The Nanaimo Airport hosts an annual contest, Connect with Canada, that highlights amazing destinations accessible through local connections. In 2024, the airport partnered with Kelowna Airport to create a dual contest for both destinations. This partnership is particularly important given the struggles of the BC wine industry due to devastating weather events brought on by climate change. Boosting awareness and tourism is a great way to support the local economies, attractions, and carriers that operate these direct connections. The campaign focused on in-airport signage, a social media campaign, on-location billboards, and collateral distributed through stakeholders. The campaign was structured not only to build excitement around the destinations but also to build an email list for both airports that could be used to keep customers informed about future promotions, new routes, and events.
GOALS
In addition to bolstering the future marketing capabilities of both airports, the main goal of the campaign was to increase travel between YCD and YLW. By raising awareness of the attractions, activities, and accommodations in each city, travelers would see the direct connections between the airports as the most convenient and obvious choice to access these destinations. With the contest running in June, our team measured the demand for the direct route in the following months to assess the overall downstream impact.
