Ireland, GermanyIreland, Germany- and you?and you?

Lasting for one whole year!

Come and join our greatGaeltacht 30th Birthday

Party2013/2014!

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Table of Contents

1) This is Europe2) This is Germany3) Culture Seekers4) Our Gaeltacht Brochure5) Marketing 6) 30 nights of Irish Arts & Culture7) 500=1,000 Irish Cultural Events in Germany (500 Days of

Irish Life)8) Gaeltacht 30th Birthday Party9) Other important Information

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1) This is Europe.

Almost each of its states is a potential market for Ireland.

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2) This is Germany.

The country with the biggest population and market in Europe, divided into 16 states.

Which also applies to travel:About 60 million trips abroad were undertaken by Germans in 2012.Approx. 450,000 of them to Ireland. Which is less than 1 percent of market share.Germany is not that far away.

Ireland’s - and your own potential - is much higher.

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3) Culture Seekers

• All sources agree that culture, in the broadest sense, is the keymotivation for Germans to visit Ireland. Fáilte Ireland and

Tourism Ireland accordingly have named them “culture seekers”.

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4) Our Gaeltacht Brochure• In relation to culture seekers: This fact is one aspect that made

and still makes Gathering Ireland 2013 a great thing, a really fine marketing tool.

• We (from Gaeltacht Irland Reisen) dedicated quite some space to the Gathering in our 100-page-brochure this year (12 pages and more). Explained it, listed numerous events – concerts, celebrations, performances ... – in short: gatherings.

• First part of the brochure as e-book: http://www.gaeltacht.de/download/pdf/Zusammenkommen_low.pdf Whole brochure as e-book: http://www.bestofireland.de/Ebooks/Gaeltacht_Broschuere_Ebook/index.html

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5) Marketing

• Marketing is always very tricky.

• You can market Ireland and/or your ownproduct, your region etc. in many differentways:– via tour operators,– via the World Wide Web – via social media like Facebook, Twitter etc. – via direct contacts (mail, post...)– via Tourism Ireland (which is often

a mixture of the same activities),– ...

• Is there anything else?

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5) Marketing

• Long ago the old Board Fáilte, later also Tourism Ireland invented and installed the so-called touring “Roadshow” to bring Ireland to the people: Meet those interested in Ireland personally and directly in 5 to 10 larger cities ...

•Yes! There is.

The above list of common modern marketing possibilities (tools) does not include one of the oldest, most efficient methods: personal contact and talking directly to those you want to sell your product to.

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5) Marketing

• Guess who said this?John Brennan, General Manager of the Kenmare Park Hotel (in an interview with the Irish Times)

• In the Irish Times, one of your own national newspapers, it has been described as follows:

• "It is about selling, not marketing, and it is time to leave the desks and hit the streets for all involved. It is shoe-leather marketing and not ezines".

• "Ireland is about an experience, not a cold introduction so easily eliminated by the delete button. It will be harder and costlier but more rewarding in the long-term."

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6) 30 nights of Irish Arts & Culture

• We (from Gaeltacht Irland Reisen) had planned something similar to the former Roadshow for Germany in 2013: 30 Nights of Irish Arts & Culture – all over the country, with a total expected audience of up to 90,000 people.

• Top acts from Ireland on stage, music from classical to folk/pop/rock, clips/films, literature & poetry... A unique presentation of Ireland through the Irish. A cultural invitation, motivation to join the Gathering in Ireland itself. Coinciding as well with Ireland’s EU presidency.

• But we didn’t get the support needed when presenting our detailed proposal in early 2012. In spite of receiving strong verbal support: Michael D Higgins to whom we talked in May of that year declared his willingness to take over patronage – in the case it took place. But then it didn’t as such ...

• (We will give it a new try in 2014! – will you be part of it?)

