TOURISM AND PARKS NEW BRUNSWICK

When it comes to summer vacations, Quebecers are surrounded by a sea of choices, and in 2009 the economy favoured stay-at-home vacations and all-inclusive southern travel. Tourism and Parks New Brunswick had to draw attention east, and convince Quebecers to drive an extra six hours to its beaches, double the driving time to Maine’s coast.

The campaign was built around the insight that vacationers are looking for beaches – and warm saltwater is a key ingredient to enjoying a better vacation. Thanks to the Gulf Stream, New Brunswick has the warmest saltwater beaches north of Virginia.

Three TV executions showed gorgeous New Brunswick beaches and demonstrated the warmth of their water using weather-channel-like iconography. An iTV on-demand component allowed viewers to watch a long-form promotional video. Billboards in Montreal featured a pool-ladder-equipped beach inviting commuters to dive in. Online, keywords and web banners demonstrating the warm water benefit were deployed on major portals, tourism verticals and search engines. Finally, radio executions used a warm Acadian accent, and a promotion drove consumers to Eauchaude.ca (Warmwater.ca), giving them the chance to win a NB vacation.

The campaign scored 83% in advertising recall, and helped New Brunswick rank number one in terms of warm water brand association amongst all Canadian and New England destinations. Over 5,000 TV viewers watched the on-demand long-form video. The banner campaign redirected over 41,500 users to the microsite, and the keyword campaign redirected nearly 25,000 people. The microsite generated over 95,000 visitors, a 128% increase over the previous year, while 75,000 proceeded to the province’s official website. These users stayed an average 5:48 minutes on the microsite, viewed an average of 6.5 pages and posted over 2,500 experiences on their Facebook feeds.