Toronto is encouraging its residents to have a summer fling with Montreal – and vice versa – in a new marketing program developed by Crispin Porter + Bogusky Canada.
Tourism Toronto and Tourisme Montreal have partnered on the “Cheating Wall” initiative, which consists of video screens located at high-profile locations in the two cities. Live until June 15, the screens let residents of each city to engage in live video chats and participate in a series of scheduled events including fashion and comedy shows.
Andrew Weir, vice-president of communications for Tourism Toronto, said the insight behind the creative concept is that because of the longstanding rivalry between the two cities – fostered by their status as business hubs and, naturally, the Toronto Maple Leafs/Montreal Canadiens rivalry – any visit to Montreal or Toronto is viewed as a “betrayal” of your home city.
“It’s really to break down the perception [in Montreal] that Toronto is a place for business but it’s somehow a betrayal if you enjoy yourself there,” said Weir. “I think people in Montreal are quicker to go to Boston, or New York, or Chicago.”
Developed by self-described “non-traditional advertising” company Monster Media, the Cheating Wall has been installed in the TIFF Bell Lightbox in downtown Toronto and at 350 de Maisonneuve Boulevard in Montreal. In addition to being open for live chats between the hours of 6 a.m. and 2 a.m., the Cheating Wall is the site for a series of events such as “Tai Chi at the Wall” and “Street Magic.”
It is also available online at TheCheatingWall.com and TrompeTaVilleMuramur.com, both of which link to Facebook pages where visitors can win flights to the respective cities courtesy of Air Canada. Participants are also being invited to share their experiences on Twitter using the hashtags #cheatingwall and #trompetaville.
Although about 575,000 Torontonians visit Montreal each year, and about 515,000 Montrealers visit Toronto, Weir said that business travel and travel to specific functions, such as weddings, accounts for a significant number of visits between the two cities.
“People in both cities think of cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago as cities to get away to,” said Weir. “But they don’t necessarily about Toronto or Montreal because they’re just so close and we talk about them and think about them all the time. We take them for granted.”
“We wanted to work on improving the travel between the two destinations,” said Tanya Churchmuch, assistant director, international relations at Tourisme Montreal and a Toronto native who “fell completely head over heels in love” with Montreal as a university student and opted to stay in the city.
“We wanted to remind people that there are two amazing destinations that are very different from each other and offer extremely different things to do, but are very close and very cool cities. You don’t have to go thousands of miles away to have a great experience.”
The initiative is also being supported by transit shelter and poster ads in Zoom Media’s resto-bar network. The ads feature QR codes that take users to the Cheating Wall’s Facebook pages. Media for the campaign was also handled by Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
It is the second straight year that the Montreal and Toronto tourism bodies have partnered on a summer marketing initiative.
