Blogs to benefit from Failte Ireland €5m spend


17 Apr 2007

Driving traffic to Failte Ireland’s www.discoverireland.ie portal is at the heart of a major €5m marketing campaign that will encompass TV, radio, press and the internet. The campaign will include advertising on blog sites, siliconrepublic.com has learned.

Failte Ireland’s new strategy focuses on encouraging Irish people to make the most of short breaks within Ireland and especially partake in activity breaks in the regions.

Despite increased international tourism, Irish people represent the largest slice of the domestic tourism market, with domestic trips increasing 12pc to 3.8 million last year.

Domestic holiday spend in Ireland was up 20pc to €849m last year.

The campaign coincides with a new consumer website www.discoverireland.ie that includes over 20,000 items of information with a YouTube.com look and feel. The site is focused on not only arranging breaks but highlighting events around the country that may spark an interest.

The media programme is being managed by OMD and the new website was created by FluidRock. Visual identity and branding was conducted by DesignWorks.

A spokesperson for Failte Ireland said that blogging and podcast sites will be included among those that will benefit from the campaign, such as Website Miniblog (www.tinpot.net/minibytes/blog).

“The internet is at the heart of the campaign and everything is being driven toward driving traffic to the new site,” a spokesperson said.

“The idea is to encourage people to think outside the box and realise that as well as the usual golf and horse riding activities there’s surfing and sailing too. The campaign will also involve working with regional radio stations and podcasts on regional festivals,” she said.

By John Kennedy