They are nominated for two awards - ‘Cultural Branding’ which is awarded to an organisation that reinforces the branding and marketing activity of a business through the use of culture, and ‘Arts’ awarded to organisations who consistently pioneer and develop new ideas.

Winners will be unveiled at The Allianz Arts & Business NI Awards ceremony on Thursday 26th January 2012 at the Lyric Theatre.

I think we’ve mentioned it before, but Northern Ireland really is the place to be in 2012!

Well, it’s finally upon us and in the build up to what is set to be an amazing year of events, festivals and celebrations the Northern Ireland Tourist Board have rolled out a huge welcome. Using the ports of entry across Northern Ireland and key border towns we are sending out the message loud and clear that this is our time, this is our place and you are welcome to join in the fun.

Sites have been installed at Belfast Central station, Derry City airport, Enniskillen and Newry, with more coming later this month.

To find out up to date information on what 2012 has to offer visit ni2012.com and sign up for event updates.

January blues begone! We’re really looking forward to a fabulous 2012 here. We’ve lots of exciting client projects coming up and we’re brimming with new ideas after the seasonal break. And 2012 is going to be a great year for Northern Ireland … more about that next week - watch this space!

In the meantime, a very happy and healthy New Year to everyone, from all of us at AV Browne.

We’re delighted to have been shortlisted for our work with NITB for a UK Chartered Institute of Marketing Excellence Award.  Particularly as we’re keeping good company with the shortlist containing big names like Barclaycard, Pepsi, The Economist and LV=.  It’s also great to see other NI agencies and associations shortlisted this year, especially our other client National Museums Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce.

Fingers crossed for the event in London in February … find out more info here

These ISO quality marks are re-awarded on a yearly basis only subject to rigorous independent assessment and are subject to the team’s documented and evidenced commitment to continuous improvement.

So good news for the company, great for clients, and excellent for the environment.

We’re thrilled to announce that our sister company Blue Cube have won the Lottery.ie digital marketing account.

It’s a huge coup for the team after one of the most hotly contested digital pitches this year.  Pictured are the Lottery.ie team and some of the Blue Cube team in the Lottery’s official “winners” room. Very appropriate!

All of the details can be found on their website www.bluecubeinteractive.com

The CIM Marketing Excellence Awards Ireland took place last night in the City Hall, Belfast. Congratulations to the many winners but particularly to our client BT Northern Ireland who picked up the top prize in the ICT industry Category.

If the Ulster Museum’s most precious objects could talk, what stories might they tell? It’s a question many of Northern Ireland’s most successful poets, writers, artists, designers and photographers have pondered.

We were lucky enough to be invited to contribute to a project that explores this very question - 26 pairs of writers and visual artists were invited to create a personal response to these intriguing objects, and John McDermott from our creative team was paired with Newton Emerson to interpret the museum’s ‘Iron Helmet”.

John’s painting, mixed media on canvas, was created in response to Newton’s 62 written words.

Officer Ruperde Fitztightly was not sure about the new helmets. The eyepiece was meant to look less ‘military’ but the angry peasant didn’t seem too convinced.

“Go back to England you Norman bastard!” he screamed. “And from there go back to France and from there go back to Norway, where your lot belong.”

Dear Christ, Fitztightly groaned. Would this crap never end?

The Ulster Museum is hosting this ‘26 treasures’ exhibition as part of the Belfast Festival at Queen’s and it runs until 14th November 2011. www.26treasures.com

2012 is a year of celebrations, showcasing all that is great about Northern Ireland. There will be 7 signature events happening throughout the year with a full calendar of complementary events. With so many events, celebrations, commemorations and amazing projects coming to completion, this is our time to change perceptions and confidently put Northern Ireland on the global tourism map.

It’s the year we take centre stage with new, iconic visitor attractions, unprecedented events and historic anniversaries. It’s our chance to invite tourists from around the globe to visit us and proudly show off our region.

