Lights, Camera, Collaboration: Strategic Alliances in Screen Tourism

Client: Tourism Ireland

The island of Ireland has long provided a backdrop for beloved films and TV shows. This is significant because after word of mouth, screen entertainment is the most popular source of travel inspiration for UK travellers.

This is the story of how Tourism Ireland, working with Publicis•Poke and OMD shepherded fans from dreaming of visiting the Island of Ireland to booking apps to boots-on-the-ground visits there. By zeroing in on a handful of heavy hitting screen productions that were filmed on its shores, and finding ways to activate the desire they created, since 2016 Tourism Ireland has attracted hundreds of thousands of additional visitors to the Island of Ireland. Specifically, across 2022-3, the period this awards scheme focuses on, Tourism Ireland’s campaigns delivered over 69m views, tens of thousands more stays, and an estimated incremental revenue of at least £4.3m Like many good stories and quests, ours covers many kingdoms and characters and has strong partnerships at the heart of the action. It is Tourism Ireland’s strategic alliances with silver-screen colossi HBO and Paramount, video-game powerhouse Ubisoft and our very own Channel 4, that made this story possible.