Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange: Buenos Aires To Belfast

Back at the beginning of April I wrote about the next step in Smirnoff's Nightlife Exchange Project, an evening of Argentinian fun at Kelly's Portrush.

Basically, tomorrow evening Smirnoff will transform Northern Ireland’s biggest nightclub into an evening of thrills and excitement with the best sights, sounds and flavours of South America. In what will essentially be an Argentinian carnival, the club will feature stilt walkers, tango dancers, fire-eaters and inspired theatrical acts. Club visitors will also be greeted at the door by Paka the fire-breathing horse.


The evening's music will also draw on the best of Argentinian culture. DJ David De Valera, who represented Ireland in Buenos Aires as part of the Nightlife Exchange last November, will bring a fusion of UK dance music mixed with the best beats from South America. David will also be joined by Lush's resident DJ Col Hamilton. Col will be bringing crowd-pleasing tunes with an Argentinian twist. Finally, completing the line up is one of Northern Ireland’s most popular DJ’s, Cool FM’s Connor Phillips.


David De Valera said: “I can’t wait to get to Kelly's, to play alongside Col Hamilton and Connor Phillips and to bring a flavour of Buenos Aires to Portrush. The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange creates one off, fantastic occasions and I am looking forward to being part of this one on 14th May." 

Carol McHugh, Smirnoff Brand Manager, Ireland said: “Smirnoff was recently voted number 30 in the Social Brands 100 report. 2 It was the highest ranking alcohol brand and the only spirit on the list that ranked brands on the basis of their social interaction with people. Campaigns such as the Nightlife Exchange Project only serve to reinforce the commitment of the Smirnoff Co. to consumers by creating dynamic, one off nightlife experiences. I am looking forward to going to Kelly's and witnessing the best of Argentinian nightlife come alive at what will be a must BE THERE event."


Admission is just £7 and the doors open at 10pm. For more info on the evening and the entire Nightlife Exchange Project just pop over to the Smirnoff Facebook Page.

To get you in the mood, here is an interview with Headline DJ David De Valera talking about the event...

Meteor Abolishes EU Roaming Charges

---Press Release---

From today (Thursday 5th July 2011), Meteor customers now pay the same for calls and texts while abroad in the EU, plus other destinations including Norway & Iceland, as they do at home in Ireland. Meteor customers will now have a saving of up to 47% versus EU regulated rates and over 60% versus Vodafone and O2 equivalent offers*.

Meteor is the first operator in Europe to offer customers the very best value roaming rates within the EU. To opt in for these great rates, customers simply Freetext ‘Europe’ to 50104. The new roaming rate charges apply for:

• Prepay customers - only pay 29c per minute rate to make a call and a 12c text rate (9c call set up fee)
• Bill Pay customers - will just pay 25c per minute to make call and 10c per text
• Meteor customers will no longer be charged to receive calls while roaming in the EU

Commenting on the operators ‘Pay the same as you would at home’ offer, Meteor’s Head of Consumer Marketing, Bill Blake, said, “ This is another market changing move for Meteor, as we are the first Irish operator to abolish roaming charges in the EU. Our customers will no longer have to worry about paying more for calls and texts while in the EU, with the added benefit of being able to receive calls from family and friends for FREE.

This reinforces our commitment to offer the best combination of innovation and value, just in time for the summer holiday period for our customers, who want to stay connected when abroad” he added.

Meteor’s No Roaming Charges in Europe option is available to new and existing customers and available to Prepay Anytime Choice and Current Bill pay tariffs.

For more information on these new rates, log on to www.meteor.ie/roaming

M&M’s and the Election of the Year

Today M&M’s have launched their latest international campaign, the M&M’s Election Campaign. For the campaign, M&M’s are calling on fans to vote for their favourite M&M character. By simply visiting the M&M’s website and voting, fans will be put into a draw for a chance to win an incredible trip to the exclusive Election Party of the winning M&M in New York!

This will be Ireland’s first electronic polling booth, and will provide polling for 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Before you go to vote, however, be sure to check out the brand new M&M’s Election TV ad (below) and M&M’s Facebook page. On Facebook each of the candidates outlines why you should vote for them. Outside of the grand prize there are also lots of other prizes to be won, so be sure to rally your friends to show their support too.

