Featured Site: Dublin Convention & Visitor's Bureau, "Irish is an Attitude"

"Irish is an Attitude" is the motif for the Dublin, Ohio, convention and visitor's bureau website, launched this month by the Upward Brand Interactions team -- just in time for St. Patrick's Day celebrations. From the old-Irish style wood frames, to the lucky shamrock background, a distinctly Gaelic charm permeates throughout the site's branding and feel.

The site targets consumers, event planners and group tours with attractions and events, the largest of which includes the annual Dublin Irish Fest, the biggest Irish festival in the country and the PGA Memorial Golf Tournament.

The city's marketers are active users of social media tools, so incorporating those new media outlets was vital. They also wanted to display great photos and have plenty of ad space to feature attractions, tours, hotels, places to eat and things to do in Dublin. The site is ultimately successful because it uses a carefully orchestrated architecture, which creates opportunities for visitor conversion and blends everything under one brand voice.

Aggregating & Sharing Local Social Content

One goal of the site was to take advantage of local businesses actively using social media to market restaurants and shops, maximizing resources and keeping the most current news and events coming through on consistent conduit. To achieve this, Upward Brand Interactions worked with the CVB staff to create the "Dublin Live" page. This page is designed to reference bulletin boards at classic Irish pubs, and streams social content from Flickr, YouTube, Yelp, Twitter and blogs.

Each stream of social content aggregates automatically, pulling in tweets, restaurant reviews and photos from contributing businesses in the city.

"Dublin Live is innovative because it helps us serve the community and visitors through one consistent Web location,” said Mary Szymkowiak, communications specialist with the CVB. “We maximize the time we spend interacting through social media and encourage our local business partners to share their Dublin experiences.”

Interactive Tourism & Business Directory Solution

Another feature of the Dublin site is the city map and business directory that uses the Google Maps API to display a customized map of Dublin. To create a custom feel, Upward Brand Interactions used unique icons to represent different attractions.

When a user clicks an icon, an info bubble displays a photo of the venue, plus contact information and a link to a full directory listing for each business, including description, contact information and map with driving directions.

When it comes to local Irish flavor, the CVB's blog says it best: "And, remember one more thing. You don’t need Irish in your blood. Just in your soul."

Or in your website, we say. Thanks to Mary and everyone at the CVB for all their hard work and collaborative (Irish) spirit.