23 February 2007

Northern Canada Launching Huge Marketing Campaign



The Yukon, Northern and Nunavut Territories have put together a massive advertising and marketing campaign in efforts to increase tourism and interest in Northern Canada. Contributions from area governments and the 2007 Canada Winter Games Host Society have helped to put together this large campaign. The Whitehorse Star online has a complete article outlining the details of the joint effort and those involved in the process.

Part of the campaign is a Pan-Northern adventure promotion on CTV's Canada AM. Winners can pick from one of three amazing trips to Northern Canada. Nahanni/Canadian River Expeditions is one of the companies giving away a river rafting trip on the Tatchenshini River in the Yukon. Other parts of the massive campaign include short video spots in southern Canada before Hollywood movies in theaters, commercials during popular television shows, print ad inserts and much more.

Rafting Canada is still a hidden gem in the world of adventure sports. The Northern Territories, as well as the Southern Territories, not only have great rivers for rafting, but the scenery and back country wildlife is unparalleled here in the stats. The Grand Canyon, and possibly Glacier National Park are the only real huge destinations that have similar allure.

Recently, Rafting America picked up new partners in Canada. REO Rafting Resort in British Columbia, Wilderness Tours in Quebec/Ontario and Canadian River Expeditions in the Northern Territories, B.C. and Alaska. Hopefully the additional exposure on Rafting America will prompt more interest in Canada for both Canadian residents and U.S. residents.

16 February 2007

Weather Channel Launches Extreme Sports Channel

The Weather Channel just launched a new broadband channel called Epic. Epic is dedicated to showing how weather conditions impact adventure/extreme sports such as whitewater rafting, surfing, skiing, mountain biking, etc. Epic is a video-centric website with clips and media, many of which provided by the famous Warren Miller Productions.

One of the good whitewater rafting clips is from Rafting America's member Peter Grubb at ROW Adventures on the Lochsa River in Idaho. It's a great video with some cool rafting flips and falls, and the Lochsa isn't exactly the best place to have that happen.

The idea behind Epic is to get people to participate by adding their own videos and experiences. I think it will be moderately successful from that angle. However, depending on how they market and present weather conditions and sports, I think it has great potential. In my opinion, you have two types of people who watch weather forecasts and conditions regularly.

One is business-related, for those professionals who travel regularly and are mainly concerned about flights and destination conditions. The other is the sports enthusiast- the skiers, hikers, rafters, climbers and outdoor junkies that keep and eye on mother nature.

This new Epic addition will be a great addition for the latter of the two target markets. Certainly they will tune into Epic over the normal Weather Channel is one highlights outdoor adventure related weather rather than general conditions.