Website aids core business

It seems that no sooner has someone put a dot com after a name than they become multimillionaires by floating the company.

So it was predictable, perhaps, that one of the questions pitched at Ms Maeve Donovan, commercial director of The Irish Times, during a Marketing Institute breakfast yesterday concerned the likelihood of the company selling off Ireland.com, its Web portal. The response was a swift no but she did hint that future developments would bring the site further down the e-commerce road.

She added that, rather than threatening the sales of the hard copy of the paper, having a successful website had resulted in cross-promotional benefits which supported increasing circulation.

First Active wins the prize for this week's funniest advertising debut. Its new £2 million (€2.54 million) campaign was directed by Declan Lowney of Father Ted fame and stars comedian Pat McDonnell, who will be familiar to viewers of Don't Feed the Gondolas.

The campaign covers all First Active services and will run for the rest of the year on television and radio. The first advertisements aired featured the company's mortgage services and its offbeat tone is certainly a major departure for Irish financial institutions, which traditionally advertise mortgages by showing eager young house-hunting couples rather than a demented young man with holes in his shoes.

The campaign was devised by Young Advertising.

Chocolate-makers in Britain are targeting hungry travellers by introducing orange-scented bus tickets to mark the launch of the new Choc`n'Orange Twix bar.

More than 15 million specially printed bus tickets are being issued to passengers all over the UK. The aroma of fresh oranges is released if customers scratch the ticket.

Mars Confectionery, which makes the new bar, said the tickets were designed to appeal to young people.

Spokeswoman Ms Kay Nicholls said: "Bus travel fitted the bill and is especially apt as the Twix Choc`n'Orange campaign theme is `catch one while you can'."

Mr Martin Henson of advertising agency Image, which came up the idea, said: "Scented bus tickets are a fabulous way of letting millions of people know about a product like this."