The Pacific National Exhibition has been named the Marketer of the Year by the B.C. chapter of the American Marketing Association (BCAMA) for 2011.
Georgia Dahle, chair of the judging committee, said the PNE was chosen as the 41st Marketer of the Year for its outstanding “100 Years of Fun” campaign that increased ticket sales and re-invigorated the PNE brand as a major Western Canadian entertainment destination.
“The PNE spent a lot of time on their research, they recognized that they are in a niche category,” said Dahle. “But they also had a lot of challenges such as the possibility of moving out to the suburbs, being a city-owned property even though it’s independently managed, and [competing with] the 2010 Olympics. They also spent a lot of time and a significant amount of research looking at how to continue to differentiate themselves.”
Shelley Frost, vice-president of marketing at the PNE, said “100 Years of Fun” was meant to connect people emotionally with their greatest memories of the PNE.
“We really integrated the branding all across the company,” said Frost. “It became part of our uniform. It became part of everything that we did. The 100-year brand was really picked up by every corner of the company and everybody helped to bring it to life.”
Because the anniversary fell in the same year as the Winter Olympics, Frost said they started marketing well ahead of the August fair with a merchandizing line, contesting, television, outdoor, radio and social media advertising, a 100th anniversary history book, a city-wide street banners campaign , a wrap of the Pacific Coliseum building and a new website.
“One thing that was really important to us was that we wanted to really emphasize that the PNE is not just 100 years old, but its 100 years strong,” said Kim Madu, the PNE’s marketing director. “A lot of people thought the PNE was a little bit dated or old, so it was really important to us to make sure that we always looked fresh and current in the ads. So even when we were using old footage or old pictures, it didn’t look like an old event that you came to but something that was moving forward.”
While the majority of the marketing was done in-house, Barbershop Films and Karo Group worked on the campaign, and the Laura Ballance Media Group generated $1.3 million in earned media through stories generated from the 100th Anniversary, said Frost.
Attendance increased about 10%, on-site spending was up and website traffic doubled, all during an economic downturn, Madu said.
The BCAMA will present the award to the PNE on Oct. 13. Past winners include the Rocky Mountaineer, BC Hydro, Mr. Lube, White Spot Restaurants, Coast Capital Savings and Nintendo Canada.
