Quotes from Liam Kavanagh

“It is a trial. It is something we believe has actually worked.”

“We did succeed with our audience overall.”

About Liam Kavanagh

Liam Kavanaugh was the previous Deputy Managing Director for The Irish Times and Financial Director for Smurfit, Ireland. He currently serves on the committee of the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) and formerly chaired the Green Press Partnership and a member of the European Board for INMA. He also serves as the Ireland representative for the World Association of Newspapers.

Liam Kavanagh, managing editor at The Irish Times, presented the media company’s “Get Running” initiative at the 2014 INMA World Congress on Sunday.

The programme aimed to build The Irish Times as a multi-platform newspaper and prompt a young demographic to think about their health.

With an emphasis on deep audience engagement, “Get Running” provided weekly editorial updates, recruitment campaign, and series of videos featuring trainers and people to help others get motivated.

“There were 24 videos over the eight-week course,” he said.

With the video plays totaling 68,458, Kavanagh said the programme reached a global scale with views coming from Thailand, Spain, and Tanzania.

The Irish Times increased engagement through social media, using the platforms to push audience sign-ups in the running programme. The social media campaign was designed to reach the target audience of a young reader demographic.

“It is a trial,” he said. “It is something we believe has actually worked.”

Along with a weekly blog informing participants of what they would be doing the upcoming week, the programme also featured a 5K-run.

“We did succeed with our audience overall,” he said.