Tourism commercials invite Canadians to Come to My Yukon

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 1, 2016) - The Government of Yukon today unveiled four new summer commercials to promote the territory as a year-round destination for Canadian travellers. The commercials showcase Yukon's rich First Nations culture, iconic drives, wilderness, heritage and Klondike Gold Rush.

"The commercials are an open invitation to Canadians to Come to My Yukon. Yukon is more accessible and affordable than ever with direct flights from Ottawa to Whitehorse on Air North, Yukon's Airline," Tourism and Culture Minister Elaine Taylor said. "With its diverse culture and natural beauty, Yukon offers Larger Than Life visitor experiences."

Several local actors and performers are featured in the commercials, including the award-winning Dakhká Khwáan Dancers, a traditional Inland Tlingit dance group based in Whitehorse. The Dakhká Khwáan Dancers joined Taylor, Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski, cabinet ministers, government officials and business leaders to help unveil the commercials during Yukon Days.

"We are happy to be in Ottawa for Winterlude and Yukon Days to share our indigenous culture with Canada and the world," Dakhká Khwáan dance group leader Marilyn Jensen said. "We strongly feel that it is our responsibility to bring forward our identity in an authentic and positive way which also gives us opportunity to do what we love most, dance and sing!"

Yukon Days, an opportunity to share the territory's rich culture with visitors to the capital's annual Winterlude festival, takes place January 29 to February 3 in Ottawa.

Two winter commercials have aired across Canada since October. Starting next month, four summer commercials will air nationally on 12 conventional channels, including CTV, Global and CBC as well as on 13 specialty channels, including BBC Canada, the Discovery Channel and National Geographic Canada.

The television commercials are funded through the Yukon Now tourism marketing program, a partnership between the Yukon government and the Government of Canada (Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency - CanNor). The $3.6 million Yukon Now campaign is the single largest tourism marketing initiative in Yukon's history.

Learn more:

Yukon tourism: www.travelyukon.com and www.youtube.com/travelyukon

Backgrounder

Yukon NOW: Yukon government tourism marketing program

Overview:

• Tourism is a strategic industry in Yukon and is a critical component of a strong and diverse economy. These television commercials are just one of the tourism marketing initiatives that will help maximize opportunities for increased visitation and tourism revenues for Yukon businesses.
• Yukon Now is a joint Yukon-Canada investment of $3.6 million over two years to increase marketing efforts and draw more visitors to Yukon from Canada and around the world.
• Yukon's largest ever new investment in tourism marketing was launched in response to a request from the Tourism Industry Association of the Yukon and the Yukon Chamber of Commerce to boost the awareness of Yukon as a travel destination. The campaign strategy and elements were supported by those two groups.
• The program also incorporates information from public meetings held in several Yukon communities and from discussions with key industry stakeholders.
  • The largest share of the Yukon Now investment (86 per cent) has been directed to the domestic market, which experienced significant growth in recent years and continues to show potential for growth.
  • Yukon Now integrates the television commercials with other marketing platforms such as online and social media, including digital storytelling and user-generated content. The Yukon Now marketing program has been fully integrated into the existing domestic marketing campaign, Destination Yukon, and features the following key initiatives:

Television Commercials

• The Department of Tourism and Culture produced six locally filmed television commercials - two winter-based and four summer-based.
• The commercials were created with the objective of raising awareness of Yukon as a travel destination for Canadians, with a desired long-term outcome to increase visitation from this market.
• The cost to produce all six commercials was $1,045,000. Over 75 per cent of the production budget was spent in Yukon.
• The first winter commercial aired in February 2015. Both winter commercials will air during the Destination Yukon 2015/16 domestic winter consumer campaign in October 2015 and January 2016.
• The four summer commercials will air in March 2016 as part of the 2015/16 Destination Yukon summer marketing campaigns.
• 165 Yukoners were involved in the creation of the Yukon Now commercials, from the creation to the filming and editing phases, including cast, extras, crew, voice-overs and photographers.

Digital Storytelling

• The Yukon Digital Storytelling project was coordinated with the Screen Production Yukon Association.
• In the first year, local teams participated in a contest to produce a three part "webisode" series to showcase Yukon-themed stories.
• For the second year of the digital storytelling project, five local producers are creating six video projects. All videos will be integrated into the Destination Yukon marketing campaign.
• The project has generated a first-of-its-kind partnership with a national television broadcaster. Video stories from the project will be aired over 700 times on specialty networks in Canada during a three-month period starting on December 21. The video episodes will be broadcast on the Travel and Escape, Cottage Life, RadX, Aux, and Love Nature networks.

User-generated Content

• The user-generated content project calls on Yukoners and visitors to share their Yukon by submitting favourite photos, videos or stories about their Yukon experience.
• In September, 2015, the Yukon Generated Content Project (composed of user-generated content and digital storytelling projects) won Destination Canada's 2015 Explore Canada Award of Excellence for the most innovative PR campaign.