The project will fail since it is agency driven and just doesn’t get what the Internet is
PEI ad I stole from Be Humble
CBC and the Guardian are reporting the PEI Government Tourism budget of $4 million is switching from TV to the Internet. That’s cool.
The messages are a) beaches (my pick for years) and b) Kevin Murphy’s restaurants.
OK, well he’s on the Board of whomever makes these decisions so take that as it seems.
The project will likely fail because they’ve given the money to a big ad agency and they don’t get it.
Most companies don’t get the Internet.
They are the ones putting those 30 second ads in front of CBC news videos, or the ads that pop up on YouTube when you’re watching the video.
How about those lottery ads that make it hard to read the Guardian?
None of that will work because the Internet is about authenticity and those ads are phony. They are like GM telling us the world of cars was great while they went bankrupt.
Authentic is the President of Toyota admitting they hid safety defects from us and promising to change.
PEI is generally an authentic place but those ads won’t convey authenticity because they are “ads” from an “advertising agency.”
Rob Paterson has the gist of how this thing could promote PEI. Grass roots stories, videos, pictures and experiences put on the web from real Islanders who know the place like the back of their hands. He is wise on this – the government should be listening to him and others.
Erin Moore, who is from Nova Scotia and a CBC reporter, wrote a cool book called Prince Edward Island Book of Musts–The 101 Places Every Islander Must See. If she can write a cool book that gives people authentic PEI experiences, so can others. Move the idea one step further and post the stories on the Internet where more people can see it than ever before.
Authentic voices of PEI will do more to promote PEI than fancy ads.
The truth about Internet advertising is that no one can beat the 800 lb gorilla of the biz which is Google. They own Internet advertising and are making more waves with those targeted word ads than any display ad. I carry Google Adsense ads on NJN Network. Watch them change like a chameleon when the story changes.
Whenever the story is about PEI, the ads are about “Visit Summerside” or “The Shipwright Inn”. So a blog from PEI has a contract with an ad agency in Mountain View, California that automatically senses when the story is about PEI or not. That’s cool and Google does it magically. No ad agency can match that targeting.
What the government needs is authentic stories, videos, and pictures about PEI posted on sites that people trust – Rob Paterson’s “trusted sites”.
I doubt the government will go that far this year. We’re lucky they’re talking about beaches. Now change the fine dining message to “lobster dinner” and they will have the money-makers.
Thanks to Be Humble for the pic.
Chris
“My bet is that at least 90% of the money will leave PEI”
Brilliant. 90% of money leaving PEI. Who does he expect to market PEI tourism too? Islanders?
Rob
Chris – you miss the point – we could spend a lot less money here on PEI on people who know what they are doing and get more people from away – what did you think was the point?
Fransen
You are absolutely right. PEI is a small place and I suspect 80% of their tourism is really family and friends returning for a visit.
In a previous life, I was an elected representative, and got the notion that “no one says it like we say it.” We did news stories that showed little Johnny winning the bicycle rodeo, or Jan’s Cafe menu special. As I hoped, the residents sent the links to Grandma, cousin Hortense, their old next door neighbor and more. Inside of three months, we had more than 10,000 hits a month from as far away as Germany. Not bad for a population of 1000. There were reciprocal links to the Chamber of Commerce, some businesses, and used extensive Geo tags to the bigger city down the road, so we showed up in Google when their name was searched.
Remember the TOURIST IN OUR OWN TOWN concept… it is huge in attracting business.