Tourism Ireland 'Jump Into Ireland'

Tourism Ireland has launched an advertising campaign to promote the island of Ireland overseas in 2012 and beyond. The organisation's goal is to build on 2011's return to growth in overseas tourism and to welcome over 9 million visitors to the island by 2015, exceeding the record year for tourism of 2007.

The new Tourism Ireland campaign – Jump Into Ireland – launches in January 2012 in 22 markets around the globe. It includes TV, radio, press, cinema and online advertising and will have an estimated annual audience of 60 million potential visitors worldwide. The soundtrack for the TV ads is a track from the latest album, Fallen Empires, by Co Down band, Snow Patrol.

The beautifully shot film was directed by Daniel Wolfe of Somesuch & Co., who once again teamed up with Framestore Colourist, Simon Bourne. Simon comments, "Daniel's "observed" look for this treatment served well, incorporating all aspects and highlights of Ireland. The crew had several days recce, from which they then sent me material shot on 35mm film, Alexa shot on anamorphic lenses and Red, also shot on anamorphic. On test-grading the material we chose to go for a mix of Alexa and 35mm, which I was able to match. The importance of the mood for the commercial was to keep the ambient feel of each senario and not to go for your typical, over-bearing holiday commercial. There was an abundance of material, all beautiful, and we went through many cut changes with new material being added or replaced all the time, so I had to watch closely that the mood was retained throughout these changes. I think the end result is energetic and stunning".

2012 looks set to be an exciting year for tourism, with major events like the grand finale of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 taking place in Galway and the annual Notre Dame-Navy American football game coming to Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. In the second half of the year, Tourism Ireland will promote The Gathering 2013 to the 70 million people across the world who feel linked by family, friends or otherwise with Ireland.