Services provided
Communications hierarchy, visual identity, creative ideation, storytelling, accessible video production, Irish Sign Language, photography
The challenge
With 22% of people in Ireland living with a disability, there's a lot of work needed to make tourism experiences more accessible and inclusive for everyone. As a key priority of their corporate strategy, Fáilte Ireland wanted to raise the profile of accessible and inclusive tourism and streamline their communications to industry. This would help to elevate the work they were doing to support industry in achieving a vision of Ireland as a leading accessible and inclusive destination.
What we did
To lay the foundation for impactful, consistent and clear communications, 256 created an easy to follow communications hierarchy using our proprietary messaging framework. This single source of truth was built on a universal truth "when tourism is accessible and inclusive and enjoyable for everyone, it benefits everyone". The tagline "a better place for everyone" easily encapsulates the ambition and importance of the programme.
The messaging framework includes flexible 'building blocks' with key messages, supporting messages, CTAs which can be reused in varying combinations to reinforce the message across the website, programme materials, emails, scripts, reinforcing the message. The elevator pitch set the tone: "at the heart of accessible and inclusive tourism is the belief that no one should be left out." To ensure the messaging framework was easily adapted by the internal teams we built out the storybook with tone of voice guidelines, examples of brand stories, social media and email copy and hashtags. To work in tandem with the written communications we developed an accessible visual identity, branded PowerPoint template and related visual assets as well as a series of hero photographs from locations around the country.
With a strong foundation in place it was time to bring the message to life through the voice of the customer, featuring the personal stories of people with lived experience in a series of short films. Through their own words they highlighted the importance of accessible and inclusive tourism across all touchpoints of the visitor experience, from researching their trip, to transport, accommodation, and customer service.
The powerful personal stories were also edited with presenter-led, scripted contextual links, filmed in studio to create an important training resource for the programme.
Delivered over a three month time-frame, this substantial body of work required very close collaboration with the client teams, seamless account management and project management to meet an ambitious launch deadline. In a related body of work we also created three films showcasing how employers in the tourism industry were enriching their teams through hiring people with varying needs and lived experience.
How it looks
The outcome of this project is a clear, consistent and flexible communications framework positioning Fáilte Ireland's accessible and inclusive programme and bringing the strategy to life. Most importantly it makes it easy for the internal teams to create effective, on brand messaging across all their digital touchpoints. The important messaging is carried through the scripted hero video which sets the scene while personal video stories provide highly impactful and memorable industry training and marketing materials.
