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How About Some Serious Irish Viral Marketing
By far and away the best example of viral marketing I have seen come out of Ireland recently, The Dublin Coastal Development is a very slick on-line marketing campaign that is being talked about quite a bit on Irish blogs.
While the website is very professional, what really makes this viral special is a 3 min promotional video (also available from the website) showcasing ‘the biggest construction project in the state’ which will include ‘the world’s only giraffe-only zoo’, Howth 2 ‘an exact replica of Howth on the southside’, and is ‘a world on water that can be seen from space’:
(Did you notice the caption 
)
(Again the video is so slick that you would be excused for missing those captions the first time around)
I have to say I really like this and I will be very curious to see just how many people register on their site for this ‘development’.
Best of luck to Funda when they start operating here.
[UPDATE 26 September – last night I saw a news report that costed this project at over €30,000. Today I saw the following banner over on boards.ie:
I think that they want to fill that database with as many email addies as possible.]
I was shown this in the office last week and although its a great concept I couldnt understand if it was real or not.
I totally missed the captions you mentioned.
Comment by Gavin — September 25, 2006 @ 3:22 pm
Hi Gavin
What’s the chances that some developer is having a think about this right now
Rgds
Richard.
Comment by Richard Hearne — September 25, 2006 @ 3:38 pm
I’m not too keen on the website (frames! eek!) but the overall concept and the video are something else!
Also, I’m ashamed to say it, but I did think at first that it looked too slick to be homegrown so it is brilliant to see such great work coming out of Ireland.
Comment by Janine — September 25, 2006 @ 7:53 pm
Hello Janine
Did you manage to put some manners on all that bad behaviour over on wysiwyg?
I think a lot of people are falling for this you know. It’s so good that it is quite hard not to find it believable. You almost turn off to some of the commentary just looking at the slick visuals.
I really can’t wait till they tell us how many people registered on the site.
And the real beauty I see is that they can just set up a 301 redirect from this site to Funda’s site later on and let the link love flow (I know, I can’t stop seeing the SEO side of things – I’m just a bit of an SEO junky I suppose!).
Best regards
Richard.
Comment by Richard Hearne — September 25, 2006 @ 8:07 pm
Well although not quite an addict, I can appreciate the SEO upsides to this too
But I can’t believe anyone would really fall for it?? I mean come on! Although I suppose if you have people paying nearly a mill for shoeboxes in Dublin…
I was going to register myself, but only to be one of the first to hear about the next development (excuse the pun!) in the campaign (if any) – not because I want to reserve my bit of the shamrock!
I’m not sure whether my comment problems are fixed
Spam Karma seemed to be causing more niggles than Bad Behaviour!? So if you do feel inclined to comment further on any of my waffle, please let me know if anything goes awry. Thanks!
Comment by Janine — September 25, 2006 @ 8:18 pm
42k new homes would probably be enough to make quite a few believers. If your not used to this sort of thing… and desperate to get a home… I’m willing to bet you a decent text-embedded link (choice of anchor and all!) that a busload of people fell for this.
LOL
I bet more people read your waffle than read mine!
Comment by Richard Hearne — September 25, 2006 @ 8:38 pm
[...] Well the buzz about Dublin Property Company is certainly taking off. Well done to Funda Ireland and their marketing folk for putting together a great campaign. [...]
Pingback by Search Engine Optimisation Ireland .:. Red Cardinal » Funda Ireland, €30k (excluding the SEO) — September 26, 2006 @ 11:49 am
As a follow-up on this I asked Ronan Higgins of Funda (via the EI eBusiness Discussion Forum) about the success of the campaign and he kindly replied.
His comments can be seen at:
http://news.enterprise-ireland.com/read/messages?id=9201#9201
As I imagined, plenty of people offering to invest in the project.
Thank you Ronan for your candid response.
Comment by Richard Hearne — October 9, 2006 @ 10:02 am
Some really interesting insights there from Ronan…
Yep, it seems some people fell for it alright – cabbages! So, let me know if you want your link in my blogroll optimised as you please
Oh and I’m pretty sure more people read your intelligent posts than my rarely written waffle! I just get the muppets with short attention spans spending a split second from Google *still* looking for how many bands were in that Virgin Digital picture or where they can play Deal Or No Deal – the shame of it!
Comment by Janine — October 9, 2006 @ 8:26 pm
Hello Janine
I’m just flattered that you gave me a link in your blogroll
I couldn’t ask for more
Best rgds
Richard
hmmm. now if I could just figure out those smiley codes
Comment by Richard Hearne — October 9, 2006 @ 8:41 pm
[...] were the guys behind Shamrog Island viral campaign that hit the headlines last [...]
Pingback by Funda Ireland Pulling Down The Shutters | Search Engine Optimisation & Online Marketing Ireland .:. Red Cardinal — July 4, 2007 @ 6:15 pm
Hmm this is the same guy as behind http://www.getupstandupandunionconnect.com/ who is running a full blackening campaign on the Trade Unions, using their graphics illegally, and running a Google Adsense campaign against the trade unions…
… Sound like a guy with a bee in his bonnet / fallen from grace to be honest.
Comment by Pat — November 5, 2009 @ 9:36 pm
Not sure I get you fully Pat? It looks like Ronan is the owner of that domain you mentioned, and it might currently be hosting some old content from another site, but perhaps he just picked it up and wants to reinstate it in Google. Might not be 100% kosher, but I’m not following you fully perhaps?
Comment by Richard Hearne — November 5, 2009 @ 10:49 pm
Hi Richard,
Sorry, it’s meant to be a parody of the site http://www.getupstandup.ie/
Not spoken for on the whether I like trade unions or not side of things, unlike some of my colleagues; just think it’s a little OTT to be honest, particularly paying for adsense out of your own pocket for such a site, with a clearly ripped concept.
Regards
Pat
Comment by Pat — November 6, 2009 @ 3:50 am