Early last Thursday morning, Lance Saunders got a call from his boss, DDB Canada president Dave Leonard, who was shocked by the images from the riot that rocked Vancouver following the Stanley Cup final.
Vancouver-born Leonard called up Rick Antonson, president of Tourism Vancouver, and offered the agency’s services. Then he, Saunders (executive VP and managing director), and creative director Dean Lee got together to see what they could do.
“By 9:00 a.m., people were already sweeping the streets, cleaning up and the glass was gone and you started to see some of that positive sentiment, but that other messaging had gone out,” said Saunders. “As a creative agency, our world is about harnessing emotion and this is about celebrating Vancouver and restoring its image to where it deserves to be.”
By noon on Thursday, DDB had presented a brief to Tourism Vancouver. Rick Sanderson, general manager at OMD Canada, got on the phone to the newspapers, Saunders called his client Greg Klassen, senior VP marketing strategy at the Canadian Tourism Commission, and DDB staffers worked all that afternoon and night. “It was really amazing how many people wanted to help,”said Saunders.
By 5 p.m. Friday, full-page print ads had been shipped to the newspapers and thisisourvancouver.com was launched.
And while images of burning cars, bleeding people, riot police and broken windows had made their way around the world, the plywood covering the windows of the Hudson’s Bay, or what locals call the “apology wall,”quickly became the place where people went to express their love for Vancouver.
Keeping with the theme, the website is designed against a plywood backdrop and pulls content from social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube and allows users to post comments on what best defines Vancouver. The print ads show a blank piece of plywood and read: “The actions of a few aren’t a true reflection of our city.”The idea, says Candice Gibson, manager consumer marketing at Tourism Vancouver, is for people to write their own messages on the ad and post them to the website.
“This campaign is not about tourism dollars, it’s not about promoting the destination to visitors as much as it is just doing something for the locals who’ve tried to do so many positive things in the wake of all the turmoil,” said Gibson. “Nobody is having logo recognition or being compensated for this; everybody’s time and resources are by donation.”
Gibson said Tourism Vancouver has suspended a marketing campaign in B.C., Alberta, Washington State and California that celebrates Vancouver’s 125th anniversary with a $125 gift card. “We don’t want to do anything that is going to take the attention away from what we feel we need to do as a community,”said Gibson.
Klassen said it’s too early to tell what impact the riot will have on tourism and brand Canada.
“There’s no candy coating that those images are horrific,” he said. “What we are doing is letting the world know the side of Vancouver that wasn’t told that evening. This stuff isn’t just being made up, it’s happening naturally. The plywood walls are a very moving and powerful statement that we are not that evening and we are something very different.”
DDB’s Saunders said they are trying to figure out a way to create a virtual wall online after the boards come down.
