Archive Story, Spring 2009:
Visitors get travel tips from local residents and industry insiders to help them plan their next BC vacation
No greater opportunity exists than talking to a local waiter, a shopkeeper, or the person on the street, to discover a hidden gem in their city that will make your vacation experience truly unique.
Tourism BC’s new $8-million spring and summer marketing campaign allows visitors to do just that before they even leave home.
Combining traditional advertising with innovative social marketing tactics, the campaign aims to motivate travellers to visit BC now, before the athletes arrive for the Games.
“As we all know, the most powerful form of marketing is word of mouth conversations. However, what used to be shared around the dinner table, now takes place through social networks around the world, instantly,” says Grant Mackay, VP Consumer Marketing for Tourism BC.
Direct response television ads kick off the campaign in Toronto, San Francisco and LA markets, inviting visitors to check out the BC Insider’s Guide packed with tips from locals. The guide is available in print or can be downloaded directly from
HelloBC.com.
The pre-trip planning experience grows online. Ten specially-produced travel documentaries feature well known industry locals, such as Vikran Vij chef and proprietor of award-winning Vij’s Restaurant in Vancouver and master winemaker Howard Soon of acclaimed Sandhill Estate Vineyard in the Okanagan.
These three-minute movies provide an insider’s take on city experiences, wine and cuisine, aboriginal culture, ski, golf, outdoor and adventure to name just a few.
Inspirational and insightful, the campaign will evolve over the next six months, with new videos posted regularly on
HelloBC.com and around the Internet.
Individual travellers will also be able to blog on the site to share their own recommendations, tips and stories after their visit. This information will be available online to inspire other people looking to plan their visit to BC.
“This user-generated content is the ultimate validator,” says Mackay.
The documentaries and online reviews from actual visitors, combined with other new
HelloBC.com content including YouTube regional field reports and expanded community information, creates a growing social network of travellers and local residents interacting with each other about what they love to do and see in British Columbia.
Nine field reporters will film and post their original travel experiences based on the recommendations from local residents. Each reporter has their own YouTube channel and Facebook fanpage.
Local communities can dispatch their own field reporters and file their stories as well. Ultimately, the goal is to have as much authentic content as possible on all the Super, Natural British Columbia® experiences available throughout the province.
Tourism BC and the 2010 Tourism Consortium partners have recognized the importance of building a strong marketing foundation with a flexible technology platform to manage and distribute information about the Host destinations.
The spring and summer marketing campaign’s online activities are part of an integrated web strategy connecting other joint Consortium activities, such as the
2010Destination Planner.com to help visitors book Games-time accommodation and
Destination2010.ca specifically designed for travel media.
To watch the HelloBC.com videos click
here
To watch the
Super, Natural British Columbia® Spring TV campaign click
here