Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Robert Coyle from Bloom Advertsing sent me a case study for the ‘Ireland Deserves Sun’ campaign they ran for Sandtex. Sandtex Exterior Masonry Paint conducts one major advertising campaign each year between late April and early May, as this is the time people think about painting the outside of their houses. Bloom put digital at the core of the campaign and it met with huge success - the campaign currently has over 10,000 active fans on Facebook. This is second only to Guinness in terms of fans of an Irish brand’s official page – more than Tayto, HB Ice Cream, Barry’s Tea and Bulmers.

Omni hotels in the United States are giving their weekend guests a free trial of a camcorder to capture their memories of their stay up until 6 September. Such a simple idea, but it’s brilliantly executed with a ‘Summer Fun Counselor’ also at hand at the hotel to tell guests about places to visit during their stay. Their guests get to capture their memories and share them with friends. It’s a no brainer what happens next…if people see their friends having a great time they’ll be tempted to visit themselves. Springwise has more on the story.

A couple of cool iPhone applications from Grolsch and Pizza Hut caught my attention also. The Pizza Hut application lets you order a pizza and has games to entertain you until it arrives.

Grolsch’s app is a tad on the risque side for a drinks brand. According to Contagious, ‘it uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to see if the person holding the phone can walk in a straight line, and rates the user on their ability.’

Next up is some amazing advertising from New Zealand to warn drivers about the perils of driving on wet roads. Viralblog reports that ‘the local governments of Franklin District Council and Papakura District Council in New Zealand have taken remarkable precautions in order to decrease fatal car accidents. The first heavy rains after summer, bring the highest death toll on New Zealand roads. In order to lower the road toll they placed a bleeding billboard. The billboard features a young boy whose eyes, nose and ears bleed when it rains. And the message reads: “Rain changes everything. Drive to the conditions”.’

Conor ‘Connector’ Lynch and the guys at Eighty:Twenty have hooked four Irish twitters up with Toyota iQs. They get to hang onto the cars for the rest of 2009 and will record their thoughts, good or bad, online. Nice to see a car company do something innovative despite the slashed marketing spend that every automobile brand is dealing with given the changed economic environment. The four lucky winners are Keith Bohanna, Rob Cumiskey, Christine Duggan, and Maryrose Lyons.