Tourism Kelowna delivers paid advertising campaigns year-round to support its members, strengthen destination awareness, and drive visitation beyond the peak summer season.

This fall, a full-funnel campaign ran from mid-August through November, targeting shoulder-season travellers and supporting conversion through to booking. Building on that momentum, our original winter investment was expanded. These advertising tactics align with our strategic priority to grow visitation and spending in fall and winter and reinforce Kelowna’s position as a four-season destination of choice. 

Recap of Tourism Kelowna's Fall Advertising Campaign

Our fall paid advertising campaign, “Falling for You,” ran from late August to the end of November. The campaign ran in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia to connect with consumers dreaming, planning, or booking travel to our region.

We used a mix of advertising tactics to invite travellers to explore Kelowna at its best in the fall, and employed a creative treatment that showcases our destination’s positive, friendly, and generous personality. The marketing creative gave glowing compliments while showcasing our destination's golden beauty.

The campaign tactics included:

• Pre-roll video on websites, YouTube, Amazon Prime, and Netflix,
• Featured ads in Cineplex’s pre-roll before main attractions played on the big screen,
• Social media ads on Facebook, Instagram and Reddit,
• Content partnerships with Expedia, and
• Digital search ads through Google.

The fall campaign exceeded industry benchmarks, generating more than 37 million advertising impressions and receiving over $35,000 in added (bonus) spend. There were 3,233 room-night bookings attributed to the Expedia partnership.

We can thank our partners at 9Letters for our strong media placements and performance, and our partners at Partners & Hawes for our eye-catching creative.

Of course, our paid advertising campaign was just one of the steps our team took to market our destination in the fall. Additional activities included:

• Our Marketing & Communications team hosted several media visits and generated strong travel stories in the fall, especially about Kelowna becoming Canada’s first and only UNESCO City of Gastronomy.
• Our Business Development team was actively pitching and securing business, sport, and major events. 
• Our Community & Visitor Engagement team was ensuring visitors were connected with local businesses and had a positive experience while here.

Through our website and email marketing, we continued to inform and help visitors plan their trips, and our social media and content marketing provided helpful inspiration and ideas.

Overview of Expanded Winter Tactics

With additional Municipal & Regional District Tax (MRDT) funds we received in the fourth quarter of 2025, we were able to quickly enhance our paid advertising through the end of the year and into the first part of 2026.

The topped-up plan, focused on winter, includes:

• 30-second ads on the connected TV platform, Amazon Prime, to create greater awareness of our destination.
• Social media ads on Facebook and Instagram to help potential travellers plan and book their trips.
• Content partnerships with Expedia to direct and increase bookings to Kelowna.
• Paid digital marketing through Google Ads and search to drive more traffic to our website.

^{Example of a social media carousel ad from the winter campaign.} 

Our winter tactics run through to the end of February and are estimated to generate nearly 8 million advertising impressions. The geographic split of the ads is approximately 50% Ontario, 25% British Columbia, and 25% Alberta.

This is in addition to our always-on marketing, which includes:

• Earned media: working with travel media, pitching stories, and hosting media visits.
• Owned media: including driving traffic to our website, and weekly and monthly consumer e-mail marketing and blogs.
• Shared media: our robust content marketing across various social media channels, where we work with content creators and influencers.

If you have any questions about our fall campaign, winter marketing tactics, or annual marketing and communications strategy, please contact me at chris.shauf@tourismkelowna.com.