IDA: Supercharged Ireland

Challenge

Ireland is a small country punching well above its weight on the global stage.

At IDA Ireland, the investment agency, we’re looking to expand further into key Asian markets, notably Japan and South Korea. We wanted to reach hearts and minds of potential investors and business decision makers and to spark consideration of Ireland as a major business opportunity.

It is a story waiting to be told. Ireland has a stable, pro-business government, top universities and internships providing a world-class talent pipeline, cutting-edge digital infrastructure and good connections with the US, the EU and the rest of the world. And in the age of AI, Ireland isn’t just open for business, it’s leading from the front, with a AI adoption rate of a world beating 91%.

To demonstrate Ireland’s diverse and thriving business ecosystem, we needed a trusted media partner to help us convey our core messaging with confidence and clarity. The ideal partner would leverage our own data and trends in key investment sectors, as well provide their own industry expertise.

Key Objectives:

To build awareness of Ireland’s ecosystem among senior global investors and BDMs in the key Asian growth markets, Japan and Korea.
To captivate and convince potential new partners and investors that Ireland can be a credible, long-term partner for European operations.
To speak with genuine authority — in a trusted media environment —using formats familiar with senior B2B decision-makers.
To inform and inspire audiences with formats engaging enough to hold attention, produced to the highest quality to create a halo effect around Ireland as an investment destination.
To shift perceptions about: doing business in Ireland; its ability to help companies progress; Ireland being at the forefront of innovation and technology; being a gateway to Europe; being a leader in healthcare, and Ireland being a smart investment destination.

Brand:

Entered by:

Content Solution

IDA Ireland partnered with Reuters Plus — the content studio of Reuters news agency — to produce Supercharged Ireland: an authoritative campaign that included a 30-minute documentary, a series of deeply targeted articles and a data-rich infographic.

The documentary took viewers from Ireland’s west coast to the heart of its capital city to learn about its AI-powered transformation first-hand. Deeply researched, the aim was to be informative and inspiring.

The casting of Jane Barrett, Reuters’ own Head of AI Strategy and former leader of the newsroom, as Presenter provided a level of expertise and synergy between IDA and Reuters that helped set this partnership apart.

Barrett wasn’t a hired host — she was a genuine peer, with more than 20 years newsroom leadership experience and someone now responsible for the AI transformation taking place across Reuters own 175 year-old news operation.

When Jane sat down with Colin Harty at Jaguar Land Rover to discuss the future of automotive AI, and with Emma Redmond, Head of OpenAI Ireland, to unpack what ChatGPT’s 100-million-user growth meant for its European AI strategy, these weren’t simply sponsored interviews. These were specialist conversations between practitioners at the frontiers of this new field.

That dynamic is visible on screen. At pharma giant Novartis, Jane engaged with Eamon Boland about the shift from AI-enabled to AI-driven drug discovery. At Workday, the discussion of its global HR platform and the 800 billion transactions powering its AI tools was given proper weight. And at Ireland’s tech startup Tines, Jane was able to explore Ireland’s ability to nurture homegrown entrepreneurial ambition and a billion-dollar unicorn from Dublin.

IDA was embedded seamlessly into the conversation with the inclusion of distinctive brand assets and Donal Travers, Executive Director, providing market insights in his own interview. The breadth of the interviews underlined the point that Ireland’s AI story is an economy-wide transformation.

Jane’s ability to move fluently and with genuine curiosity, elevated this brand and media partnership to a timestamped film of record. The high production values and rigorous editorial framework provided a powerful halo effect for IDA, positioning it as an institution of credibility and stature.

The partnership was supplemented by deeply researched articles and an infographic focused on specific industry topics – all written in English and Japanese – that specifically helped to position Ireland as being at the forefront of innovation and technology; being a gateway to Europe; being a leader in healthcare, and Ireland being a smart investment destination.

Media/Content Amplification Solution

THE RIGHT CONTENT

The long-form documentary is a powerful format that meets IDA’s target audience — senior investment decision-makers, C-suite executives and institutional investors — on familiar ground. Produced to broadcast standards it commands attention and conveys far more information than traditional advertising. The high production values and rigorous editorial framework created a powerful halo effect for IDA Ireland, positioning it as an institution of credibility and stature.
Four deeply researched articles, written by seasoned journalists and illustrated by Plus designers, were targeted on key topics: Tech/EU access, innovation ecosystem, semiconductors, and life sciences.
The Infographic “Ireland: Asia’s EU Hub“, visualized Ireland’s strategic gateway advantages.
All assets were aligned by a consistent visual identity.

