THE North-East has won £1m worth of advertising across Heathrow Airport after a last push saw the region receive 19,000 votes on-line to drop Northern Ireland into second place.

At midnight on Monday the North-East had received 19,082 likes on the Heathrow facebook page, compared to Northern Ireland's 18,983, the North-West with 1,798 and the Midlands with 1,134.

The competition was run by the airport to fill digital screens around all of its terminals from the end of August until the end of November 2014.

Announcing the winner, John Holland Kaye, Heathrow’s CEO, said: “I’m delighted to announce the winner of the Your Great Britain competition with Heathrow and VisitBritain is the North-East.

"This beautiful region has really got behind the competition over the last two weeks, resulting in over 19,000 votes for the breathtaking image of Hadrian’s Wall.

“The competition in total received over 40,000 votes for all four regions so the North East should feel proud to receive this prestigious prize."

David Laws, chief executive at Newcastle International Airport, said: “Newcastle International is delighted to have played a part in securing this major £1m advertising campaign at Heathrow Airport on behalf of the North-East.

"The way in which the region once again came together to achieve an objective proves what we are capable of if we have a common goal. Our whole is much greater than the sum of our parts. Numerous organisations and individuals played their part."

The North-East will replace Yorkshire on Heathrow's digital screens after it was chosen to coincide with the Tour de France Grand Départ.