I was coming home from school today and noticed that the Berri-UQÀM métro station was plastered with B.C. tourism ads!

Sorry about the shite quality but it was busy and I only had my phone on me. All of the turnstiles, walls and pillars of the upper level, fare paid zone are covered with ads.

Mmmmmm.. mmmmountains!!

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii68/Habfanman/28-03-08_1217.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii68/Habfanman/28-03-08_1218.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii68/Habfanman/28-03-08_1219.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii68/Habfanman/28-03-08_1220.jpg

yes, come here and spend your money! Just don't drive up our real estate prices too much more eh!

I remember seeing the same things in the toronto subway when I was there in 2006.

yes, come here and spend your money! Just don't drive up our real estate prices too much more eh!

I remember seeing the same things in the toronto subway when I was there in 2006.

I had no idea that tourists drove up real estate prices!

The ones that move here do..

The ones that move here do..

Must be because of the friendliness!

Well, BC Tourism has beaten Ontario Tourism right off the bat. At least these people realize advertising in the home province isn't money well spent since those people are already there. Here in Ontario, we get ads about going on vacation to Ontario.... and to top it off, they don't make me want to go there. They are better at inducing sleep.

Eiffel Tower or a water slide in Ontario?
Great Wall of China or sip a glass of wine in Ontario?
A safari in thhe Serengeti or the Toronto Zoo?

Gee, it's a tough call!

The BC ads catch your eye and make you contemplate a 'one of a kind' experience. Good job.

love the ads.....they did similar metro advertising and tv advertising blitzes three years ago in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, and as already mentioned Toronto. Most of these campaigns were induced by the government's "Spirit of 2010" program.

i'm surprised they didn't put in "Best Place on Earth!" :D.....and I'm quite thankful they didn't.

thanks for sharing!

They did it in Toronto with huge wall ads.

I can't believe I can read the french. (reply to Mr. X2) Yeah I noticed there is no "Le Meilleur Endroit sur la Terre" but instead "Porte du Canada sur la pacifique" [that means gateway of canada to do the pacific right?]. That slogan sounds much better...

BC is really trying to take advantage of the economic slowdown in the east and trying to lure ontarians and quebecois to BC to fill up jobs (vacant positions EVERYWHERE)

Well, BC Tourism has beaten Ontario Tourism right off the bat. At least these people realize advertising in the home province isn't money well spent since those people are already there. Here in Ontario, we get ads about going on vacation to Ontario.... and to top it off, they don't make me want to go there. They are better at inducing sleep.

Eiffel Tower or a water slide in Ontario?
Great Wall of China or sip a glass of wine in Ontario?
A safari in thhe Serengeti or the Toronto Zoo?

Gee, it's a tough call!

The BC ads catch your eye and make you contemplate a 'one of a kind' experience. Good job.

LOL...it is quite sad yet very true. I've personally grown tired of those ads. They do nothing for me. In fact the TV commercials get on your nerves after a while. Makes you wonder why anyone thought it would be a good idea to start an aggressive television marketing campaign WITHIN the province. Nothing but incompetence, really.

Most tourism ads are completely forgettable. They are almost all the same...
a moose, a mountain, a night shot of a helicopter circling a glass office tower, people disco dancing, more mooses, more mountains. People skiing/people swimming/people laughing. People sharing good times and cracking open a sody pop. They generally run the gamut of emotions from A to B.

Makes you wonder why anyone thought it would be a good idea to start an aggressive television marketing campaign WITHIN the province. Nothing but incompetence, really.


I'm a bit shocked how many people didn't realize that that campaign was within the province to encourage people to holiday in their own province! LOL!. Nothing incompetent about aiming your ads at 11 million people to encourage them not to travel out of province on their vacation.

this is one of the many "Best Place on Earth" tv ads

English
_MFjKqy5-Jw


Cantonese
_anor-vzuEQ

Punjabi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp33pVoD-e8




BC150
RrqyJsGfe8A

No Moose!?!? a deer is no substitute for a real moose. :(
The last one was kind of like a beer ad.

It makes perfect sense to advertise in your home province. Like the Ontario ones, I think the 'best place on earth' ads were actually aimed at British Columbians, as in 'why travel elsewhere when you live here of all places! Plus it would be rude to put that slogan up outside of BC, lol.

I think the most beautiful ad I've seen so far was from a few years back, with shots over the Lions Gate bridge, driving up the Sea-to-sky highway, people gathering round a fireplace in a contemporary post and beam house on the North Shore... and it had a great song to it, not some cheesy tourism canada music. I thought it really conveyed the West Coast lifestyle. Anyone remember?

