime
and topped with ginger ale.
Fill your glass with cubed ice before pouring all the liquid ingredients. Squeeze your fresh lime on top and stir well to mix all the ingredients together and enjoy!

Miwadi - Miwadifesto

Yesterday, Monday 22nd November, Miwadi launched its brand new packaging and branding. To celebrate the event, Miwadi is calling on Irish kids to tell them what they would do to make our island a more fun place to live in!

Miwadi wants kids to join in the “Miwadifesto”!

Through a brand new website kids can upload their suggestions for and ideas. Of course as being kids these ideas don't exactly need to be too grounded and anything goes...

• Little boys could be given super powers
• Girls provided with fairy wings to get to school
• Buses would be replaced with pretty pink carriages drawn by unicorns
• Trains would provide special areas for kids to host a Teddy’s Bear Picnic, and
• Every shopping list could include magic dust!

Miwadi is looking for all fascinating and magical suggestions to be collated into a Miwadifesto containing the most colourful suggestions - ideas that fill a dull moment with colour and make the mundane fantastic. With the help of their Mums or Dads, kids can enter their Miwadifesto, for the chance to ultimately see their own suggestions up on the site and perhaps win a family holiday or a host of other prizes.

Speaking about the Miwadifesto, Miwadi Marketing Manager, Christine Keohane said “We are delighted to introduce our new look Miwadi and what better way to celebrate then asking our biggest fans, kids, about their world. The aim of the the Miwadifesto is to tap into the imagination of children and to capture how our world might look if it were run by kids!”.

The campaign was launched with the help of Lucy Kennedy yesterday morning outside Government Buildings on Merrion Street. A rather fitting location considering everything going on right now.

Meteor and Barnardos Launch Christmas Text Appeal

Last Thursday Meteor CEO Fergus Finlay and actress and Barnardos Ambassador Sarah Bolger launched the Meteor Christmas text appeal for children's charity Barnardos. This is the first time that this type of appeal has been run between the two organisations although they have shared a strong partnership for the past number of years. Through simple texting, Meteor customers can donate directly to the charity.

Meteor customers just text ‘Barnardos’ to 57502. These texts cost the customer €2 and every cent goes directly to the charity. For the appeal Meteor are waving all costs.

Meteor’s Chief Commercial Office, John Penberthy Smith, said: “Our Meteor Christmas Campaign this year is focused on ‘Spreading the Christmas Spirit’ and we really hope to do exactly that for people who need it the most at this special time of year. We have been charity partners now with Barnardos for a number of years and really hope to raise lots of funds for this very deserving charity. Our sponsorship of The Spirit of Christmas Ball and The Today FM ‘Us2’ book which will be launched later this month are just some of the other projects that we’re working on together over the coming weeks. We hope that our customers will join with us in supporting Barnardos this Christmas. Every cent will go to making Christmas special for families and children that are suffering the most, especially at this time of year.”

The text activity is also being supported with a range of other fundraising activities taking place over the next couple of weeks by Meteor staff. These will include a collection day in Connolly station, volunteering at Barnardos Christmas project parties and the ‘Give a Gift Campaign’ where staff members buy gifts for Barnardos to distribute to children this Christmas.

Speaking at the launch, Barnardos’ CEO, Fergus Finlay said: “We truly appreciate the support of Meteor. For many of the children and families we work with, Christmas is an exceptionally difficult time. It’s great to know that every cent of the two euro donation will go directly to the children and families that we work with. Support like this will help us to continue our work with more than 5,500 children and hopefully bring them some comfort this festive season and it really couldn’t be easier to help out, simply text ‘Barnardos’ to 57502.”

The Meteor Barnardos text appeal is fully live and available to all Meteor customers.