Tourism Ireland launches new marketing campaign
Tourism Ireland has launched a marketing campaign in Second Life, the online ‘virtual world’, claiming to be the first tourist board to launch a marketing campaign for a destination in Second Life, which already features many major brands, including Coca-Cola, Vodafone, IBM, Toyota, Sony and Adidas.
Starwood Hotels has used Second Life to pilot the design of a new series of hotels and Thomas Cook offers customers virtual package tours.
“Tourism Ireland is committed to using eMarketing to the best possible effect in promoting the island of Ireland as a holiday destination and our involvement in Second Life is about finding new ways to connect to today’s web-savvy consumer”, says Mark Henry, director of central marketing.
“The organisation has already doubled its digital marketing spend over the past three years, to 14% of all marketing activity – an investment of €6.5 million last year. Tourism Ireland plans to spend close to a quarter of its entire marketing budget online in 2008.”
Ireland’s tourism officials said 60% of Second Life’s users come from Ireland’s four biggest tourist markets – the UK, US, Germany and France.
Furthermore, half of those users are aged over 30 – a key demographic for tourism to the island of Ireland.
As part of this campaign, Tourism Ireland will sponsor a range of events and activities from now until St Patrick’s Day 2008 in Second Life’s replica city of Dublin.
The events kick-off this weekend with a ‘Discover Ireland Festival’ where five bands and seven DJs will play on a stage located on Grafton Street, followed by a fashion show on a bridge on the River Liffey.
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