Sarah Keenaghan, M&M’s Brand Manager: “We are very excited to launch the M&M’s Election campaign and we look forward to seeing the characters battle it out on our dedicated new website, and our fabulous Facebook page. This campaign gives us a great chance to have some fun with the M&M’s characters and we can’t wait to see who comes out on top."

The candidates
Blue, a.k.a. Mr cool, confident and contemporary, is hoping that his charm with the ladies and varying degrees of coolness will help him to sway the public vote.

Red, a power colour by nature, was born to lead and as he is a pro at bossing people around, he’ll be forcing your hand for you vote.

Orange isn’t quite sure how he got sucked into this in the first place and is feeling somewhat nervous so is in desperate need of some support.

Yellow thinks all the nicest things in the world are yellow, like sunflowers, so feels he deserves to win.

Miss Green is out to prove that sister’s are doing it for themselves - she is not too happy with the lack of women voted into power in the recent election. A feisty lady, Miss Green is not afraid to use her female charms to get what she wants!

Lyons Gold Blend announces Ireland’s Top Storyteller

The storyteller from Dublin lived happily ever after…

Today, Lyons Gold Blend presented Dubliner Paul O’Brien with the title of Ireland’s Top Storyteller, following thier nationwide search. Paul was selected from a huge number of entrants by a judging panel of comedian Karl Spain, author and actress Claudia Carroll, and storyteller Clare Muireann Murphy. The trio rated Paul O’Brien the top of the talkers with the gift of the gab, and presented him with a €10,000 prize.

In total 120 budding story tellers entered the competition with stories ranging from, fact to fiction, from everyday life, to favourite childhood memories, some folk tales and some modern takes on classic children's stories. From the 120, 10 finalists were selected to compete at the National Final in Dublin where they completed a storytelling challenge for the judging panel to battle for the title of Ireland’s Top Storyteller. The final 10 were selected by public vote on www.lyonstea.ie/tellusyourstory (the top six) and through various regional radio competitions (remaining 4).

The competition called on entrants to use the famed Irish ability to exaggerate and colourfully enhance a story through words and phrases. This played directly into Lyons latest advertising campaign around talk being the ‘secret ingredient’ in Lyons Tea and ‘richer talk’ being added to the tea that gives Lyons Gold Blend its richer, full bodied taste.

Speaking at the National Final, Liz Finlay, Marketing Manager, Lyons Tea said, “Irish people all love a good story over a cuppa. Our Gold Blend richer tasting tea celebrates the telling of rich and colourful stories and our search for Ireland’s Top Storyteller highlighted how popular our storytelling tradition continues to be, with so many entries and budding storytellers eager to compete. Congratulations to Paul on winning the competition and I hope he keeps up the storytelling!”

Author and actress Claudia Carroll, said, “Simultaneously the best craic I’ve had in weeks, and the toughest decision I’ve had to make. We almost came to blows in the judging room, but I think we’re all agreed at the end of the day that the best person won - we’ve found Ireland’s Top Storyteller!"

Comedian Karl Spain said, “It was great to judge the competition, all the contestants were very different and very entertaining in their stories. Any of three second round finalists could have won. Pity we couldn’t share the cash amongst ourselves. We weren’t entirely in agreement in the judging panel, we probably would’ve been throwing drinks over each other, but it was Lyons tea so it was too hot! I really enjoyed myself, it’s always nice to judge people!”

"Good storytelling requires a lot of different skills and we saw a high standard today. It was difficult to choose and each of the finalists could easily go on to work with stories. Also, I was delighted to see such an excellent response from the younger demographic, it just shows storytelling is alive and well in Ireland today", said Clare Muireann Murphy, renowned Irish storyteller.


