Tourism Ireland

A multi-channel awareness and conversion campaign targeting US-based travellers which resulted in thousands of additional flight bookings and generated an estimated US$4 million to the Irish tourism economy.

The objective

The US is Ireland’s second-largest market for overseas travellers and revenue, after the UK, with 1.67 million visitors making the journey across the Atlantic in 2019 alone. Tourism Ireland wanted to strengthen this position with a campaign to encourage more US travel during the upcoming winter season when tourism numbers are at their lowest. The client also sought to elevate the campaign message by forming a branded co-op with a premium US travel brand.

The strategy

A content campaign was devised to target audiences across three different phases of the passenger journey: the pre-booking phase when audiences are actively searching for their next holiday destination; in the airport when travellers are making their way through busy terminals and business lounges; and whilst flying, which is when many passengers begin excitedly planning their next trip.

For the first phase, we deployed Navigator’s powerful social media targeting to serve eye-catching Facebook and Instagram content to millions of US-based travellers. Thanks to Ink’s exclusive first-party passenger data, the audience parameters were refined to a unique scale, engaging those who’d both flown to Ireland with United in the past and/or searched for flights but had decided not to book. A series of social posts were produced that brought Ireland’s breadth of cultural, outdoor and food-based experiences to life through spectacular, thumb-stopping imagery, while call-to-actions encouraged audiences to book direct flights with United Airlines. An adjacent Facebook campaign for the Shannon tourism board was also served, which promoted the region’s new non-stop flight from New York.

For the second phase of the campaign, 15-second TV spots were produced and screened in 11 of the busiest airports in the US via our exclusive airport TV network, ReachTV. The ad, centred on the client’s global campaign slogan “Push the Green Button”, was shown in terminals, business lounges and other high-traffic areas every hour for two months. This maximised engagement during the busy winter period when footfall inside airports is high.

Finally, to reach an even larger captive audience we published two full-page display adverts and a double-page spread advertorial in the December and January issues of Hemispheres, the airline’s award-winning in-flight magazine. A range of treatments were created to maximise impact, including a ‘10 compelling reasons to visit Ireland’ feature.