PadillaCRT, IDA boost Ireland’s post-recession recovery with articulate energy and persistence

In 2009 Ireland was devastated by the biggest world-wide depression since the Great Crash of 1929. It faced the prospect of the biggest emigration since the Great Famine of 1845. 

In 2010, Ireland was forced to stave off collapse by accepting on harsh terms a 67.5 billion-Euro loan from its Eurozone partners: In the next 3 years, spending by the Irish government declined by 15 %. 

The Industrial Development Authority of Ireland (IDA) and its PR agency, PadillaCRT, fought back in a years-long campaign. Determined to build on the economic “miracle” of the two decades before the 2008 depression, IDA and Padilla planned for 2013-14 a non-traditional media blitz featuring Barry O’Leary, CEO of IDA.

For this campaign, IDA and PadillaCRT have won the “Best Governmental/Public Affairs” category of PRDaily.com’s 2014 Media Relations Awards. 

Their impressive results:
• Ireland was the 1st country in Europe to exit the Eurozone bailout program in Dec. 2013
• IDA in 2013 kept its Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) up to 2011-2012 l levels, even though international trade went through a recession in 2013
• IDA Ireland set a record by attracting 164 new investment projects in 2013
• 59 companies already invested in Ireland expanded their Irish facilities in 2013
• For Irish investing, a big positive swing in media publicity from the previous 3 years 
• IDA execs wrote more than a dozen articles in top trade pubs: Industrial Engineering, Business Pansion Magazine, PharmaTech, and a regular column in the Huff Post 

Congratulations to Padilla CRT staffers John Scally, Laura Schultz and Kirsten Lesak-Greenberg, as well as IDA Ireland communications staffers Emmet Oliver, Kevin Sammon, Sinead Cullinan, Elaine Healy and Caitriona O’Kennedy!