Lyons Tea

• Lyons Gold Blend tea is a blend of finest Kenyan, Assam and Ceylon teas.
• Lyons Tea employs expert master blenders and tasters to select the best blends and combination of some of the finest teas from Kenya, Assam from India and Ceylon from Sri Lanka to produce the highest quality tea. Lyons Tea is available from leading supermarkets and retailers nationwide.
• Lyons is Ireland’s number one tea brand with 43.1% market share***; Lyons is an iconic Irish brand with more than 100 years of tradition in Ireland, having started business in Dublin in 1902 near Christ Church Cathedral. It is now owned by Unilever Ireland.
• Lyons Tea is Ireland’s favourite tea. The Lyons Tea range includes Lyons Gold Blend, Lyons Original Blend, Lyons Gold Blend Reserve, Lyons Kenya Blend, and Lyons Decaffeinated Tea. Lyons Green Tea is available in original, with Lemon and with Mint. For further information on Lyons Tea visit www.lyonstea.ie
• Lyons tea is currently working with the Rainforest Alliance - independent experts in sustainability and by 2012 all our tea will only come from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms.
• For more information visit www.lyonstea.ie

Budweiser Ice Cold Index

The hotter the day the less you pay for your pint of Budweiser Ice Cold all summer...

Today sees the launch of Budweiser Ice Cold's latest marketing campaign, the Budweiser Ice Cold Index. The campaign is driven by the Budweiser Ice Cold Index mobile application (available on both iPhone and Android) and aims to create an unmissable summer experience by matching real Irish temperatures to real discounts off the price of your pint. Essentially, the hotter day the less you pay for a pint of Budweiser Ice Cold.

The Budweiser Ice Cold Index App gives these discounts directly through your handset. On days the temperature reaches 20°C and over, you'll enjoy a free pint, if it's 18°C or 19°C you'll get €2 off, and if it's 16°C or 17°C you'll get €1 off. There are a huge number of participating 'Index bars' and you can check the app for daily offers too. The App will allow you to get offers right up until 31st August and to celebrate the launch of Index everyone who downloads the App will enjoy their first pint of Budweiser Ice Cold free, regardless of the weather!

The App also boosts a pub finder to help you locate a nearby participating Index pub and other great features including bar reviews and special rewards for loyal Budweiser Ice Cold drinkers. The App is free and can be downloaded on most smart phones but for all other phones you can free text the word ‘INDEX’ to 50400.

To kick off the Index summer in style, Budweiser Ice Cold have also created a free pop up urban beach experience in Dublin City Centre. At lunchtime today an actual beach appeared at George’s Dock, IFSC. The pop up beach included deck chairs, a hog on a spit, an ice-cream van, a live acoustic performance by Sligo band Túcan and the Irish volleyball team even dropped by for an exhibition match.

Moon man Ken Ring, New Zealand’s famous weather predictor and astrologer, has shared his predictions for the Budweiser Ice Cold Index summer ahead and it seems that Munster and Leinster will be hotting up this summer enjoying more than 30 days from 1st May to 31st August of 20°C temperatures or over. Ulster is expected to be 20°C or more for approximately 17 days and while Connaught is the coolest province, Ken still expects the temperature in the West to hit at least 20°C for 9 days.

Speaking about the Budweiser Ice Cold Index Campaign, Christopher Wooff, Senior Brand Manager, Budweiser, commented, “This is a really exciting time for Budweiser as the brand goes from strength to strength in Ireland. Budweiser Ice Cold Index is an innovative concept, which we feel will excite consumers and we are thrilled to be the first brand to bring mobile vouchering to the Irish on-trade. We have had such a positive response from our on-trade customers with over 2,500 participating bars nationwide. Weather has always been a sore point for Irish people but if Ken Ring’s predictions are true, this really will be a summer to remember.”

Consumers can find full details on the Budweiser Ice Cold Index here and also on the Budweiser Ice Cold Ireland Facebook page where there will be regular competitions, Index updates from the Index weatherman Scott Campbell and invitations to the hottest events throughout the summer. You can also follow us on twitter @icecoldindex.

The Budweiser Ice Cold Index campaign is supported by ATL, POS, Digital, and PR and the following TV commercial, which was shot on location in South Africa featuring the Index weatherman Scott Campbell.

Notes:
* The temperature is taken from Met Éireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, and fans will be notified of their region’s temperature at 1pm daily via the Index App.
* On an Index day, consumers can redeem their free or money off voucher between 1pm and 11.59pm (or closing time of a particular bar) on that day. It cannot be stored and redeemed at a later date.
* Once consumers have download the voucher, the participating Index bar will provide them with a pub code and they will then have two minutes to redeem their voucher before it expires.