Dublin Zoo Wild Lights

Wild Lights is Ireland’s most dazzling festival of colour and light, hosted in the wondrous grounds of Dublin Zoo. It’s the flagship seasonal event and the highlighted date of every Irish household’s Christmas calendar. The challenge Wild Lights faced was an increasingly competitive winter event market. The goal of Wild Lights was to maintain its legacy as Dublin’s must-see festive experience. Piquant’s task was to develop a campaign to cut through the festive noise. We developed and delivered a fully integrated campaign for the 2025 theme, Wild Kaleidoscope, an invitation into a world of colour. Piquant developed a sales-driven, multi-platform digital strategy designed to promote strong early awareness. This involved a balanced-funnel media strategy which included a narrative-driven hero video, multi-channel social advertising and creative asset management. As a result, our campaign captivated families and strategically drove record-breaking engagement.

Drawing inspiration from David Attenborough’s Life in Colour, our concept explores the vital role of colour in the animal kingdom. The kaleidoscope symbolises the celebration of the diversity in nature. Colour is not merely valued for aesthetics, but plays a crucial role for survival, communication and identity. Our hero graphic features a rotating kaleidoscope of animal lantern cut-outs, exhibiting the diversity of animals as a part of the identity and living up to our theme of the Wild Kaleidoscope. The visual language injects a radiant, positive energy throughout the campaign.

The creative direction encourages visitors to rediscover nature’s hidden systems. It celebrates biodiversity, educates children about animals and inspires wonder through vibrant visual storytelling. Our campaign delivered record-breaking commercial results, including a 478% increase in purchases from paid social via Google Analytics. By translating the festival’s energy into a cohesive visual language, our campaign successfully reasserted the cultural and commercial significance of Wild Lights.