Cork Zombie Walk 2010

In a bizarre event, Cork was besieged by zombies this Halloween. These hordes of undead weren't walking around looking for brains though; they were walking for charity.

What started off as a "Wouldnt it be cool if" Conversation between Edu and Chris, turned into something colossal almost over night thanks to their Facebook group and website The Resistanz. The walk started in the green area just above Bruce College on Patricks Hill at 4pm and after invading the city finished upVineyard Bar on Patrick Street

There was a great turn out and the effort made was beyond belief. The originality of the zombie attire was just awesome. My personal favorite had to be a gentleman dressed as Jesus, a clever take on the “zombie” genre. Other get ups included doctors, school pupils, businessmen and even a very disturbing clown…

The walk itself was hilarious. It’s actually pretty hard to act scary when you’re stumbling around shouting GRR and ARRRGH. We were blessed with the weather (maybe due to zombie Jesus) and as weird as we looked anyway at least we weren’t wet. The wrap party took place in the Vineyard with food and well-deserved pints. The bands Dirty Fix and Circus Cat provided the entertainment as well as Chris and Edu’s cheesy zombie mix tape.

Since the first walk was so successful its just going to have to become a yearly tradition that should only get bigger and better becoming more of a spectacle every year.More photos can be found on the Resistenz website.

Burning up at Cork x SW

The annual madness that is the Murphy's CorkxSW music festival in Skibereen on July 31st lived up to its reputation from previous years as the Rocket crew descended on the campsite in full festival mode and set up our company field HQ. The weather was scorching and we did the time old irish trick of forgetting to bring sun screen as packing it would only cause storm clouds to gather. Needless to say the office were glowing heading back to Cork on Sunday night - nothing quite like burning in a tan!

Anyway I digress, this year we were spoilt for choice with 4 tents to choose from, the Realt dearg tent was a great eclectic presence and there was much shaking and shape throwing done in the De Barra tent. We were all lubricated up in time for Martha Wainright when she took to the mainstage. The party continued well into the night, some members of staff even made new friends - Edu now has somewhere to stay when he visits Wexford! Sure tis all the fun of a festival like......

Racing the waves - Ocean to City 2010

"Damhanfhalla", Rocket Media's company currach was in flying form last week, in the Ocean to City 15 mile rowing race from Crosshaven to Roches point and back in to Cork City. The conditions were perfect for rowing, a beautiful calm day with a small bit of breeze to keep us cool.
There were over 74 boats taking part this year, from kayaks to coastal rowing boats and the 10 seater Bantry bay Longboats.

Competition was fierce amoung the currach's - our club Naomhóga Chorcaí has 7 currachs in the race and the friendly rivalry ensured a blistering pace was set. Rocket Media's boat tucked in behind the lead boat and we followed them out to Roches point. There was a nice bit of swell which Damhanfhalla handled admirably. We then headed straight back to Cobh harbour where the first of the crowds were gathered. Cheered on we rowed past the the old dockyards and Passage. By the time Blackrock Castle was sighted, we were three hours into the race and the team were getting tired. We had opened up a 2 minute lead from our closest currach. The heads were dipping so the captain roared and the last mile was torturous but the city was in sight and so too the finish-line. We crossed it after 3hours ans 15 minutes to claim the prize of fastest currach in our class. There was a fair few celebratory pints downed in the sextant and the cup was filled up a few times. Team Rocket  - uber alles!

A Marathon session!

Team Rocket Media competed again in the 2010 Cork City Marathon, Ian, Martin & Edu joined an estimated 10,000 other runners on the June bank holiday Monday. Preparations for this years race included a complete abstinence from alcohol consumption, at least 6 hours before the race. Edu gave up smoking the day before and Ian had last put on a pair of runners 6 in early April.

At a hasty conference convened 10 minutes before the start, we decided our strategy. Due to the heavy rain, cold wind and general air of misery we adopted a lets keep going until the legs give out policy. Martin set a blistering pace, carving a swath through the field of runners. Ian meanwhile found inspiration from a particularly attractive female athlete, managed to match her momentum (not to be confused with stalking) and pass out Martin.

The weather then took a turn for the worse as the course followed the exposed shoreline of lough Mahon. The vertical rain was very refreshing, by this stage Ian inspiration had disappeared and Martin had caught up with him again. Together they battled the conditions until the 16 mile mark, at which point Martin baled out. Ian bravely ran on to the 20 mile mark where Edu picked up the pace and being on his homeground sprinted off into the distance thereby allowing team Rocket to well up the field in the relay placements. Ian continued to finish the entire marathon coming in at a respectable 4hrs 23 minutes.

