The Brief:

In July 2021, Limerick City and County Council opened the Limerick Greenway to the public. The newly renovated 40km scenic off-road walking and cycling route connects the three market towns of Rathkeale, Newcastle West and Abbeyfeale along the old Limerick to Tralee railway line. The €10 million visionary project is the biggest outdoor tourism amenity project ever undertaken by Limerick City and County Council.

Springboard Communications, in partnership with brand agency TOTEM, was brought on to lead a national integrated communications and marketing campaign to launch this new amenity.

 The communications objectives were to:

• Develop key collateral for the Greenway, including a range of signage, brochures, and itineraries – both messaging and design.
• Create a bank of compelling promotional visual content, including two videos.
• Deliver an effective digital, print, and broadcast advertising campaign.
• Deliver a national media campaign to promote the launch.
• Plan and manage an extensive social media campaign.

The Execution:

A campaign of this scale required an all-in effort from Springboard’s multi-disciplinary team, leveraging our extensive experience in strategy, media relations, copywriting, advertising, and digital marketing.

Drawing on our experience from our successful launch campaigns for the Waterford Greenway and the Royal Canal Greenway, we devised a campaign that would differentiate the Limerick Greenway from other amenities, establishing it, and the West Limerick region, as a tourism choice for their key audiences.

As restrictions and regulations changed rapidly before the launch due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, we had to be extremely agile in our approach and manage project timelines carefully.

Our activities included:

• We conducted strategy sessions with Limerick City and County Council to develop a clear strategy with unique messaging house, detailed critical path, and identify key stakeholders and audiences with a focus on domestic regional audiences.
• Working with TOTEM graphic designers for the project, we researched and developed content for all signs to be placed along the new route, as well as brochures, itineraries, and website content. We also managed copywriting and Irish translation for all this collateral.
• Developing concepts, scripting, and storyboarding for two key brand videos for the Greenway – one ‘Hero’ video to launch the Greenway and another ‘Code of Conduct’ video to be used as educational content for users.

• Management and concepts for a series of promotional photos along the Greenway, capturing key discovery points and access towns and activities.
• Detailed briefing sessions were conducted with several stakeholder groups across the communities ahead of the launch.
• An engaging social media campaign across Facebook and Instagram, including the creation of assets, posting, and engaging directly with comments and queries from the public.
• Planning, creative development and management of a compelling advertising campaign across print, radio, billboards and digital media.
• Identifying key media targets, developing, and issuing a compelling media release and digital media pack and managing media relations for the launch.
• Liaising with local stakeholders and media outlets to arrange interviews to coincide with the launch including organising a series of media trips to the Greenway to gain further coverage.

The Results:

The Limerick Greenway successfully opened to the public on July 1, at the start of the 2021 tourism season.

Media

On the day of the launch, we hit all our key media targets including:

• Prominent coverage in the Irish Times, Irish Examiner and Irish Independent.
• Prior to the launch, we engaged with RTÉ to produce a video package which aired on the main news on RTÉ One throughout the day.
• Prominent local media coverage throughout the week, including the front page of the Limerick Leader and a panel discussion on Live 95’s flagship morning programme, Limerick Today.
• Features in national online media, including ie, joe.ie, and evoke.ie.
• The launch was also covered in regional media in surrounding counties, a key target to promote domestic tourism.

In total, our media relations campaign achieved70 pieces of coverage, with 29% in TIER 1 media. It had a reach of 9,748,955 and a Cost Per Thousand (CPM) of 0.93c.

We also organised four familiarisation trips for journalists from the Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Irish Star and RTÉ.ie, working with local businesses including family hotels, quirky shops, fascinating museums and the best of West Limerick’s food scene to create authentic experiences that showcased the real people and stories along the Greenway.

Social Media

On Instagram, we brought the new @limerickgreenway account from a base of zero in June up to 4,068+ followers, with an average 4.4% engagement rate – above industry average of 1.73%. Throughout the campaign, we reached more than 484,000 accounts. The hero video we produced for the campaign was seen more than 10,000 times.

On Facebook, the Limerick Greenway page had steady growth, adding 1,858 likes, rising to 5,746 in total. Our videos were viewed more than 209,000 times, and we reached more than 811,000, with 65,213 engaging directly through likes, comments, shares, and clicks.

We used Influencer partnerships to reach a wider audience, over 76,000 Instagram users – both local to Limerick and the wider region with an ROI at €0.70 per account reached.

Our digital advertising campaign had more than 2.9 million impressions and a reach of more than 941,000. This was complimented by an extensive six week burst of outdoor, radio and print advertising with carefully targeted regions and demographics.

If you haven’t visited the Limerick Greenway, we strongly recommend you do. Visit www.limerickgreenway.ie to plan your journey.

Testimonial:

“The Limerick Greenway was the biggest outdoor tourism amenity project ever undertaken by Limerick City and County Council.  The launch campaign needed to reach local and national audiences and partnering with Springboard Communications ensured we achieved this.  

 Springboard Communications executed a fully integrated communications and marketing campaign to promote the launch of the Greenway — from generating promotional collateral to creating visual content; from the development and execution of a successful advertising campaign to a dynamic media relations drive.  

 We were hugely impressed by Springboard Communications and were delighted to work with such a passionate team.”

Eileen Coleman, Senior Executive Officer at Limerick City and County Council

Do you have a similar project that needs communications support? Get in touch with us today at info@springboardcommunications.ie