Tourism Ireland Shouts ‘Jump!’

PHOTO: Last year's Wild Atlantic Way is still pushing traffic in 2015. (Courtesy of Tourism Ireland)

Tourism Ireland (TI) unveiled its plan to achieve a third straight record year from the American market at New York's Athletic Club on Tuesday night (Feb. 10). A healthy crowd of TI's most important trade partners including travel agents, tour operators and travel media filled the hall, which was decorated with posters depicting new ads for the "Jump Into the Now" campaign.

The campaign will be appearing on TV, in consumer travel magazines and will pulse through all of the branches of TI's intensive social media marketing network. The "Now" in the phrase is designed to both communicate that Irish culture is as vital as it ever was as well as to get the destination off of so many travelers' bucket lists, "before they kick the bucket," as TI's Head of North America, Alison Metcalf put it, in what was the best line of the night.

Jump Into the Now is a platform from which several more focused appeals can be reached. The print ads, for example, couple the phrase with more targeted appeals such as "We'll keep a seat for you" relating to Dublin; "No invitation required;" and "All 1,500 miles of it" regarding the Wild Atlantic Way.

The Wild Atlantic Way, last year's theme, which put the entire west coast (including Northern Ireland) in the center of the promotions lives on in this year's campaign. And why not? Under that banner last year, TI set a second consecutive record with an unofficial 1.2 million U.S. visitors (+13 percent), which surpassed 2013, a year that set a record under the banner of The Gathering, a call out to the Irish Diaspora around the world.

According to Metcalf, there are many reasons for TI to be optimistic about 2015's chance of putting up a third straight record. "Well, the Dollar is strong and that should provide a boost as it essentially has 15 percent more purchasing power than it did last year," said Metcalf. "On top of that, we added 14 percent more air capacity, about 40,000 more seats per week, going from the U.S. to Ireland. We are expecting growth out of emerging U.S. markets such as Texas, Raleigh and Washington, D.C. We believe we'll grow another 6 percent in this market in 2015."

Four Point Strategy

From the perspective of this bullish period, it's easy to forget how the numbers plummeted between 2008 and 2010 when the U.S. economy collapsed on the backs of falling banks. After the bailout, the economy grew back gradually to where it is now. "We set four objectives two years ago regarding the U.S. market," said Metcalf. "Firstly, we were going to focus on niche segments; secondly we were determined to turn lookers into buyers; then we would work on extending seasonality; and fourthly, we would be more aggressive in our digital marketing."

The two largest segments are psychographic categories with definite demographic boundaries. The "Culturally Curious" are basically Baby Boom travelers with an interest in history, heritage and scenery. This segment is particularly fond of three regions: Dublin, the Wild Atlantic Way and Northern Ireland. The other big segment, the "Social Energizers," tend to fall between 25 and 35 in age and they're comfortable in the digital space; willing to travel in shoulder seasons; and are attracted to urban activities. Beyond these two broad categories are three other important niches: the Irish diaspora, golf and MICE travel.

"We know that our brand is strong," said Metcalf. "We need to continue telling stories that talk to the traveler's passion." The Jump Into the Now campaign will be all over your TV sets especially if you live in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco or Washington, D.C. where the commercials are being emphasized.

If you're a fan of Downton Abbey you'll be seeing it. Much of Game of Thrones is filmed in Northern Ireland (as well as Croatia, Slovenia and Spain) and a trail has been created.

"Stretching the season is essential," said Metcalf. "We need to keep those planes flying and flying full. So far so good, as we have seen an 18 percent increase in fourth quarter travel to Ireland and the first quarter of 2014 grew 6 percent."

TI's website attracted 3.3 million visits in 2014 and what's really interesting about that is that today 65 percent of those visits are coming from mobile devices, whereas eight months ago only 35 percent came from mobile devices. That's a sea change. TI's Facebook page has a 915,000 person fan base, its Twitter account has 45,000 followers and on Pinterest they've got 5,558 followers.

"Our goal for 2015 is to drive 1.2 million referrals to our tour operators," said Metcalf. TI is turning to tour operators and travel agents in its quest to turn lookers into buyers. TI will be doing four road shows to several cities this year. On Feb. 24 they'll be traveling to Philadelphia, Pittsburg and Washington, D.C. On March 30 they'll head to Atlanta, Charlotte and Tampa. On Aug. 28 they'll go to Dallas, Denver and Minneapolis. On Nov. 16 they'll go to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Barbara.

---

For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.

Topics From This Article to Explore