The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) has evolved its successful “Locals Know” campaign to target travelers from the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Mexico and Australia.
Called “Explore Like a Local,” this latest campaign from Tribal DDB has a new website that allows users to explore Canada by certain themes (e.g. arts and culture), by city or by favourite local hangouts. It also provides itineraries created by other travelers as well tools to create new ones.
The CTC also released a mobile app that lets travelers share information about their favourite places.
It’s all based on the insight that travelers want to hear about authentic experiences from other travelers, not a travel agency, said Kate Duffy, manager of social media for the CTC. The travelers targeted by the CTC–the “free spirit” and the “cultural tourist,” as the CTC calls them–are people who like to brag about their vacations and share information with others through social media, said Duffy.
Josh Fehr, creative director at Tribal DDB, said instead of pulling content from the CTC’s advertisements, the agency has taken content from popular sites such as Foursquare, Yelp and Gowalla for campaign properties.
“Travelers all want that insight of a local. They don’t want to be a tourist. They want to travel, but not just have a tourism experience,” he said. “This content all has that authentic insider knowledge.”
Tribal DDB partnered with Xomo to build the app for both iPhones and Android smartphones.
