Tourism Ireland spend €200k on campaign for hit show 'Wednesday'
Ken Foxe
Tourism Ireland spent almost €200,000 on a marketing campaign built around the hit TV show Wednesday, saying that “screen tourism” was one of the biggest sources of travel inspiration to Ireland.
The tourism promotion agency worked with Netflix and Screen Ireland on a behind-the-scenes campaign to create two short films about the supernatural comedy show.
They featured lead actress Jenna Ortega, Luis Guzmán, who plays Gomez Addams, and Joanna Lumley talking about their experience working in Ireland.
Tourism Ireland said Ms Ortega’s quotes about her time here had gone viral and were covered in newspapers across the world.
The latest season of Wednesday was shot at various locations, including Powerscourt House in Wicklow, Charleville Castle in Offaly and Deansgrange Cemetery in Dublin.
Tourism Ireland spent just under €5,700 on video production and localisation costs for translations into other languages.
A further €192,000 was paid for digital and video advertising, which ran mainly in Great Britain, the United States, Germany, and France.
The tourism agency said the campaign had a reach of 30 million with 7.4 million people having watched one of the two videos in full.
They said that after word of mouth, “screen tourism” was one of the most effective ways of encouraging people to travel.
An information note explained: “Tourism Ireland research confirms that around 24 percent of overseas audiences say they use TV shows and films as a source of travel inspiration.
“Screen tourism globally was worth US$68.1 billion in 2022 and is projected to be worth US$110.79 billion by 2028.”
A design brief for the campaign said they wanted to use the series as a hook to “discover the real-life, enchanting and spooky filming locations of the series – right here in Ireland.”
It said the series was going to be ‘dropped’ by Netflix with four episodes in mid-August and four more in early September.
Tourism Ireland wanted to capitalise on the timing, by coinciding their campaign with the two viewing ‘peaks’ for the programme.
The brief said: “Budget to be allocated across a minimum of three markets and scope and, if possible, across four [markets].
“This means leaning into efficiencies and channel selection will be crucial. We expect to align with screen tourism potential, existing audience interest, and proven affinity for island of Ireland as a potential holiday destination.”
It said the campaign should look to tap into Netflix fan communities and that YouTube was likely to be a good approach, based on previous campaigns.
Tourism Ireland said the country had benefitted from screen tourism on multiple occasions through examples like Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and the Banshees of Inisherin.
They said: “We leverage this well-established trend of screen tourism, by tapping into the fans’ enthusiasm about the show or movie and popular cast members.
“And we then highlight the connection with the spectacular backdrop where filming took place – knowing that our beautiful scenery is a key motivator for overseas visitors.”
