Written answers
Tuesday, 15 October 2024
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Departmental Advertising
Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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99. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the frequency and duration of the publicity, marketing or advertising campaigns conducted by his Department to date in 2024; the purpose of these campaigns; the cost of these campaigns; and the agencies that conducted these campaigns, in tabular form. [41180/24]
Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Foreign Affairs uses public awareness campaigns and advertising to promote essential services to citizens at home and abroad, such as passport and consular services, and to promote Irish interests and values internationally. In recent years, public awareness campaigns in relation to COVID-19 travel restrictions and Brexit have formed a significant part of advertising costs.
Successfully communicating Ireland’s values and interests to global audiences, including through a range of online and social media channels, is integral to implementing our foreign policy objectives as set out in the Programme for Government and the Department’s Statement of Strategy.
The focus, duration, purpose, costs and outcome of the publicity, marketing and advertising campaigns conducted by the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2024, as of 8 October 2024, is outlined below in tabular format. These costs relate to multi-day campaigns where our promotional costs exceeded €1,000 and one-off sponsored posts are not included. A third-party media agency (PHD Media Ireland), retained under a cross-Government procurement process, was engaged for the purpose of progressing these campaigns, including the placing of advertisements across online, digital, press and print media platforms, while creative input in different instances was provided by ‘big O Creative’ (retained under a DFA-specific procurement process) and ‘Javelin Advertising’ (retained under a cross-Government procurement process).
| Campaign Focus | Dates | Purpose | Creative and Promotional Costs | Headline Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EU Jobs | 23/08/24 – 03/09/24 | • To promote opportunities for Irish citizens interested in pursuing financial career opportunities in the EU institutions• To highlight the supports available for Irish citizens to assist applying for various EU Career opportunities. | €1904.00 | The campaign achieved almost 250,000 impressions on DFA social media channels, with particularly strong engagement on LinkedIn. |
| Ireland at World Expo 2025 | 01/08/24 – 08/08/24 | • To promote Ireland’s participation at World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, particularly among Japanese audiences. • To highlight the strong political, economic and cultural connections between Ireland and Japan. | €54,965.14 | This campaign achieved more than 4 million impressions and a reach of 2.26 million on DFA social media channels. |
| Olympics and Paralympics | 23/07/24 – 01/08/24 | • To engage the global Irish diaspora, highlight Irish values to international and French audiences, and celebrate the contribution of Ireland to international sport.• To drive traffic to the relevant Ireland.ie website. | €42,108.50 | This campaign achieved almost 6.8 million impressions and a reach of almost 4.6 million on DFA HQ social media channels. [Versions with translated subtitles and issued by Embassies and Consulates are not included within this number.] |
| Consular (“Make the Right Memories!”) | 27/05/24 – 30/06/24 | • To provide young people celebrating exam results abroad - or who may be travelling without parents or guardians for the first time - with safety tips for themselves and their friends.• To reduce the numbers of consular incidents impacting Irish young people overseas. • To promote TravelWise, the Government’s travel advice service. | €136,539.50 | This campaign achieved 14.1 million impressions across all social media platforms, with a specific targeting of platforms of interest to key 17-25 year-old demographic. |
| St Patrick’s Day 2024 | 14/03/24 – 19/03/24 | • To promote Ireland around the world as a location to invest, visit, study and do business.• To showcase the vibrancy of Irish young people and our broader diaspora around the world to key international markets through the promotion of our signature St Patrick’s Day video.• To activate a search campaign using keyword-based targeting to reach a global audience interested in St. Patrick’s Day. • To drive traffic to the relevant Ireland.ie website. | €157,296.33 | This campaign achieved more than 17.7 million impressions and almost 10 million video plays on DFA social media channels. |
| Passports (“Don’t be That Person!”) | 26/12/23 – 24/03/24 | • To encourage citizens to check their passports before booking travel and to apply for their passports via Passport Online – the quickest way to renew or apply. This, in turn, helps to balance passport demand throughout the year and reduce wait times. • This major campaign blended a mix of offline and online media channels to deliver relevant messaging to our target audience. • To drive traffic to the relevant Ireland.ie website, where citizens can apply for passports and receive more information about the process. | €436,523.83 | This campaign achieved more than 22.7 million impressions and a reach of 10.2 million across DFA social media platforms. Digital advertisements achieved an additional 26.4 million impressions. |
| Exporter (UK Border Target Operating Model import controls) | 25/09/23 – 04/02/24 | • To inform Irish exporters of new UK Border Target Operating Model import controls in relation to UK Customs and sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) requirements. • To drive traffic to the relevant Gov.ie website, where more information on the issues has been available. | €119,356.84 | This campaign was a multi-channel campaign and achieved 7.4 million impressions and a reach of almost 3.6 million on DFA social media channels. Digital advertisements on websites such as the farmersjournal.ie, Tuarisc, and Agriland, the campaign achieved 3.5 million impressions. On radio, the campaign reached 53% of the target audience with listeners hearing campaign ads an average of 6 times. In print, it reached 27% of the target audience with readers seeing campaign ads an average of 1.35 times. |
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