Digital Strategy / Omni-channel Activation

DUBLIN ZOO - #DublinElephants

As a not-for-profit organisation, Dublin Zoo relies heavily on footfall to ensure the best care for the animals and best experience for visitors. Known worldwide as one of the best Zoos due to its conservation and breeding projects, Dublin Zoo was lucky enough to have three elephant calves born in the same summer but was still faced with falling short of its 1million visitor mark for the year. This is when the ‘Dublin: Where Elephants Roam’ campaign was born.

The idea was to take elements of Dublin Zoo into the city through guerilla marketing stunts, curated ‘surprise & delight’ social media campaign, content creation, behind-the-scenes footage, a family activities event day, and exclusive content from The Zoo TV programme, and a print marketing partnership.

The result was a month full of amazing content and experiential activity that garnered national coverage, trended for 3 days ons social media, and won 4 marketing awards.

MY ROLE:

  • Digital activation strategy, creative and execution

  • PR - media relations, photocall and talent management

  • Copywriting for social media, sponsor content, media partners, and owned channels.

  • Videography - storyboarding, editing, platform-specific edits

  • Social media channel management, content creation, and fan engagement

  • Ambassador briefing, management, and content activation

  • Experiential - creative direction, strategy, content capture, management

WHAT WE DID:

  • Under the cover of darkness, we dropped four large transport boxes around Dublin City which evidently housed large animals who had seemingly broken out. The alarm was raised through social media partner channels the Gardaí, Dublin Fire Brigade, Lord Mayers House, Dublin City Council, and others to watch out for and report any animal sightings.

  • We sent a ‘troupe’ of elephants roaming around the city, visiting various well-known landmarks along the way. As random members of the public started to share online their confusion about the group we surprised them with a free day pass to Dublin Zoo and informed them of the #DublinElephants campaign

  • We hosted a family treasure hunt from Dublin City Centre, where parents and children could search for markers around a 2km walking radius, returning back to our activity and education street party pop-up to receive their Dublin Zoo pass.

  • We ran a month long social media campaign that gave unseen access to the elephants at Dublin Zoo; night vision cameras, feeding time content, educational content, naming competitions, and much more meant that the channels were constantly engaging fans and driving more footfall by the day.

RESULTS

  • +780k social media accounts reached

  • +3 days trending across Ireland on Twitter

  • +90 pieces of content created throughout the month

  • +€1.2m in PR coverage/AVE

  • +120k attributed visitors during & post campaign

  • Smashed the 1m footfall target with 6 weeks to spare

  • 3x Social Media Awards including the Grand Prix

  • 1x All Ireland Marketing Award

OTHER PROJECTS WITH DUBLIN ZOO

During the 4 year management of Dublin Zoo’s social media channels, I ensured content hit its highest standards with fan photography competitions (UGC), educational content (keeper talks & live streams), crisis comms management (Like you wouldn’t believe), service announcements, and customer care. Also created strategies and executed campaigns like:

  • Announcing the birth of Lion Cubs with social content, fan engagement, naming competitions, and updates

  • Announcing, launching, and live fan engagement for The Zoo TV series