1,000 Tickets To Czech Republic Friendly In Aviva For €10 Each

‘Three loves football’

Today, 13th February, Three and the FAI (Football Association of Ireland) announced something extremely, extremely cool. Together the two have created the ‘Three loves football’ special ticket offer. The ‘Three loves football’ is a celebration of Ireland’s qualification for EURO 2012.

But what is it?

Tomorrow, 14th of February at 3pm, Three will release 1,000 tickets for Ireland's friendly against the Czech Republic in Aviva Stadium on February 29th for just €10.

Seriously, €10!

Get over to the Three football Facebook page, tomorrow afternoon for full details of how the 1,000 tickets will be distributed on a “first-come, first-served” basis.

This isn't Three's only Irish Football activity. In recent months, Three has launched a number of initiatives such as their “Dare to Dream” affinity scheme offering Football Association of Ireland-affiliated clubs across the country the chance to earn cash when their members switch to Three which helps support the development of grass roots football. Last August Three also launched their ‘Go green with pride, pull on the jersey’ campaign. This saw Three give fans the chance to trade-in their old Republic of Ireland football jerseys and get €20 off the brand new Ireland home jersey.

Sky Rainforest Rescue 'Amazon' Exhibition

This week, Sky (in association with WWF and the Gallery of Photography) announced the Irish premiere of ‘AMAZON’. AMAZON is an exhibition in aid of the Sky Rainforest Rescue which features the work of two award-winning photographers - Sebastião Salgado and Per-Anders Pettersson.

The exhibition aims to highlight the plight of the Amazonian rainforest and its peoples. Through the two beautiful and distinct photography collections of xxx and xxx, the exhibition showcases the work of Sky Rainforest Rescue, the three year partnership between Sky and WWF. Sky Rainforest Rescue itself is aiming to help save one billion trees in the state of Acre, North-West Brazil.

The exhibition, which had a critically acclaimed six-week run at Somerset House, London in November 2011, is curated by Bakul Patki and will be accompanied by a programme of talks and events. For further information and updates see www.galleryofphotography.ie.


Exhibition Dates: 1 – 31 March 2012
Location: Gallery of Photography, Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2
Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11am - 6pm and Sunday 1pm - 6pm
Admission: Free

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...

Lyons Tea

Hopefully you enjoyed the three previous posts I've written on Lyons Tea and the ads in their ‘Master Blender’ campaign series. First up was 'Footie Talk', followed by 'All Talk' and then 'Rich Talk'. Now I'm delighted to share the fourth and fifth instalments in the series: 'Girl Talk' and 'Wild Horses'.

The most popular of the first three ads was 'All Talk'. It featured two loveable characters in an office, having a tea break and talking about their experiences in the gym. I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear that 'Wild Horses' sees the return of these characters. Just watch...

48 Go Conquer

Ireland has a new mobile service provider on the scene in the form of 48. The company, which piggybacks on the O2 network, offers a seriously discounted offering, uniquely, to the 18 to 22 year old market only. Based on an 'all you can eat' style offering, 48 seems to have a really good proposition.

For €10 a month you get all your calls and texts to any mobile network. There is also an introductory offer of unlimited data (reasonable usage policy of 500mb) for two weeks for €2. Essentially that's everything all in for €14 per month. Fairly tasty if you ask me, and certainly something I would have loved when I was a poor 18 to 22 year old student.

Of course we didn't have smartphones or text messages back then but that's another story… ;)

48 have just launched a new tv ad that was created by Brando.

Electric Ireland ‘Office Energy Expert’

Electric Ireland helps businesses make savings of up to 20%

Yesterday Electric Ireland launched an innovative first to market tool designed to help business customers save money. The tool allows businesses to implement a managed approach to eliminating electricity waste. In a few simple steps, the Office Energy Expert, can reduce electricity costs and consumption. The SEAI commented that by using the tool, a company could reasonably achieve a 20% reduction in their energy bills by 'good housekeeping measures' alone.

The Office Energy Expert tool will take a detailed look at office energy use and make energy efficiency accessible, simple and affordable. From there the tool highlights the opportunities available to easily and simply include energy efficiency and sustainability in the day-to-day routine of both managers and employees. The tool is perfect for all business types both large and small, and works across industries. To try the Office Energy Expert click here.

Liam Molloy, General Manager, Electric Ireland said; “Electric Ireland is working hard to empower our customers to make choices to suit their energy consumption and energy efficiency needs in these challenging times. A tool like the Office Energy Expert is free and easy to use. Companies do not need to incur large costs to make a real difference to their energy costs, with savings of up to 20% wholly achievable by using this tool.”

Patricia Callan, Director, the Small Firms Association (SFA) welcomes the new application which will assist small businesses to improve efficiency: “The Office Energy Expert is a welcome tool for Irish businesses as being mindful of the need to monitor and use energy more efficiently can only be good news and I suspect it will gain plenty of support among small to medium sized business when they see what it can mean for them in terms of savings.”

If you would like to know more about Electric Ireland or their range of products visit www.electricireland.ie.

Heineken: Long Story

Heineken Ireland have just launched their latest ad campaign, the Long Story. The campaign is driven by a brand new, Irish-made TV ad described as "a punchy but light-hearted look at how one man finds himself making the most of an unexpected circumstance and the fun that can be found in every moment."

The ad is a short narrative of one man’s adventure to recover his unfinished drink, 'cleaned up' by an eager waiter. In his attempt to reclaim his last mouthful of Heineken the hero inadvertently finds himself trapped on an express train from Paris to St. Petersburg. Here he entertains his fellow passengers with his story of woe and has a bit of fun along the way. Once he gets to St. Petersburg everything almost starts over again.

To celebrate the launch of the ad, Heineken will be putting on a special event this Thursday (2nd February) at the Old Harcourt Street train station, The Odeon. As well as stepping the Odeon back in time for the evening, Heineken will also have Ryan Sheridan, who wrote and performed the track featured on the ad, on hand to give an intimate, acoustic performance.

Anyone who would like to attend the event can apply for tickets on the Heineken Facebook page.

***Update***

Here is footage from the evening Heineken hosted in The Odeon with Ryan Sheridan.