A small boy plays in a sandbox. Suddenly, he pauses and looks up, smiling as a hot-air balloon floats gracefully through the sky above.
That, says Paul Thouin, is the mental image he has always associated with Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu’s famous ballooning festival.
Since 1984, this community just outside of Montreal has hosted the world-renowned Festival de montgolfières de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, an annual event that showcases hot-air ballooning champions from around the world. Thouin, founder of and vice-president of marketing for Cogestion International, the management company responsible for organizing the festival, says that it has become an important part of the culture of the region.
There was, however, a time not long ago when the future of the event was in serious doubt.
When Cogestion assumed control of the festival in 1992, it was awash in debt, and on the verge of collapse. Under Thouin’s guidance, however, it has made a stunning recovery, evolving into one of Quebec’s most popular summer attractions. From 1995 to 1998 alone, attendance doubled to 280,000, while sponsorship revenues grew from less than $60,000 to nearly $450,000.
Indeed, so impressive has Thouin’s work been that the Montreal Marketing Association recently named him Marketing Personality of the Year for 1999.
‘I had a vision five years ago to position the festival as the most family-oriented event in Quebec,’ Thouin says. ‘And I never abandoned that vision. I was very stubborn, but it paid off.’
The nine-day festival, which takes place in August, targets families, focusing heavily on parents between the ages of 29 and 45 living in the greater metropolitan Montreal area.
When Cogestion came on board, Thouin and his colleagues quickly identified the event’s major sources of difficulty: poor management, and an over-reliance on admission fees as a source of revenue – a shaky proposition at best, since attendance can be dramatically affected by weather conditions.
A $400,000 infusion of funding from the municipality succeeded in wiping out most of the festival’s debt. But Cogestion, which came to the job with considerable experience in managing tourism initiatives and properties, still had to deal with hard feelings on the part of suppliers and sponsors, many of whom had lost both money and faith.
‘When we began negotiating with those same people a year later, we had to prove ourselves,’ says Thouin. ‘One of the reasons we’ve made a success of the event is respect: We deliver what we promise. You have to show your interest in welcoming [sponsors and suppliers] and taking care of them.’
Boosting sponsorship revenues has been a top priority for the event over the last several years. Thouin, who personally took charge of all festival communications activities in 1996, has revamped the sponsorship program, creating new, customized packages that offer higher visibility and increased benefits for sponsors.
Sponsorship revenues for 1999 already total $900,000, Thouin says – double last year’s figure. Major sponsors include such brands as Sunlight, Coca-Cola, Labatt Blue and Mr. Christie (which has assumed title sponsorship of the event).
Thouin says the festival offers sponsors a number of avenues for building profile, from sampling and couponing to branding of various on-site attractions, such as the Gaz Metropolitain cabaret tent and the Sunlight Bubble, a play area for youngsters.
Once visitors pay the admission fee, all on-site activities are free – including the many performances by musicians and comedians that Cogestion has added to the festival lineup in an effort to broaden the event’s appeal and boost attendance.
In 1996, for example, the festival hosted a concert by teenybopper sensations the Backstreet Boys – a ploy that succeeded in attracting 62,000 people. Today, the event schedule typically boasts as many as 200 different shows, featuring both local artists and big-name acts.
Another of the festival’s ongoing priorities is to increase its visibility in the province. Last year, to this end, Cogestion commissioned the building of the festival’s own 110,000 cubic foot hot-air balloon. The balloon, designed by Vittorio (the same artist responsible for the Just For Laughs mascot) serves as a flying billboard for the festival during the weeks leading up to its kickoff. In addition, there’s a mural in the works in the heart of downtown Montreal.
Thouin says the festival has also boosted its spending on television and radio advertising over the past several years.
As for Cogestion itself, Thouin says the company is starting to consider expansion beyond the management of events and attractions, and into areas such as television production. Indeed, plans for the development of a children’s TV show are now in the works.
Also in this report:
– Unibroue might be small but it’s thinking big: Quebec brewery has ambitious plans to crack other markets p.24
– Biscuits Leclerc scores major licensing coup : Signs deal with Warner Bros. for right to use Looney Tunes characters p.25
– Gaz Metropolitain pours energy into online efforts: Natural gas provider makes Internet a primary medium p.26