It makes perfect sense to advertise in your home province. Like the Ontario ones, I think the 'best place on earth' ads were actually aimed at British Columbians, as in 'why travel elsewhere when you live here of all places! Plus it would be rude to put that slogan up outside of BC, lol.

I think the most beautiful ad I've seen so far was from a few years back, with shots over the Lions Gate bridge, driving up the Sea-to-sky highway, people gathering round a fireplace in a contemporary post and beam house on the North Shore... and it had a great song to it, not some cheesy tourism canada music. I thought it really conveyed the West Coast lifestyle. Anyone remember?

lol, i remember that ad - it was definitely one of the best ones. They have a "Welcome to British Columbia: The Best Place on Earth" sign on the Alberta-B.C. border on the Trans-Canada. On the eastern direction lanes, they should probably build in "You're now leaving the Best Place on Earth. Make an exit at ____ to make a U-turn" sign.


here's another B.C. ad:
ILpnnKHq9nk





and perhaps the best ad ever:
c7SiNPWfIOM

I think that a lot of the 'in province' ads are aimed at getting people to discover places that they may have overlooked simply because they are nearby. Often we take things for granted in our own cities and provinces because we think we can go whenever we want to but we never end up going. How many Torontonians have never gone up the CN Tower? How many Vancouverites have never really checked out Stanley Park? I have a few friends in Southern Ontario who have never been to Niagara Falls!!

I think that these ads are aimed at the one week or long weekend vacationers. Obviously you're not going to trade your month-long safari in Africa on a trip to the local zoo, but then you're also not going to try to go on a safari on a 4 day weekend. Also, with the Canadian dollar being at par with the U.S. dollar, it makes sense to try to persuade residents to stay close to home on their shorter excursions rather than pop accross the border.

I've moved around a lot so I'm always in partial tourist mode in my latest city/province/state/country. A good idea is to check out tourist websites such as Yahoo Travel, Trip Advisor etc, and see what visitors are raving about in your city/province. If you compare their lists of top attractions with the list of attractions that you've actually been to, I think you'll be surprised at how little you've actually seen in your own backyard. Think of what you'd like to show your foreign friends when they come to visit then go do it yourself!

The only time my family ever goes to Stanley Park, Capilano Bridge, etc is when my grandmother visits. This year we've run out of ideas, so we're going whale watching, lol.

The only time my family ever goes to Stanley Park, Capilano Bridge, etc is when my grandmother visits. This year we've run out of ideas, so we're going whale watching, lol.

If you're Japanese, you can call that whale hunting or sushi making.

^do you know if someone uploaded the canto version of BC 150?

I'm a bit shocked how many people didn't realize that that campaign was within the province to encourage people to holiday in their own province! LOL!. Nothing incompetent about aiming your ads at 11 million people to encourage them not to travel out of province on their vacation.

I don't know too many people (myself included) who like to venture out of the province just to slide down a couple of water slides or test the local vineyards. I think most residents of Ontario are aware as to what the province is and isn't good for. Most locales shown within those commercials are typical tourist spots anyways (Niagara Falls, CN Tower, Parliament Hill)...hardly hidden gems that we all need to be reminded of on a constant basis.

They should have included the "Ask the welfare office to buy your ticket" clause to it.

I don't know too many people (myself included) who like to venture out of the province just to slide down a couple of water slides or test the local vineyards. I think most residents of Ontario are aware as to what the province is and isn't good for. Most locales shown within those commercials are typical tourist spots anyways (Niagara Falls, CN Tower, Parliament Hill)...hardly hidden gems that we all need to be reminded of on a constant basis.

I can't agree.. the tourism market within a province is huge. If you can convince even a small percentage of people to stay in province instead of say, driving to the States, then you have gained tourism dollars. As in any industry, you cannot just say:"Oh well, everyone knows our product is there... if they want it they can come and get it". You have to constantly plant the seed in their minds.
The typical tourism sites are what people go to see... the final impression should be "Hey, there are lots of things we haven't done close by.. let's stay closer to home this vacation". A person may have visited the Parliament buildings when they were 18 years old, but it doesn't mean they can't go back and see them again when they are 30.

this is one of the many "Best Place on Earth" tv ads

I wonder if they have the audacity to use the "Best place on Earth" phrase when advertising outside of the province.

I can't agree.. the tourism market within a province is huge. If you can convince even a small percentage of people to stay in province instead of say, driving to the States, then you have gained tourism dollars. As in any industry, you cannot just say:"Oh well, everyone knows our product is there... if they want it they can come and get it". You have to constantly plant the seed in their minds.
The typical tourism sites are what people go to see... the final impression should be "Hey, there are lots of things we haven't done close by.. let's stay closer to home this vacation". A person may have visited the Parliament buildings when they were 18 years old, but it doesn't mean they can't go back and see them again when they are 30.

