Cruinniú na nÓg
Creative Ireland
Ireland is the first, and only, country in the world to have a national day of free creativity, called Cruinniú na nÓg, for children and young people under 18.
Each summer, thousands of parents, families and young people take part in a wide range of fun, free creative activities and each summer bigO amplifies this very special day.
Context
bigO was tasked with elevating this national day of youthful creativity. Alongside our creative partners – creative director Eoghan Nolan and Zero-G – we devised an integrated campaign that really packed a punch, making this day one to remember.
Taking the idea that if you can’t see it, you can’t be it, we utilised a tiny budget and amplified the message by placing young people and recognisable ‘creative heroes’ together in a series of social outputs, TV ads, social posts, articles, illustrated display ads, targeted Snapchat content, Instagram takeovers and photography. The roster included, amongst others, film director Jim Sheridan, musician Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and fashion designer Helen Steele.
The campaign was a massive success. In 2018, there were 500 events registered on the website; in 2019, that number grew to 780 – up 56%. In total, our content saw 1.4m completed video views across website and social channels – an increase of over 600% on our views of 232k in 2018. There were also more than 537k views of our content on RTÉ, Facebook and Twitter (140k organic). On the day itself, #CruinniúNanÓg trended on Twitter and audience participation was up with an increase of 10%. Our work for Cruinniú na nÓg also contributed to the programme being shortlisted at the European Innovation in Politics Awards in Berlin. The campaign also won a Content Marketing Award for best video series.
Throughout the campaign, we asked parents, children and young people to unleash their inner creative when established Creative Heroes referred to their younger upstarts. Using the three Creative Ambassadors – 14-year-old creative coder Adam, 13-year-old would-be director Ben, and book loving 15-year-old Sarah – we created video content and Instagram takeovers.
Partnering with Zero-G and illustrator Cathal Duane, we made a series of playful animated display ads. We also wrote several articles on everything from slam poetry to children’s illustrators.
