Six British-based agencies have presented credentials for the £10 million (#12.7 million) Tourist Brand Ireland advertising account. In all, 20 tenders were received by Bord Failte for the account, including one from Owens DDB, the agency which has had the account for the past five years.

As it is an all-Ireland account, Bord Failte will be working with the Northern Irish Tourist Board to whittle the tenders down to around six agencies which will then be asked to present creative work.

According to Bord Failte, they will be looking for an agency which will be able to provide "a full communications solution, not just advertising". The winning agency will be announced by the end of May.

Grey Advertising & Mediacom has been awarded the Switchcom contract, which is worth more than £250,000 (#317,430) a year. The pre-paid phone card company is owned by Independent News & Media and has more than one-third of the £10 million Irish market.

The Picture Works has extended its free postcard medium into colleges, with more than 60 sites in 35 third-level institutions.

For the past six years, its free postcard stands have been a highly visible medium in more than 200 restaurants and bars and the move into colleges will enable it to target a very specific 17-25 age group.

Advertisers pay £7,800 for the distribution of 80,000 postcards per month and the latest client to sign up is Nescafe, which is beginning a product sampling campaign next month with a coffee sachet attached to each postcard.