Populating the Welsh Digital Landscape

Awr Cymru (Awr=Hour, Cymru=Wales)

Have you, your business or your organisation considered the value of marketing in Welsh? Major brands such as Adidas, Budweiser and Carlsberg understood the benefits during this year’s EURO 2016 tournament as the tweets below demonstrate.

So what are the benefits? Only a handful of people over 16 speak the language, right?

Let’s look at the numbers. You want your marketing to have an impact with your customers, people who are likely to want to use or pay for your services.

Within Wales there are 400,000 Welsh speakers over the age of sixteen, add to that number an estimated 100,000+ Welsh speakers who reside in England. That’s half a million of a potentially highly engaged audience.

But Welsh language marketing has an impact beyond those who speak the language. Consider the number of non-Welsh speakers who have put their children through Welsh medium education? And those who may have no direct tie to the language but appreciate that it’s a positive piece of the makeup of Wales and Britain as a whole.

A recent survey found that 85% of the Welsh populace thought the Welsh language was something to be proud of, that’s 2,100,000 people over the age of 16in wales alone.

So when your Welsh language marketing message goes out, you’re creating a positive impression that will make you stand out amongst your competitors……

What is Awr Cymru, the Wales Hour?

Awr Cymru has four primary aims and goals

1. To promote the use of the Welsh language as a marketing tool.
2. To raise awareness in the value of the ”Welsh Pound”
3. To offer support and training to individuals, companies, institutions and the 3^rd sector with regards training and best practice in relation to digital marketing.
4. To act as a positive voice for the Welsh language business and marketing community.

Awr Cymru manages @yrawrgymraeg (the welsh hour) the first Welsh language Twitter hour which launched in November 2012. The hour operates every Wednesday night between 8 and 9pm. It has amassed over 7,000 followers and its hashtag #yagym regularly reaches 4,000,000 Twitter timelines and over 800,000 Twitter accounts.

Awr Cymru is expanding into Facebook and is currently developing a new commercial digital news service in partnership with some of the most exciting companies in the social media and digital fields.

If you want to know more about the advantages and potential commercial benefits of using the Welsh language as part of your marketing and promotion activities or would like assistance in developing new digital strategies, please contact the Awr Cymru team using the form below.