On St. Patrick’s Day 150 iconic buildings from Rio to Rome across the globe turn green in honour of our national day.
So how do we at Olytico mark the occasion? Social listening no less, but with a truly Irish twist. We’ve decided to turn our attention to one of the most Irish hashtags that has filled our Twitter feed this year: #Scarlet4u
The Campaign
Luas launched a new fare evader campaign last week with a uniquely Irish hashtag: #Scarlet4u and as the campaign went live, the tweets followed. The campaign is focused on getting people to think twice before they decide to dodge a fare on the tram service and face public embarrassment in doing so.
At Olytico, we are monitoring and analysing the #Scarlet4u hashtag and to date the campaign has generated plenty of chatter on Twitter:
Key Numbers:
Over 300 tweets published using the hashtag #Scarlet4u
Almost 250 unique Twitter accounts used the hashtag
Over 590,000 potential impressions of #Scarlet4u tweets
Estimated reach of over 440,000
Main Topics of Conversation:
The word cloud below shows the top 100 terms within the Twitter mentions analysed. The larger the word the greater the number of mentions – (note given its prominence #Scarlet4u has been removed).
Campaign Reviews
The campaign has been really well received on Twitter, with plenty of praise for its uniquely Irish (albeit very Dublin) hashtag. Words such as ‘amazing‘, ‘brilliant‘ ‘loving‘ and ‘great‘ were used to describe the campaign:
In separate public transport news, this may be the best use of a hashtag I have ever seen #Scarlet4u #luas #dublin pic.twitter.com/eQUuipSYZ7
— Ciara Noonan (@CiaraMarieN) March 10, 2015
Hats off to @Luas on the most Dublin/Irish hashtag we've seen in a while… #SCARLET4U pic.twitter.com/x1vCdmZPvh
— DMX Dublin (@DMXDublin) March 9, 2015
Loving the new luas #Scarlet4u brilliant !! Great campaign ..
— Maldron Hotels (@MaldronHotels) March 11, 2015
Has the @Luas just won Twitter? #Scarlet4u – http://t.co/zR7IZsZQUq
— FM104 (@FM104) March 11, 2015
Bleeding great. Tram sign in #Dublin English. Thanks to @killianmaher and @luas for #scarlet4u pic.twitter.com/Ub29Rd3D9Y
— Cathal Mac Coille (@CathalMacCoille) March 11, 2015
Irish Humour
Irish people deal with life with a distinct sense of humour, and Luas have decided that fare evaders should not be treated any differently. This innate sense of idiosyncratic Irish humour used by the Luas team is one of the main drivers of the reaction on Twitter, which is hugely positive in sentiment.
Brilliant! Only in Dublin and only understood by Dubliners #Scarlet4u pic.twitter.com/U3UjQ3QLnH
— Colm Humphries (@colmhumphries) March 11, 2015
http://twitter.com/LeanneWoodfull/statuses/575636237526171648
http://twitter.com/locstitches/statuses/575727376610508801
The hashtag used by the Luas Authority is hilarious. They know their audience :p #scarlet4u pic.twitter.com/EQaJUrQNYk
— Gaëlle Izabelle (@LolaLollipop) March 10, 2015
Luas left red faced?
As with all campaigns, the reaction wasn’t universally positive. Some passengers felt it wasn’t fare evaders that should be feeling embarrassed as break downs and disruptions saw many question whether in fact Luas themselves should be feeling the heat!
http://twitter.com/Ray_keogh/statuses/575967498417360896
#Scarlet4u the #Luas broke down this morning – pic via @96redballoons http://t.co/DIgw8WPdMK pic.twitter.com/OPPFhskjIo
— Hopeless Surfer (@HopelessSurfer) March 12, 2015
http://twitter.com/THEcdalton/statuses/575965005771837440
http://twitter.com/PatrickMcFlurry/statuses/576063180578942976
Red vs Green: The big divide
As the conversation continued, one clever passenger decided to declare the need for another hashtag campaign aimed at Southside Dublin humour, proposing #SeriouslyMorto4u.
I'm hoping the @Luas hashtag #Scarlet4u is on the #RedLine only. The #GreenLine needs to be #SeriouslyMorto4u
— De (@DLeeChlo) March 12, 2015
Hashtags
So many hashtags grace our screens on a daily basis, but so few ‘get’ Irish humour as well as this Luas campaign. #Scarlet4u – is it the best uniquely ‘green’ hashtag of the year?
Join in the conversation on Twitter @Olytico.