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This year opened in a difficult economic environment. To counter that, the federal government allocated the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) a $40-million two-year stimulus funding program. Of that, $10 million a year was earmarked for domestic advertising; the other $10 million was slotted for emerging and priority international markets.

The new arenas have yielded some of CTC’s biggest successes in 2009. Here’s a summary:

CANADA

LOCALS KNOW: We launched the LOCALS KNOW campaign in the domestic market in summer 2009 to promote travel in Canada to Canadians. The campaign integrated many marketing elements, such as print and online advertising, social media and PR with winning results. The broadcast TV spots were the most memorable initiative. They achieved 87% ad recall, a remarkable figure.

LOCALS KNOW online: Canadians really embraced the campaign on the Internet.The campaign microsite proved to be the highest-ever performing site at the CTC, attracting more than 515,000 visits and three million page views. Consumers uploaded more than 4,000 “secret spots” to the website, sharing their favourite places in Canada with other Canadians.

LOCALS KNOW engagement: Word of the campaign spread like wildfire. The surrounding PR buzz generated 39 million impressions, valued at $1.1 million.  Industry joined the fun, too, at unprecedented levels. A record number of provincial and destination marketing organizations took part, together with a host of small- and medium-size businesses. That level of participation allowed the campaign to send some 50,000 leads back to industry partners.

LOCALS KNOW in action: To date, the campaign has successfully prompted nearly 200,000 Canadians to be inspired by their own country and switch their original travel plans. Outbound became inbound as they vacationed in Canada.

LOCALS KNOW kudos: LOCALS KNOW has been recognized with numerous marketing awards. Of particular note, Forbes.com named it one of the top 10 travel marketing campaigns. The campaign also contributed to the CTC’s overall designation as Marketingmagazine’s2009 Marketer of the Year.

INDIA/BRAZIL

Mumbai market launch: The official event in this Indian city on Nov. 18 had a huge turnout of major travel-industry reps. But this was dwarfed by the massive media exposure CTC garnered two days earlier, when Bollywood megastar Akshay Kumar joined Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at a travel-trade lunch. The photos of the pair with the Olympic Torch, which Kumar carried with aplomb on Dec. 17 in Toronto, ON were splashed around India and North America. A market was born.

New Delhi market launch: The launch here on Aug. 18 had two substantial events. First was a press lunch in conjunction with Buzz Travel Marketing India  for 50-plus media at The Imperial hotel. Then, an evening reception at the same venue gathered 250 reps from the leading industry agents, airlines and tour operators to network and engage. Joseph Caron, Canadian High Commissioner to India, delivered opening remarks.

Indian ad campaigns: The initial campaign appeared in leading travel-trade publications Aug. 1 to 14 advising that Canada, and CTC, were now “open for business.” The commission followed that with an advertising campaign in leading travel trade publications. It invited travel agents to sign up for the Canada Specialists Program (at Explorer level), illustrating the program’s value as a selling tool. It worked straightaway; to date, 200 agents have signed up.

Brazil market launch: In one unbelievable week in São Paulo, we had Canada Ski days with local industry partners, a press event with a record turnout and the launch party itself. With 200 attending, it was like a Who’s Who of the travel industry.

Canada Specialists Program in Brazil: We signed up 200 people in Brazil in just over a day when we launched in November, which far exceeded our expectations. During the same hectic period, we also arranged two “familiarization” trips and one press trip to Canada to accelerate our market development.

“We have been fortunate to lead the way for Canada in diversifying our market portfolio in response to changing market dynamics,” says Andrew Clark, vice-president of CTC Market Development and lead on stimulus funding. “The stimulus investments are great recognition that the visitor economy from developing and emerging markets is an integral part of Canada’s Economic Action plan. 

“The partnership across the country this year has allowed us to leverage both Canada’s brand—“Canada. Keep Exploring”—and our global communications platform to differentiate Canada in new markets and drive incremental revenue. We’ve had some great initial success in 2009, and will build upon it in 2010. The timing is great for us to leverage the media exposure around the world of the 2010 Winter Games for all of Canada.”