DAA Shortlisted For Social Media Award

Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has been shortlisted for a major award for its innovative use of social media to promote the company’s sponsorship of the Dublin Theatre Festival.

The Dubliners @DublinAirport campaign, which promoted DAA’s sponsorship of The Corn Exchange/Dublin Theatre Festival production of Dubliners, has been shortlisted for the social media category in the 2012 Irish Sponsorship Awards.

Dubliners @DublinAirport ran throughout September with Dublin Airport using its existing social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to highlight both the play and a promotion whereby 150 free copies of James Joyce’s Dubliners were left at the airport for passengers to pick up and bring with them on their travels.

Dublin Airport also created an account on the social media platform SoundCloud, which allows people to share audio clips, so that it could broadcast a daily excerpt from Dubliners featuring cast members from the theatre production.

The Dubliners @DublinAirport campaign, which was Dublin Airport’s first comprehensive social media campaign, generated significant media coverage and online buzz for Dubliners and for Dublin Airport’s sponsorship of the show.

More than 2,100 people listened to the Dubliners Daily audio clips, over 2,500 people clicked through links related to the campaign and more than 700 people re-tweeted Dubliners-related messages during September.

“I am delighted that our first major social media campaign has been nominated for this award,” said DAA Public Affairs Director, Paul O’Kane. “It was an honour for DAA to be associated with such a wonderful theatrical event and to share it with the many thousands of followers that we have on our various social media channels,” O’Kane added.

Dublin Theatre Festival Director Willie White, said he had no doubt that that DAA’s campaign “contributed significantly to the public interest in the show and to our very healthy ticket sales”. He added that the campaign also generated a beautiful record of the show, with 30 high-quality sound clips recorded for the SoundCloud element of the promotion.

“These SoundCloud files are a fantastic legacy of the show, as they will remain online for future use by students, teachers and all lovers of Joyce and Dublin,” according to White.

Dubliners @DublinAirport is one of three campaigns nominated in the Best Use of Social Media category in this year’s Irish Sponsorship Awards. The winners will be announced in early December.

To hear the Dubliners Daily extracts visit Dublin Airport’s Soundcloud page.

Further information:
Paul O’Kane, 353 1 814 1897, 353 86 609 0221