DUBLIN-BASED Ads in Store has extended its agreement with DSG, owners of Dixons, Currys and PC World, to broadcast its advertising service at the company's 21 Irish outlets.

The service is run on a 15minute loop over all screens in each store via a broadband connection, and each store can run separate ads if required. Limerickbased Sentiera is providing the content.

Ads in Store's managing director, Mark Ryder, said last week that RTE has been signed up as one of the first advertisers on the service, which starts tomorrow. It will be running ads encouraging people to buy their TV licences. The company is in talks with a number of other potential clients, Ryder added.

Last year Ads in Store inked a deal with DSG to run the service in 200 British Dixons stores and 370 Currys outlets.

Advertisers in the UK have included heavyweights such as Mitsubishi and Honda.

Ryder described the concept has "Screenery", a term being used in the US for such blanket in-store advertising, targeting 25- to 35-year-olds primarily. The company has just finalised extra funding of 150,000 from a private Irish investor towards marketing and other expenses. Former McConnells chairman and chief executive Aidan Dunne joined the firm as a director about a month ago.

He was also the former chief executive of Dublin-based Newstalk 106.

FLORA SPREADS MINI MARATHON SUPPORT

FLORA margarine has agreed to spend 1.2m to renew its sponsorship of the Women's Mini Marathon in another three-year deal.

The contract begins next year. The latest mini marathon was held last weekend and attracted roughly 40,000 entrants.

Over 95m has been raised for Irish charities since the event began in 1983.

BIRD FLYING THE COOP MAY STYMIE SCOOP

ORLA BIRD, public relations manager for Meteor mobile, is flying the coop to a new nest at Ulster Bank, sources say.

Observers will be forgiven for wondering how her father, RTE scoop lightning rod Charlie Bird, will now report on that financial institution in future, given his penchant for sniffing out banking sector stories.

GIRAFFE GOES NATURAL FOR REBRAND LAUNCH

THE marketing agency Event Solutions, which counts Tayto, IBM and Delta Air Lines among its clients, rebranded this week as Giraffe Marketing, complete with launch inside what looks to be the Natural History Museum.

AdLib did not receive an invitation but nevertheless decided to give some space to wonder how many of the other 10,000 animals within the museum's Victorian facade might lend themselves for use as branding opportunities.

STOUT PUSH ON PRICE FOR SUNSHINE DAYS

These are the cursed days for stout brands, as sales slump once the sun comes out. Little wonder then that Beamish & Crawford is touting the fact that a pint of its plain can be 50 cent cheaper per pint in pubs than its "nearest rival".

The stout market has been a declining one in recent years, as lager and wine sales have soared and consumers opted to load up on cheap bottles of beer to drink at home. It has all made for some depressing trends for Guinness, Murphy's and Beamish.

Bulmers also rolled out a new summer campaign this week, with creative work by Young Euro RSCG. It will run during June and July on TV and outdoor.

EAGLE STAR SWOOPS IN ON SSIA FEEDING FRENZY

EAGLE STAR is the latest financial services firm to get in on the SSIA fever. It launches what it says will be its "biggest ever" advertising campaign tomorrow, with TV, outdoor, press and radio adverts to run over the next 12 months to capitalise on maturing accounts.

Unsurprisingly, the adverts will attempt to persuade savers to re-invest their money. The ads were devised by Grey Helme and produced by Toytown Films, with Mediacom handling the buying. Eagle Star would not divulge the cost of the campaign.

LIFE AFTER DEATH AT FORMER BEWLEYS

AFTER the outcry over Bewleys abandoning Dublin's Grafton Street and the tears shed as it closed its doors in 2004, it seems like a distant memory.

Investors woke up and smelt the coffee, and the store was reopened after a six-month refit by Jay Bourke and Eoin Foyle, who own a number of Dublin bars. The store launched its first-ever advertising campaign last week. The two-week campaign is running on Dart and Luas cards, as well as Dublin Bus, local radio and print media.