The European Tour has commissioned Thinkhouse, the youth communications agency, to increase its social and digital presence for the 2014 Irish Open.
The Irish Open, to be held at Fota Island, Cork, from 19-22 June,is one of Europe’s most prestigious sports events and Thinkhouse is tasked with creating and managing an online ticketing solutions campaign for golf fans in the build-up to and during the tournament.
In the last two years a number of golf brands have taken to social media for promotion and engagement that has matched some of the sports perceived to be more ‘tuned in’ to the younger audiences it reaches.
Callaway Golf in particular have achieved success when unveiling a new club exclusively with twitter followers and running a Linked in App which allowed you to create a dream fourball from among your contacts that had a chance to visit the company’s California HQ, get a bespoke set of clubs and play golf in the sunshine.
This year’s irish Open moves to Fota Island where Sport for Business interviewed Marketing Director Seamus Leahy back in January.
With leading Irish players such as Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Pádraig Harrington, Shane Lowry and Darren Clarke likely to take their place in the line-up alongside a number of top-ranked international players, online and social media traffic is expected to peak for this year’s event.
Thinkhouse’s sports portfolio and experience includes the Heineken Cup, UEFA Champions League (Heineken) and Irish international football (Three). Thinkhouse has also worked on sponsorships for brands such as Coca-Cola to include the 2012 Olympic Games and the 2011 Rugby World Cup with Heineken.
Thinkhouse’s involvement in this year’s Irish Open comes off the back of a successful 2013 partnership, also built around a targeted digital media campaign. Thinkhouse will once again work with the European Tour to further improve online ticket sales for the 2014 event.
Jamie Macken, Thinkhouse’s Sports Director, said: “Building upon the success of last year’s partnership, we are focused on recruiting younger fans to the 2014 Irish Open using innovative online ticketing and social media solutions. Thinkhouse looks forward to contributing to what will hopefully be the most successful Irish Open to date.”
