Breathing new life into ad campaign
The inaugural commercial in Travel Alberta’s Remember to Breathe campaign has garnered 1.8 million YouTube views in two years and has won more than 25 marketing awards, but the Crown corporation isn’t resting on those laurels.
It’s launching Remember to Breathe 3.0, with a heavy emphasis on promoting social media for travellers to share their Alberta experiences.
“The No. 1 trusted source of destination information is friends and family,” said Royce Chwin, Travel Alberta vicepresident of marketing and communications.
“It’s really leveraging user content — people on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — and really engaging those people in two-way conversations to help sell the destination from their point of view.”
The corporation’s website now makes it easier to share content with other users. Travel Alberta also shares photos and other posted content through its own channels and surprising social-media users with weekly gifts.
Last year, for “Brand 2.0,” the tourism campaign added Alberta Stories, a new series of video travelogues highlighting experiences such as Edmonton’s culinary scene and Elk Island National Park.
Also this year, Travel Alberta will launch a new round of videos in the summer, including a 30-second commercial starring Edmonton and more Alberta Stories travelogues.
The Remember to Breathe brand, promoting “goosebump moments” instead of a hodgepodge of destinations, is part of Travel Alberta’s overall strategy to drive tourism revenue to $10.3 billion by 2020, from its current $7.9 billion.
“It’s not possible to show the millions of things to do in the province in 30 seconds or a minute,” Chwin said. “We’re going to look like everyone else, so we focused on the emotion of a travel experience. … If we got people hooked emotionally, that’s how we all make purchasing decisions.”
The province’s tourism industry, which employs 139,000 people and contributes $4 billion in tax revenue, had a strong 2012, Chwin said Monday in a meeting with Edmonton-region tourism operators. Edmonton International Airport posted visitor growth of 6.4 per cent. Domestic traveller counts at the airport were up 6.1 per cent, trans-border travel was up 8.1 per cent and international increased by 4.1 per cent. Visits to Jasper National Park rose by 2.9 per cent.
Chwin is cautious, but expects another good year in 2013, he said.
“We talked to our operators and the travel trade and received some great news — bookings are up for summer which is a fantastic sign that the interest to come to Alberta remains very strong.”
But he said factors that could potentially dampen tourism include a troubled European economy, the Boston Marathon bombings and past cuts by the federal government to the Canadian Tourism Commission, an agency that markets travel to Canada.
The CTC’s budget is now $58 million, compared to $110 million nearly a decade ago, Chwin said. The tourism marketing budget for the city of Las Vegas alone totals $114 million, by comparison, he said.
To help it reach the target of a $10-billion travel industry by 2020, the Alberta government is exploring new market niches such as culinary, agricultural, aboriginal, trail-based, event and sport tourism, said Alyssa Watson, tourism development officer at Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation.
She said September’s Tour of Alberta cycling race and its accompanying community arts and food festivals is an example of an event that promotes several niche sectors. The elite 850-kilometre stage race will be hosted by 11 communities.
“With Tour of Alberta, we’re bringing together the culinary tourism industry (and) agricultural tourism industry because we’re going to be working with Alberta beef and pork producers to provide the dishes for the food elements,” she said. “It’s bringing together arts and culture and sport tourism.”