Bank of Ireland

The objective

Promoting a pillar bank with innovative ad tools: increasing website visits for Bank of Ireland

Bank of Ireland is one of Ireland’s pillar banks, recognised for supporting communities and customers nationwide, and a proud sponsor of Irish Rugby.

On TikTok, @bankofireland has an organic audience of over 7K followers, where they share content relating to financial wellbeing, fraud prevention, and everyday banking to inform and educate their audience.

Bank of Ireland has run campaigns on TikTok continuously for several years with strong results. To build on these efforts, a new campaign was launched with its advertising agency, OMD, with the objective of increasing reach and driving website clicks, particularly in younger (18-34 year old) audiences.

With the launch of this campaign, the bank aimed to drive an uplift in consideration, which would be measured through traffic to the current accounts section of bankofireland.com during key campaign dates.

A secondary goal of the campaign was to reinforce its Irish Rugby sponsorship and strengthen brand relevance with younger audiences.

The solution

Connecting with younger audiences through a major sports sponsorship and culturally relevant content

This was a seasonal sports-led campaign, leveraging heightened national interest around Ireland’s rugby calendar. The campaign ran across four key dates in November, aligning with major international rugby fixtures.

TopView is TikTok's high impact ad format which grabs TikTok user's attention with a 3-second takeover as soon as they open the app, it is highly impactful particularly for reach and awareness campaigns given the 3-second viewing period before the user can scroll.

Bank of Ireland made full use of this ad format, rotating multiple creative assets to compare engagement and click-through performance – in turn, allowing them to understand the themes and storytelling styles which resonated best with their specific target audience (young people interested in rugby).

The approach to the content was authentic, modern and aligned to sports culture on TikTok, maintaining an energetic, fast-paced and culturally relevant feel, rooted in the Irish Rugby partnership. Hero moments of the videos featured recognisable Irish Rugby players in fun and native content, which tapped into national excitement around a key period of the rugby season, and resonated with the target audience.

The content was created with an understanding of expectations and best practices on the TikTok platform, with short, engaging story-led edits and clear calls to action directing users to learn more about Bank of Ireland’s Personal Current Accounts.

The results

Outstanding results driven by audience understanding and impactful advertising formats

Driven by TopView, the campaign was highly successful, achieving 8.2 million impressions delivered across four TopView placements in November, giving Bank of Ireland nationwide visibility during peak rugby moments. Additionally, the campaign drove 242k clicks to the Personal Current Account page, with a strong 2.95% CTR, outperforming internal expectations and typical financial-sector benchmarks.

Overall, the campaign also generated a significant surge in traffic to the Current Account section on bankofireland.com, during each TopView activation date, indicating strong interest and consideration among younger audiences.

TikTok’s advertising solutions brought Bank of Ireland's Irish Rugby partnership to life in a culturally relevant, high-impact way. The TopView format ensured that the messaging appeared front and centre as soon as users opened the app, creating the scale, sound-on environment, and creative space needed to reach 18–34-year-olds at key rugby moments throughout November. This visibility played a crucial role in driving awareness and consideration of Personal Current Accounts among a younger demographic, a core objective for Bank of Ireland.

There were several factors that contributed to the success of the campaign, including the use of rugby-themed UGC creatives and tapping into national excitement ahead of big games, multiple creative rotations to keep content fresh and engaging throughout the month, clear CTA messaging, and the sound-on environment, which maximised emotional impact and brand recall.

Beyond the key performance metrics, the campaign strengthened brand perception, reinforced Bank of Ireland’s partnership with the Irish Rugby, and supported internal momentum for TikTok as a strategic platform.

This is a TikTok case study and is solely for informational purposes. Past performance does not guarantee or predict future performance.