‘Protect Our Past’ campaign helps safeguard the future of ancient monuments

Young Irish adults aged between eighteen and thirty were the target audience for a joint campaign between the Office of Public Works (OPW) and the National Monuments Service (in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage) during summer 2021.

The successful campaign, entitled ‘Protect Our Past’, highlighted the need for visitors to Ireland’s heritage sites and monuments to be mindful of their actions while exploring Ireland during the summer season.

While launched in a conventional manner by Minister for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan TD, and Minister of State with responsibility for Office of Public Works, Patrick O’Donovan, TD, traditional methods of marketing and communications were largely eschewed in favour of trends and platforms aimed at reaching a younger audience.

The campaign – developed by multi-disciplinary teams comprising archaeologists, architects and communications experts - harnessed the power of visual-based social media platforms to promote three animated videos created in the style of action-adventure video games.

Arresting animation and striking music were used to grab audience attention and remind younger generations - who are increasingly using the countryside as a recreational and entertainment space – of the need to be mindful of their behaviour at archaeological and architectural monuments. Influencer partnerships were also used to expand the campaign reach to a younger audience and underline the importance of protecting our country’s unique archaeological and architectural heritage sites, many of which are extremely vulnerable.

There are over 145,000 recorded archaeological monuments around the country in private and public ownership, with research suggesting evidence of human activity in Ireland well over 10,000 years ago. Examples of archaeological monument types in Ireland include megalithic tombs, stone circles, standing stones, rock art, ecclesiastical enclosures, churches, graveyards, ringforts, souterrains, crannógs and castles.

Some sites are suffering damage that threatens the preservation of archaeological remains. Small fires and ground disturbance, for example, which may be carried out with no ill intention, can destroy or seriously damage these monuments.

Recent evidence of graffiti and anti-social behaviour at several of Ireland’s most significant monuments - some of which are ancient burial sites - illustrated the need for more respectful behaviour.

Research into audience habits paid-off. A dual social media approach proved a highly effective promotional method for a holistic approach that balanced awareness with action.

Organic and paid social media content served as the foundation for the digital strategy to communicate and maintain a connection with the audience, while also factoring in the need for an advertising budget to specifically target the subset of younger people with whom we wished to engage. Key performance indicators (KPIs) were established from the offset to measure the success of the video content.

When distributed organically and with spend, the video content successfully told a high-value story to our younger target audience. As a result:

• Over 2.7 million people had the opportunity to hear, read or watch content from the Protect Our Past campaign across social media.

• Precise and effective audience targeting of 18 to 35 year cohort was achived.

• 2.2 million + content views were secured overall, exceeding the campaign target by over 50%.

• A ‘reel’ across the OPW Instagram channel achieved 23,500 + views in under 12 hours

• The majority of video views were secured across Instagram accounting for 1.3 million views across all three videos. (58% of all views)

• Campaign video ads reached over 70% of the original target: 850,000