Launched under the province's tourism strategy, the 100 B.C. Moments marketing campaign is trying to sell North America on visiting B.C.
The campaign targets Greater Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles and talks up city experiences, touring, aboriginal tourism and outdoor adventure.
The campaign uses online advertising and search-engine marketing to guide people to special offers, trip ideas and itineraries on campaign site 100BCMoments.com and travel site HelloBC.com.
To launch the campaign in San Francisco in late May, Tourism BC placed a giant vending machine in the heart of the city's financial district. The BC Moments Machine played videos to showcase B.C. and gave San Franciscans B.C. tourism-related mementos, such as First Nations art, mountain bikes and surfboards. The machine provided 325 mementos and 7,000 B.C. Moments postcards over the course of three days.
The campaign also features a contest, B.C.'s Perfect Moments, which offers people a chance to win a personalized B.C. vacation worth $20,000.
B.C. Jobs Minister Pat Bell said of the campaign, "Following the release of our new provincial tourism strategy last fall, our 2012 North American spring and summer tourism marketing campaign demonstrates a renewed focus on the markets and products where B.C. has a competitive advantage."
Coquitlam-based large-format printing company Ampco Grafix was involved in the campaign's execution in San Francisco. The company "wrapped" the 14-foot high vending machine used in San Francisco with a campaign ad.
