Tourism New Brunswick (TNB) needed a way to surprise, entertain, and delight would-be travelers living in Ontario.
T4G had the idea to throw a kitchen party in downtown Toronto, surprising all guests and featuring the best of New Brunswick food and entertainment. The entire experience was captured on video and amplified through social media, content distribution, and search engine marketing.
In the weeks following the Toronto kitchen party, TNB experienced a significant increase in brand awareness and positive brand sentiment. Search volume spiked and the video from the event went viral, receiving more than 400,000 views and thousands of shares.
– Kim Matthews, Director of Marketing and Visitor Information, New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture
Tourism New Brunswick (TNB) needed an attention-grabbing-yet-authentic experience to surprise and delight their target market in Ontario.
T4G surprised Torontonian focus group participants with an authentic kitchen party. We shared and promoted videos of the experience through owned, earned, and paid channels, amplifying the message in a way that was both personal and measurable.
Marketing a tourism destination isn’t easy. Competition is intense and global destinations are becoming more and more accessible. The media landscape is fragmenting, and consumers are finding information on countless channels and screens. As Tourism New Brunswick’s Agency of Record, T4G needed to design an attention-grabbing yet authentic experience to make waves in the Ontario market beyond a conventional media buy.
T4G decided the best way to inspire Torontonians to put New Brunswick on their travel list was to visit them in person, and we pulled out all the stops. We called a group of travellers together for what they thought was a run-of-the-mill focus group. Little did they know we had something different in mind.
When the focus group wrapped up at Toronto’s Dominion Pub & Kitchen, we surprised participants with a New Brunswick kitchen party like no other. Guests enjoyed a feast of tasty, East Coast-inspired menu items while visiting New Brunswick landmarks in Virtual Reality (VR). New Brunswick talent, singer-songwriter Matt Andersen and entertainer Marshall Button, brought the house down with the help of some New Brunswick expats. But we didn’t stop there. We had so much fun with guests we invited them back to our place. That’s right—free flights to Fredericton so they could really experience New Brunswick.
The entire experience was captured on video that we then distributed through an integrated effort, including social media, content distribution, and search engine marketing. Take a look:
In addition to the increase in positive brand sentiment, awareness for New Brunswick as a travel destination increased significantly. Search volume spiked the weeks following the video’s launch. The campaign generated more than 2 million impressions including half a million on Facebook, more than 400,000 video views, and thousands of shares and Atavist article views, resulting in a substantial spike in traffic to the TNB website.
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