Golden Wonder, Scotland’s very own crisp brand, has signed a deal with STV to sponsor STV Sports News for the next six months.Originally launched over sixty years ago, Golden Wonder’s £500,000 sponsorship investment is the first significant marketing venture for the historic Golden Wonder brand since its acquisition by Tayto in 2006.The deal, which covers sponsorship of the mid week sports bulletins until August 2010 will also be supported by significant sampling at major Scottish sporting events as well as at grass roots football and rugby.The brand is eager to reignite consumer awareness and re-establish Golden Wonder as leader in the Scottish flat crisp market with its ‘full on flavour’ campaign. Elly Hunter, Marketing Director commented, “This is an exciting time for Golden Wonder, initiatives such as the sponsorship of STV Sports News is exactly the type of activity we believe will help us execute our high growth strategy.We took our time to find an impactful, high profile sponsorship deal with exactly the right fit with our customer profile and we look forward to rolling out our extensive sampling and public relations campaign which will also support the brand over the coming months.”Golden Wonder engaged Ardmore Advertising, a full service agency, on the creative. Three different famous sporting moments are replicated in the family focused stings, each with their own touch of humour and legendary Archie Macpherson provides instantly recognisable voice-over commentary.The Golden Wonder portfolio currently houses three ranges, Golden Wonder, Golden Wonder Lights and Ringos.

Davy, Ireland’s leading provider of stockbroking, wealth management and financial advisory services, has awarded Northern Ireland-based artist Ian Cumberland the 2010 Davy Portrait Award, worth £10,000 at a ceremony in Belfast for his captivating oil on board self portrait. The awards, in association with Arts & Business, were open to artists working in traditional and non-traditional media across Ireland. The judging panel comprised Rosie Broadley, Associate Curator of Contemporary Collections at the National Portrait Gallery in London and Brenda McParland, a renowned International Curator and Arts Management Professional in Contemporary Visual Arts. Cumberland describes the winning portrait as ‘A celebration of flaws using the marks and colour of the paint to accurately portray the flesh and bring out all the imperfections that everyone has. From a distance the painting is very realistic, but up close its quite uneven’. Ian studied ‘Fine and Applied Arts’ at University of Ulster and has exhibited at numerous solo and group exhibitions across Ireland and the UK, including Royal Ulster Academy exhibitions and the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2009 as part of the BP Portrait Awards which then toured to the Dean Gallery of the National Galleries of Scotland. Ian’s ‘Self Portrait’ can be viewed alongside 28 other shortlisted paintings selected from over 300 entries at the 2010 Davy Portrait Awards exhibition which takes place at the Naughton Gallery in Belfast from Friday 26th February 2010 and will then move to the Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin in April.

Energy Minister Arlene Foster has launched the ‘Big Change’ gas safety awareness campaign in Belfast, today.The campaign is aimed at helping all 150,000 gas consumers in Northern Ireland better understand the switch over from the CORGI to the Gas Safe Register scheme for gas installers. The switch over will bring Northern Ireland into line with Great Britain. From the beginning of April 2010, anyone undertaking the installation, maintenance or repair of a gas appliance must be legally registered on the Gas Safe Register. Membership of the register will give the public an assurance that the gas engineers working in their homes are trained and competent to do a safe job.

Staff and management of Ards Shopping Centre have chosen The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association as their official “Charity of the Year” and the first initiative saw the charity visit the mall on Valentine’s weekend to give true romantics a chance to sponsor a guide dog puppy for their Valentine. Kicking off Ards Shopping Centre’s year long charity events calendar, the launch day on Saturday 13th February saw the charity distribute information, collect vital funds as well as well as allowing shoppers to show their loved ones just how big their hearts really are this Valentines. For a small donation of as little as £5 per month, sponsors will receive a special welcome pack, photographs of the puppy, regular ‘pupdates’ on the puppy’s progress and a calendar of the dogs in training. The perfect Valentine’s gift for the person who has everything!

LJK Communications has scooped the top award of Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy at the annual CIPR Pride Awards 2009, held to celebrate the achievements of Northern Ireland’s finest Public Relations professionals.The eight strong agency, which recently embarked on a re-brand strategy which saw the company introduce their new name, LJK (Larkin Jago Keane) Communications, warded off heavy competition from many long-standing consultancies to receive the highly respected accolade, presented to the agency who demonstrate industry excellence for a period of up to three years. The CIPR Awards is the only is the only awards scheme showcasing the best PR work being carried out across the UK regions and nations, and this year attracted over 1,400 entries. The judging process is rigorous with a national panel of industry experts assessing the shortlist entries and choosing the winners. There were over 125 entries in the Northern Ireland competition with 80 shortlisted from the public and private PR sectors..