The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) has just launched its first major advertising campaign in China since Canada was granted Approved Destination Status in June 2010. The designation meant that for the first time Canada could be marketed in China and compete on an equal footing with other interantional destinations.
The campaign is called “Hello, 加拿大” (Hello, Jiānádà) or as it’s being billed in the Western media “Say Hello To Canada“. It hopes to tap into the rising number of Chinese citizens taking holidays abroad, current reports indicate that by 2020 China will deliver 100 million travellers worldwide.
The thought behind “Say hello to Canada” is to introduce Canada to potential Chinese travellers in the same open, informal way as making a new friend. According to the official press release:
‘Advertising will feature heavily online, including key social-media platforms such as Kaixin, video-sharing sites such as Youku, search engines and micro blogs as well as travel, lifestyle, news and culinary websites.
There will also be ads in leading newspapers and travel or lifestyle mags, such as Shanghai Weekly, The Bund and National Geographic. To pique Chinese interest further, an online game will have prize trips to Canada at stake.’
Images of the print advetisements are below (apologies for the low resolution). To be honest the ads are hardly groundbreaking, and are unlikely to win the awards CTC’s current ‘Locals Know‘ campaign has collected. But what do you think?
Credit to: DDB Canada
