Tourism touts star gazing

Back in the good old days your family would all pack into your station wagon/mini van/camper truck and take a trip out into the woods for some camping. Inevitably when you were bored at night without TV to keep you company you would look up to the heavens and see all the twinkling stars. At that point your father would most likely attempt to act like he knew which one the big dipper was and you didn't have the knowledge to question his random finger pointing.

Well it seems that provinces and states are using a different kind of star gazing to try and attract tourists nowadays.

Today the province of British Columbia unveiled their new Tourism BC 30 second ad and it appears they are stealing a page out of the guvernator's book by flashing celebrities of BC heritage at people.



Now fortunately British Columbia is in fact one of the most beautiful places on earth and some of the footage they use in the commercial shows this natural beauty off quite well. The question is, does the fact that famous people come from BC have any relevance on making people travel to my wonderful province. Now, the current generation of people are certainly celeb-obsessed and maybe the appearance of some well known stars will help to peak this younger generations interest in the west coast, but I wonder if it could have been made just as effective by having real people that experienced it for the first time explaining what BC was like to them. I'm sure you could have found plenty of tourists that would say nice things about the province. I think the ad will be very successful anyways because it is done quite tastefully and shows off a little portion of what BC has to offer.

Anyways, here is the California video, which clearly was successful because it ran for a long time and a second version of it came out after the first to build on the success of the initial launch.



Arnold Schwarzenegger's acting ability still awes me to this day. He just hits his line with such poise and natural talent. I mean, without him movies like Twins and Commando wouldn't have been such instant classics.

So what will BC follow California into next, maybe this.

Cold reception, but worth millions

Now my blog thusfar has been loaded with entries regarding General Motors and people are probably tired of reading them (those 2 that actually read this blog) (sorry thats an exageration, the 1 that reads this blog). Well i'm going to try to turn to a new topic that will dominate the blog.
Beer.

And what better way to go than probably one of the most covered news stories in all of Canada.......a beer billboard.

Yes, thats right. The wildfires and gangshootings in British Columbia have taken a backseat to a national crisis involving a Coors Light billboard. For full disclosure I am a coors light drinker and avid silver bullet fan. I am also a life west-coaster and find this whole matter hilarious.

Have a look and see if you can see whats making this newsworthy....



















If you guessed "Someone from Toronto saw it and took it personally" you are correct!

Yes, as soon as the complaints started pouring in, one of the complainees was smart enough to go to the papers and give Coors Light millions of dollars worth of free advertising because this story is literally in every paper, every blog, every news show i've seen yesterday and today. Not only that but there is a serious dislike for Toronto in general in British Columbia and many other provinces throughout Canada, so all this news is getting them serious street cred among the population.

The best part I think is that Coors Light is a Molson brand who is headquartered in Ontario and the creative was also done by a Toronto firm. Lets just say that this is brilliant execution in my mind and I don't think Coors Light is disappointed at all by the result.

I look forward to the response from a Toronto based beer company that actually has the balls to fire back at this ad. It won't be Sleeman's or another national brand that could turn BC residents off its beer, but i'm guessing a micro brew or a smaller company will have an answer.

I also think that Coors Light should turn this into a social media opportunity and have some contests for "What is the coolest Colder than slogan you have".

Here's my entry "Colder than your girlfriends stare when you crack your 6th coors light post game"

You know you've got a great ad concept when.....

It's the same as anything else, copycatting is the most sincere form of flattery. And it rings true in the advertising/marketing world as well. In general once some creative tactic or ad or media buy or initiative proves to be a huge success there will be people everywhere copying it. Trying to make lightning strike twice.

One of the most successful television advertisements in recent years has been the Apple - Get a Mac ads. These ads have transcended the likes of being an annoyance in between parts of your program to something that people look forward to seeing. They may be some of the most powerful/popular advertisements ever, and they are still able to pump out new ones without it seeming like too much of the same.

Now of course people have caught onto this and the commercials are so well known that people are piggy backing on the concept.

Here is a Mac ad:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=DDuB8NLTj_I

Now check out this video regarding a provincial election in British Columbia, Canada
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9nhHsFKato

Very similar concept and pretty good execution. When someone sees this commercial they may be more friendly and open to it because they recognize the format (unless of course they are voting for the other party).