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7) 500=1,000 Irish Cultural Events in Germany

• We did something else instead – something we had already carried out successfully in 1996 and something we would also be able to keep control of:

• We proposed to celebrate “500 Days of Irish Life in Germany” – by promoting 500 events related to Irish culture in the first half of 2013.As support here was limited as well, we went out on our own and just made it happen: >>>>

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7) 500=1,000 Irish Cultural Events in Germany

• We talked to concert promoters, musicians, venues (halls), cultural institutions – and promised them to bring them all together under the one (marketing) umbrella: “500 Days of Irish Life”.

• In early December 2012 we knew we would indeed succeed in reaching 500 events – now, at the end of March, we have “gathered” more than 1,000 events. Small ones, big ones. A lot of which would have taken place anyway. Most of them concerts, but also including readings, film screenings, theatrical productions etc.

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7) 500=1,000 Irish Cultural Events in Germany

• This is why we show you another map of Germany listing (only) 700 of those more than 1,000 events:

• Many of them have already taken place - and most of them are very different from each other:

This map leads you to our website via oneclick on it.

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7) 500=1,000 Irish Cultural Events in Germany

• On our website people can search for these events and select by- date/month- artist/band- venue- postcode

- All info/data is easily accessible to the public – not only in our brochures, but also on the web.

- We have always done both: online and offline presence.

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7) 500=1,000 Irish Cultural Events in Germany

The first screenshot on the leftrepresents one part of the

websitementioned leading you to

anotherpart of the same website(represented by the second screenshot) by just clicking it.

On the website you can choose between different links:

Overview of participating artists or overview of locations/venues.

In the lists you will find there (either as Excel or PDF files), you can decide for yourself what you would like to search for, even having the possibility to download them:

as Excel list or as PDF file.

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7) 500=1,000 Irish Cultural Events in Germany

• What makes these events so special? Why are we telling you this?

• We use them as a marketing platform to promote Ireland as well as our own company (Gaeltacht). In addition to our Gaeltacht brochure mentioned before we have therefore put together an exclusive “Irish Life Reader and Travel Book”, comprising 252 pages.

• Both “books” are distributed free of charge at many of these events.

• The first 50,000 copies are more or less gone, the second 50,000 are about to be printed.

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7) 500=1,000 Irish Cultural Events in Germany

• They are “distributed”? Not just! They are handed over personally to the visitors (through our big network of so-called freelance “helpers” all over Germany). It makes a difference if just seeing something you are free to take with you or if you are addressed personally: “Good evening, welcome! We have something special for you.”

• But not only just this. At some events a personal “welcome message” is being read out from the stage by the organiser or the artist. This makes our book and brochure an almost personal thing. The reputation of the artist or artists of the night transfers to the value of the book they refer to.

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7) 500=1,000 Irish Cultural Events in Germany

• Facts:

– About half of those attending take the book(s) presented to them – (almost half of the visitors come in parties of two)

– Unfortunately and because of the extremely challenging logistics connected with having to deal with more than 1,000 events: We are unable to offer this service at all of these events.

– Final statistics are pending as we are still in the middle of things). But we believe that eventually we will have been able to address 40-50 percent of all events at the end.

– And all this with the two small teams of Gaeltacht/EBZ Irland and the irland journal magazine. With bigger support we could have achieved even more.

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7) 500=1,000 Irish Cultural Events in Germany

• Definite achievement:

– We have established a completely new network of artists, concert and tour promoters, venues/halls, many cultural/educational institutions, parts of the national media and those who went (or will go) to an Irish cultural event.

– We currently use this new network to create our additional “marketing/ selling platform”.

http://www.netzwerkirland.de/

One of the key figures in the cultural sector admitted just a few days ago: “As you mentioned ..., there was a sense that the ambition of the project was huge and there were some concerns about the feasibility of plans of this scale … I know and admire your work and promotion of Irish culture and all you have achieved going back to 1996 ...”

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7) 500=1,000 Irish Cultural Events in Germany

• And now, because Ireland’s EU Presidency will be over by June 30th, 2013, you think our project will end as well?

