If you’re in business in Ireland, you’ll probably stick out like a sore thumb if you didn’t do SOMETHING for the forthcoming Paddy’s day weekend.
An especially significant time of year if you are in Tourism, Destination Management, Hospitality, Festivals & Events or Venue Management.
Why?
- It’s one of the biggest Tourist led weekends in Ireland where visitors numbers will be close to peaking.
- You get to capitalise on a host of St Patricks day festival events throughout the country.
- It’s a feel-good weekend. It’s a long weekend. Everyone is looking for an excuse to meet up and party.
By the way, a lot of these tips relate to Tourism Ireland services that will prove to be useful ALL YEAR ROUND.
1. HACK: Use The Content Pool for Irish themed Visuals & Video Content
GO TO SITE: www.irelandscontentpool.com
An excellent resource set up by Tourism Ireland in support of Irish business who wish to promote themselves – especially useful for hospitality, venues, events and F&B sectors.
This is where you can draw down relevant images and other visual content shared by others for free, as long as you give them the right amount of credit when marketing your locality.
Essential when marketing your locality or needing good background images that don’t look like cheap. The images are free.
EXTRA HACK: Did you know?
It is a great way to upload your content too and get seen by other Irish business in the process. So perfect if you have an event and want to be shared visually by businesses in your locale. It is intuitive, fast, simple, and user-friendly; containing over 27,000 visual assets – all provided by a huge range of talented photographers and content partners across the country.
2. Green is the New Black for Paddy’s Festival 2017
GO TO SITE:
https://www.tourismireland.com/Press-Releases/2017/February/Tourism-Ireland-announces-Global-Greening-line-up An impressive array of global monuments as well as local stadiums, statues, castles, and towers will go green to celebrate St Patricks Day.
We already saw a strong focus around the world in 2016 to keep the green lights on the most recognisable landmarks in every global city.
How to Turn Your business Green for Paddy’s Day
- Encourage your local high street community to light up green.
- Light up your window display and premises
- Uplight your event space and venues indoors
- Turn your window and any other displays green
Don’t forget to tweet your photos on 17th March and start pledging with the #GoGreen4PatricksDay hashtag.
3. PROMO TIP: Join The Tourism Ireland Community Portal
GO TO site: www.community.ireland.com
This Irishreland.com Community Forum gives you an opportunity to join the conversation with potential customers visiting from overseas during the festive period and more and help them plan their visit. (And help your business too!)
- Help them plan their visit by responding to queries where you can provide a solution. (And help your business too!)
- You can also post your local offers
If you haven’t already registered, or if you would like more details, please contact cschluter@tourismireland.com. It won’t cost you anything.
It’s an online tool bringing together businesses, locations, and events to facilitate a helpful exchange of advice support and useful engagement for the sake of would-be visitors.
From a business point of view, it’s your chance to answer questions relating to your locale and get your brand out. It’s also a great way to ask around and create opportunities to connect with related businesses and stakeholders.
How to use it well?
Join a Thread, Share a Story Post an Event, Create an offer (promo) or Answer a question. Many ways and means to use this.
4. MARKETING IDEA: Tourism Ireland Food Story Toolkit
If you are developing your own food products or have a foodie story to tell – use the snappy Food Story Toolkit . It’s a free resource with content and advice to help you create your own unique food story.
5. MARKETING IDEA: Tourism Ireland Training & Workshop Events
They’ve developed a range of kits, webinars, workshops, and events to help you take your ideas further whether its a local festival or just upping your digital came. Take a look Here.
There you have It
Be in the know, it’s a big year for Ireland and there’s a lot of help out there to help you navigate the tourist season this summer.
Need help getting your Promo Material together in time for March 17th weekend?
