New partnership 'insures' results for local business

Morrows are proud to be working with Open and Direct Insurance to deliver the business’ PR and communication needs.

With 16 busy branches across Northern Ireland and a new ‘quote and buy’ online service just launched from its site in Coleraine, the leading local insurance provider has a great story to tell and Morrows are delighted to help do that.

Visit Open and Direct online for more info.

Dale Farm Launches £5,000 Bursary for Young Local Athletes

With just 100 days to go until the beginning of the much anticipated London Olympic Games, local dairy business Dale Farm has once again partnered with the Mary Peters Trust to offer a local athlete a huge career boosting bursary of £5,000.

The biggest individual bursary available for athlete's here, the award has previously been claimed by boxer Paddy Barnes, athletes Ciara Mageean and Amy Foster and ice skater Jenna McCorkell.

With funding for young athletes in short supply - it's great to be working with a local business which has continually supported grassroots and elite sports across Northern Ireland

Anyone interested in more information can download the application details from www.dalefarm.co.uk

Good Luck!

Titanic Economy - Innovation gene is alive and well

When the Titanic was launched from Belfast a hundred years ago, the city was known across the world as an industrial and innovation powerhouse.

It had the largest shipyard, the largest ropeworks and was a major exporter of linen and tobacco products.

While those old industries may be gone, new ones are emerging. The Northern Ireland Science Park which today sits alongside the refurbished Titanic Dock and Pumphouse proves the innovation gene is still alive and well. Home to over 100 technology companies employing over 1500 people, it is growing apace as the new engineering skills in software, hi-tec, bio-medical and clean-tech sectors represent the new global exports.  

BBC Newsline's business and economics editor Jim Fitzpatrick reports on the new Titanic Economy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17592265

A taste of Titanic

Titanic. An icon. A tragedy. A major tourism product and globally recognised brand.

The programme to mark the 100th anniversary of the ship's infamous maiden voyage commenced this weekend with the opening of the Titanic Belfast project and building, bringing visitors from home and abroad into the city and putting the world's media spotlight on Northern Ireland.

Just around the corner at 'foody mecca' St George's Market, hundreds of visitors were sampling another local tourism product, our first class food, as chefs recreated Titanic's on board menus as part of an interactive demonstration.

Food NI, in partnership with Belfast City Council, brought the taste of Titanic to life with the special 'Titanic Kitchen' food sampling event. Talented chefs recreated the first, second and third class menus from Titanic, showcasing dishes ranging from porridge to 'cabin biscuits', haddock in 'sharp sauce' to wine jellied fruits.

The successful event is one of many that will capture the interest of people from near and far, who long to find out more about the ship and its heritage.

With tourists already visiting Belfast from across the globe, it seems the whole world has a taste for Titanic...

Fool's Gold

It’s that time of the year again when jokey journos and comically-minded communications consultants engage their prank-gland to think up the most attention grabbing April Fool’s stunt – all in the hopes of capturing the eyes and imaginations of the world (and of certain picture editors).

April Fool’s Day stretches back as far as 536BC and, as with any long-standing tradition, the world of marketing and communications are keen to use the event to engage the hearts and minds of the public. The April Fool’s news story has become a very modern tradition and shows no sign of abating.

We’ve all been reading our Sunday papers with a more cynical eye this morning as some headlines will be even more unbelievable than usual. Let us know your favourite promotional April Fool’s story and in the meantime here are a few of Morrows’ favourites from the archives:

In April 2010, BMW combined Westminster election fever with the annual prank day by announcing it was offering posh politicos the chance to customise the iconic BMW logo on their vehicle’s name badge to reflect their political persuasion.

Whether anyone took it seriously or not, it was a timely communications stunt which gained incredible coverage for the German car brand.

In the same year, Virgin Media managed to highlight its ongoing modernisation of Britain’s rural broadband network with this clever bit of animal husbandry.
According to the story these highly-trained ferrets were the secret weapon in laying fibre-optic broadband cables in underground pipes across the UK. We particularly love the “ferret at work” hazard sign.

In 1998 Burger King advertised a new addition to its menu – The Left Handed Whopper. The new product was exactly the same as the existing whopper but with all of the condiments rotated by exactly 180 degrees.Despite admitting the hoax on April 2^nd the fast food chain were still fielding enquiries from meat-loving southpaws for weeks after the USA Today ad appeared. Proof, if it were needed, that press advertising still had power?

In 2010 again – a vintage year for April Fool’s PR – ill-fated high street department store Woolworths announced the first negative calorie confectionary with its Diet Cola bottles. The popular penny sweets had been given a new twist with artificial sweeteners resulting in zero calorie content, meaning the energy required in chewing and digesting them burned more calories than they produced – finally giving sweet-toothed dieters the perfect excuse to hit the pick 'n' mix and hit it hard.



