Des Lynam becomes 'Setanta Claus'

With Christmas just a few weeks away, here's my first festive post.

It's the new TV ad from Setanta Sports, featuring legendary walrus-moustached presenter Des Lynam.

It breaks on Saturday during the commercial break for Family Fortunes, and features Des playing the part of 'Setanta Claus'.

You can watch Des's ad on the Guardian site here.

And there's more...

I forgot to mention the PR for TapThat.co.uk last week on Brandrepublic.com - the 'bible' for those who work in the marketing, advertising, media and pr industries.

Check out their article here.

Nice PR for TapThat.co.uk

TapThat.co.uk has gained some useful PR this week in the form of an article in trade magazine Recruiter.

This has a circulation of nearly 30,000 people who work within the recruitment industry. The equivalent ad value of the space is around £850.

The story has also been aggregated onto Google News so will reach a possible audience of millions.

You can read the article on Recruiter's website here.

Possibly the best advert in the world?

Courtesy of Simon Rowland (Quelle suprise)...

Press release of the week

Nation Thinking About Sport During Sex

17 per cent of UK males and 10 per cent of females admit to thinking about sport whilst in the heat of passion, according to a study by Setanta Sports News, the 24-hour rolling sports new channel.

Setanta Sports News found that the nation’s sporting fixation doesn’t interfere with just sex; it also affects other events: 23 per cent of men said they had stood someone up on a date to catch up on their team, a further 20 per cent admitted to missing a friend’s wedding due to a vital sporting engagement and an incredible 4 per cent even said they had missed the birth of their child to watch their team play.

Editor in Chief, Setanta Sports News, Geoff Hill, commented: “As we planned the launch of our sports news channel, we knew we were dealing with a subject that was close to people’s hearts but we have really uncovered just how passionate people are about sport! It’s clear people spend a great deal of time, and much of that time is in the most personal situations, obsessing about their favourite sports and teams. We have designed our new channel with this in mind, to be a home for fans to honestly and passionately share their love of sport.”

Setanta Sports News presenter Kelly Dalglish said: “We knew men were sports-obsessed but I think most women would be astonished to know men even think about sport during sex.”
Despite recent disappointments including Lewis Hamilton’s failure to win the F1 Championship, a rugby World Cup final defeat and the disaster of England failing to qualify for Euro 2008, British sports fans clearly have sport on the brain.

Results reveal that 26 per cent of Brits thinks about sport every hour of the day, including a staggering 1.2 million of the population who think about sport every 5 seconds!

When asked the situations they found themselves thinking about sport, the great British public came up with some surprising responses including at funerals, weddings and even on the toilet!

Yes, it’s official, the most popular time for mulling over the latest England formation, Andy Murray’s forehand or the offside rule, according to 56 per cent of Brits, is on the toilet. Further results revealed that sport is far more important to Brits than what could be considered bigger issues, including world peace, politics and even the latest celebrity news story. 62 per cent of the UK revealed that they would rather spend their time thinking about their team or sport than world peace with celebrity gossip (54 per cent) and politics (51 per cent) also seen as inferior in importance to sport.

Video killed the radio star

New to friday-ad.co.uk recently are Video Ads. These have been introduced as another way for customers to help sell their items or promote their businesses.

Rob Hancock has been out in Uckfield with his handy cam and as a result there are some great video ads now populating the site.

There's a range of videos online now - everything from the Seagulls shop to the Cock & Bull to Christmas trees...




Check them out and find your favourite.

Video ads can be posted by customers using our Place An Ad service online.

Not FAD related, but very good...

This is just an excuse for me to include a surfing video here, but I'm sure you'll agree it's worth it...



Teahupoo, on the island of Tahiti a couple of weeks ago.

New sales manager for IRT

With Paul Cruise's imminent departure to Pembroke, Ian Partington has now taken over the responsibility for the sales of the four IRT websites.

Gavin (Pitts) and Stuart (Fowler) are running the team on a day-to-day basis and should be the first point of contact for any queries.

Good work Pembroke!

Congratulations to our Pembroke office who in the end raised a total of £1550 for this year's Children in Need.

Here's a final update on the action...