• We would be foolish to stop ... as we have now created this completely new marketing/selling platform (network) -

• Currently we are working on at least six major projects, all at the same time and all of them interrelated. We work ...1. ... on the normal/upcoming issue of the irland journal magazine with a print run of ca. 10,000 arriving between 20th

and 30th of April (just before our company’s 30th birthday). 2. ... on the second print run of our Irish Life Book

3. ... on the happenings related to the 3rd of May, which is the 30th

birthday of Gaeltacht Irland Reisen (this is why we originally thought of "30" nights of Irish Arts & Culture!) ... >>>>

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8) Gaeltacht 30th Birthday Party• On this 30th birthday we will come out publicly

with our final decision on this:•

These “500 Days of Irish Life” will go into “extra time” and comprise all Irish events in Germany in that period of time brought to our attention: from summer to autumn into winter. Even now, already approx. 200 such events in the second half of 2013 have been confirmed. We hope we will have a new name for this project until then. Perhaps something like: “Irischer Herbst in Deutschland” (“Irish Autumn in Germany”)

We also work on this:4. With our anniversary we will start a number of new things – for example:

– Inviting all fans of Ireland (there are more than 270,000 of them in our database) to an internal forum. One of the many questions we want to discuss there with those who register for this:What best name can we find and what better can we do in 2014 for a year long Irish Cultural Festival in Germany on the basis of all (the) experience gained with all the events in 2013?

5. Our online shop www.irish-shop.de will relaunch with a completely new design (and software)

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8) Gaeltacht 30th Birthday Party

6. But perhaps the following might be one of the most interesting new features for you:

• Our 30th birthday celebrations will last for one whole year, covering the rest of 2013 and still quite a deal of 2014.

• In this whole year the German public will be presented with special offers - each day there will be something new to win on our website. For example something that you offer! Which would mean that you have the chance to present yourself for a whole year to potential German clients (depending on what you are able to offer and for how long or how often).

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8) Gaeltacht 30th Birthday Party7. Now, what ways of participating are there for you?

a) For one thing, you could book an advert in our IRISH LiFE BOOK. If it’s too late for the second print run already (what is likely), you can go for the third - in autumn 2013. Or you opt for the one being published next year.

b) You could also book an advert in our irland journal magazine– Again: If it’s too late for the upcoming issue (what is likely), you can book one in the June-, September- or December edition (10,000 journals mean approx. 30,000 readers).(Instead of separate bookings in different issues we would also be able to offer you a cheaper package covering several issues!)

c) A quick decision would make it possible for you to participate directly in and benefit from our 30th birthday celebrations which will start on the 3rd of May, as seen, and will continue for the one whole year:If, for example, you provide something meaningful or valuable as an incentive for our Gaeltacht clients (like a regular discount or 5 small packages containing parts of your product), you and your product will be a winner in another way as well, because you will also get a considerable discount for an entry into the IRISH LIFE BOOK and into the irland journal mag.

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9) Other important information

• Publication Dates for our irland journal and Folker magazines (actually, always on the first day of the month):

• Folker– May: 3/2013– July: 4/2013– September: 5/2013– November: 6/2013– January: 1/2014– March: 2/2014– and so on...

• irland journal– Mid-May: 2/2013– September: 3/2013– December: 4/2013– March: 1/2014 ... and so on...

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9) Other important information

Daily Per month

www.gaeltacht.de             10,101 303,000

www.irish-shop.de                

  4,537       

137,000

www.celtic-music-net.de/ 6,274 188,200

www.folk-lied-weltmusik.de/

  2,538       

76,000

www.folker.de   1,795        54,000

www.irland-journal.de/   1,501        45,030

Total app. Hits 26,747 800,000

•Current web statistics for all our websites (hits) as per March, 2013:

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9) Other important information

• Your great chances are then ...

• 1) ... to be present in our print products;

• 2) ... to join our birthday party – on the web - lasting for one whole year;

• 3) ... and, most importantly, perhaps: to be part of our great project in 2014 with our goal of being present at 2,000 cultural events related to Ireland all over the year.

• Your best contact:• Gaeltacht Irland Reisen & irland journal• Schwarzer Weg• 47447 Moers• Germany• Tel. 0049-2841-930131 (direct line Christian Ludwig)• irland-journal@t-online.de

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Thank you very much for your attention!