Content was edited and reformatted to extend reach beyond reuters.com across multiple touchpoints: shorter video cuts were made available for sharing and retargeted distribution on LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube, while the articles and infographics were reformatted for distribution via social channels and newsletters.

Reuters research confirmed executives in South Korea were used to working in English but in Japan audiences respond far better to content translated into Japanese.

THE RIGHT PLACE

Reuters Plus distributed the documentary, infographics and articles through its premium editorial environment, targeting Reuters Decision Makers — a verified audience of senior business professionals.

We further targeted senior decision-makers in the Asian markets with focused activity in Japan delivering a 58% recall rate and South Korea 48%, well above Reuters FDI benchmarks of 30%.

On Reuters.com and jp.reuters.com, it included takeovers on the Homepage, Business, Finance, Markets and Technology sections.
Japanese newsletter sponsorships (100% SOV).
JP.Reuters.com Markets section roadblocks.
Articles were place within Reuters newsletters: Technology Roundup (88k subscribers), Japan Focus (60k) and Global Investor (102k).
The film was also made available on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and Reuters.com.
On IDA’s website and social channels.

Reuters experience with publishing in Japan informed us of the importance of translating all written content into Japanese.

Bilingual approach leveraging both reuters.com and jp.reuters.com, with all ad unit assets available in Japanese and English.
Staggered release of branded ad units to build a ‘series’ effect and keep the audience engaged throughout.
Display, video (PreRoll), and custom formats across Reuters.com and JP.Reuters.com.
Custom placements in Technology, Japan Focus and Global Investor newsletters reached target audience directly in their inbox, creating a new touchpoint for IDA.
Custom creatives with Mobile Interscroller format.

Brand study: Measuring brand awareness, campaign recall, message cut-through, and consideration metrics.

Total video views, with an average viewtime of nearly 23 minutes.

Total page views of four articles on dedicated Reuters.com hub.

0 %

Uplift in those viewing "Ireland as Asia's gateway to Europe."

Results

Supercharged Ireland demonstrated that when clear strategy, audience targeting, editorial authority, production craft and striking design combine, branded content can achieve the kind of impact that drives business outcomes.

Results significantly outperformed benchmarks and built upon prior year.

REACH:

1.37m total video views.
22min 57 sec – average time spent on hub.
73,298 total page views for 4x articles.
11min 56sec – average dwell time per article.
19,960 views for infographic.
9min 20sec – average dwell time for infographic.

Synergy research (Jan. 2026) compared recallers vs. non-recallers among Reuters Decision Makers (RDMs).

BRAND AWARENESS:

48% of Reuters Decision Makers in Japan recalled the campaign (benchmark 29%).
38% of RDMs in South Korea recalled the campaign — against a benchmark of 29%.
Familiarity of Ireland among RDMs in Japan and South Korea rose 63%.

PERCEPTIONS:

Documentary…

+81% uplift in those agreeing ‘Ireland is a market leader in foreign direct investment.’
+78% uplift in those seeing ‘Ireland is forefront of innovation and technology.’
+68% uplift in those agreeing ‘Ireland is a truly global company.’
+64% uplift in those agreeing ‘Ireland is paving the way when it comes to foreign investment across borders.’
+56% uplift in those agreeing ‘Ireland is helping companies and industries accelerate their progress.”

Articles / Infographic…

+119% uplift in those viewing Ireland as ‘Asia’s gateway to Europe.’
+83% uplift in those agreeing ‘The Irish technology industry is thriving.’
+85% uplift in those agreeing ‘Ireland has a thriving healthcare industry.’
+80% uplift in those agreeing ‘Ireland is ahead of the game when it comes to innovation and technology.’

Investment…

62% of recallers considered Ireland a ‘very/ appealing’ investment destination’, up 94% from baseline (32%).
56% of recallers actively expressed interest in learning more about Ireland as an investment destination, up 75% from baseline (32%).
95% of recallers took action after seeing the campaign.