Unless you have been living under a digital rock this week, you will have seen a video clip of TG4’s weather presenter Caitlín Nic Aoidh being hit by lightning, on Hallowe’en night. The clip of the Irish weather girl which went viral overnight has been shared by over 20 million worldwide from Galway to San Diego and Dubai to Sydney.
As part of TG4’s 20th birthday celebration the elaborate advertising campaign was conceived and created by Dublin based advertising agency ICAN in collaboration with TG4, with Lorg Media playing a supporting role in social media. The piece was created as part of a series of stunts which all aired live on TG4, during their 7pm news broadcasts this week, to promote the Irish language and the station’s player at home and internationally.
According to ICAN’s creative director Ian McFarlane, “the beauty of this idea was in its simplicity and timing. We think that’s why so many people wanted to talk about Caitlín and Caitlín Eile. TG4 are one of those brands who just get creativity and we loved collaborating with them on this project. We can’t wait to get cracking on the next project with them and see where we both can take the brand.”
Aside from capturing the attention of people across the globe with a well-timed prank, ICAN and TG4 have become the first in the world to harness the power of using character animator software in an advertising campaign. And they aren’t stopping there, Caitlín Eile (the other Caitlín, in English) will next week become the world’s first TV host, built using the same software, when her weekly review show launches on the TG4 Player.
TG4 Creative Director Seán Cathal Ó Coileáin said that what he enjoyed most was “the seamless integration of media, from Snapchat to linear TV, 10 second clips to 2-minute news packages, and then of course, the social platforms doing what they do best. Our brand, Súil Eile, celebrates the unexpected and we, with our creative friends at ICAN, had a lot of fun exploring the many avenues of approach this allows.”
Other stunts included the TV station creating a mockumentary style missing persons report package – strengthened by her radio silence on social media; Caitlín Eile’s first weather report – a weather report by a 2D animated character created to look like the missing weather girl built in character animator software; and a fight between the real Caitlín Nic Aoidh and her digital doppelganger.”
