Tonight is the night the Brit Awards rolls into London’s Earls Court with; Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Florence and the Machine, Pixie Lott and JLS all in the running for a possible hat-trick of awards.   As the UK’s biggest music award night, viewers will be treated to performances from Lady Gaga, Kasabian, Cheryl Cole, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, while Prince Harry has recorded a message for the live show, as the ceremony celebrates its 30th anniversary.   The somewhat unlikely host, Peter Kay, is the latest host of the famous awards which began back in 1977. Two special categories have been created...

An entrepreneurial chef and hotel owner is planning to produce Scotland’s first commercially-available wine.  Pete Gottgens, originally from South Africa, has planted vines in the grounds of the Ardeonaig hotel in Perthshire.   Mr Gottgens said: “I don’t for one minute think we are going to rival any of the great wine-producing areas of the world.” He explained that he wanted to sell the wine in his restaurant and also allow guests to see the production process. There are 48 vines in total from four different varieties, in the grounds of the hotel located on the banks of...

Yesterday it was banning smoking in Finland; today there are calls for tighter labelling of alcohol here in the UK. The Tories are proposing to swap the system of using units to tell consumers how much alcohol their drink contains, for one focused on the metric volume of alcohol and the calorie content.   What I want to know is, how come dingy pubs are full of thin and weary looking men, if they’re drinking calorie packed pints every minute they are open. Anyway, the Conservatives plan to negotiate a voluntary agreement with the drinks industry should it come to power this year, as part of its...

  Larger louts, not normally known for their eco friendly stance may be becoming more green then they first realised.   Over the Christmas period the upmarket beer Stella Artois hopes to save one million rainforest trees through a digital ‘Send a Card, Save a Tree’ campaign, which invites their fans everywhere to send a free, augmented reality cards. For every digital card sent, Stella Artois will saved a tree in the threatened Atlantic Rainforest in Argentina’s Misiones Province.   If you live in London you may have seen a sustainably-sourced Christmas tree in the ‘Winter Wonderland’ in...

One of the most popular promotional products are branded ceramics, something that the people at The Mugstore are experts on. However they have recently added a new range of printed glassware on their site, with the bar and café market specifically in mind.   Having branded glassware will add that something extra to the presentation of customers drinks, and to the feel of the business as a whole. The Mugstore can offer any branded glass you could think off, but this affordable range has been specifically added due to their great value for money.   My personal favourites are the cooler range, not...

South African brand Savanna Cider is launching its biggest ever UK on-trade promotion, focused around the world of Facebook. The online competition invites drinkers to “Win your own Savanna party” for you and 99 of your closest friends. The quirky alcoholic drink, is marketed along the lines of; “its dry but you can drink it”.   Their Facebook app allows users to enter 100 friends for their preferred party list. This is then circulated virally to encourage more people to enter, with other links on sites like Bebo and Twitter.   The DJ hosted bash, worth £10k will be held at the Big Chill...

Prêt a Manger those lovely people who supply city workers with their dolphin-friendly tuna sandwiches, has revamped the design of its Pure Prêt sparkling juice drink cans, to draw on its use of natural ingredients. The range features variants such as Grape & Elderflower, Ginger Beer and Yoga Detox Bunny. The cans carry the strap-line ‘absolutely no nasties’ and are now white in colour. Each variant features a different image on the can, created from the ingredients themselves. Grape & Elderflower features an image of a flower made from grapes, Ginger Beer features and image of a dog...

Liverpool‘s new stadium could be named the ‘Carlsberg Anfield’ as the scousers American owners need to get back into the red. Carlsberg have been sponsoring Liverpool for a record 18 years, but seem ready to take things to the next level, by having their whole name emblazoned across the stadium!   Liverpool FC will be following in the foot steps of Arsenal, who sold the naming rights to their stadium to Emirates for a whopping £100m, over a thirteen year period. There may be significant fan backlash on the cards, but for the that kind of money, it may be difficult to refuse.   Gareth...

 The latest mover and shaker in the world of promotions is Carlsberg, who are about to embark on a whopping £7m marketing campaign for San Miguael. This will be the first campaign since Carlsberg took over all marketing responsibilities from the brand last year. It all kicks off on the 9th of May with TV ads, which will run alongside outdoor, print and cinema activity. There will also be some “experimental” activity going on at train stations…   The lager is promoting itself along the line of “Not a quick beer”, with the aim of marketing itself alongside world or luxury beers. With the...

With the bank holiday producing some of the best weather we’ve seen for a long time, the coming summer looks promising.  Lets face it, anything would be better then last year’s so called summer. My latest favourite promotional item for the summertime is this personalised bottle chiller. These promotional bottle chillers will cool your favourite drink with their insulated gel filled coating. These promotional bottle coolers are practical too, as they can be neatly stored flat in the freezer. It doesn’t matter what your favourite summer drink is, as these promotional bottle...