However, the group's music has already been used in a number of television adverts, selling products from beer to mobile phone services.

U2 has discovered just how lucrative tie-ups can be, having lent its name and music to the promotion of a custom-made Apple iPod to promote its album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

The move helped to significantly boost Apple's profit figures, while the first single from the album, 'Vertigo', shot to the top of the iTunes download site after it was used in an Apple commercial.

NO RUCKS BREWING YET FOR HEINEKEN For rugby fans, it's a big day today as Munster and Leinster go head to head at Lansdowne Road in the Heineken Cup. While there have been previous grumbles from the French about how the sponsorship money is doled out, Heineken's events and sponsorship manager in Ireland, Pat Maher, says the disquiet has little impact on the brand. Just how long drinks sponsorship will be permitted, certainly under Irish law, remains open to question following previous calls for the alcoholsporting relationship to be disbanded. Maher says he ?thinks in the present" and won't be drawn on the potential impact of a ban on sponsorship from drinks companies, but maintains that the group strictly adheres to alcohol sponsorship guidelines.

Sports sponsorship has become a massive industry.

The market is now worth an estimated $43bn, according to Sponsorclick, which advises companies on what sports to back.

Last week a deal between the Emirates airline and Fifa underscored just how lucrative it can be. The carrier agreed to pay $195m to display its branding at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups and at all tournaments sanctioned by the football body. Last year Adidas paid $351m in a similar deal. Emirates is also paying over NUMBER_STRING140m to sponsor Arsenal football club and have naming rights to its new stadium.

CUSTOMER STILL ALWAYS RIGHT A study of 2,300 British consumers by Harris Interactive has found that 65% of all respondents had moved their business elsewhere after a bad service experience, while 27% said that once their custom is lost, it is lost forever. Although the data is from the UK, it is highly likely that the results would be mirrored in Ireland, where customer service is often patchy at best. The benefits of good customer service were highlighted by the survey, in which 78% of respondents said that they would be more likely to ?greatly or somewhat" increase their custom on the basis of consistently excellent service. Branding and advertising can work, but customer service can be the final deciding factor in brand and service loyalty.

TRUMP DRIVING PEOPLE TO DRINK A US drinks company has said advance sales of its Donald Trump-branded vodka have topped 40,000 cases, or about $5m worth of revenue prior to its launch next month in the US, proving the fact that you can sell just about anything. The company behind the product, Drinks America Holdings, has a portfolio that also includes Willie Nelson's Whiskey River Bourbon and Paul Newman's Own Lightly Sparkling Fruit Juice Drinks. Unsurprisingly, it always believed Trump would be a winner.

In our view, the Trump name is one of the most recognisable and valuable global trademarks in existence today, synonymous with the very best in class, " claimed Drinks America's chief executive, Patrick Kenny.

Mmm. Ad Lib thinks that it you were to ask a resident of Lahore or Lagos whether they recognised a CocaCola bottle or a photo of Donald Trump, the outcome would be a surefire certainty. Trump, you're fired.