The Prettiest Pets competition ended on Friday - people paid 50p to enter their pets and 20p to vote - Bruce the cat won with 69 votes!! Her owners Shaun Barcoe and Sian Matthews are very proud!! In second place was Jack the Jack Russell, owned by Jo Hicks and third place was Eric, owned by Sarah and Janet Collins. Special mention to Steph Wainright and her entry Beauty Boy who would have come third except he wasn't her horse, she borrowed his pic from Horsemart!!

The guess the teddy bears name was won by Will Jones - the name was Noah, his grandsons name!

The sweets were won by Angela Davies - she correctly guessed there were 300 sweets in the jar.

We also had some Pudsey bear scratchcards - the winners were Kate Adams and Sian Matthews who each won a bottle of wine!

Also, the photos are being uploaded onto the BBC website - www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey.

Ahoy there mateys...another aquisition for the Friday Group

In case you missed the email, here's some news from Rob:

For some of you this may be old news but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to let everyone know that last week we completed the acquisition of Marine Trader Media which owns boatshop24.com, boatshop24.co.uk and two monthly magazines Boat Trader and Boats & Yachts for Sale.

Boatshop24.com effectively covers the whole of Europe and we will be looking to extend it’s reach further – when combined with Boatsandoutboards.co.uk we are the number one marine classified site in the whole of Europe and only just short of being number one in the world!

The magazines enable us to offer a complete marketing solution for boat brokers and marine related advertising.

With the acquisition came offices in Chichester and Hamburg and another 22 people joined the Friday Holdings Group – most of them get to visit us next week.

Rob

Huge success for Pembroke's Children in Need fundraising

Updates from Shaun Barcoe about their hugely successful week of Children in Need fundraising.

The auction alone raised over £1000 and there is money to come in still from lots of other activities.

Here's a video of some of the auction, showing just how competitive the bidding was...

Here's a list of who won what in the auction and how much they paid (Karen - I would have paid much more than £26 for a date!):

Child's mermaid fancy dress costume, age 9-10yrs, green - Won by Ruth Thompson £5.00
Meal for 2 in the Pembroke Ferry Inn - Won by Frank Farrer £15.00
4 tickets for Folly Farm - Won by Jayne Dalgleish £13.00
2 tickets to see Dads Army in the Swansea Grand theatre - Won by Rob Watts £32.00
2 tickets for Bath Christmas market, including bus - Won by Judith James £18.00
2 x 20 lap tickets for BP Karting - Won by Mike Cockburn £18.00
Dance UK Wireless Karaoke microphone for PS2 - Won by Dave Hayes £10.00
£30 voucher for Pembroke Carvery - Won by Alan Muir £25.00
£10 voucher for Moon and Sixpence or Vincent Davies - Won by Roy Thomas £10.00
Family ticket (2 adults and 4 children) for National Botanical Garden - Won by Paul Davies £12.00
2 adults and 3 child's tickets for Techniquest, Cardiff - Won by Jo-Ceri Lewis £15.00
Real silver bracelet with lilac stones - Won by Val Smith £15.00
£10 jewellery voucher for use when the jewellery lady is here on 4th December - Won by Jayne Dalgleish £10.00
1 months free membership for Curves gym in Pembroke - Won by Angelina Dyne £5.00
Autographed photos of Fern Britton, Philip Schofield and a "This Morning" funny bits dvd - Won by Gavin Davies £25.00
£10 voucher for Premier Meats - Won by Jayne Dalgleish £7.00
Official BBC Children In Need Pudsey bear - Won by Angelina Dyne £11.00
£100 Thomas Cook voucher - Won by Angela Davies £50
Victoria Beckham Perfume - Won by Karen Lewis £18.00
Date with Karen Lewis (Inc. Dinner) - Gavin Davies £26.00
Date with our very own ex-Pro Wrestler Gavin Davies (Inc. Dinner) - Won by Jenna Clemance £32.00
Necklace and Earring set - Won by Victoria Hussey £11.00

Shaun also wants to give his thanks on behalf of everyone to Margi Jenkins and Kate Adams, who have worked really hard to get the prizes for auction and the prizes for the raffles.

Also! There is plenty more to come, with raffles and games on Friday! Any donations would be gratefully accepted!

Does your boss have the X-Factor?

This was forwarded to me by Sarah, who is hopefully not hinting she wishes I was more like Sharon Osbourne...

People starting out in their working lives really want their employer to have the X-Factor, according to a survey released today. The ‘Dream Jobs’ research conducted by Alliance & Leicester Premier 21 Current Accounts revealed Sharon Osborne was the young professional’s most popular choice when asked which celebrity they would most like to have as their boss.

