We had a proven concept. Our “Newfoundland in 10 days” video has been viewed over half a million times and continues to perform (whenever people start planning their trips to Newfoundland) with extremely positive engagement.
That video has increased our Facebook page likes by about 330% but that is a very broad audience and where do you think most of those new likes are coming from? Newfoundland of course!
My primary goal with Winter Baycation was to recreate that same success closer to home, engaging an audience in the Collingwood, The Blue Mountains, and broader South Georgian Bay area.
The secondary goal was to try and monetize that model. The first video was just for fun, and once it’s online, noone has to buy it. Anyone can freely share it and use it to engage their own audiences which is what the official tourism board of Newfoundland and Labrador did among others. And that’s completely fine because all those views are counted at the source – the BFresh.Media facebook page.
So to monetize this we decided on a sponsorship model. The main reason was so that BFresh.Media would retain copyright ownership and therefore have full creative control. We wanted to execute our own vision and not let client influence pull us too far away from that. The second reason was to keep the cost more affordable for those involved.
The Georgian Triangle Tourism Association (AKA Visit South Georgian Bay) saw this as a great opportunity to promote their brand, our region, and provide value to their amazing Members by taking on the Title Sponsorship. We worked out a deal for exclusivity to feature members only which worked out fine because all of the destinations and experiences that were on our checklist were already members.
The result was another fun, fast paced adventure featuring real people and real experiences. For your viewing pleasure here is the video:
The video launched on February 13th and was viewed over 10,000 times in 10 days. As of March 15th it has been shared 193 times and received 983 post engagements, all of which have been extremely positive.
Each participating member also received a short teaser clip to post on their own Instagram or Facebook accounts.
The video saw huge success but the only issue was that winter was effectively ending, something that was obviously out of our control. As of February 26th there was no longer any snow on the ground and we had been seeing temperatures as high as +15 for a few days.
While there was little we could do to get this video out earlier, it’s now ready for next season and that’s the good news. As we see all the time with our Newfoundland Video, when it’s relevant, it has just as much potential to take off as the first time. It might need just a push to get the ball rolling but all we need to do is share this video again next season and it’s sure to perform even better at the beginning of the season.
