In an uncertain run up to Christmas and during a period where the city needed a lift, Cork City Council asked us to develop an emotive campaign that could bring together the various messages already being communicated by the city, all the while fostering a spirit of togetherness and community. Due to the ever-changing landscape COVID imposed on Christmas in the city, the campaign was sensitive in its nature, and needed a creative style to reflect this. I suppose it doesn’t hurt that we’re all Christmas fanatics! Thank Cork It’s Christmas.

Beginning with naming and creative development, the campaign centred around a feature video which was published across all of the City Council’s social channels. The video was emotive in its nature, tugging at the heartstrings of the viewer. The aim was to capture and highlight just a few things that make Christmas in Cork so special, portraying the spirit of a truly Corkonian Christmas. The video was supported by a series of social media assets, which promoted not only the emotive, light-hearted aspect of the campaign, but also delivered key practical messages that needed to be communicated by the City Council. To add a physical presence, simple window graphics were applied to businesses across the city to show their support and further reinforce the campaign.

Central to the campaign’s success was the involvement of the wider business community. The creation of a toolkit and guidelines gave them the ability to take part and further extend the reach of the messaging. The buy-in from the general public and business community was amazing, with the majority of those contacted embracing the campaign whole-heartedly. This produced a significant extension to the reach of the campaign beyond what would have been possible solely with the Council’s own resources. With over 160,000 direct views of the feature video, a 1,000% increase versus previous similar campaigns and an estimated overall engagement of 350,000 in just 2 weeks, the campaign was a great success.

DIRECT VIEWS OF FEATURE VIDEO DURING CAMPAIGN LIFESPAN

INCREASE IN ENGAGEMENT VERSUS PREVIOUS SIMILAR CAMPAIGN CONTENT

MINIMUM ESTIMATED OVERALL ENGAGEMENT IN 2 WEEKS