Brand Experience and Activation > Culture & Context

ST. PLASTIC'S DAY

THE PUBLIC HOUSE, Dublin / EPIC: THE IRISH EMIGRATION MUSEUM / 2020

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Overview

Credits

OVERVIEW

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

This entry focuses on strategically placed activations which we gave our target audience a clear understanding of what our brand stood for and why they should care. Instead of the expected promotion mechanic, we brought our idea to life with a dramatic representation of the problem.

Background

EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum is located in Dublin city centre and tells the story of the Irish impact on the world. Visitors are brought through an immersive experience that leaves them with a truly authentic understanding of the country.

But unlike our neighbours like the Guinness Storehouse which boasts 20% spontaneous awareness, our museum had just 2% and we were struggling to get noticed. St. Patrick’s Day is a key time of year for tourism in Ireland, with over 100,000 overseas visitors attending the parade in Dublin alone.

With the average tourist visiting just 2.5 tourist attractions during their trip to Dublin, we needed a way to stand out and become one of those visits.

Describe the creative idea

The idea was St. Plastic’s Day - a national day owned by EPIC on the day after St. Patrick’s Day, a.k.a Global Recycling Day. We let tourists enjoy their day of drinking and celebrations, then on the 18th of March we offered them the chance to exchange their plastic Paddy’s Day paraphernalia for a ticket to EPIC, to see what Ireland is really about.

We placed OOH and ambient installations around Templebar on St. Patrick’s Day, a hot spot for tourists in Dublin, letting them know there’s more to Ireland than what they may be experiencing at that moment.

After the promotion, all of the collected plastic was donated to ReCreate, an Award Winning Social Enterprise and registered charity who repurposed it as affordable art materials for Irish communities.

Describe the strategy

We needed brand salience in order to beat our competitors to the top of the consideration list and become an unmissable attraction for tourists while they were in Dublin.

We also had to find a way to make a museum that talks about the Famine appeal to tourists who were in ‘party mode’ for St. Patrick’s Day.

Although tourists enjoy donning hats, wigs, glasses and whistles for the day, these ‘plastic’ expressions of Irishness don’t represent the true Ireland. As it turns out, all that plastic is damaging for our environment too, with most of it ending up in landfill. We discovered that Global Recycling day is the 18th March - the day after Paddy's Day.

Focusing on the day after St. Patrick’s Day helped us avoid the most intense competition and position EPIC as a must-do activity to get a true understanding of Ireland, once the party was over.

Describe the execution

We took over Templembar, Dublin’s tourist hot spot with ambient OOH made up of all of the stereotypical plastic gear we see on St. Patrick’s Day - hats, wigs, glasses, whistles. The copy landed our unique brand belief - “there’s more to Ireland than this” - and encouraged people to come visit us after the party was over for a more authentic understanding of Ireland.

Our ambient special builds showed tourists the type of ‘tat’ they could cash in for a ticket to EPIC. We proved that as well as the craic, the pints and the shamroguery, there’s more to Ireland and the Irish.

List the results

Compared with St. Patrick’s week the previous year (2018), visitor numbers increased 57.5% and website traffic grew 70%.

The campaign which lasted just 2 days generated 700,000 impressions. But most importantly, we found a way to save some plastic from the landfill and leave visitors with a real understanding of Ireland.

Please tell us about how the work challenged / was different from the brands competitors

EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum is a tiny fish in a large and very competitive pond. With world leading tourist attractions like The Guinness Storehouse, The Book of Kells, Jameson Distillery, Phoenix Park, Dublin Zoo and The National Gallery of Ireland all within a 5 kilometer radius, it’s difficult to stand out and draw interest from tourists who may not appreciate the impact of emigration on Irish history, especially at a time of year that’s associated with drinking and parties.

We took a completely anti-formula approach to St. Patrick’s Day - instead of embracing the fanfare, we highlighted the ‘plastic-ness’ of it all and used that to demonstrate our unique brand advantage - we’re the museum that gives you an authentic understanding of what it means to be Irish.

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