I have been writing for the past few months about countries I would like to visit, but this week I have been in the place to be- yes Ireland! This week St. Patrick's day was celebrated through-out the world but no one else celebrates this 'holiday' quite like us... We are so lucky that we have Saint Patrick's Day an it is clearly the tool we need to drive tourist back into Ireland. No other country has a marketing tool such as Saint Patricks day and Ireland should utilise this day to its full potential.
Guinness have run a 'tongue-in-cheek' campaign on how to enjoy St. Patricks Day, marketing the day as 'the friendliest day of the year', I have posted two of them below let me know what you think of it.
Patricks Days was not only used as by Guinness as a Social Media Marketing tool, here are some others that followed in Guinness' trend;
- Go Green Angry Birds- The biggest game of the last year that is now on pretty much every social media platform you could imagine has Angry Birds and even they were not slow when it came to St Patrick’s Day marketing with the launch of this Irish themed version. Complete with Irish music and pots of gold as you would expect.
- Tourism Ireland and Irish Dancing Flashmob- Which you can see below;
- Jib Jab- The website that is famous for 'Elf-Yourself' which we all have a great laugh off during Christmas time even developed a Saint Patricks Day theme where you can insert your face into the body of an 'Irish Man'. Click here and try for yourself!
So, as you can see Patricks Day is used as a marketing tool by many not just the Irish which is a reflection of how great a day it really is!
Hope you enjoyed yours!
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Aisling have you seen this video produced my Failte Ireland http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5emdftOIoos
ReplyDeleteIt shows Ireland in such a wonderful light and would make anyone who watches it add Ireland to their 'Bucket List' or in your case Living List!
Guinness Viral Campaign for Paddy's was great and being described as the 'friendliest day of the year' is a huge compliment to all of the Irish population!
Essay over! Great blog, keep up the good work
Aisling & Luke W, You've sold me! I'm booking a ticket to fly to Dublin this weekend!
ReplyDeleteAisling,
ReplyDeleteAs you are indeed a young aspiring Irish marketing Professional, your sales
pitch on Ireland reminds me of few related marketing initiatives:
1) Using Locals to Market their Locale.
Who better to get you excited about a place than those that enjoy it every day.
On this topic, Direct Marketing News highlighted The Canary Islands campaign of
a few years ago.
[http://www.dmnews.com/canary-islands-recruits-locals-to-promote-tourism/article/174826/]
The effort even included a “door-to-door” push that launched in Iceland in 2009,
when 100 Canarian youths traveled there to knock on doors and sell the virtues
of a winter vacation in the Canary Islands.
More to follow...
As I was saying, another initiative your post reminds me of is:
ReplyDelete2) Marketing Locales to Locals.
With potential patrons including all those who live or work locally or have friends or relatives in the local area – marketing a locale to locals offers a good size pool of prospective participants.
The Tourism Company, one of the UK’s leading tourism consultancies, developed a London for Londoners campaign. They even created a Local Tourism Marketing Toolkit for London Boroughs designed to be used by authorities with limited
funds and/or marketing skills.
[www.thetourismcompany.com/casestudy.asp?serviceid=7...]
More to follow...
...And from Lesotho , Africa to Rotorua, New Zealand, recent local campaigns have been taking root.
ReplyDelete[Locals urged to visit tourist attractions | Public Eye OnlineDec 17, 2010:
www.publiceyenews.com/.../locals-urged-to-visit-tourist-attractions/]
RotoruaNZ.com even highlighted that the Locals’ Week initiative by Destination Rotorua Tourism Marketing made a nice impact.
The effort which ran for one week in November 2010 and offered substantial discounts to residents visiting local activities and attractions, contributed to an increase in local tourism in that month of more than 10% over the November of the previous year.
And just today, Travel Weekly UK [www.travelweekly.co.uk] posted a piece titled:
“Half of Brits considering a 'staycation', survey finds.”
The article highlights the results of an annual travel survey by independent market research firm BDRC Continental:
Almost half (48%) of people surveyed are seriously considering a main holiday in the UK this year, compared with 39% last year, and 29% in 2009.
So I guess the bottom line is to never take for granted the wonder of the world right around you!
For many Irish, Ireland on Saint Patrick’s Day and beyond may indeed be the place keep on their Living List!
Speaking of visiting ireland looks who's coming to visit the emerald isle
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8etlrcSYUs