tourism new brunswick contest

N.B. tourism contest targets 'gone-aways' with promise of free holiday back home

If you were the winner of New Brunswick's latest tourism marketing campaign, who would you invite back to New Brunswick for a visit?

The government is offering up a five-day, four-night vacation for three of the winner's favourite "gone-aways" to come back home to "reconnect with them and New Brunswick."

The contest closes at midnight tonight.

According to the rules, entrants must live in New Brunswick and have a valid New Brunswick driver's licence. The prize package includes three round-trip plane tickets from anywhere in Canada, car rental, hotels and meals. The services of a travel agent are also covered in order to help plan the whole trip, including activities.

The prize package is estimated at approximately about $10,000, but will vary depending on where the "gone-aways" are travelling from.

Premier Blaine Higgs recently tweeted about the contest and received some interesting, but critical, suggestions about who people would invite, including "Dr. Theresa Tam @CPHO_Canada to have a talk with you about Covid mitigation."

Not everyone was as skeptical, however.

"It's creative. It's different," said Lorn Sheehan, a professor of strategy at the Rowe School of Business at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

"It's something that I haven't heard or seen destinations do before," said Sheehan, who teaches and researches in the area of tourism destination management.

Whether it's successful remains to be seen, he said, and may not ever be measurable.

Sheehan said the New Brunswick Tourism Department has certainty targeted an invested market — New Brunswickers who have friends and family who left the province for other parts of Canada.

Sheehan called that the "visiting friends and relatives market" and he suspects New Brunswick's contest "will likely have some impact" by targeting that demographic.

"I anticipate there will be some communication back and forth between New Brunswickers that are thinking of entering the contest and the people that they're wanting to bring home to visit."

Sheehan said that conversation may get those who left New Brunswick thinking about the province and the people they left behind.

"So even if they don't win, I suppose it will get them thinking about making a trip home or back to New Brunswick … to visit friends and relatives and to do all those great things that we can do in New Brunswick … that you can't do, perhaps in Alberta or some of the landlocked provinces that people have gone to for work."

A safe marketing target

Targeting Canadians is also a safe bet, said Sheehan, since studies show Canadians are still reluctant to travel outside the country. Research by Destination Canada, a federal Crown corporation, indicates that the further afield Canadians travel, the less safe they feel.

Nearly 90 per cent of Atlantic Canadians, for example, are confident travelling within their own province, while 70 per cent are confident about travelling to another province.

But that drops to 35 per cent for travel to the United States and 34 per cent for other international travel.

"So knowing that, it just means that any kind of a domestic campaign that we can launch, and being as creative as we can, is probably worthwhile," said Sheehan.

He also said it's worthwhile to try new ideas.

"We call it the 80-20 rule. You put 80 per cent of your marketing and advertising dollars in things that you know work and you will get a certain return on."

The other 20 per cent is put into "creative, innovative things that you haven't tried before just to see what works and what doesn't. It's a little bit of experimentation, and that is a healthy thing to do."

'Very clever'

David Soberman, a professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, also likes the idea.

When measuring the effectiveness of a campaign, said Soberman, you want a high percentage of your target audience to be "engaged." He said one of the most important things in marketing is to create engagement.

"And so if you're targeting people who are from New Brunswick with a campaign for New Brunswick, this is something which almost by definition, these people will be more prone to accepting and to being excited about."

And if people start thinking and talking about New Brunswick as a destination, one of the best tools to sell the place is having someone here, said Soberman.

He said it's "very clever" to use New Brunswickers to help attract former New Brunswickers back home.

Plus, he said, "they'll talk about it to their friends who maybe are not from New Brunswick. And that's also a way of getting buzz and added value from the campaign that you're engaging in."

And one further advantage to the campaign is developing a mailing list for future campaigns, since entrants must provide an email address, through which entry into the contest is validated.

Soberman said these sorts of digital contests also have a built-in way to give the government feedback on what's actually working.

He said the government can advertise in different places and different ways at different times, and measure the success of that approach by how many entries are received for the contest.

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N.B. spends more than $1.7M on tourism promotion during world juniors

'it's basically our chance to show off to the world all the great things that new brunswick has to offer'.

Social Sharing

People watching the world junior men's hockey championship on television are also getting a look at a New Brunswick tourism campaign.

Explore N.B., a campaign run by the province's Tourism Department, has spent $800,000 for on-the-ground activities and programming.

This includes advertising in both Halifax and Moncton, fan-fest activities, VIP programming, regional events and community viewing parties. 

In addition, the organization has also spent $969,000 on television commercials to promote the province to a national and international hockey audience.

The ads, which are running on TSN and the RDS and NHL specialty channels, feature aerial photography showcasing the province's scenery and outdoor activities. They have also been running at Cineplex theatres in Toronto and Montreal.

"It's basically our chance to show off to the world all the great things that New Brunswick has to offer," said Brendan McGuire of Explore N.B.

In Moncton, a yurt at the Avenir Centre has welcomed visitors with information and activities. Tourists have kept warm near a campfire where they can enjoy snacks and beverages.

Amy Hill, who was at the campfire with daughters Kaylee and Ella, said she recently moved back to nearby Riverview from Halifax.

She said she's impressed with the activities taking place around the Avenir Centre. For New Year's Eve, Hill and her family had tickets to the U.S.-Finland game.

Moncton's hosting role ends Monday night, and championship play will continue in Halifax.

Explore N.B. is targeting visitors at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax through an indoor fan experience.

Co-ordinated effort

With only eight months to prepare for the world juniors, organizing a tourism campaign to welcome an international audience was a co-ordinated effort. Explore N.B. worked with various levels of government, community groups and organizations across the region. 

When the world juniors were announced for Halifax and Moncton, the province immediately realized the potential to showcase New Brunswick on the world stage, and enthusiasm has been high, McGuire said.

• World Juniors a big boost for Moncton businesses
• World junior hockey championship will be a boost to Moncton's 'mojo,' says mayor

McGuire said the hope is that the effort will put New Brunswick on the map for other large-scale sporting competitions. 

"We'd love to attract curling. We would love to attract cross-country skiing, downhill skiing," he said. "We have great spots here in the province." 

Campaign targets 

Explore N.B. will be assessing the campaign's success through several avenues, including through online activity on its website, social media platforms and through a QR code-driven contest to win a signed Team Canada jersey and a trip to visit New Brunswick. Quebec audiences are being targeted through a chance to win a snowmobiling trip. 

The Tourism Department will also assess success through the use of a tourism sentiment index, an online tool commonly used in destination campaigns to measure awareness and perceptions of a community.  

According to Katie Kohler,marketing director with the department, New Brunswick is already 10 points higher for December than in previous years, making it the best December score they've had to date. 

Although the world junior hockey tournament will end on Jan. 5, the tourism campaign will continue across Canada through the winter to late fall 2023, with the hope of building on the momentum started with the games. 

New Brunswick Tourism - Your Ultimate Guide

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ABOUT NEW BRUNSWICK

Embrace the allure of New Brunswick and discover a maritime paradise where uncharted adventures, stunning natural landscapes, and rich cultural experiences await you. As your definitive tourism guide, we invite you to explore this captivating Canadian gem. Nestled between Quebec, Nova Scotia, and the coast of Maine, New Brunswick is a treasure trove of magnificent cliffs, lush forests, gleaming waterways, and the world’s highest tides – a haven for nature lovers.

Uncover the unique appeal of this enchanting region, teeming with New Brunswick tourist attractions that reveal its beauty and cultural diversity. From its sparkling coastline to its vibrant cities, tourism NB offers an irresistible allure, promising a travel experience that is as unforgettable as the land itself.