Travel Alberta is asking Californians, Texans and New Yorkers to “face your wild,” kicking off its campaign by clearly highlighting its geographical location.
Campaign partner Destination Canada insights reveal that American audiences don’t necessarily know where or what Alberta is, so messaging spells out, “Canada’s Alberta.”
“We’re a little bit different from the rest of Canada, we have a little bit of a spark here, a bit of an attitude,” says Tannis Gaffney, chief marketing officer for Travel Alberta, adding that “face your wild” is about getting American visitors in three key markets to embrace their wild side through a bunch of outdoor experiences.
The hero spot features snowboarding, skiing, snowball fights and hot springs, along with sled dogs and pristine winter landscapes. “You can see the smiles in between kids playing in the snow in a snowball fight,” Gaffney says. “So there’s a little bit of personality behind that spot that’s more than just the landscape.”
According to Gaffney, most Americans travel domestically and just 47% hold passports, making it especially challenging for Travel Alberta. “The U.S. market is so competitive, there’s no amount of money that we can spend for us to stand out, because we know that other states have 100 times more budget than we would ever have,” Gaffney says. “So for us, strategically, it’s about a really smart, creative message.”
The target audience is “a curious adventurer,” Gaffney says, adding, “we actually drill that down to a segmentation.”
The campaign includes a 360 approach, DOOH, including radio and cinema, as well as podcasts. Targets include San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and New York, with a small investment in the Seattle area. The three-state primary targeting is again informed by Destination Canada insights but also airline partnerships and the fact that the majority of the travellers from Alberta are coming from those three locales via direct flight routes.
The work is by Calgary’s Copithorne and Blakely (C&B) with a buy courtesy of Initiative. Finn Partners, based out of NYC, is providing comms support.
