The Donegal Connect 2019 project has won the Fáilte Ireland sponsored Best Tourism Initiative at the 2020 LAMA Awards, which took place in Dublin at the weekend. Inis Communications director Trish Hegarty says it’s a great achievement for everyone involved.
Inis Communications delivered the PR and Marketing for the project, as well as providing Event Management services.“The promotional campaign we ran exceeded our highest expectations, reaching global audiences of over 70 million,” says Trish.
“I had the pleasure of working with a great team and partners on the Donegal Connect project and I would like to pay tribute to their contribution and congratulate everyone on our success at the LAMA awards.”
About the LAMA Awards
The annual LAMA – the Local Authorities Members Association –awards event recognise communities and councils across Ireland and Donegal Connect was also shortlisted as finalists in the Arts and Connected Communities categories.
The Best Tourism Initiative was one of the more prestigious awards, coming up at the end of night, and was sponsored by Fáilte Ireland. “There were 10 finalists in total so we had no idea about our chances of success,” says Trish Hegarty. “But we were delighted to win as it’s such a great recognition of the success of the Donegal Connect project. It’s also a tribute to all the hard work involved.!”
Key to Donegal Connect’s Success
“Our #LoveDonegal Day campaign was the biggest game changer and massively increased our audience size from 7.5m to over 33.5m and we just kept growing from there.”
“But the #LoveDonegal campaign in particular could not have succeeded if all the project partners hadn’t pulled together so well to bring everyone on boar. There was great support from and participation by Donegal County Council, Donegal Tourism, Donegal LEO, Donegal Diaspora, Inishowen Tourism, Discover Bundoran, and Údarás na Gaeltacht.”
“Engagement from key players was also superb, ranging from project ambassador Packie Bonner and individuals like Shay Given, Jason Quigley and Nora Stapleton to agencies like Discover Ireland and some of our embassies abroad.”
Donegal Connect 2019
Donegal Connect 2019 was a collaborative project between the private and public sector in Donegal aimed at creating new opportunities for our county. The project aimed to engage with our Diaspora, both overseas and within Ireland, and anyone considering coming to Ireland. The aim was to entice them to make the journey to Donegal to find out why it is such a wonderful county to visit, to invest, to live, to set up or grow your business, to get educated in or trained, or to retire to.
The project was organised and delivered by a joint public and private sector management committee and a core project team made up of staff from Donegal County Council, including the Local Enterprise Office, Donegal Tourism and the Donegal Diaspora office. Project partners inlcuded LYIT, Údarás na Gaeilge, Pramerica, Donegal FinTech Group, Randox and the IDA. The project was funded by Donegal County Council and Fáilte Ireland’s Global Irish Fund.
“We were engaged in May 2019 to deliver PR, marketing and Event Management services to the project,” says Trish. “We were delighted with how successfully it went not just at reaching huge audiences but getting great engagement too. Securing an award is the cherry on top!”
Donegal Connect 2020
Donegal County Council says that Donegal Connect will run again this year, albeit in a different format. At present, it is understood that options may include a greater emphasis on business. It is also understood that #LoveDonegal Day will be run again in 2020.
You can find out more about the LAMA awards here. Learn more here about Inis Communications PR and Marketing Services. Call us on 086 1740047 or email trish@iniscommunications.com