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

Guinness: Arthur's Day 2012

Stuart Kinch, Guinness Marketing Manager, Diageo Western Europe

This week Guinness hosted a special media launch and announced the details of Arthur's Day 2012. Scheduled to take place on 27th September, Arthur's Day 2012 will see a massive expansion of the day's activities coming to every corner of Ireland with local pubs being placed at the heart of the celebration.

So what does this mean? To start with, there will be no tickets to buy this year. Instead, Arthur's Day will take place in 500 pubs across the 32 counties with live music provided in all of them. So it'll simply be a case of grabbing some mates and getting down to one of them for an evening of free Arthur’s Day music and craic.

Of course that's not the end of it. Aside from hundreds of home grown Irish artists, Arthur’s Day will also be a night full of surprises. This year you will have the chance to vote to bring internationally renowned artists such as Example, Tinie Tempah, Ellie Goulding, Mika, Professor Green, Fatboy Slim, Texas and Amy Macdonald to one of the 500 Arthur’s Day pubs near you.

Voting opened on the 15th August and will run until the 16th September To make things as exciting as possible the winning pubs will remain a secret to the public until the night itself, so you never know who might walk through the door.

Arthur’s Day artist Tinie Tempah, who has recently had four top 5 singles in the Irish charts, said, “I played Arthur's Day back in 2010 so I know all about the magic of it. I'm honoured to be invited back to Ireland for 2012 and couldn't be more excited about playing a pub gig for a small, surprised crowd! We'll be kick starting the global celebrations in Ireland on September 27th - hope to see you all there!”.

Stuart Kinch, Guinness Marketing Manager, Diageo Western Europe said, “Arthur’s Day has always been about people coming together for unique and remarkable music experiences in pubs and venues around the country. This year, we wanted to do more and give everyone the chance to experience the magic of Arthur’s Day by making all events free and giving the public a chance to vote and help bring a headline artist to their local! Apart from the change from 38 ticketed music events last year to over 500 free Arthur’s Day music events this year in pubs in all 32 counties, we anticipate many more pubs will also be organising their own celebrations around the country so it promises to be the biggest Arthur’s Day yet with the Arthur Guinness Fund also directly benefiting from the celebration”.

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’ by people to the Arthur’s Day Facebook event, a €5 donation will be made to the Arthur Guinness Fund by Guinness. Check out details on how to RSVP and ‘check-in' on the Guinness Ireland Facebook page.

Stay tuned though, as this isn't the end of the Arthur's Day story. There will be further exciting announcements made in the coming weeks. So whether you're in Dingle or Derry, this will be one Thursday night not to be missed! To Arthur!!

Famed Privateer Captain Henry Morgan's Lost Fleet Found

Many people don't realise that Captain Henry Morgan was a real person. Not only that but before he became associated with the famous rum baring his name, he was a Privateer working throughout the Caribbean. One of the great mysteries around Captain Morgan is the location of his sunken fleet of five ships that disappeared off the Coast of Panama in 1671. However, for the third year in a row, with the help of the Captain Morgan brand, a team of leading U.S. archaeologists have been scouring the mouth of the Chagres River in Panama in search of this lost fleet.

“Morgan was one of the most infamous privateers of all time, so for me, this is a chance to use archaeological research to bridge the gap between science and pop culture. Most people associate Morgan with the image on a bottle, but in reality, he was an iconic historical figure who accomplished incredible feats throughout the Caribbean,” said Frederick “Fritz” H. Hanselmann, underwater archaeologist and Research Faculty with the River Systems Institute and the Center for Archaeological Studies at Texas State University who has been leading the team in an effort to locate, excavate and preserve the remains of Morgan’s lost ships.

Hanselmann continued, “Locating his lost ships and being able to properly preserve and share it with the public is our ultimate goal with this project. We’re really close – and at the end of the day, his ships are down there and we’re going to find them.”

The story of the search for the lost fleet began back in September 2010 when the archeological team discovered six iron cannons off the coast of Panama belonging to Captain Morgan. The next breakthrough then came last summer with the discovery of a 17th century wooden shipwreck, which is believed to be one of the five ships Morgan lost in 1671 on the shallow Lajas Reef. The fleet included his flagship Satisfaction.

Returning to Panama this summer, the team excavated a host of historic artifacts from the shipwreck in hopes of confirming its origin. During this work, the team recovered a sword, chests, wooden barrels and multiple cargo seals. The artifacts, which are currently housed at Patronato Panamá Viejo (Old Panama Trust) in Panama City, will undergo the preservation process before being studied further and verified by London-based experts in English artillery.

“For us, there’s no better way to communicate the values and unwavering spirit of our brand than by unearthing the real-life history of its inspiration,” said Tom Herbst, Brand Director, Captain Morgan USA. “This adventure that we’ve embarked on truly embodies the character of Morgan himself and the free-spirited nature of rum. In our case, we don’t have to make up a brand story – ours is real and it’s waiting to be discovered at the bottom of the ocean floor.”

Captain Henry Morgan was one of the few men to survive the treacherous life on the high seas long enough to enjoy his successes. From 1664 to 1671, Morgan led daring raids throughout the Spanish Main, resulting in riches for him and his men far beyond what they ever expected.

In 1670, Morgan amassed the largest fleet in the history of the Caribbean and set his sights on Panama City, the richest city in the western hemisphere. While en route, his flagship and four additional ships ran aground on the Lajas Reef at the base of Fort San Lorenzo, the military base that guarded the mouth of the Chagres River – the only water passageway leading toward Panama City. Despite the setback, Morgan and his men prevailed, securing Fort San Lorenzo, sailing up the Chagres and ultimately making their way by foot through the dense rainforest to take Panama City.

All artifacts excavated through the project will remain the property of the Panamanian government and will be preserved and displayed by the Patronato Panamá Viejo in Panama City.