Expedia Canada scored multimedia coverage with its ‘Fast Talk Your Way to Vegas’ contest. It invited Canadians to rattle off their favourite things about Sin City in 15 seconds or less, and vote for entries posted at fasttalktovegas.ca.

The concept stemmed from last year’s popular Expedia commercial, which featured a high-strung man’s high-speed chronicling of his vacation exploits in Vegas. ‘We thought it’d be awesome to expand that into a contest and have people interact with the brand in a unique way,’ explains Christopher Day, marketing director at Toronto-based Expedia Canada, which ran a corresponding ‘Las Vegas Extravaganza Sale.’

The contest attracted hundreds of entries, which contestants embedded in their blogs and Facebook profiles to encourage friends to vote for them. ‘It’s a great way of linking up to Facebook without being domineering,’ says Day.

The six-week contest kicked off with a national media tour featuring judges Fran Capo – the Guinness World Record-holding fast talker – and glib Quebec celeb Christopher Williams. It landed coverage from 20 news outlets, including the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Sun.

Expedia developed the contest with Toronto-based PR firm Edelman, while Toronto-based Grip did the website. The original ‘fast-talk’ commercial was done by Toronto-based GWP Brand Engineering.