Bakers Dolphin: Ireland Campaign

Our client Bakers Dolphin have been experts in coach travel since 1889 and we have been providing them with retained PR and communications support for three decades!

This year they wanted to promote their range of tours to Ireland. Their luxury Gold Coaches transport people in comfort on tours and holidays throughout the UK and all over Europe.

Bakers Dolphin invested £1 million in two new coaches, bringing the Gold Coach fleet up to seven. With tours to Ireland growing in popularity and the new coaches going on the road for the first time in 2025 the brief was showcase the gold coaches and specifically promote the Irish holiday experience.

What we did

Work on the Ireland campaign started in 2024 with a team of two from Empica joining a tour to Belfast and the Titanic Experience to gather content for the campaign.

This included film of genuine customers enjoying the tour giving authenticity to the content. The content included showing the tourist attractions visited and the journey there as well as life on board the coach while touring and real footage of real West Country holidaymakers enjoying the tour.

It was also a chance to get feedback from customers about what mattered to them so that the campaign could be targeted at the needs and wishes of those we were seeking to persuade to book a coach tour. A portfolio of still images that are being used in brochures, newsletters and on other marketing material was also created as a result of the tour.

Television Advertising

Footage shot during the tour to Belfast was used to create a new 20 second TV advert that started running on ITV in February 2025. It is the first time that Bakers Dolphin has run a television ad for a specific location.

Our videographer Grace Fox edited the hours of footage to create the impactful commercial with a male voice over and Irish-themes soundtrack.

We also produced an updated general TV commercial for Bakers Dolphin, encouraging people to take a tour or upgrade to the Gold Coach. The new Irish footage was interspersed with footage previously shot by Empica in Tenby, Wales, Lake Como, Italy and on UK day excursions.

This general commercial featured the voice of well-known West Country BBC presenter, Polly Lloyd, who is familiar to many of the established Bakers Dolphin customer base.

Digital content generation

We created a mini-documentary video showing a day-by-day outline of the Belfast Titanic trip featuring Empica’s Martin Powell that could be run on all social media channels and boosted to attract new customers.

Footage has also been reshaped and repurposed to create social media video content and reels that will continue to promote the Ireland holidays over the first quarter of 2025 for a sustained campaign.

Further reels and special videos are being created to promote the new gold coaches and the entertainment package as part of a sustained campaign.

Print Advertising and advertorial

Empica have also advised, booked and managed a series of print media advertising across West Country local magazines. The creative for this has been produced by Bakers Dolphin’s ad agency with Empica securing editorial s part of the media booking.

Owned Media

Content has been used in the regular newsletter to existing customers with many of the Ireland images also providing fresh imagery for the complete range of Bakers Dolphin brochures and mailers that are a regular part of the company’s marketing.

Images are also being used to provide fresh content on the company’s website.

Outcomes

By re-using, recycling and making the most of every bit of content that Empica has gathered a highly cost-effective campaign is running in early 2025 and bookings have been coming in for not only Ireland but many of the other Gold Coach tours.