AV Browne have been working closely with NITB and key stakeholders of the past few months to develop a graphic identity for 2012 that can be adopted by those within the industry.

The year of events was officially launched at the end of September, so find out all about the 7 big events and download your copy of the 2012 guide at nitb.com/ni2012

If you are in Derry over the next day or two you won’t be able to miss the lights illuminating the city skyline. We’ve worked with BT to project a fibre optic light across the city to celebrate having fibre deployed to 100% to the city’s street cabinets - which means access to BT’s super fast Infinity broadband services are now available to approximately 39,000 households and businesses in the area.

See our BT Infinity tv ads here.

Both awards ceremonies are held in early November - our nails will be truly bitten to the quick by then!

We’re not afraid to roll our sleeves up and get our hands dirty for a good cause! Recently Junior Account Director, Sarah Corr, spent the day volunteering with the National Trust at their Belfast Minnowburn site. Weather conditions aside (it was a wet one) it was a great day and definitely a break from the normal Friday! Sarah worked alongside other corporate volunteers from Ipsos MORI, McGrigors and Citigroup, to help plant bluebells in the wild open spaces on Minnowburn’s forest embankment and in the afternoon the heavy lifting really started. Minnowburn are committed to opening up their spaces, removing unnecessary fencing and ensuring natural habitats for wildlife; the afternoon saw the team work hard to remove fencing and posts on a lovely meadow which is being replanted with oaks.

A huge thanks goes out to wardens Craig Somerville and Mick Walls and the rest of the volunteer team for making it such a fun day – definitely time well spent! For your chance to get stuck in, visit here for more details.

Credit: Photo by kind permission of work placement volunteer, Leon Moore.

Rihanna was in town last week (let’s face it, it was pretty difficult not to know!)

We know she’s a big Jameson fan. So much so that she pays tribute to her love of Ireland’s finest whiskey export in her latest song ‘Cheers’. Spotting an opportunity for our client Jameson, we asked the Odyssey to approach ‘Rihanna’s people’ about making a special presentation to her, in the form of a special Jameson gift pack (including a personalised bottle of 12 year old Jameson Reserve) as a memento of her visit to Belfast. Here’s a pic of her after receiving it backstage at Friday night’s gig.

Her response? ‘That’s so cool.’

The life of a celeb eh?

Following a competitive pitch process, we are delighted to announce our appointment as advertising and creative services agency for National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI).  We have been awarded contracts for (1) advertising creative services and media planning/buying and (2) design and delivery of marketing collateral, retail merchandise and point of sale materials.

The contracts encompass the delivery of multiple marketing campaigns annually and provision of all design requirements for the organisation and the NMNI site network.

We have worked with NMNI on numerous projects over the past 4 years, most recently on their TITANICa exhibition & summer campaign (which you can see in our recent work section).  As we enter into  2012, which will be massive for NI tourism, it’s an exciting time to be a part of this with NMNI and we look forward to what the next 18 months will bring!

In June this year we were delighted to announce that the AV Browne PANI /University of Ulster student team came out on top in a contest to develop next generation designers, writers, directors and marketers. Each year PANI run workshops for 36 students with 6 local design agencies. Students are given a live brief and are mentored through the process by the agency, finishing with a nail biting presentation of their campaign to a panel of experts.

This month sees the winning student team campaign go live on behalf of the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service .

The campaign launched on Monday 21st August, across outdoor, press and radio.

Catherine McConalogue, a member of the PANI student winning team who has also recently taken up a year placement within AV Browne said “Not only did I have the opportunity to work with students from other courses, I also had the chance to work in a top design studio. I hope the work that myself and the team created for the NIBTS will encourage people to donate blood and help save  lives”.

Congratulations again to the entire winning PANI student team for their forward thinking and their ability to generate creative campaign ideas. Their mentors at AV Browne were very impressed.

