LOVE may have been in the air, but there was also a hint of a hard sell. Ronan Keating released a love song to coincide with Valentine’s Day and then gave away free roses to promote it.

The former Boyzone lead singer has teamed up with Interflora, the flower sellers, to promote She Believes in Me. But even selling his love song on the most romantic day of the year was not going to be a certainty given his recent chart performances.

So he decided to sell it with flowers, and yesterday everyone who hailed a Keating-branded taxi in Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester or London was presented with a rose courtesy of the singer. Passengers were then played his new song on the cab stereo.

Meanwhile customers who ordered flowers from Interflora’s website were sent promotional material about Keating’s single and a link to his website. Buyers holding on the company’s sales line were played the track while they waited. In return, Keating’s website carried a link to Interflora.

The marketing tie-in may have paid off. She Believes in Me is due to enter the British singles chart at number two later today. Although it missed out on the top spot, the high chart position is a boost for the Dublin pop star, whose career was being written off after the poor performance of his last single and new album.

“I’m not expecting to be number one, but two is unbelievable. I’m chuffed,” Keating insisted yesterday. “Two is a great chart position and I’m over the moon.”

He is likely to be kept off the top spot by Sam and Mark, a duo formed by the second and third-placed finalists in Pop Idol 2. The pair, being hailed as the new Robson and Jerome, have just released a cover version of the Beatles’ hit With A Little Help From My Friends.

Keating’s last track, Lost for Words, only reached number nine and his album, Turn It On, has been selling poorly.

“A lot of people were writing me off,” he said. “There is a great saying in the pop industry that you’re only as big as your last single. I think that’s all people think about. They don’t think about the millions of records I sold before that.

“I never went away, if people think that I did, that’s their problem.”

The single may have boosted sales of the album which is climbing back up the charts.

The idea of selling it with flowers came from the video for the single, a cover version of a Kenny Rogers song. Shot in London mainly in black and white, it features Keating in a black taxi holding a red rose with a carpet of red petals on the floor. Red petals fall from the sky and cover the streets.

“It was something that happened on set when we used all the roses and petals,” he said. “We knew that the single was coming out around Valentine’s Day so we thought we would do a tie-in. It has worked out fantastically.”

Interflora paid for all the flowers that were given away, including 10 bouquets signed by the singer. Polydor covered the cost of the taxis. “It’s a reciprocal deal, no money has changed hands,” said Orla Lee at the record company.

Phil Carey, Interflora’s public relations manager, said it was hard to tell whether sales of flowers had been boosted by the link-up “but it has probably helped to access a slightly different market with Ronan’s fan base”.

He added: “We are always trying to attract the young market. Valentine’s Day is obviously a peak period for us so we saw a natural tie-in for product. It has worked very well. If you went looking for a fit of two brands to work together, it doesn’t get much better than Interflora and Ronan Keating.”

Keating spent yesterday promoting the single in Britain before flying home to Dublin for dinner with his wife.

She Believes in Me was originally recorded by Rogers in 1979 and Keating updated some of the lyrics. “When I was a kid my mother used to play it in the house and that’s why I recorded it and I guess it has done its job, which is great,” he said.

“It’s a hit single and proves the critics wrong,” claimed Lee of Polydor. “He’s back and he’s got a massive single.”

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