We’re delighted for our friends at Tourism Ireland. Last month they won the prestigious All-Ireland Marketing Award for best use of Digital.

Betapond were particularly chuffed by the fact that IrelandTown, the first-ever social game on Facebook for a country, was part of the entry that brought them gold.

IrelandTown, in which more than 400,000 monthly active users competed to gain points and badges while travelling around a virtual Ireland , was launched for St Patrick’s Day 2011 and quickly became popular with Tourism Ireland’s target audience of potential visitors to Ireland. The grand prize was a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Ireland for the lucky winner – and players could progress faster through the game by inviting friends to join in the fun.

Tourism Ireland achieved the top digital honours in a challenging environment for the world economy and after a 10% decline in visitor numbers in 2010. But in 2011 they turned it around:

Research had shown that consumers needed to be convinced that there were sufficient things to do here, an Irish holiday had to engage on a deeper emotional level, and the destination had to become more vibrant. To tackle this, a ‘Digital Engagement Strategy’ was launched to deliver a world-class digital media presence. This led to Ireland winning the battle for consumer mind share in 2011, growing the Facebook fan base threefold to become the 3rd largest tourist board in the world, and lifting visitor numbers for the first time in three years, regaining share in all major markets.

We’re particularly proud of whatever small part we played in helping achieve those results for Tourism Ireland. Congratulations!