Four days on he is still walking like John Wayne and the share of sudo cream have shot through the roof! The rest of the Monday was spent re-hydrating sensibly with burgers and beer. That's company policy - work hard, play harder!!!

Office Contest - Eurovision Song Contest!

The fun of having an international office team (consisting of Irish, British, Spanish, Italian and German lads n ladies) is that we get to pick on one another when it comes to big international events (and all the other times as well, but that’s a different story!). The most recent big event that the world saw was last weekend’s Eurovision song contest!

Well, the Italians bailed out before it had started and didn’t even take part. One competitor less for the rest of us!

Ireland sent 1993’s winner Niamh Kavanagh again who presented a great voice and was the only contestant to receive standing ovations – but did she look a bit too old now for this contest that has gotten pretty modern and pop in the last years? She only made it to place 23 out of 25.

Spain even got a better chance this year as they were allowed to perform twice; their first performance was disturbed by a streaker who jumped the stage and danced around for about half a minute before he was chased off. Still, Spain only landed on 15th position.

We’re not even speaking much about the UK; they’ve won the title 5 times in history, but in recent years they always lingered around the bottom of the list, and this year it was last place for cutie Josh with a – sorry – boring song.

Unbelievably, this year’s winner is – drum roll – Germany! After 28 years, we’re taking the cup home again! Still can’t quite believe it, I thought we would never stand our ground against all the Eastern European countries who seem to always just vote for one another, but apparently the German singer Lena had just the right mix of youth, talent, good looks, great song and personality!

Strangely, I feel kind of proud and quite confident now that Germany will also win the soccer world cup, which is kicking off in just a few days!! The bet is on, lads!

Rocket Media - rockin out!

All fun and no play makes for no inter office gossip!
Last friday night, we went to see the Corona's play as part of Murphy's Little Big Nights Out in An Bróg.
Rocket Media developed website www.littlebignightout.com which enables the good people of Cork attend these great events. We also designed the advertising POS suite for the event - so it was terribly important we be there in person to make sure they crowd got it!

The fact that there were some freebie creamy pints  of Murphy's had nothing to do with it! The Coronas  were in flying form and the venue was packed - great vibes and good tunes - tho' Linda was "pretending' to be media shy!

Off to the races...

Ian from rocket media, looking at the beamish mallow races

Mallow racecourse hosted an Easter festival of horse racing. Beamish were a premuim sponsor of the event so Rocket Media spent the all of March designing a point of sale suite for use in 25 pubs around Mallow town and a visability suite for the race track.

The theme was developed as an extension of the above the line campaign - Beamish - its all about the racing. We design and print managed the entire visibility suite - this will be used over the course of the summer at 4 other nation hunt gatherings with exposure to over 200,000 people.

Of course we had to ensure that it looked as well on the ground as it did onscreen - so off to the races we went. Our good luck held and few wisely placed bets on some of the favourites ensured we had some change in our pockets at the end of the day, though for the record I (Martin) made more money that Ian. Twas a good day all round and Beamish were delighted with the visibilty suite and Easter Sunday had the highest attendance record for the last three years - giddy up!

Relaunching Richmond Marketing Website

Richmond Marketing are Ireland's largest independent Drinks marketing company.
The manage the distribution rights for some of the worlds leading brands including Red Bull and Miller.

Their previous site was very basic, had limited content management and did not reflect the dynamic nature or the high profile of their work.

Rocket Media designed an interface that gave equal footing to all brands while allowing the Richmond logo to be central stage as they act as the ambassador in Ireland for each of their clients.

Richmond were delighted with the end result - a quick comparison with the previous site will give you an indication of how far into the present Rocket Media have brought them!

Rocket in disguise! St Patrick's day Cork

After a throw away comment of "lets be transformers" in the Paddy's day parade, and a few weeks of literal 'team building', our creative side project (or just arsing around, living out childhood fantasies) transformed into a fantastic day. We even managed to make national TV! The Autobots (and Decepticons) rolled out on Patrick's Street today, just in case St.Patrick's cane wasn't enough to scare those snakes away.

Have a look at the pics, they're more than meets the eyes, you could say we're in our prime, absolutely mega(tron), I think you'll agree we were pretty hot(rod)... yep, I went there! Enjoy

Yakity yak, Don't talk back

Take out the papers and the trash, Or you don't get no spending cash, If you don't scrub that kitchen floor, You ain't gonna rock 'n' roll no more Yakity yak, Don't talk back. The point of the site is not to talk back but to shout, scream or dance to convey their point. This interactive site encourages engagement, creative involvement among the youth groups of west cork, enabling them to express themselves creatively. So if you are feeling like a moody teenage, that nobody gets you and the world is against you - well then the good people at YAAC (Youths Arts Advisory Committee) have the site for you - www.yaac.ie