Whatever this year brings, April Fools’ stunts should always come with a warning. PR stunts in general can backfire with overtly commercial attempts gaining poor coverage and big costs for clients – but when they deliberately play with the gullibility of their audience a backlash can all too often result. It’s good to take creative risks...as long as they’re calculated creative risks.

But who wins best April Fool’s "PRank" this year? Virgin Volcanic and their trips to the centre of the earth? YouTube’s DVD delivery service? Who promotionally punk’d you the best?

What Piques your Pinterest ?

The search for the next big thing in social media continues and to many Pinterest seems to offer great potential. Launched in March 2010, Pinterest is a platform that allows you to digitally collect, organise and share your favourite images from the web – such as photos, images of celebs, fashion pics or recipe ideas. As an approved registered user, you can create your own digital pinboards to reflect your varied interests (such as 'favourite movies', 'Favourite Photos of Angelina Jolie’ ‘Best Irish Whiskeys’ or ‘Best Pubs in Ireland’) Safe to say it will give an interesting insight into what floats your boat, so be careful what you decide to pin !

As an illustration of its many potential uses, it seems many blushing brides to be are using it as an online scrapbook to pin pictures of their favourite wedding dresses, flowers, cakes and venues…a virtual mood board if you like, to which their friends and family can also contribute.




To these boards you can 'pin' images from across the web in a number of ways:

· uploading images directly from your computer or phone

· using the 'Pin it' bookmarklet tool to save images viewed either online or offline. This will redirect the image from a site straight to your board using the URL

· or by 'repinning' from other users' boards


In the past three months alone, Pinterest has attracted 11 million unique visitors a week, securing placement on the list of top ten social networks (according to Hitwise data). In December, Pinterest was named the Best New Start-Up of 2011 by TechCrunch, putting it firmly in the spotlight for millions of technology users across the world.

More importantly recent research by Shareaholic indicated the site has overtaken Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn for site referrals, generating 3.6% of referred traffic from January - more than the three of them put together. While still some way off Facebook’s impressive 26.4% it is nonetheless making significant waves for a new kid on the block.

As always the inevitable question is what can it offer the business world ?. Early indications are that while it is not designed for direct customer engagement it still can be used to facilitate sharing and liking among fans if used properly. Pinterest also takes the best of Facebook and Twitter to draw people into its own social space and is currently being experimented with by a number of global brands. For many it will be a case of trial and error and of course close watching of how users of the site engage and interact with the content.

One thing is clear at least. It offers brands an ideal way to listen to what products people like more than others, and why. For now Pinterest isn’t about promoting brands, it’s about letting consumers share what they like and this should remain its primary purpose…at least for the foreseeable future.

One to ‘Pin’ your hopes on ? We suggest you sign up for now and observe it in action, before jumping in with your brand.

Did it hurt when you fell from heaven??

We're feeling particularly loved-up in Hanwood House today putting the final touches to our Dromona Cheese Valentines Day activity! We've released the results of some wonderfully whiffy research proving that the cheesy chat up line is not only still going strong in NI...but its most likely to be used by silver tongued casanovas bewtween the ages of 25-35! Some of our favourites coming out of the research were, " Are you a parking ticket..because you've got fine written all over you" and the old faithful "You must be tired...you've been running through my mind all day."

Check out the full release here.. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/woman/sex-love/cheesy-chatup-lines-refuse-to-die-16117089.html

We're also making up some dreamy Dromona gifts for a few special Valentines out there... and getting quite hungry in the process!

So remember, a great cheesy chat up line will never go off. In fact the best simply get better with age... just like a great cheddar!

Happy Valentines Day! xxx

Rising rugby stars primed to tackle tournament

Hot on the ‘heels’ of Ulster securing a coveted place in the Heineken Cup quarters, the draw has taken place for the 33rd annual Nutty Krust Rugby Floodlit Tournament at Portadown RFC. Always a keen supporter of grassroot sports, Morrows client Irwin’s Bakery has been primary sponsor from the tournament since its kick off in 1979.

From 8th February, Under 19 players from 15 Clubs will play every Wednesday evening at Chambers Park, Portadown, in a bid to lift the prestigious tournament trophy on 2nd May 2012. This year’s fixtures promise to make exciting viewing for all rugby supporters, with one or two piquancy matches as tournament hosts Portadown meet Ballynahinch in the first round and last year’s victors Armagh Monaghan meet Instonians.

Listen to Brian Irwin, executive chairman of Irwin's Bakery speaking about the tournament to In Touch Rugby here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fEnQXYEx6c
To follow the progress of the tournament follow Irwin’s on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/irwinsbakery