The survey comes as part of a new programme by Alliance & Leicester to support their market-leading Premier 21 Current Account, which offers people starting out in their working lives the unique opportunity to spend a day with one of ten celebrity professionals including chef James Martin, business guru Tim Campbell and designer Wayne Hemmingway.

The research also revealed that while being an X-Factor judge might boost your popularity, if you’re considering entering next year’s Big Brother, you might want to think again. Reality contestant, along with politician, was voted the least sexy profession by 16-21 year olds. Unsurprisingly, policeman and fireman came out top as the hottest job for a man, confirming the stereotype that most women can’t resist a man in uniform!

Sharon Osborne came top of the list of celebrity bosses, which included Homer Simpson, Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela. For once she managed to beat Simon Cowell for the top spot - he’ll be disappointed with third place. The future doesn’t bode well for conservative leader David Cameron however who, as well as being a politician, came bottom of the list after Jose Mourinho and Darth Vader.

Andy Bayes, Head of Current Accounts at Alliance & Leicester commented: “Regardless of whether your career path takes you in the direction of your dream job, or towards something you had not previously considered, one thing that everyone will need from the time they start their working lives is sound advice. As part of the ‘Premier 21 Mentor Scheme’ we have brought together some of the most successful people in their chosen careers. What better advice can youngsters get than from people at the top of their game who have been there, done that and got the T-shirt?”

Dream Jobs Stats:
· Women still love a man in uniform, with policeman and fireman being voted sexiest job for a man
· Respondents voted politicians and reality show contestants the least sexy profession with less than 1% voting them the sexiest
· Actor was voted the most glamorous job
· More people are willing to be an escort or stripper than they are a toilet attendant, with 90% of young people saying they would not be willing to work as a toilet attendant
· Working as an escort proved more popular with men, with twice as many males as females saying they would consider being an escort as a profession
· Despite the prevalence of reality talent shows, 60% of 16-21 year olds are currently striving to be a businessman/business woman

Pembroke Children in Need update

Another lot has been added to the auction - a £100 voucher for Thomas Cook in Haverfordwest.

Plus here's a photo of Niki's hair that she had done at the weekend...

Shame it's not the good old Pantone 375 (only Design and Studio will understand that I think!)

Another crew member for the Friday Group

We recently completed the acquisition of Mailspeed Marine, which is the UK's largest mail order chandlers.

They are based in the Northwest of England, with a retail unit and warehousing facilities, plus two further retail stores in Essex.

Chris explained the reasons behind this acquisition: "We have made this purchase as it offers us the perfect opportunity to use it to form the basis of our future retail operations.

"Their extensive facilities mean we can add products to the warehouse to fulfill our other retail areas (equestrian, snow sports, motorbikes etc).

"It also allows us to extend our LetsGoShopping brand, with the eventual aim being to have retail channels for all of our relevant websites."

Green hair, diets and Pudsey at Pembroke

The guys and girls in Pembroke are making a big effort this year to raise funds for BBC's Children in Need.

They are doing lots of things this week including:

- Guess the teddy bears name
- Raffle
- Prettiest pets competition
- Niki Favorido is being sponsored to dye her hair green
- Angela Davies is doing a sponsored diet (4.5lbs so far and most people are sponsoring her £1 per 1lb!!)
- Auction

For the auction itself they have managed to get loads of great lots including:

- Child's mermaid fancy dress costume, age 9-10yrs, green
- Meal for 2 in the Pembroke Ferry Inn
- 4 tickets for Folly Farm
- 2 tickets to see Dads Army in the Swansea Grand theatre
- 2 tickets for Bath Christmas market, including bus
- 2 x 20 lap tickets for BP Karting
- Dance UK Wireless Karaoke microphone for PS2
- £30 voucher for Pembroke Carvery
- £10 voucher for Moon and Sixpence or Vincent Davies
- Family ticket (2 adults and 4 children) for National Botanical Garden
- 2 adults and 3 child's tickets for Techniquest, Cardiff
- Real silver bracelet with lilac stones
- £10 jewellery voucher for use when the jewellery lady is here on 4th December
- 1 months free membership for Curves gym in Pembroke
- Autographed photos of Fern Britton, Philip Schofield and a "This Morning" funny bits dvd
- £10 voucher for Premier Meats
- Official BBC Children In Need Pudsey bear

Although many of these items are local to Pembroke, if anyone from the other offices wants to bid on something then please contact Ann Jones, and she will bid on your behalf.
Email - ann.jones@friday-ad.co.uk or call her on extension 6705

More from Spain

With the first publication of the new Costa Blanca Friday-Ad hitting the streets tomorrow (09/11/07), here's a quick "Who's Who" from Marion who was out training staff in the new Costa Blanca office...

