Client

Shannon Group plc comprises four strategic businesses focused on delivering economic benefits for the West of Ireland and the wider national economy. The four groups are Shannon Airport, Shannon Heritage, the Shannon International Aviation Services Centre (Shannon IASC) and Shannon Commercial Properties.

 Shannon Airport and Shannon Heritage are the main drivers of the region’s tourism industry — Increasing tourism to both Shannon and Ireland is a key goal of the group.

Brief

Shannon Airport and Shannon Heritage appointed Digital Dialog for campaigns to attract both leisure and business travellers to the region.

For leisure travellers, the goal is to improve awareness of Shannon’s tourist attractions in the target markets of the UK, Germany and USA. The region’s most visited attractions span the historical (GPO Witness History visitor centre), architectural (Bunratty Castle, Malahide Castle, King John’s Castle) and areas of outstanding natural beauty (Wild Atlantic Way.)

As over 110 international companies have a presence in Shannon, it is a frequent destination for business travellers, particularly from financial hubs such as London. For this market, Digital Dialog is tasked with presenting the advantages of Shannon Airport as a convenient departure point for the surrounding region.

Strategy and Successes

For Shannon Airport and Shannon Heritage, Digital Dialog rely on highly-specific location targeting to maximise the value of their awareness campaigns. While many overseas companies have offices in the city, Shannon Airport is served mainly by a handful of direct flights from European financial centres — among them, London, Frankfurt and Zurich.

Using their deep understanding of the business community and its values, Digital Dialog were able to target their marketing efforts through the channels most used by business users using the language and messaging that would lead to maximum engagement.

To target the leisure market, Digital Dialog worked to associate Shannon Airport — whose website naturally focused on efficient functioning rather than advertising the local scenery — with the most famous attractions in the region. To compensate for the lack of inspirational qualities of their website, Digital Dialog developed custom microsites combining attractive imagery with subtle messaging positioning Shannon Airport flight routes as the most convenient for travellers. Campaigns specifically targeted audiences with an identified interest in Ireland and travel.

Campaigns

Business Travel Brand Awareness

When Shannon Airport launched new earlier departure flights on the Shannon-London route, Digital Dialog worked on a B2B brand awareness campaign to convey this information to potential business travellers in the surrounding area. LinkedIn and granular social media targeting was used to send key USPs (short queues, easy parking) along with the new departure timetable directly to Shannon’s business community.

Frankfurt Direct

Shannon Airport wanted to promote Lufthansa's new direct flight service from Frankfurt to Shannon to the German leisure market. Shannon is the gateway into the Wild Atlantic Way, a major Irish natural attraction. The campaign targeted residents in and around a 80 km radius of Frankfurt with an interest in Ireland and travel in general. Digital Dialog built a bespoke German-language microsite with attractive photos and information snippets about the Wild Atlantic Way, and a click through Call To Action to Lufthansa’s page with the flight details. One third of the 12,000 visitors to the microsite clicked through to the flight information.