TAPESTRY

TitleTAPESTRY
BrandTOURISM IRELAND
Product/ServiceTOURISM IRELAND
Category B04. Use of Ambient Media: Large Scale
Entrant TOURISM IRELAND Redmonds Hill, IRELAND
Idea Creation PUBLICIS LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement CARAT London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production SPACE66 London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Dave Monk Publicis Executive Creative Director (London)
Dave Sullivan Publicis Creative Director
Josh Norbury Publicis Copywriter & Art Director
Chris Turner Publicis Strategist
Ben McKee Publicis Account Director
Katie Edwards Publicis Business Director
Kathryn Mason Publicis Account Manager
Kal Parma Publicis Agency Producer
Jelly Kitchen Jelly Kitchen Illustrator
Space66 Production & Post Production Company Production & Post
Sam Stocking Space66 Director
Ben Loach Ben Loach Editor
Chloe Shaw Space66 Producer
Dash+Miller Dash+Miller Textile Production
Radd Nadesananthan Publicis Social Planner
Duncan Rogeres Publicis London Designer
Brian Twomey Tourism Ireland Head of Marketing Communications
Mark Henry Tourism Ireland Central Marketing Director

The Campaign

We decided to explore the rich heritage of textiles and linen manufacture in Northern Ireland and create Northern Ireland’s own ode to Game of Thrones, capturing every episode from the opening of Season 1 all the way through to Night King’s assault on The Wall at the end of Season 7, in an 80m+ long medieval tapestry.   Made of Irish linen, the Game of Thrones tapestry was illustrated, hand-woven and hand-embroidered each week in reaction to that week’s episode of the show, meaning that we were able to give fans a unique way of catching up on the previous week’s drama before the next episode aired.

Creative Execution

Every section of the tapestry was installed in the Ulster Museum, Belfast - giving fans a new iconic GOT experience to visit as soon as they land in the city. And visit they did, with more than 20,000 visitors to the installation in the first 6 weeks, with a further 62% of visits since being specifically to see the tapestry. Through the art of storytelling, and the resurrection of a dying craft, we created a brand new tourist attraction, and a permanent fixture in Northern Ireland’s culture.

Results

40,000 visitors to the installation to date. So far this has resulted in 3.5 million engagements and 500,000 hotspot engagements on Ireland.com, plus 32.7 million video views and a 17.9% completion rate of our social content.   So, with a growing reach figure of 344,102,909 from online publicity, and earned advertising value of €16,681,354 for a campaign spend of only €268,364, the tapestry has achieved even more than we anticipated; building on the success of 2016, driving brand awareness, and ultimately increasing visitor numbers to Northern Ireland.

Last year’s campaign taught us just how vociferously Game of Thrones fans consume content online. We needed to give fans GoT content they actively wanted to explore that also tied itself intrinsically to the country in which it was filmed. However, with a number of smaller filming locations reaching a capacity of visitors it was able to accommodate, we needed to drive awareness of Northern Ireland as a whole. Following the installation of The Game of Thrones Tapestry exhibition at the Ulster Museum in Belfast, it has already received over 40,000 incremental visitors to date.

Our challenge was to bring the tapestry to life not just in person, but online as-well. We created an experience on Ireland.com which allowed visitors to scroll through, and zoom – in on a high-resolution scan of the tapestry, including hotspots referring to the show’s iconic filming locations in Northern Ireland. GOT fans were encouraged to explore the tapestry in more depth, and discover the places where the action took place, effectively turning fans of the show into fans of Northern Ireland.