A woman in England dumped a real cat in a wheelie bin, was caught on cctv and the footage ended up on YouTube and then national TV.

The Kilkenny hurling team, known as ‘The Cats’ were hoping to make history by beating Tipperary to win 5 All Ireland Championships in a row.

Smack bang in the middle of these two headline news events I came up with a simple idea ‘film someone dumping a ‘Kilkenny cat’ in a wheelie bin’.

The next day, Friday, I drove deep inside ‘enemy lines’ to purchase said cat. I toyed with the idea of getting someone well known to perform the dastardly deed. Perhaps a well known Tipperary hurler dressed in drag or similar. I thought about it for a while and decided it best to keep it close to the original video footage and ’employ’ the services of an unknown woman (nationally at least).

Cue my mother. “Ma I want to video you throwing a cat in a wheelie bin” I said. “For what”, was her confused reply. I explained what I had in mind and this was the result.

On Monday evening 30th August I uploaded the video to my YouTube channel and then posted to my Tipp Tatler Facebook page and then shared through my personal page. I was banking on family and friends and relations who knew my mother Noreen picking up on it and sharing it further. I knew it was quite good and would probably do the rounds of Borrisoleigh and maybe a bit more as she is a popular woman and much liked by all who come in contact with her, and little did I realise her exceptional acting abilities. I had no idea it would go to the 120,000+ viewers that it now stands at or would be featured in so much of the mainstream traditional media and linked to on dozens of websites.

I think the video is beautifully simple (not that I’m biased or anything). But the screenplay, if you like, has all the main ingredients of the original video with some extras thrown in. The solitary wheelie bin at the beginning and end of the clip, the arrival and departure of the woman caught on camera, the stroking of the cat, the binning of the cat (which happens to be from Kilkenny) and the coup de grace the catchphrase ‘Five in a Row My Arse!”, language unbecoming of a mature lady some might think. All captured in 17 seconds. The fact that practically all of the country was hoping for a Tipperary win possibly also helped.

YouTube have a thing called ‘Insights’ where you can analyse statistics like who’s watching your video, their age, what they are watching it on, how they came to watch it etc. If you’re interested in that kind of thing read on, if not, tune out now.

Statistics on the location of the video.ie. Where was the video viewed, shows that
53.3% on YouTube
31.8% on an Embedded Player (where the video is on a site other than YouTube, eg Facebook, Tipp Tatler etc.)
14.6% on Mobile Devices
.32% YouTube Channel Pages

Facebook without doubt won the embedded player contest with 28.8% of the views on embedded players coming from there. Followed by Boards.ie 0.69%, Newstalk.ie 0.44% and Tipp Tatler 0.32% (Yeah, yeah, there I go plugging it again, well tough :))

The demographical statistics are also quite interesting.
Broken down by sex the video was viewed by 64% Male 36% Female.
The larger male % is probably explained by the video associated with a predominantly male sport.

The video was viewed more by the over 35’s than the young whipper snappers.
More than half the viewers were aged between 35 and 54.

13-17yrs 10%
18-24yrs 12.05%
25-34yrs 15.55%
35-44yrs 26.81%
45-54yrs 23.60%
55-64yrs 9.66%
65+yrs 2.28%

The Hot Spots chart is pretty nifty I think.
It tracks the audience attention by watching where viewers tune out or rewind a particular piece to watch it again. A red vertical line moves along as the video plays so you know at what point viewers enjoyed most. The graph below shows the audience attention was in the hot zone throughout. I guess the length of 17 seconds made it easy enough to accomplish that.

Some other, what I think are interesting, points are
When it was at 14,500 views I had a look at the insights and the % for viewing on mobile devices was 21%.

While the 35-44yrs group was still the biggest % of viewers, the 25-34yrs was slightly more than the 45-54yrs.

The day after I caught those figures was the day that the story appeared in the newspapers and was mentioned on radio etc. This suggests to me that the traditional media sources drove an older demographic who were less likely to have smart phones to search for the video online. This is further borne out by the statistics of the number of visitors to the Tipp Tatler website through various combinations of the search words Tipperary, woman, cat, bin, Kilkenny etc. which increased significantly towards the end of the week.

