The Irish Aviation Authority

Pioneering Drone Safety for the Public and Vendors

As the sole civil aviation regulator in Ireland, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) ensures the safety, security, and protection of consumer interests in the aviation sector. With a specific focus on drone operators, the IAA has been at the forefront of drone regulation, having introduced mandatory drone registration as early as December 2015. This critical step positioned Ireland as a leader in drone safety, with the European Regulation now requiring all operators of drones over 250g or those equipped with a camera to register. Compliance is not just a legal requirement but a vital part of reducing potential accidents.

In December 2023, Vroom partnered with the IAA to launch an omnichannel campaign aimed at spreading public awareness about the importance of drone registration and safety. The success of this campaign led to its renewal for 2024, cementing the IAA’s commitment to educating both the public and vendors about the essential rules surrounding drone ownership and operations.

Task

Building Mass Awareness Through a Multi-Channel Approach – the primary objective of the campaign was to create widespread awareness throughout Ireland, with a clear message: “Drone safety is your responsibility.” It was crucial to emphasise the importance of registering drones and following safe operating practices. Central to the campaign was an educational video that outlined essential drone safety rules and directed viewers to the IAA’s drone registration page.

Vroom was tasked with utilising Paid Social, PPC, and other digital platforms to maximise video engagement and drive targeted traffic to the IAA website, ensuring that drone owners and potential operators were fully aware of their responsibilities.

Strategy

Driving Awareness with a Data-Driven, Omnichannel Campaign – To create a lasting impact, we adopted a multi-faceted approach that blended insights from previous campaigns with innovative strategies designed to optimise engagement across multiple digital channels.

We began by conducting a thorough audit of the IAA’s 2022 campaign to establish a performance baseline. This allowed us to assess the strengths and weaknesses of previous efforts, as well as review the creative assets to ensure they were optimised for capturing and retaining audience attention. Armed with these insights, we built a robust strategy that aligned with IAA’s goal of maximising video views and driving meaningful traffic to the drone registration page.

Our upper-funnel strategy focused on generating significant video views and site traffic, targeting both cold and warm audiences. This strategy enabled us to create a series of retargeting opportunities, providing multiple touchpoints to reinforce the message and increase conversions.

We remained focused on core metrics such as high-intent video views, landing page visits, and the cost-effectiveness of each engagement. Real-time optimisation played a critical role in the campaign’s success. We continuously refined the campaign mid-flight, reallocating budgets between PPC and Paid Social to capitalise on performance opportunities and drive the most efficient results.

In addition to running Paid Social and PPC campaigns, we implemented advanced attribution and tracking tools, allowing for a precise measurement of effectiveness across all platforms. Comprehensive monthly and campaign-end reports provided the IAA with clear, actionable insights, ensuring that lessons learned could be integrated into the next phase of the campaign.

The success of the 2023 campaign demonstrated the power of a well-executed omnichannel approach, and based on these results, the IAA has renewed the campaign for 2024 to continue raising awareness and educating the public and vendors about drone safety.

Results

A Campaign That Delivers High Engagement and Growth – The 2023 campaign achieved outstanding results, significantly boosting mass awareness of drone safety while maintaining cost-effectiveness. We saw year-on-year growth in both video views and site traffic, all delivered at more efficient rates compared to previous years.

On Paid Social platforms, the campaign generated high levels of engagement, achieving 208,000 Thruplays. An impressive 39% of impressions resulted in a full Thruplay, which far surpassed the industry average of 8-12%.

In the core traffic campaign, we drove 2,100 landing page views, with a highly competitive cost-per-click of €1.10. The PPC efforts also performed strongly, delivering 4.1 million impressions and 48,000 clicks to the IAA website through display ads. On YouTube, we garnered 614,000 views and 25,000 clicks to the site, with a video completion rate of 14%, highlighting strong viewer engagement. In total, the PPC campaigns across all channels drove 72,000 clicks to the IAA website.

We are delighted with the results of the campaign, which is driving significant ROI already, and even more importantly, significant awareness about the risks of flying drones in public. From an engagement perspective, the campaign has also been very beneficial for both us and the consumer, with comments and enquiries up significantly on previous years. Bronagh and the team at VROOM really understood from the off what this campaign was about and delivered across the board for us.

Alec Elliott – Corporate Affairs and PR Manager, Irish Aviation Authority