EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum has critically low awareness outside of Ireland, which is problematic for a tourist attraction that relies on foreign visitors to survive.

Knowing Irish-American and Anglo-Irish tourists would be booking visits during Christmas, to Ireland for the subsequent, we knew a highly emotive, intriguing and arresting activation could capture their attention and get our museum on their radar.

Our goal was to create something that wouldn't just emulate culture, but become a part of it. Our objectives in the long term are to increase footfall through our doors, but in the short term, we also want to create engagement, talkability and awareness for the brand.

The Pogues' Fairytale of New York is the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century and an anthem for global Irish emigration. EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum celebrates the impact of Irish emigrants, like The Pogues, on the world. So when we discovered the iconic line in Fairytale of New York "...and the boys of the NYPD choir were singing Galway Bay..." had never happened, we decided to right that wrong. We created the first-ever NYPD choir, composed a new version of Galway Bay to suit their voices, and recorded it for all to hear.

As global champions of Irish emigrants, we brought this famed line to life, pulling together a choir of Irish-American ex-NYPD officers. They sang Galway Bay for the first time. We composed the song to suit their vocals, then edited, mixed, mastered, and released it, with Shane MacGowan's permission and approval throughout the process.

EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum is a small museum based in Dublin that believes the best way to fully understand the Irish is by sharing the stories and impact of those who left our shores.

Two of the largest emigration destinations for Irish people historically, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, now also make up the majority of EPIC’s target visitors.

With low budgets and awareness (most of our audience are unaware we even exist), we needed to infiltrate their conversations over the holiday season when they were planning big vacations to Ireland for the year ahead. We needed to do something big enough to get people talking in a real way about us over the Christmas break. Something that would get us top of mind at a key decision-making moment.

We recruited ex-NYPD officers to create the first-ever NYPD choir and got them to sing Galway Bay. It was an ode to the chorus of The Pogues' Fairytale of New York.

The response to our work was overwhelming, with the song and associated video being shared by the Irish diaspora globally. We had over 12 million social impressions, with an equivalent media coverage value of €128,454.97. The campaign had 110 pickups in the Irish press, but more impressive were the 588 pickups by the foreign press. Our video was shared on such global platforms as Fox News.

Research conducted after the campaign went live showed that 66% of people saw the museum in a more positive light, 63% said they would search for more information on the museum, 62% said they were more likely to visit the museum, 61% would recommend the museum to family and friends. and 55% would talk about the work/the museum with friends and family. Time will only tell how many Irish-American and Anglo-Irish visitors the museum gets this summer, on those trips booked last Christmas.