Pictured above from L-R are; Lesley Ann McDonnell (AV Browne), Keri Martin (Clear Channel), Windsor Arnold (AV Browne), Paul McElkerney (NIBTS) and the PANI student winning team

To find out more about the work of the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service,
visit their website - nibts.org

Congratulations to the AV Browne team who raised a total of £2,300 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), the charity that saves lives at sea.

After months of training the day had finally arrived. The challenge was to cycle round Lough Neagh, a breathtaking total of 84 miles.

It wasn’t long however before the team were faced with challenges of their own. Firstly Stephen Moore received a puncture after only 20 miles, followed by a near accident as an excited dog darted in front of the cyclists. Large queues for food stalls meant that the hungry team pushed ahead without refreshments (not including Stephen Moore’s endless supply of sultanas), the final challenge coming in the form of mother nature, as the team cycled head on into gale force winds.

However not to be deterred or wanting to let down all those who sponsored the cycle, the team carried on regardless and after a long and gruelling 6 hours, rolled their way across the finish line.

A massive thank you to all those who generously donated to such a good cause!

Donations can still be made ay http://www.justgiving.com/avbcycle

Pictured above is John McDermott and Stephen Moore.

We are thrilled to announce that following a competitive tender process, we have been retained by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) as their Northern Ireland advertising agency. The new appointment extends the current contract by a minimum of 2 years.

We are the agency behind the successful ‘Explore More’ seasonal campaigns, including the current NITB summer campaign launched on the 10th of June 2011 – across TV, outdoor, radio, press, ambient and online. Check out the latest campaign here…….

Commenting on the appointment NITB’s Destination Marketing and PR manager, Ruth Burns added, ” We are delighted to have retained AV Browne as our advertising agency. Their creativity and drive have been key to developing and executing the successful ‘Explore More’ seasonal campaigns, promoting a great range of things to see and do across Northern Ireland”.

Pictured from left to right at the Titanic Signature Building due to open in 2012, is Gemma Sherlock (Account Director AV Browne), Ruth Burns (Destination Marketing and PR manager NITB) and Stephen Moore (Creative Director AV Browne)

Over the last few months we have been working hard with NIE Energy on their new advertising campaign which launches Monday 1st August. The campaign communicates their new name: Power NI to their Northern Irelandcustomers. The campaign launches with a TV commercial, followed by Outdoor, Online, Radio and Press. Further TV Commercials will follow in the next few weeks.

The commercials were shot in a range of locations throughout Northern Ireland and demonstrate Power NI’s commitment to providing energy to homes, business and farms across the province. We were delighted to be able to use well known local actor Adrian Dunbar as the voice for radio and TV. Local band The Lowly Knights provided the soundtrack.

The workshops pull together expertise in creative, media, marketing and production – giving next generation designers, writers, directors and marketers a real insight into agency life. Five University of Ulster student teams where placed with five leading advertising agencies, who mentored them through a real life client brief from the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service; the aim being to raise awareness and blood donations in people aged 17-65.

From on the ground research, our team discovered that most people thought giving blood was a good idea – but were either scared, or just didn’t know enough about it. Developing a family of illustrated characters and a conversational tone conveyed the key facts without preaching, while clever media choices allowed them to target the full 17-65 age group. After four weeks of hard work, they pitched the campaign to the judging panel, and were announced as the winning team at an exhibition of all the work at the University of Ulster on Thursday.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the students. Their passion, great ideas and teamwork was very inspiring and motivating to all at AV Browne. We can’t wait to help them through the next stage of the process - launching their winning campaign during the summer, so keep your eyes peeled… Pictured are Catherine McConalogue, Clare Corrigan, Gary Rowntree, Kelly Henning, Kevin Rafferty, Melissa Walls and Yeva Gilroy, our student team; Darcie Graham, AV Browne mentor team; Paul McElkerney and Dr Kieran Morris, NIBTS; Jackie Cullen and Tony Axon, PANI.

To find out more about the work of the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service, visit their website - nibts.org