I was tempted as it was growing in popularity to edit the video online, as YouTube allows, and maybe add in some reference to the Tipp Tatler magazine but decided against it, as I didn’t want to interfere with what appeared to be a winning combination. In any case, a lot of the national media mentioned the Tipp Tatler along with a local paper and ourselves of course. Our YouTube channel is linked to our website, but that reference would be lost viewing it embedded on other sites. If doing something similar again however I would be sure to put in some subtle hint of who was behind it. Hindsight is a great thing.

It’s been an unusual but fun week, the phones didn’t stop ringing from when the papers came out on the Thursday with The Independent, The Star and The Evening Herald all with some mention of it and a radio interview with Ray D’Arcy on TodayFM, followed on Saturday with another interview with Marian Finucane on Radio1. I’d like to thank my mother for being such a good sport and for capturing the hearts of so many people.

But do you know what topped it all?

Tipperary won the match! All Ireland Hurling Champions 2010!

For anyone who’s never been to Dromineer it’s a beautiful spot. It has an ample beach, a jetty, marina, children’s playground, a pub, a shop, a hostel, a hotel, a yacht club (the oldest in the world), a sailing school, a castle ruins and of course a big lake. It’s got quiet a bit going for it.

It’s surprising therefore that it is so underused. We often pop over for a visit with the kids. But the visits are always brief as there’s never ‘anything’ going on. By ‘anything’, I mean no people around, the buzz you get when visiting other holiday touristy locations, the holiday atmosphere, the sights and sounds you would normally expect at any lakeside/beach resort.

There are lots of reasons why this could be. The hotel is closed for starters. However even when it was open it was still the same.If you Google ‘Dromineer Tipperary’ there are mentions of it on several other websites, but it doesn’t have it’s own site to promote itself. Maybe the locals prefer having no tourists around. As far as I can tell nobody seems to be trying to promote it as a recreational destination. I’ve never received a press release or news story to publish.

It was a hot day and we went for ice cream at the only shop in the village. The two photos below were taken from outside the shop. In the first one you can make out the childrens playground on the right with the edge of the marina beside it. The hotel and hostel is to the far right of the playground (not in photo)

The second photo shows the car park in front of the shop and more of the marina with boats etc. The pub, The Whiskey Still is further over to the left. The shop is located in the centre of the ‘business district’ so to speak.

This next photo shows the shop with my wife and children sitting on the steps eating ice cream.

Notice anything missing?

Where’s the table and chairs to sit at while enjoying your snacks?

The collection of beachballs, buckets and spades and other beach type paraphenalia?

A sign or two letting you know it was a shop wouldn’t go astray either.

Unlike some of the other villages along the shores of Lough Derg which are small and compact, Dromineer is spread out over a larger area. The shop is pretty much in the centre of the village once you leave the shoreline. It should be the focus of attention. It should create that holiday atmosphere. It could easily do it. If there was a table and chairs outside the shop we would happily have stayed there longer and bought more goodies. A few buckets and spades and beachballs on display would give that beach feeling. It doesn’t matter a damn if they never sold one. I know this works.

Years and years ago we had a little shop (very little) added into the corner of the family pub in Borrisoleigh. We sold only sweets and essentials like bread and milk. We had the first ice cream cone machine in the town. We hung buckets and spades outside the window. People called it the beach shop and bought loads of ice cream. Several commented how they loved it, as it reminded them of holidays etc. That good feeling they got transformed into increased sales. We never sold any buckets or spades. We weren’t trying to.

Maybe transforming that shop into another ‘beach’ shop wouldn’t bring 1000’s of visitors to the village. It certainly wouldn’t turn them away. It just might help create that bit of buzz that Dromineer is so badly lacking. And it just might make it a bit more enjoyable to buy ice cream from.

A coherent marketing plan is essential for any business to thrive. And all parts of the business should work in tandem to ensure success. Like any machine, if some nut and bolts are missing, it won’t work properly. In the case of Dromineer, while the buckets and spades are missing, it won’t work properly either.