The Brief

The Gobbins (TG), Northern Ireland’s newest tourist attraction, relaunched after 50 years, in August 2015 following years of campaiging and an injection of £7.5m. Rumour Mill was appointed to deliver a 12-month integrated plan.

The Approach

The Gobbins communications aimed to deepen the audiences’ engagement; seeking to stimulate audiences to talk to others about the attraction in order to broaden our reach. By completing a SWOT analysis, understanding the client’s objectives, looking at the competitors and researching into TG USP’s, we knew our strategy had to address the following:

  • Develop a sustainable media relations presence in the minds of journalists and key publications in the run up to the opening of the attraction.
  • Developing new ways of reaching and connecting more frequently with these ‘best prospects’, particularly through digital and social media.
  • Communicating frequently with topical messages and offers that will trigger ‘book now’ impulses.

Our strategy for the launch was to build upon the anticipation surrounding the restoration through producing a consistent flow of media relations activity – online and offline.

The Outcomes

  • Broadcast coverage on Good Morning Ulster, UTV, Northern Visions TV, Irish TV & RTE in the run up to the opening.
  • Broadcast coverage on BBC Breakfast, Good Morning Britain, Radio 2, Radio 4, BBC World and BBC 24.
  • Launch was covered in every daily paper each day in the week of opening
  • Media enquiries from New York, Australia, Germany, Sweden, China
  • 50+ media trips
  • Over 250+ Facebook posts
  • 1,000 visitors reached within 1st two weeks & 5,000 visitors reached within 1st two months – ahead of schedule
  • Demand so high that the booking facility unable to cope. Team to revert to phone bookings.
  • Reworking of the marketing communications from online to phone bookings.
  • The Gobbins was the biggest tourism talking point in NI, Aug 2015.
  • Facebook 5,000 page likes within the first 2 weeks of launching the page.
  • 2,500 page likes per week for first 2 weeks of Facebook page launch
  • 15k average post reach
  • 400+ likes on a pre-opening teaser photograph, 100 shares and 107 comments
  • Combined video content uploaded to the Facebook page has received over 11,800 views online by the target audience
  • Official open post: 1.5k engagements
  • Competition – Reached 30, 459 people, Over 1,300 online entries, 300 + new page likes
  • Organic photograph of a rainbow captured at TG reached 23,533 & 1,114 likes
  • 13,571 people reached, 5,386 views on video & 477 comments & shares
  • 800 new followers
  • 168 retweets on a competition to The Gobbins
  • 50 retweets & 80 favourites on a single image
  • Daily use of visitors using #TheGobbins

Accolades

  • Finalist – CIPR Best Integrated Campaign 2016: The Gobbins
  • Finalist – CIPR Best Consumer Campaign 2016: The Gobbins
  • Finalist – CIPR Best Use of Photography or Design 2016: The Gobbins