Blacknight Celebrates Irish Heritage by Launching First Commercial 'as Gaeilge'
Video for .COM domains is released for 'Seachtain na Gaeilge'
Ireland’s leading domain registrar and hosting company is proud to announce its first ad 'as Gaeilge' to promote dot-com domains.
Blacknight is a 100% Irish owned and operated company, proud of its roots, yet international in its outlook, serving more than 70,000 customers in 130 countries from its base in Carlow. This video ad for dot-com domain names is Blacknight's first step in using Irish as part of its marketing. The campaign has been approved by VeriSign, the company which operates the dot-com registry, and they've agreed to support further localisation of marketing in the Irish language.
Although Irish is taught in schools and census figures show that almost half of all Irish people claim to be able to speak the language to some degree, less than 8% use the language on a daily basis. Yet a majority of people view the language as an important cultural symbol of national identity and it has undergone a resurgence in recent years, especially among young people.
“It is a natural choice for us to do marketing in the Irish Language,” explains Blacknight CEO Michele Neylon. “While many Irish speakers don’t have the opportunity to use the language in day-to-day life, the Internet has led to a flourishing of online activity in Irish. Younger people in particular are active users of the language online, switching easily between Irish and English on social and entertainment media. We strongly support this resurgence of the language and we are playing our part in it.”
The 30-second video commercial is aimed at small businesses in particular, and promotes the message that a dot-com domain name is a global standard recognised the world over, even if your next customer is “ar leac an dorais” - on your doorstep.
The Irish language soundtrack for the ad was produced in-house by Blacknight's Digital Media Producer Conn Ó Muíneacháin. Ó Muíneacháin is an award winning radio producer and a pioneer in the use of Irish in blogs and social media. He produced the first podcast in the Irish language, An tImeall, which began in 2005. An tImeall will be re-launched as a weekly podcast, sponsored by Blacknight, to coincide with Seachtain na Gaeilge, the national celebration of the language, which begins on Saturday, March 1st.
To view Blacknight’s dot-com ad 'as Gaeilge' please visit http://youtu.be/AUoIeVk-dvw
About Blacknight
Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com/) are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and co-location as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting services and domain name registration services to business globally. IP transit services and other solutions for more demanding business and academic customers are offered a la carte. Fibre broadband services for both business and domestic users are also available throughout most of Ireland.