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St. Patrick's Day

Event: St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival
Location: Parade – central London. Festival - Jubilee Gardens, South Bank
Audience: London’s Irish community and Londoners
Reach: Live audience of 50,000+ on the day
Sponsors: Western Union

London’s St. Patrick’s Day Festival is the celebration of the Irish community’s unique contribution to life in the UK’s capital, a festival that brings together people of all ages and backgrounds.

Parade

The 2004 London St. Patrick’s Day Parade began at Park Lane and travelled to the Embankment via Piccadilly, Regent St (South) and Trafalgar Square.

Festival

The London St. Patrick’s Day Festival was held from 12 noon to 6pm on the South Bank, with the main stage on Jubilee Gardens and a second stage outside the National Theatre. Both stages were packed with performances of Irish music, song and dance throughout the day. Additionally there were workshops on traditional Irish instruments and dance, a holiday village with great tips and ideas for your trip to Ireland, Irish crafts, as well as bars and artisan food stalls.

The event was seen by Western Union as the perfect vehicle to profile their services in the UK/Ireland corridor and to support London’s Irish community – a key target consumer for their services. Western Union focused on brand awareness on all pre event publicity, including 300 festival underground tube posters, 600 bus shelter posters, Metro and Londoner Newspaper festival adverts. With a print run of 75,000, the St. Patrick’s Day souvenir guide was highly focused on the Irish community in London. It was inserted in 30,000 Irish Post newspapers, sold throughout London, distributed in all Irish bars, clubs and union organisations and there was a direct mail shot to Irish stakeholders. Western Union were able to profile their services to Ireland through a creative presence in the festival souvenir guide.

For the event itself, Western Union’s own promotion van, situated in a prime location allowed staff the ability to interact with festival-goers and distribute St. Patrick’s Day themed merchandise. In the lead-up to the festival Western Union ran a co-designed promotion in the Irish Post Newspaper.

As part of the Sponsorship package they also received a table at the Mayor of London’s ball the previous night at the Hilton Park Lane. Western Union invited some of their key clients in the Irish/ English corridor and in his speech the Mayor thanked Western Union for their contribution and belief in the festival. Western Union merchandise was also distributed in goodie bags.

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