Marketing

Twitter’s “Trending Topics” For Sale? What is a hashtag? Well, the obvious answer is that if something is quite popular, it is going to get retweeted a lot. But it is possible to pay someone to make something trend artificially? Of course. Where there is money to be made, rules will be broken. Twitter makes money by allowing businesses to push “Promoted Tweets.” However, those adverts are clearly marked. But there are companies that try and get around Twitter’s rules. They offer to make something trend for a price. How do they do that? They use bots. Bots are automated accounts, and you can make them say anything you like. If you’ve got enough of…

Social Media Engagement Global digital marketing spend is expected to increase in 2018. As we enter the new year consumer engagement levels and analytical skills remain limited. This includes across channels, according to Alterian’s annual marketer survey. The survey polled nearly 1,500 marketers, agencies, marketing service providers, and systems integrators worldwide. This year’s topic, ‘How Engaged is Your Brand?’, examined marketing expenditure, social media measurement , and the level of personalization across digital channels. About half of survey respondents estimate that overall marketing expenditure will increase slightly (5-25pc) over the next year. It is also seen that an additional 9pc said it would improve significantly (25pc or more). This, according to Alterian, suggests…

Ryanair has officially joined Facebook and launched a competition via the social media site to mark its 30th birthday. The ‘30 Names 30 Planes’ competition offers 30 fans the chance to have their name and face pictured on one of 30 Ryanair aircraft. Fans can upload their photo and download a CGI video of their Ryanair plane bearing their name and face on the new Facebook page, and the 30 winners will be announced in September. Otherwise, on the page, Ryanair will offer its 100m customers the latest route news and developments, other competitions and offers and real-time customer service. The Facebook page is part of Ryanair’s strategy to expand…

Etihad Airways has been announced as sponsor of GAAGO’s international live streaming of the GAA Championship 2015. GAAGO is the GAA and RTÉ’s online streaming service for Gaelic games outside of Ireland. It is live streaming over 45 GAA football and hurling senior championship matches in the summer, plus the concluding stages of the Electric Ireland GAA minor championships and the Bord Gais Energy GAA Hurling U21 Championship Final. In addition to sponsoring these matches on GAAGO, as part of the sponsorship agreement, GAAGO customers will receive a discount on various programmes when purchasing tickets using the promo code Etihad before the end of June. The airline has partnered with…

Telling the truth is the central theme of an integrated online and off-line marketing campaign for Rabodirect, which launches next Monday and will involve a spend of €1m. According to Rabodirect, the ‘Truth’ campaign, which was developed together with Brando, will take the bank’s straight-talking approach to a new level and will continue to challenge traditional banking. The campaign will run from 16 March through to June across TV, radio, outdoor, press and online media. The TV ads, which were directed by former Father Ted director, Declan Lowney, will go out on RTE, TV3, TG4, Paramount, Setanta and Channel 6. The bank’s own employees feature in the online banner campaign…

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) in conjunction with Dublin City University’s FuJo, the Institute for Future Media and Journalism, is to host a conference examining digital news consumption in Ireland. The event takes from 1.30–6pm on Tuesday, 23 June at the The Helix, Dublin City University, Dublin 11.  The conference is titled ‘Shaping Journalism’s Future’.
 
 New research prepared by the DCU FuJo group and based on the internationally recognised Reuters Institute Digital News Report is set to be unveiled.
  
The BAI funded both Ireland’s inclusion in the Reuters Digital News Report and Irish specific research as part of its work on media plurality in Ireland and will continue the…

Tourism Ireland in joint campaign with VLM AirlinesPoster ad on Thameslink trains in the Luton area, part of Tourism Ireland�s joint campaign with VLM Airlines Tourism Ireland is running a joint campaign until the end of June with VLM Airlines to promote a new flight to Waterford from Luton. The campaign includes poster ads on Thameslink trains in the Luton area, which will be seen by an estimated 500,000 commuters, new video footage of Waterford, as well as online ads running on key websites and targeting prospective holidaymakers living in the Luton area. VLM is also running press ads in newspapers such as The Irish Post and The Irish World, with the…

Aer Lingus has invested around €2m in a new TV advertising campaign which aims to bring the aviation brand into the modern day. Entitled ‘Smart Flies Aer Lingus’, it shows the many ‘smart’ travellers who choose Aer Lingus, ranging from families to leisure and business and highlights checking in via mobile phone. It also features in-flight entertainment options, as well as the new full lie-flat beds available to business class guests on transatlantic flights. Irish actor Chris O’Dowd provides the voiceover and the soundtrack used in the ad is ‘A Sentimental Journey’ performed by the Metrepole Orchestra. “The launch of the new Aer Lingus brand manifesto ad is a further stage…

Ryanair has upgraded its mobile app with an improved ‘My Ryanair’ customer registration function, which allows customers to create their own personal profile and securely store payment and passport details on the app. Otherwise the app allows users to search Ryanair’s 1,600 low fare routes, choose and book fares and allocated seats, manage bookings, book hotels and care hire and check in and download mobile boarding passes. Available in both IOS and Android format, the Ryanair app has been downloaded over 6m times to date. Further additions to the ‘My Ryanair’ customer registration service will be added later this year, which will allow users to add family members to their…

EY Ireland has announced its exclusive sponsorship of the newly formed Irish Hockey League. The all-island EY Irish Hockey League will see 20 of Ireland’s top male and female clubs compete to become league champions over a 19 week-season. The first match of the league will take place in September 2015 with the final set for April 2016. “By supporting the highest performing teams in the sporting arena, as exemplified by the Irish Hockey League, we hope to expand on our own strategy to inspire effective and engaged teaming within our firm,” said EY Ireland managing partner, Mike McKerr. “We are delighted to have EY as the sponsor of the new EY Irish…