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Tourism Ireland lures Londoners away from transport chaos

Tourism Ireland is launching an online film to highlight Ireland as an attractive alternative to the expected hectic transport conditions surrounding the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Voiced by actor Chris O’Dowd of The IT Crowd and Bridesmaids fame, the two-minute YouTube film created by Publicis London sets two friends in a race to see who gets to their destination first, one of which heads to Ireland for a pint and the other commutes to London for a latte.

The film shows the friend heading for Ireland experiencing a relaxed and tranquil journey, whilst the London-bound friend is beset by traffic and gridlock as he tries to reach his destination by bus, taxi, rickshaw and cycle.

The film closes with a call to action on whether viewers would rather escape or embrace the madness of London over the summer. Depending on their choice viewers can enter into a competition draw to win either a trip to Ireland, VIP treatment at Irish House in London or a tab at the Porterhouse in Covent Garden.

The video will be distributed and promoted through Rubber Republic, Outbrain, premium video page posts on Facebook, pre-roll activity and a Twitter campaign. The debate over London versus Ireland will be fuelled by Twitter users being encouraged to tweet using the #embracethemadness and #escapethemadness hashtags.

Press and outdoor creative, which launched last month and was booked by Carat, also aimed to build on the differences between London and Ireland this summer and promote #escapethemadness.

“Tourism Ireland is a strong believer in the power of engaging content to generate positive word of mouth about Ireland. London’s summer of madness is just about upon us so what better time to suggest a relaxing trip across the Irish Sea instead,” says Tourism Ireland central marketing director Mark Henry. “This humorous short film is the result of our collaboration and we hope it gets widely shared the length and breadth of Britain.”

O’Dowd became involved in the film after tweeting a request to become the voice of Tourism Ireland in Britain. As well as providing the voice over, he also has a short cameo in the video.

“We anticipate there’ll be plenty of frustrated Londoners this summer. The film is a tongue- in-cheek reminder that there’s respite and a relaxing pint not far away,” says Publicis London deputy managing director Jason Cobbold.

David Hing, London