Fall is usually one of our “lighter” seasonal campaigns, as these golden days are typically a time for Tofino’s tourism community to begin winding down from strong summer visitation. This year, as we all know, is different.

The current campaign is now a big push to drive business to Tofino, given the cancellations and reduced visitation that rippled from the June closure of Highway 4 at Cameron Bluffs, alongside various economic factors. Here are the nuts and bolts of the fall campaign:

The timing: August 28 – October 22
The target market: broadly, residents of the Pacific Northwest, in BC, Alberta and Washington State
The messaging (not all verbatim): Awaken in Tofino – let the change of season inspire a change in your routine.

Through the campaign, the wording of the ads progresses through the three phases of travel decision-making: dream, plan, and book.

These are examples of some of the ads.

STAGE 1 OF 3: DREAM

Video ads will run on TV and connected TV, and as pre-roll on streamed content.

One 15-second ad and 30-second ad on high-viewership Corus (Global News) in BC and Alberta and US-based channels that broadcast and stream in Canada. Some examples include A&E, BBC, CNN, and MSNBC.

plus a 10-second close-captioning message on Corus:

 

STAGE 2 of 3: PLAN

Native ads are designed to match the look and feel of the piece of media in which they appear. These target adults age 30+, residing in BC, Alberta and Washington, whose online behaviour has shown an interest in travel and an affinity for water activities like surfing, kayaking and whale watching, plus local food. These are some of the native ads we are running:

Video ads are running on Instagram and Facebook, targeting BC, Alberta and Washington. This is the image sequence from one of the ads, which reads:
“This fall, take a detour from your morning commute. Awaken in Tofino.”

 

Two (video) ads running on TikTok , targeting adults ages 25+ with an affinity for the outdoors- these are screen shots:

STAGE 3 OF 3: BOOK

Here, we will be running two single-image ads on Instagram and Facebook, with a call-to-action to book now.

 

And display ads, which appear in a variety of sizes on websites. The people targeted in these ads include:
– those actively planning a trip to Tofino and to competing destinations within Canada, using aggregated travel data, these travellers usually vacation with a spouse/partner and/or a small group of friends.
– those who have engaged with planning content on tourismtofino.com and on other websites for BC.

Some ad examples:

All digital ads will link to a Fall landing page which highlights the season and all there is to do here.

Additionally, Destination BC has launched a recovery campaign for visitation to communities affected by wildfires, including Tofino. They will be running some of our display ads at no cost to us, in addition to their own ads, which you may have seen recently, like this one: