Tourism Ireland picked up two prestigious awards at Cannes this week, the only Irish company to do so this year. The campaign was created by Publicis London.
The agency, which is charged with promoting Ireland as a tourist destination overseas, scooped two awards – a gold and a silver. The gold award came in the Outdoor- Special Build category for its highly successful Doors of Thrones campaign which has already racked up over 30 awards and accolades from the marketing and advertising industry across Europe and the USA.
In January 2016, The Dark Hedges – the iconic location which stands in for The Kingsroad in HBO’s Game of Thrones – was hit hard by Storm Gertrude, which levelled some of the trees. Over ten weeks, Tourism Ireland used the fallen wood to make ten carefully crafted doors, each depicting an episode from Game of Thrones season 6. Those doors are now hanging in pubs and other venues across Northern Ireland, giving fans a brand new Game of Thrones trail to follow. The ‘Doors of Thrones’ campaign reached an estimated 126 million people around the world, with the campaign’s short films being viewed 17 million times – generating coverage worth about £11.3 million.
According to Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland: “Winning a Cannes Lion is the ultimate industry accolade, so we’re really proud that our ‘Doors of Thrones’ campaign has been singled out for not one, but two, awards at this year’s Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. The international tourism marketplace is an extremely competitive one and we are constantly looking at innovative and engaging ways to reach potential holidaymakers, so we are particularly honoured to receive these awards.
“Tourism Ireland has been working hard to build awareness of Northern Ireland around the world and we were really pleased to continue our partnership with HBO last year, to highlight the beautiful landscape of Northern Ireland – through the exciting events of Game of Thrones – on the global stage.”
Next month, Tourism Ireland will join forces once again with HBO, with a brand new Game of Thrones campaign to promote Northern Ireland around the world, timed to coincide with the season 7 which is set to premiere in mid-July.