I agree that in-province tourism is a major source of revenue and I also agree that marketing within the province, to a certain magnitude, is a good investment. However, I still stand by my previous comment that showing typical tourist destinations to resident Ontarians is an exercise in redundancy. Instead, they should be focusing on places that we typically don't visit everyday, like say places in Northern Ontario, instead of just flashing token nature shots across the screen. For Toronto, they should instead focus on the many unique and interesting neighborhoods and buildings peperred all over the city. Like seriously, a clip from a Blue Jays game is just a cheap cop out. The current TV spots are just barely serviceable....for a foreign market. For residents of Ontario, they are completely unnecessary.

If you are talking about this campaign with the various singers:

MLPXJawj7Xw

it was probably one of the most successful in province advertising campaigns
in the history of the province, and more than likely helped to make last year
a record year for tourism in Toronto ( a major feat battling back from the bleak
SARS days); I guess they didn't appeal to everyone though. It was not used for
an international campaign. This version was sung by David Bryne from I Mother
Earth, and it was my favourite, with the Molly Johnson one coming in second.

I'm a bit shocked how many people didn't realize that that campaign was within the province to encourage people to holiday in their own province! LOL!. Nothing incompetent about aiming your ads at 11 million people to encourage them not to travel out of province on their vacation.

Encouraging people in one's home province to keep their tourism dollars in their own province is important, but it almost seems like Tourism Ontario has given up on the other 6 Billion other potential tourists on the planet. I have never ever seen an Ontario tourism ad beyond this province's borders.

It might be best if they stick to ads that air only in Ontario if the best enticements they can come up with are water parks and sipping wine. If these ads were seen outside Ontario, they would kill Ontario's aspirations as a global tourism destination for a good generation or two.

Rather than dwell on what's wrong, I'll attempt a few positive suggestions. : TIFF, Toronto FC/Raptors/Blue Jays, Caribana, Gay Pride, Chinese Lantern festival, the ROM, AGO, Gardiner, theatre district, Chinatown, Queen's Quay, Bloor-Yorkville, kayaking the inner harbour, Ontario Place, Dundas Square, Yonge Street hustle and bustle at night. I'll leave other Ontario suggestions up to people more familiar with it.

This subject matter is much more effective. It is crucial to hire someone who can capture emotion and larger than life imagery. Disney, National Geographic, and NFL Films are masters of this. You don't hire competent people, you hire the best cinematographer on the planet to do it.

BC Tourism does a fantastic job promoting that province outside its borders. I remember the BC ads at Yonge/Bloor station here in Toronto. They were magical. They offered the perfect tonic for a tired Torontonian on their way home from work. BC knows what it's assets are and that they know how to get the message across and where to do it. Busy TTC station? Perfect!

Encouraging people in one's home province to keep their tourism dollars in their own province is important, but it almost seems like Tourism Ontario has given up on the other 6 Billion other potential tourists on the planet. I have never ever seen an Ontario tourism ad beyond this province's borders.

I would actually rather people be encouraged to see the world, instead of spending money preaching to the choir with in-province tourism ads. They should strive to make up for whatever money is drained out of the province by outgoing tourists by promoting that much more incoming tourism.

I think with tourism ads, if you already like a place, the ads will work because they will remind you of it. You may even drool over them. If you don't like a place to begin with, you will be immune to any form of advertising from there. In my opinion I am pretty immune to mostly every tourism ad because they all look the same. The music, to me, is the one unique variable. They can catch me with the music. I'll be brutally honest, I don't ever remember seeing an ad for anywhere in Canada that convinced me to go visit there... I pretty much have my mind made up beforehand on where I would visit, and why.
Some ads are too aggressive, and too desperate, and scare people away.... like the awful (in my opinion) :"Where the Bloody Hell Are You?"ads from Australia a few years back. I know they were supposed to be cute, but they may as well have screamed out "We have no tourists left here".

Remember that song o/~ In Niagara Falls, Ontario... o/~

Oh god.. not the dreaded "Everyone looooovvvvesss Marineland!" lol!
It is not true, by the way. I went there and most certainly did not love it.

Oh god.. not the dreaded "Everyone looooovvvvesss Marineland!" lol!
It is not true, by the way. I went there and most certainly did not love it.

Oh come on! The ones with Wally the Walrus were awesome!

Happiness is, a friend you miss.. Happiness is, a great big kiss...