BORD FAILTE yesterday began its most aggressive and expensive campaign ever on the Irish home holiday market. An advertising and marketing drive costing £1 million will try to convince us to consider Ireland for holidays.
The campaign hopes to address the almost flat graph for home holidays, with no growth over the past five years. This contrasts with overseas holiday earnings, which have surpassed our holiday competitors.
The campaign will use many of the elements of the overseas marketing drive, including music from the Cranberries in television advertising.
It is a joint initiative with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and adverts will run in the media on both sides of the Border.
According to Bord Failte's general manager for Europe and Ireland, Ms Orla Brannigan, a booming economy, coupled with greater choice and value, has made foreign holidays available to even more people.
The campaign will not just target the peaks months of June, July and August but will also promote short breaks from October to May.
Introducing the campaign, the Minister of State for Tourism, Mr Toddy O'Sullivan, said he established the Domestic Tourism Marketing Initiative last year and it was that committee which pushed for the marketing and advertising campaign.
As part of the domestic marketing campaign, the committee was asked to design the first comprehensive study into the domestic tourism market. The results will be available within weeks.
The campaign has been backed by consumer research which showed that the core of the tourism brand drive being used abroad also had an appeal at home. That was the idea of an Irish holiday as an emotional experience. The research came up with the idea of discovery for those who did not know Ireland and rediscovery for those who did.
The slogan which will be used on all promotional material, "Ireland - wherever it takes you", emerged from the research, according to Ms Brannigan.
The campaign will run on television, in newspapers and magazines, on posters and on radio.
The television advertising starts during the advertising break on Friday's Late Late Show on RTE 1 and on UTV's Kelly show, with a 50 second advertisement at the start of the break and a 10 second advertisement at the end offering further information.
The campaign will be on TnaG as well as 175 poster sites in the Republic and 80 in Northern Ireland. These will be 48 sheet posters, the largest possible.
The drive will also include competitions and a direct mail campaign. It has been designed by the Peter Owens agency, which designed the original brand Ireland campaign.
The campaign will be linked so that big colour posters, the colour press advertising and the televisions adverts will attract consumer interest, while the black and white advertising will offer actual holiday information.
Radio advertising will direct consumers to the informational black and white advertising.
Mr O'Sullivan said the campaign was a milestone in the strategic development and growth of the industry. He believed it positioned the industry in such a way that it could take full advantage of the opportunities which presented themselves in the thriving economic climate.
"Ireland is acknowledged internationally as a world class tourism destination and this campaign is about bringing this message to the Irish consumer," he said.
Ms Brannigan promised that there would be no one in the country who would not be aware of the campaign.