Tourism Toronto has launched a newspaper campaign to remind Ontarians that despite a few setbacks this summer, the city is still a great place to visit.
The province-wide effort from Leo Burnett launched last week with full-page ads in the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Kingston Whig-Standard and London Free Press with the headline: “Toronto Never Smelled So Good.”
Toronto Tourism decided to launch the campaign shortly after the six-week civil workers’ strike, which stalled city services such as garbage collection, finally came to an end.
The idea was to “take advantage of some positive momentum and run with it,” said Kelly Zettel, creative group head at Leo Burnett. The tongue-in-cheek approach makes light of dreary weather and a dismal economy.
“A lot of Ontarians spent the bulk of the summer talking about the strike, the bad weather and the recession… After all that time and energy spent on negative issues it seemed appropriate to boldly be positive and hopeful,” she said.
Zettel said the ads target those looking for affordable entertainment that doesn’t require getting on airplane to take part.
The ads also promote the Best of Toronto travel package aimed at drawing more visitors from southern Ontario for short overnight trips, and includes hotel, three-course dinner, attraction pass and theatre tickets for $149 per person. The promotion is co-sponsored by Tourism Toronto and Mirvish Productions. The second and third installments use the headlines, “Summer coming this Fall to a city near you” and “What are you doing this August 35th?” which plays off of an extended summer thanks to a late Labour Day weekend.
MediaVest handled the buy.