The new office is in Villa Martin, just outside Torrevieja. Tim Kafourous will be looking after the Sales Operation in the Costa Blanca, in addition to the existing Costa del Sol edition

The new reps working on the new edition are Graeme Nicol, Nick Da Roza, and Vicky Knight, who are all English and living in the local area.

Jean Pickering has also taken the big step of moving to Spain from Bristol, where she was previously a field sales rep for Trade-It. Her partner Mark will also be working for Friday-Ad in Spain, doing a combination of field sales and distribution.

Before we'd even opened for business we had people coming in the door to place ads, so the signs are great!

You've seen the bricks, now check out the website

Following on from ‘those brick posters’ that graced our office walls recently, all has become clear with the launch of TapThat.co.uk.

TapThat.co.uk is the UK representative of an international family of community websites that are based on a common platform and have shared development. They are currently operating in Hungary and Romania, with another three countries planned to launch before the end of this year.

TapThat.co.uk is a free community website that aims to support and develop local communities by getting their residents to interact online.

The main reason for the launch is to take on sites such as Gumtree.co.uk in cities like London, where Friday-Ad.co.uk is not so prominent.

Despite having some classified content, TapThat.co.uk differs from Friday-Ad.co.uk (and Trade-It.co.uk) in that there is more of an emphasis on listings of local events, services and news, and getting users to interact via discussion boards.

The site also has a strong charity angle, with partnerships set up with a number of leading UK charities. Planned developments to the site mean that anyone advertising their items for sale for free can then opt to make a charitable donation when listing the item, or sell first and donate the proceeds.

Competitions, discount offers and e-cards will all add to the TapThat experience for users.

The site officially launches today (1st November), with online and offline marketing kicking off over the next few weeks.

For more information about TapThat.co.uk contact Jodie Oliver on extension 7507 or email jodie.oliver@tapthat.co.uk

IRT are the best

Well I would say that as I'm hugely biased, but as well as driving the best cars, having the best taste in music and having the tallest person in the world on the team, the sales boys can also make money.

Last month's team target was the year's biggest to date at £135,000, but the chaps pulled together and pulled out all the stops to beat it by £7,468.

Not only that, but they also beat the Quarter 3 target by £8,558!

Celebrations are set to coincide with the leaving drink for Justin O'Connor, our Scottish-based Irishman, who is leaving the company after over 5 years. Plans are vague at this stage but the fact that Spearmint Rhinos has opened in Brighton is no coincidence.

Swearing is ****ing good for us

That's several 10ps in the swear box for us then...

Swearing in the office relieves stress and is good for workers and bosses, according to a new study.

Foul language creates a good team spirit, allows staff to vent frustrations and cements relationships, researchers discovered.

Professor Yehuda Baruch from the University of East Anglia oversaw the survey of around 100 people in Britain and the US.

He said: "Employees use swearing on a continuous basis but not necessarily in a negative, abusive manner."

Women swore more than expected - especially among themselves.

The research found a ban on swearing would be bad for motivation and morale in most firms.

Prof Baruch said: "Swearing is used as a social phenomenon to reflect solidarity and enhance group cohesiveness or as a psychological phenomenon to release stress.
"The primary issue for management is whether or not to apply a tolerant leadership culture to the workplace and deliberately allow swearing."

But the professor warned abusive and offensive swearing caused stress and should be stamped out.

He added: "Managers need to understand how their staff feel about swearing. The challenge is to master the art of knowing when to turn a blind eye."

It's the new black don't you know...

Visitors to our online retail site Lets Go Shopping recently were suprised to find that they could become instant trendsetters if they bought a pair of Musto GP race shoes. Not only would they be getting a pair of practical of boating boots, but they could choose this season's new colour combination...

The dangers of typing too quickly...

Yes it should have been "Spanish" not "Spainish", but what's an extra "i" between friends?!