RTÉ has announced that Fáilte Ireland is the new sponsor of RTE Weather. The three-year sponsorship is part of Fáilte Ireland’s Keep Discovering campaign.
Pre and post roll sponsorship stings will feature around all TV, online and social forecasts including sponsorship of the RTE Weather & Climate podcast – with over 100 weather forecasts per week. Since January of this year, RTÉ weather bulletins following the main news programmes on RTÉ One and RTÉ One +1 have reached 84% of all viewers, equivalent to over 3.7 million people having seen the RTÉ weather forecast at least once since January
“Domestic tourism is the foundation stone of Ireland’s tourism sector and it will be critical to its recovery. Fáilte Ireland’s strategic sponsorship of RTÉ Weather will enable our central message of holidaying at home to reach hundreds of thousands of viewers every week,” said Paul Kelly, CEO Fáilte Ireland.
Geraldine O’Leary, Commercial Director, RTÉ welcomed the sponsorship: “We are thrilled that Fáilte Ireland will sponsor Weather on RTÉ television and online from January 2022. This is an exciting new partnership and we love how Failté Ireland have embraced the opportunity and worked closely with us to ensure that the sponsorship will resonate with the RTÉ audience, while highlighting the opportunities that abound to explore, experience and keep discovering our beautiful country.”
Announcing the sponsorship CEO of Fáilte Ireland Paul Kelly said: “Our research shows Irish people enjoy taking long and short breaks at home all year round while international visitors tend to travel predominantly during the summer season. With international travel not expected to return to pre-Covid levels until at least 2025 our investment in the sponsorship of RTÉ Weather will allow us to maximise the opportunity that domestic tourism offers as we focus on accelerating the recovery of our tourism industry.
“Domestic tourism generated €2.5billion for the Irish economy in 2019 and represented one-third of all tourism revenue. Due to the enormous weekly viewership of RTÉ Weather, we expect our strategic sponsorship to significantly help boost domestic tourism year-round and drive revenue for businesses while sustaining and creating thousands of jobs in a sector that has been devastated by Covid19.
“Our message will be watched daily in hundreds of thousands of living rooms across the country and will inspire people to ‘Keep Discovering’ Ireland’s huge range of incredible destinations and experiences. It will encourage more people to choose a domestic holiday and in doing so support local businesses, local jobs and communities throughout the country.”
Niall Tracey, Director of Marketing Fáilte Ireland adds: “Fáilte Ireland’s investment in RTÉ Weather will be central to the execution of our domestic marketing strategy. Our objective is to inspire more people to explore more areas of the country and experience the joy and simplicity of discovery with constant and compelling reminders of the wonder a home holiday can bring.
“Through word class creative the weather sponsorship provides a powerful platform to constantly promote motivating reasons to travel to specific destinations, counties and events at specific times of the year.”
Dave Bruen – Managing Partner, Mindshare said: “Mindshare is delighted to have secured the RTÉ Weather sponsorship on behalf of Failte Ireland. This is the most prestigious sponsorship in Irish media and we look forward to working with both Failte Ireland and RTÉ in placing it at the heart of our communications strategy over the next number of years.
Ruth Kennedy, RTÉ TV Sponsorship Lead said: “RTÉ Weather is the largest broadcast sponsorship in Ireland, so it is with great excitement that after 15 years, we are announcing a brand new sponsor. We are delighted to be partnering with Fáilte Ireland and Mindshare and look forward to launching their activation on January 1st.”