Marketing Awards in Business Events

by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Tonight the world of Business Events will celebrate the  EVCOM Industry Awards (incorporating the Meetings Industry Marketing Awards – MIMA)  in London and at SoolNua Towers we’re rigid with excitement. That’s because we’re shortlisted in the Best Brand Marketing Campaign category with the #worldICECREAMindex, our tasty, left field approach to… Read more »

Visiting Oslo, city branding and all that jazz

by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Norway It’s extraordinary how impactful first impressions can be. I was reminded of that this week when I visited Norway for the first time and, within minutes of deplaning, had two “service” experiences that would make any hospitality organisation blush with pride. Both positive impressions were with the “Flytoget”… Read more »

Brexit, EURO2016 and Destination Marketing

by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua I’ve written before about how organisers of meetings and events select destinations. It’s a curious process that runs the full gamut from clear thinking rationalism to touchy feely emotion. Destinations are selected because they meet a set of fixed criteria – for example: access (delegates can reach there easily),… Read more »

Why it’s important to be a Good Country

by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua There are probably more rankings or indexes of nations than nations themselves. As humans we appear to have a primordial need to order and rank ourselves on multiple scales from tallest to richest to most intelligent and this compulsion extends to everything about us, including our countries. Many rankings… Read more »

New Paradigms for Destination Marketing

by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua It’s all about the content In his “Hacking the System” Bruce McMillan recently posted a two part blog  on new paradigms in destination marketing. He highlights two new waves that Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) – and, indeed, any other public or private sector enterprise involved in Place Branding –… Read more »