After a strong and steady spring, we saw an opportunity to increase our marketing efforts over the summer to help increase bookings, especially mid-week. We invested in additional marketing and advertising tactics throughout the summer, as outlined below, to further support local tourism businesses.
Increased Paid Marketing & Advertising Tactics
- We adjusted our annual marketing plan to increase our paid marketing and advertising tactics for the summer of 2024. Since general awareness of summer in Kelowna is high, these tactics targeted the lower stages of the marketing funnel to help people plan and convert into booking their summer vacations in our region.
Introduced Central Okanagan Marketing Campaign
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Tourism Kelowna, District of Lake Country, and Visit Westside introduced a mid-summer marketing campaign thanks to funding from Destination BC's Co-operative Marketing Program. The campaign, targeted at travellers in the Lower Mainland, seeks to bolster late summer travel and boost local tourism businesses that suffered losses last year. You can find more information on the campaign in our recent Industry News Centre post.
Supported Wine Growers' Marketing Campaign
- With the wine sector facing additional challenges this year, we supported Wine Growers British Columbia's Sip, Smile, and Stay Awhile campaign to provide ads promoting travel to the Okanagan. The campaign carried key messages confirming that wine is available at BC wineries and that the best way to help local wineries is by visiting them now. For more on this campaign, check out Wine Growers BC’s website.
Supported Regional Partnership Marketing Campaign
- Okanagan communities banded together, with the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association helping coordinate a campaign—Travel Now on Us to the Thompson Okanagan—to support local tourism businesses across the region through marketing tactics and a consumer contest. For more information, visit the campaign website.
Fall 2024 Marketing
As we transition from summer to fall, our seasonal marketing campaigns will also transition to attract visitors to our region. Our visitor profile usually shifts slightly from those enjoying a summer vacation with family to those seeking fall travel experiences with small groups. In the fall, visitors still come to our region to participate in outdoor experiences and take advantage of warmer temperatures, but beyond that, our food and wine experiences are also a major draw.
Our fall 2024 paid advertising campaign is similar to our 2023 campaign and includes tactics such as pre-roll video, connected TV advertisements, social media ads, native content ads, and digital display ads. These are all in addition to the work we do via partner marketing, through our marketing channels, or shared channels like social media and content advertising. Our fall marketing is set to run through the end of November.
Fall Campaign Ad Samples:
