We Stand Together: Inside Destination Ontario’s Bold New Campaign

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  0:01  
Andrew, this is forward motion discussions about the important topics shaping Ontario's tourism industry. Here's your host, Andrew sigward, today

Andrew Siegwart  0:09  
on forward motion, we're joined by Lachlan Rogers, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at destination Ontario, a bold leader at the helm of the province's destination marketing strategy with deep experience in both public and private sectors, including time spent in the fast paced world of marketing agencies. Lachlan now leads destination Ontario's efforts to position the province as a must visit destination across Canada and around the globe, through dynamic partnerships and powerful storytelling, he helps bring to life the rich diversity of Ontario's people, places and experiences, driving visitation and supporting tourism growth in every corner of the province. In this conversation, we'll explore Lachlan career journey, key marketing wins from the past year and the trends shaping destination marketing today. We'll also dig into the creative strategy behind the exciting new we stand campaign and what it means for operators destination marketing organizations and tourism champions across Ontario, whether you're a tourism professional, a destination storyteller or just curious about what makes Ontario shine, this episode offers inspiration, insight and practical ideas to help us move forward together. Well, thank you, Lachlan, it's great to see you. Thanks for joining us on forward

Lauchlan Rogers  1:17  
motion. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. Bucha, let's um, let's um, let's start a little bit

Andrew Siegwart  1:21  
from the beginning. Why don't you tell us a bit about your marketing background, what sort of got you into the field, and what led you to destination, Ontario?

Lauchlan Rogers  1:28  
Yeah, sure. I think every kind of marketer comes from a bit of a different background. I think for me, I think it was a bit of a lost soul. I found a love for marketing, advertising. I think I originally grew up in downtown Toronto and mixed with South Shore Nova Scotia. My dad was a fisherman down there for 20 years, and kind of fisheries class came back to Toronto and joined my mom and doing her PhD here in Toronto. So the son of two university professors, so they had a real focus on me getting a good education. And I was kind of a bit of a lost soul who went to York University and took every class under the sun, trying to find a bit of a passion, right? So I think I ended up graduating from York with a honors double major and a certificate program, because I just couldn't really decide what to do through all of those different disciplines. So it was anthropology, human geography and GIS, which is geographic information systems, kind of computerized urban planning. It actually really naturally dovetailed into markets, right? Like looking at geographies, looking at people, looking at mapping. So I actually ended up falling into an advertising agency and did a lot, started in kind of an Accounts capacity, and evolved into a bit of a digital strategist. From there, kind of convinced them, like, hey, it makes more sense for me to be freelance, because I could actually travel a little more, which is a big passion of mine. So I was doing a lot of digital strategy work while doing a lot of backpacking, and then a lot of backpacking, and a digital nomad lifestyle leads to travel, debt and desperation and a lot of a bit of a foundation. So I think that's what kind of led me to some initial interviews with destination Ontario. I think at the time, they were otmpc, and we're just evolving into this identity as destination Ontario. I've started there as a social media advisor, transitioned into a digital marketing lead role, kind of doing digital ad buying and creative production. Evolved from there into a global content manager role, overseeing all of our work with Destination Canada, international markets. That was a really interesting time, because that was during just coming into the pandemic. So I was actually working on a lot of files in China and in Germany, and you kind of saw this massive sweeping change, kind of coming across the travel industry, but also the world. And then we had a bit of a SWAT team, kind of put in place to talk about recovery planning. So at that time, I actually stepped into the director of marketing role. I was there for four years, and recently just stepped into the CMO role about 10 months ago. So I think very prideful and really thankful to work with destination Ontario. I think they've been very great to me, and I think they're just fantastic people there, and I think just very encouraged. And just being around the industry in general. Here in Ontario, it's just been such a

Andrew Siegwart  4:02  
joy, and you've been at your post at some very interesting times in for the industry and for marketing in general. And we're going to unpack that a little bit more as we go forward, talking about trends, but certainly glad that you are in your role and delivering such great content for the industry. You talked a little bit about your experience working in the agency environment. What did you learn from that, from that experience? So what makes working for a marketing agency such a good foundation for marketers?

Lauchlan Rogers  4:31  
I think you have to stay flexible, right? And there's also very complex clients that you have to deal with in different stakeholder groups, and I think everyone has their own focus and role, and staying a bit fluid, I think kind of coming at every challenge a bit anew, and kind of having a bit of fresh, fresh perspective was a great grounding element for me. I think inevitably, what a lot of people find in agency environments, at least in my experience, is that you always want to root for the home team, and that's always hard in a client service industry where you're kind of, you feel. Little bit disingenuous, where at times you're pitching projects you think would be great for your client, but then there's always a price tag associated, right, right? And I think I always was so stimulated and interested in the work, and I had the luxury of actually working in the arts sector a little bit and the tourism sector through various clients, and I really just saw a love for it, and be like, I really just want to root the home team here and just work in this space where it's not transactional in nature, right? So I think a lot of, and I think you if you talk to a lot of agency people, they always end up kind of shifting the client side at some point when they find a client that they love, kind of tails all this time. But I think in those environments, you just have to develop different skill sets, because every project is different. I think that's best served me really well.

Andrew Siegwart  5:38  
You know, I had a similar experience as you in my career, where it took me a while to figure out the path, I tried lots of things. I ended up wrapping up my school at York as well. Oh, nice. I thought it was a very great school. And I feel, I personally feel, that the social sciences of all of all kinds, really does drive a thought process that is conducive to marketing and tourism, because it's about people instead about communication. So I can definitely relate to that experience. For me at the time this I'm dating myself a bit, but York had this great Liberal Studies program where you could actually mix and match, mix and match your interests and then create a specialization working with sort of a program advisor. And that's what I did, and I loved it, very similar

Lauchlan Rogers  6:25  
to my experience.

Andrew Siegwart  6:28  
It's like, you know, he needs, he needs to create his own path, versus fitting into a box, right? But I think that's another thing that that school is really good for

Lauchlan Rogers  6:38  
an active participant in the world, right? Exactly, exactly.

Andrew Siegwart  6:41  
What advice would you have for you know, marketers today that are just coming up like, how do you think they can best sort of prepare to get the right experience and to sharpen their instincts? To me, Marketing and Communications is all about developing your instincts. What advice would you have to a young person who is probably a little eager to get to the top, but needs to spend some time in the trenches. What would your advice be? Yeah, well said, I

Lauchlan Rogers  7:05  
think for me, one of the one of the kind of light bulb moments, was working in magic ad agency at the time, and I was just so interested in the designers and the skills that they had developed. And I was like, hey, like, what courses did you take? Was this at OCAD? What like, how to, kind of like, introduce you into things like Illustrator and InDesign and all of these different programs. Like, oh, they don't actually teach that. And that was a bit of a light bulb moment. We're like, oh, so they teach you theory, and then that this is all self taught, other than it's actually accessible. And that was I kind of challenged myself to look at Adobe's Creative Suite, which is really just every creative thing you would ever want to do in a digital world? And I was like, I'm going to teach myself every one of these programs right, to just kind of empower yourself and empower a bit of a foundation to acquire skill sets, right? And I think it became a bit of a gamification in my mind, but I found it extremely empowering to acquire skills right? I think we often as people, feel alienated by when they get into a challenge, and we don't really know how to tackle it. So whether it be graphic design, whether it be video editing, whether it be photography, I think just developing a core literacy and all of those things, and the ability to kind of navigate it, I found super, super empowering. So I think any new people coming in, I would try to identify skill sets, start small and start kind of acquiring them, because those specializations are really differentiators in job interviews as well, right? Because it does allow you to rise above, and I think it is more accessible now than ever, right? I think we are living in a technological world where you have access to these tools. There's free learning everywhere, and you can be a bit of a self starter, right?

Andrew Siegwart  8:38  
I mean, just like you know, there's certain learning institutions, obviously, that you can use, but you mean you can just leverage YouTube tutorials. There's so many different places. That's very good advice, and it allows you also to identify what you enjoy and what you don't enjoy, so you can kind of focus and specialize, right? Yeah, I

Lauchlan Rogers  8:55  
think that's the biggest thing, right? It's find something I've just I'm so thankful I just found something that I love. And when I you can really put your head down and really work hard, but it's a bit of a joy every day to, like, acquire a new skill and kind of get that into your mindset of, like, what is something that you do enjoy, and really just kind of start learning and being a bit of a lifelong learner, into a sector, into a thing. I think that this sector, a lot of different areas of marketing, you have the ability to do that so

Andrew Siegwart  9:19  
well. In the marketing and communications field, when I think about the last two decades, like the pace of change. So if you don't, if you don't have a lifelong learning mindset, you'll find yourself behind pretty quickly. So it's almost an essential skill.

Lauchlan Rogers  9:32  
Yeah, it's less the program, and it's more the function, right? Like, I think there's whether it be working photography, working with video, working with a channel. Like, I think the channels are changing all the time, but the basic, like principles of, like storytelling and visual impact, like those things kind of resonate through

Andrew Siegwart  9:49  
and they're, those are, they're fundamentals, aren't they? Yeah, see the York University

Lauchlan Rogers  9:54  
education coming right out there. I guess

Andrew Siegwart  9:58  
that's right. Speaking of. Sort of, you know trends. You know, it would be a shame for me to not sort of pick your brain a little bit on the sort of destination marketing trends that we're seeing out there. You know what trends are shaping how destinations engage visitors? You know, whether that's domestic or international. What are you seeing as sort of rising to the top right now?

Lauchlan Rogers  10:16  
Yeah, there's, there's a couple ways into this question, in terms of the hat that I wear in my day to day. Then there's me as a consumer. I think me as a consumer is really enjoying the emergence of wellness product, right? I think we all are. I would love to see a sauna and re establishment across Ontario, but I think, I think there is a real kind of curiosity that's beginning to be sparked around. I think we've for a long time, seen like this, Bucket List attraction, Bucket List places. And I think there is a real want to kind of engage with local culture, support small business and what that means for your communities, and kind of leaving a positive impact on places that you visit, right, whether you're looking at regenerative tourism or anything of the like. So I think a real agency of people when they're traveling, and the impact of their travels. I think when we're talking about domestic I think is a real thing that's starting to shape how we think about Ontario. And I think that meaningful connection to place does represent a bit of an evolving traveler. And I think early on in my career, I really wanted to work in craft beer, and I think that's because you're in kind of a sea of a landscape of like, it's something from somewhere, right? So I think whether you're contributing to the long term health of, like, communities and environments, I think that's a that's a big one. And I think something that we really want to lean into here is the like, destination Ontario. And I think there's so much pride that can be had here and like, kind of place, around products, around places. So I would love to see that continue to grow, and then, personally, on the consumer side, just wellness travel, for sure, as many of the Saudis would get out there as possible,

Andrew Siegwart  11:50  
exactly, more cold plunges, more heat therapy. Well, I do think it's interesting in a way, because, as you know, we've been working on a new strategic plan for the province of Ontario. And one of the things that's come up as a strategy and an important goal is to continue on our sustainability path around improving energy efficiency, better, more sourcing. Local businesses really want to leverage that. But we also heard a real interest in operators. They want to start talking about some of their sustainability and their outdoor adventure and their wellness kind of programming more than they have in the past. And there's a sense that people have been afraid to talk about those aspects of their businesses that are sustainable for fear that it might be challenged. But we're seeing that kind of interest in telling our story as part of brand Ontario to be sustainable. Have you come across that in any of your work so far from some of the destinations you're playing with or or, if not, how do you think we should be approaching that discussion as we go forward?

Lauchlan Rogers  12:54  
Yeah, it's a really it's a really thoughtful question. I think we've come across it, and I think there's a healthy discourse internally when we put these strategies together as well, and taking a bit of a critical eye to when we talk about that, what are we talking about, right? Because I think we've examples of, for instance, specific northern lodges that are doing incredible things there. And then part of that discussion comes up we'll take, well, those are fly in situations, right? I think I remember, I think it was at tayo last year when there was a really interesting talk on just the impact of air travel, right? And I think it's a fine line that we're trying to tow, because, like, we recognize that those fly, those international markets, those US markets, are incredibly important for Ontario's tourism economy, right? I think, and I think it's really healthy to have discourse around that. I think, I think we should kind of focus in on what element are we talking about? We're talking about large scale global issues here, about air travel, or are we talking about grassroot impact and how we can get better together as a tourism industry, right? I think all of the work that's happening at the operator level is really commendable and admirable. I think consumers will care and will focus on it. I think it is an interesting conversation as that conversation levels up to more of an international focus, because that, that is, that is one that I honestly struggle with a bit too, because it's like our whole focus is to get people from across the world here. And when we're talking about that level of sustainability and that level of kind of focus on travel, that's, that's a that's a challenging topic that we have to kind of talk about

Andrew Siegwart  14:23  
Exactly, yeah, it's, it's ongoing, and I think, you know, one of the things that we've been talking about in that space is, how do we support transportation sector to innovate? So how do we, how do we advocate for more investments in sustainable aviation fuel, and how do we look at next generation vehicles and multimodal transportation and the electrification, you know, for vehicles. So there's, there's a lot happening right now that I feel like we, we we need to dig into a little bit. And sometimes I think we, many in the industry, don't want to maybe sort of cover all of that, but I think it's actually. Really important discussion so that we can get and

Lauchlan Rogers  15:02  
it's great that you're spotlighting it too right now, allowing those conversations to happen exactly.

Andrew Siegwart  15:07  
And one of the things that I find like, there's this real it's interesting when we I've been doing some work with my colleague organizations across the country, and spent some time talking with the folks in Alberta, and, you know, there's a there's such energy expertise in that province, and there's a real opportunity to leverage and work with some of those experts on next gen energy solutions. And so we actually have the expertise in our country. It's just a matter of, how do we mobilize and work together? So I'm really excited about things like that. I think there's a lot, lots to come there. Tell me on the on the marketing side, you can't really talk about marketing without really talking about technology. And artificial intelligence is sort of the occupying force right now in your work. How has sort of AI or automation impacted what you do at do, and have you seen any shifts in the last few years there? Yeah, for sure. I

Lauchlan Rogers  15:57  
think it does. There's a lot of active conversations going on about it right now. I think there's a few different ways to talk about it. I think there's the industry leadership aspect to it, of like the role of destination Ontario to communicate out to the tourism industry, on the impacts of AI foundationally, on the work that we do. There's also the use case of it as a tool, which is always interesting to navigate in the context of the Ontario Public Service and certain privacy restrictions that are there kind of that, I think for us as a tool. I think it's quite helpful, actually. Let me back this up. So I think there's consumer change in how they're actually querying information, right? And that's going to be a really, really interesting thing when we start talking about generative search, right? I think there's this change, and I think we're all gonna get sick of this new acronym, but the transition from SEO to Geo, right? So you're optimizing for search engines to you're optimizing for generative search. And the challenge with that, that I think is gonna be really interesting to monitor, is that what happens to us as destination marketers when we don't actually see people coming to our sites anymore, like, do we still build it? Right? I think there are different sides to it, in that our data, or our information is being surfaced in these searches, we are now a quote, right? So does the measurement world catch up to this? Because they have a whole industry that they're trying to service. So I think, I think for us, we're really doing a lot of foundational research on that, whether that be with partners like Google, partners like our media agency initiative, who's got some great thought leadership there, working with Destination Canada on that stuff. So I think foundationally, in terms of everything we do, we're really looking at that, I think, as a tool. From an automation perspective, it's incredibly helpful in creative production and creative development. We have to be really careful about, for instance, changing imagery with the emergence of AI, because it makes a lot of your lives easier. I think for us, it's kind of, I always use it as like one and only child, so I really careful about how lonely my references are here, but like throwing a ball against the wall and kind of seeing how it kind of bounces back. So kind of, I think it's a really useful ideation tool when we're talking to our team about copywriting or ideation around concepts. So I think that is kind of how we use it right now. Is a bit of a sounding board, but we're always the last pen on everything that we do.

Andrew Siegwart  18:16  
Oh yeah, you have to be. And it is so obvious when that's not the case. I mean, all you have to do is interact with it a little bit, and you can see the signs in so many places. So yeah, I am interested, though,

Lauchlan Rogers  18:27  
because if we talk about, like, developing a content database, I think decision Toronto has done some very innovative stuff in this space, because these are language models that are querying information for you, right? So if you are a decision marker that has a great database of information, that tool could be extremely helpful to help people navigate your content database, right? So I think I commend Toronto on the thinking there, and I think that I wonder if that becomes a useful tool, which is a tool that sits on top of your content, right? So you actually have a way to curate the view or curate the experiences in a way that AI can be an assistive technology for people,

Andrew Siegwart  19:04  
yeah, make it easier for people to get what they really want and need exactly,

Lauchlan Rogers  19:08  
yeah, or design an itinerary based on that information. And then you're kind of controlling the training data that's actually going into that, that model, yeah, it makes

Andrew Siegwart  19:17  
sense. And I think what you're what you're also highlighting, is really important is that your base content still has to be good, probably better, because it's going to be accessed in different, more automated ways. So you really have to make sure your your own in house content, however it gets discovered, is good and relevant. It's kind

Lauchlan Rogers  19:35  
of it's gonna having a two parents as academics, like the sea of academia, where you're trying to be sourced, right? Yes, this greater discourse around topics, it becomes kind of that game where you actually have to have authority in the space to be cited, and it's a whole different game

Andrew Siegwart  19:50  
that's right, yeah. So the rigor that goes into everything that you do matters more, and I think that's going to be really fun to track. But you know, just at a very basic level, one of the things. That I have found is like the itinerary building capability of some of the tools is quite impressive, very Yeah. So there's, there's all sorts of things to sort of learn and play with, for

Lauchlan Rogers  20:11  
sure, and that's where I wonder if there's an interplay between curation of the information in right I think right now we don't know. It's a bit of an arms race to who's going to get market share within these tools, right? And they all have different information sourcing them. They all have different logic models governing them. They're a bit of a black box and that. They don't want to tell you what that goes with their logic model, because it's an arms race, right? They don't want to share that market intelligence. But I wonder if, if the future of it is an ability to curate the information going in, to give a bit of a specialist view, because that's the worry with a lot of those itineraries, is that, like a lot of people are asking the same tools for those itineraries, they're gonna be quite hegemonic. They're gonna be quite the same, right? And you're gonna be kind of, you're gonna go into these bucket list things and consumer behavior that shifts to wanting to find a lesser known one, to find the things that aren't sourced on, wanting to, like, dig a little bit deeper. So you wonder if there's going to be this kind of intermediary level of like sourcing, like curating, really specialist information that goes into these tools. So it's like a specialist person that could be actually governed by specific tourism entities. Interesting. I think how

Andrew Siegwart  21:18  
we engage is going to shape and change. And you know, if you just think of what social media did for certain destinations, if you think of some of the most over tourism, destinations that have experienced the worst over tourism, a lot of it is linked to sort of trending on social so you could definitely see the pitfalls and challenges with this kind of AI generated recommendation. So it's going to be interesting to watch. You know, if you're a marketer listening in, what from your perspective? What advice would you give them on the metrics to watch at this point, to sort of tap into some of this. Like, is there a place where you would be looking right now? Yeah,

Lauchlan Rogers  21:58  
it's interesting being in the room and seeing entities like Ascension Canada navigating this exact question, I think it's a lot of testing to be conquered. Frank right to the comment about an arms race like, I think it's, it's continuously like you're almost doing user testing on these different platforms and channels, right where you're actually going in. Let's just say you're querying against, let's just say that there's you pick five tools, and you run the same query against those five tools and see if you come up in three of the five of them, if you're irrelevant in all of them. But it's a bit of a guessing game. I think we've tried to reach out whether you're talking about chatgpt, you're in perplexity. You're talking about metas, you're talking about there's a whole sea of them, and they're very protectionist against what goes into how they're ranking things or getting their information. So I think it's just a constant commitment to testing right now, right, right? Yeah. And I think kind of seeing what is bubbling to the top, and eventually, I'm sure there's going to be trend analysis on what this is terrifying for the world, but like, what questions are being asked of these generative tools? Of course, yeah, that's a natural progression. But I think that's that's that interesting one, where do tourism market organizations just want to intersect at a certain level of query, right? Like, what is Ontario known for in our example, right? What are some key regions of Ontario? And, like, how does that? I don't know if we're necessarily going to be able to play at, hey, I want to go to Kingston for three days in May. Can you please put together that itinerary for me? Right? Like that level of specificity, specificity is going to be hard for any destination marketer to really kind of key in on at home. To

Andrew Siegwart  23:35  
your point about testing and learning, I think it's good advice. And I think this is where you know, going back to what we talked about at the beginning, this is where having your marketing instincts and your background is really important. So I would say to people, leverage those instincts, because even though you might be learning the new technology, you have a lot of knowledge on what's going to sort of pass that gut check. And I think that that is probably more important than ever. And this becomes more and more intuitive over time, yeah. Well, thank you for that. That's good, good insights, and something we'll definitely be tracking. Let's, let's talk a little bit about sort of where, you know, destination, Ontario, last year. So what were some of the marketing wins that you saw last year? 2024 was a pretty good year in terms of market growth and some rebounding in key markets. What did you see as wins in 2024

Lauchlan Rogers  24:19  
Yeah, I think I'm immensely proud of the team here on the real commitment to partnership ecosystems. I think coming out of the pandemic, it was more important than ever to, like work together and kind of eliminate duplication of efforts wherever possible, and support our destination partners across the province, right? So we have a really extensive partnership system in which we go out and survey every year on like, how did you find it? Any feedback? And last year, we had a 96% satisfaction and approval rating, and that was, I think we're really just proud of that work across over 50 dedicated campaigns and a lot of content production across the province. So really. Encouraged by that, I think, to the to the common kind of the narrative that we're talking about being a lifelong learner and kind of continuing to evolve. I think we're looking to kind of constantly those systems are very successful, but we are in a shifting digital landscape. So I think every year we're challenging ourselves to evolve those systems. So there's a lot of evolutions that are going on this year with those systems that were successful last. I think we're challenging ourselves to create a lot more social content. I think in that kind of feed the beast in a lot of these channels. And how do we represent the scale of the province and actually have interesting like content creator work at every corner of the province is something we'll challenge ourselves to do. And then I think foundation is, how do we better measure the impact of our work? So there's been a lot of progression this year and some great thought leadership regarding research that's kind of coming to be in our organization, which I think came to example that being those us pulse studies that we put into market, I think using research is a bit of a thought leadership function to share market intelligence the best of our ability. So I think those are some real wins and focuses on for the last year that I think we're really kind of proud of, yeah, and I think just in terms of, like, looking at this next year, I think we have an active Us campaign in market right now, I think, with 14 destination partners. So that is great. I think we're going to chat as well about this, this new campaign launch that's that's going out right now in Ontario, which will be extensively partnered, but, yeah, I think there's we're really excited to activate in a bunch of different areas. But I think the thing that I'm most proud of, and I think the big achievement for us, is just like the level of partnership that we're doing across the DMO and our Geo landscape in Ontario.

Andrew Siegwart  26:33  
And those partnerships, do they typically look like a bit of a co fund, and then specific campaigns in specific markets. Like, they get pretty granular, I would imagine,

Lauchlan Rogers  26:43  
yeah, like, I think for us, like, when I came into the organization, initially, I think a lot of the conversation was around, how do we in house marketing technology, how do we in house media buying? How do we develop kind of in house skill sets that we can share out and support the industry with, right? So a lot of these co marketing partnerships do takes on the responsibilities for creative production, all of the reporting, and can actually just act as a support mechanism for a lot of these DMO partners that are trying to enter into the US market for the first time, or trying to market to an Ontario wide audience, but trying to make their dollars go a little bit farther. So to your point that you just mentioned, these are match dollar programs, right? So we actually, whatever that investment level is within Ontario or within the US, VO matches that and then drives all of that traffic, mainly action based. It drives directly to those DMO or RTO sites, and just trip planning content, specifically profiling the region. So it's pretty it's a pretty large network. I think within Ontario this year, I think we have 26 co marketing, kind of mini campaigns with that different destinations across the province. I think within the US, we have 21 and then we also have active partnership work of this kind in Quebec as well. Yeah, really strong foundational system. Yeah.

Andrew Siegwart  27:55  
I'm curious about the if you, if you can, to what extent you can elaborate, but what is the sort of flavor and nature of the of the partnership campaigns in the US right now, we've talked, we're talking a lot about that sort of elbows up, arms open mindset. Are you seeing that come through in some of the campaigns, in terms of the creative messaging? Yeah,

Lauchlan Rogers  28:14  
I think it depends on what area of the US you're talking about, right? I think as you move further afield, there's more of an awareness. Need to say something, right? I think a lot of our market research shows the, specifically the rubber tire drive market, so within like, a three hour drive radius of the border. Are pretty aware of Ontario. They kind of just need a nudge to come over. I think there's a razor's edge of messaging there that changes every day. So I think there's a bit of a strategic move to, like, when someone wants to fight, kind of just disengaging a little bit. And I think there's to your point, there is an invitation. I think one of the things that really bubbled up in our research was the importance of the exchange rate to that consumer, right? They are a real value focused traveler. And I think something as simple as the state of the dollar is a huge motivator, and it's interesting in the research too, because it showed that the awareness of the exchange rate wasn't actually that hot. Oh, interesting. So I think that's always a tough one that I think this organization has struggled with over the years. Of like, we don't want to cheapen our product. We're not for sale, right? That's not the narrative that we're looking for, but I think it is an opportunity. So, like, one interesting activation, just in terms of messaging, as an example, is we've just, we're live streaming the exchange rate into a bunch of Billboard placement. Oh, interesting. Across the border into like Buffalo and Detroit. We're getting some interesting responses from decent US consumers. But it's just a very simple, spend less, travel more, right? Like, I think it is just the just making them aware and signing off as Ontario Canada like this is the active exchange rate. I think are just interesting activations that we're looking at that aren't really inserting ourselves into the narrative of this really complex world. Because I think for a lot of Americans as well, you have this very complex situation right where they don't necessarily feel. Supported, or they might feel alienated, or they do feel very much they want to get in line with the messaging of the powers that be. So I think for us, I think it's not necessarily getting brought into the fray, but being very strategic about how we motivate travel across

Andrew Siegwart  30:12  
the border. And I would imagine each destination has their own story to tell, and that's where you get to help. Yeah, it's a great point. Yeah, you get to help. You're almost like a platform, right? You're enabling. You can help them extend their reach and they can deliver their messages and their unique story, yeah,

Lauchlan Rogers  30:28  
for sure. And I think a lot of our focus is also just like, what kind of things can we negotiate access to as a whole that you wouldn't have access to by yourself, right? So I think there's a lot of measurement partners. For instance, when you have that scale of media going into a market that you can actually negotiate kind of in kind value for all the partners that come to it. So we're piloting a few things. One example is through a measurement partner, where we can actually see direct hotel bookings as a result of the campaign, which we're seeing really interesting early returns on. So I think that's that's a really encouraging one. But examples like that are what we're focused on. And then, like, also, for instance, having a bit of a working group dedicated to the US market, where we can share market intelligence, bring in some thought leadership and sessions to really, kind of like, move the needle together. So these are, like foundational systems of a bunch of whether it be ourselves, destination Ontario, but also the destination marketing groups to actually I guess, have shared market intelligence and kind of move as a unit, kind of a team Ontario, yeah, that's

Andrew Siegwart  31:25  
great, yeah. And I know that. I know there's some exciting things coming ahead on our tourism strategy, on that front as well, to sort of bring more partners to the table to help and amplify that. And I think it's really exciting to look at at these unique markets that you know might be challenging, but we rely on and depend on, and you know, it does take a village, so to speak, to keep to keep that rolling. And I also think another thing you mentioned, which I don't think we talk about in office, you are absolutely right in that when you're marketing, let's say in the in the United States right now, your message may need to shift multiple times in a week, never mind, through the period of a season, and so we won't be able to be as nimble unless we're working together on some of these initiatives going forward. So I think that is, you know, something we have to think about as marketers. You know, we have to be very adaptable and nimble. Now,

Lauchlan Rogers  32:14  
I think there's an impulse as marketers that we just want to say something, right? And we just got to be careful about we are representing a whole and to your point, about different destinations, like the selling proposition is all different. And I think there will absolutely be a role for that, but I think it is that we are prideful here in what we have, right? It's not so much a commentary on what is going on in that part of the world, for sure. Well,

Andrew Siegwart  32:38  
I think that's a really great lead in to the recently launched we stand campaign, a domestic campaign in in principle, but an amazing program that destination Ontario has just launched, working in partnership with with the ministry and a number of players. So I'm wondering, you know, first and foremost, just congratulations, what I've seen so far is beautiful and really compelling. So maybe can you just give everyone an overview of what the campaign looks like, the Genesis, its purpose, key messages, et cetera. Yeah,

Lauchlan Rogers  33:08  
so I think to the total risk landscape that we just talked about. I think we were watching it very closely, right? I think there was a very interesting moment in time where the rhetoric of Canada becoming the 51st state was very prevalent. I think we saw mass cancelations from a response from Canadians and from Ontarians of canceling trips down south. And I think there was an opportunity, one to retain visitation right here. I think you saw that kind of across Canada, and Ontario is a primary source market for the rest of Canada as well. So we wanted to just protect and maintain the visitation that is here. And I think we look at tourism receipts, I think about 87% of them are domestic travelers, traveling fans. It's a very important source market, especially to our destination partner. And we wanted to kind of come up with something that leaned into our pride of place in a way that did not frame the US necessarily negatively, because, again, this isn't as much about them as it is about us being standing up and being prideful for it. So I think one quote that I heard throughout all of that discourse, I think it was the four nations where there's a boon in the national anthem. And I think there was, I think it was the premier, Manitoba, who said, like, that's not our style. We don't boo the national anthem. We wait for them to touch the puck and then we boo, and I thought that was a very nice way to summarize it. And I think we needed to kind of come out with some kind of messaging that had a standing for the tourism industry, having having us had a standing for our neighbor, right? And I think we came with a creative positioning through our agency, broken heart love affair, who really rose to this challenge. I think this came together quite quickly. I think it was from tip to tail, about six weeks of creative ideation to production to having this out in the world. But we wanted to come to something that was a motive that really brought us together as as a sector and as a province. So the territory is called we stand. And I think stand, you can actually kind of get a. Sense of what the territory is. But stand became an interesting thing that we could kind of rotate around, right? So we stand, stand in, stand together, stand for something, right, or stand and explore. Stand small, in reference to our endless beauty and wilderness, right? I think it became a bit of a device that we can use to do two things, I think. One, we really wanted to reignite curiosity in Ontario, right? I think there is a real sentiment through our research of Been there, done that, right? They think they've seen everything, and they've done everything there is to do. And I think there's a job to be done of spark a new sense of curiosity, of like, hey, they're like, look at Ontario through a bit of a new lens. So the work really tries to lean into that we're also looking to, I think, kind of natural to reading the we stand thing is to lean into provincial pride, right? And I think the word we becomes actually very important there. It's like we are a collective with it's more than just about places. It's about people, right? And I think if we're talking about the depth of Ontario and the real value proposition for Ontario, I think it is in its people. I think the people are kind of what make this place so special. I think if you think about the diversity of person, place and thing, they talk about sector, I think spotlighting those makers and doers and hard workers in the communities across the province is something that we really wanted to create a territory to right. So I think there is the emotive awareness work to make us think differently, and kind of our role within the tourism industry in Ontario. But I think a lot of our active social work, partnership work, PR strategy, is going to be spotlighting people and kind of the grit and the spirit of what defines Ontario and communities across the province. So really, really excited to just get this out in the world and really just wrap the tourism industry. I think we feel that deep appreciation here. Doesn't Ontario to kind of represent the sector and kind of get out in front of this and really kind of tell Ontarians about the role and the importance of traveling domestically, and that that if you're like adding one of the ones from the campaign is like seeing Ontario is supporting Ontario, right? And just kind of putting some agency into that. Think it's something that we're, we're really focused on and prideful here about I love

Andrew Siegwart  37:10  
that tagline. I think it, it makes so much sense, and it gives, it gives Ontarians a sense that they can do something to support their community and also enjoy leisure time, time with family and friends in a way that they always do, but it becomes even more special because of this particular point in time. So I thought the campaign really tapped into that. Well. The other thing I noticed, and I heard some discussion at minister Cho was speaking with some of your colleague agencies. They were talking about, the energy in the campaign is really sort of highlighting our natural beauty, highlighting our urban experience and our rural experience, but highlighting that energy that is Ontario. And you know, I wonder it seems to be a bit of a differentiator compared to some of the other provincial campaigns that we might see across the country. I'm wondering if you have any any thoughts on that, or Was that intentional?

Lauchlan Rogers  38:07  
It was very intentional. I think it was a bit of a it's always interesting doing creative production in any setting, right, whether you're in an agency setting, whether you're in a government setting, but I think there's a lot of different feelings, and I think there's a bit of a leap of faith that you ask for because you want to have a POV, right? And I think one thing that I leaned into really early on in this is because the initial feedback on a lot of the socialization stuff was, well, I need them to be smiling. And my response to that is, pride is not a smile, right? And I think there's a level of fierceness and grit and being proud of your favorite thing or the thing that you do, the thing that kind of makes your life go so I think for us, there is a smile of the emotions that we want to evoke, of course, but I think that needs to be complemented by the real energy and fierce pride in this place and of the things that kind of drive our tourism economy, right? So that was something really important to us, was to really get across a level of fierceness, right? I think there's, there's to the elbows, arms open, like, there's, there's a balance there, right? Like, I think you want, you want to be fiercely prideful of this place, and you are kind of like welcoming people as well. So I think it's always a balance that we're going to navigate. But for sure, that was something that was really important to our team here, as well as the agency team that worked on, is we really wanted to have pride that came through.

Andrew Siegwart  39:31  
Yeah, and, you know, I think that resonates a lot with business operators. So when I talk to operators in every corner of the province, they're very proud of what they do. They're proud of their business, their teams and their communities, and so I think they're going to get that. And the other thing is my own experience, you know, working in in destinations, in my past life, was how proud your customer, our customers are, of our places. So there's nothing, there's nothing like an Ontarian who. Loves their vacation community, or loves the place that they like to visit with her family, they're just as protective of it as we are. So I think that's a real I think you're tapping into something there that is unique and special, yeah, like anybody

Lauchlan Rogers  40:12  
who comes to visit me, I'm bringing them on a tour to all of my favorite spots. I think that's, that's the kind of like, that's the kind of content work that we now want to make right. I think it's like, if somebody came to visit, where would you take right? And I think that's what we want to challenge everyone here in Ontario to kind of ask themselves and to put out into the world, like, share those recommendations, share those products. Like, let's really kind of rally behind the sector for sure.

Andrew Siegwart  40:38  
Tell me for so we've got a, you have a number of video spots, a number like some social some really great messaging. We're going to share everything on the show notes for people so they can so they can access if they haven't seen it yet, for destinations or businesses. How can they participate in this campaign? So what? What's the collaborative rollout approach here? Yeah,

Lauchlan Rogers  41:00  
it'd be funny if I didn't have a foundational partner system attached to this campaign. After all, just talked about so that's a really important part of the media plan, something that's a bit of a stagger after the campaign launch. So what we've carved out is so we're going to go out with an active, what we call a content intake, where we actually put a call out to industry for what are those articles profiling your destination. What are those things that you want to promote this summer? What are those businesses that we are looking to rally behind? And we are actively asking for those to be incorporated into the campaign. So I think part of our newsletter there's a link in there, within the destination digest from destination Ontario that will link directly to that content intake. We're also going to do direct outreach to a lot of tourism partners as well. But foundationally, that's going to be a huge part of this campaign, is because we are kind of evoking pride, generating curiosity, evoking an emotional response. But that's kind of nothing if we're not then moving them to do something, right? So I think that is a big part of the work. And I think there's going to be a really strong foundation of just driving to various sectors, various destinations and various businesses across the province,

Andrew Siegwart  42:05  
amazing. So we're all going to get an opportunity to participate and amplify and I think that's the beauty of an approach like this. It can really grow with that, with that extra push. And then I would imagine for you as well, it's a great way for destination Ontario to to onboard new partners and then to sort of increase your customer base for, so to speak, for future campaigns. So I think that's that's amazing. I'm excited we'll, we'll be sure to share all of that as well. And part of this interview today is just to raise awareness and really participate as best we can, too. We're really excited about it. It's important to point out that this was, this wasn't something that was originally on your plan. So there was an extra these were extra dollars that the Ministry of Tourism, culture and gaming brought to the table, right? So this was an extra investment, correct, which I think is incredible. What was that process like?

Lauchlan Rogers  42:49  
Yeah, it was. It was a shot in the dark, followed by a lot of support, fast moving. So I think to that point, I think we were asked to what would that I think we were actively monitoring the research, right? We saw the opportunity. We were approached by Debbie, Minister at the time, to kind of put together some thinking. We kind of put that up centrally, and got central support through Premier's office and Minister's office. So I think that was something, again, that was really important to me at the start of this is like, we can absolutely do something, and we absolutely see the value in it, but we don't want it to be at the detriment of other plans, right? Because we recognize the importance of our international markets, of the US, of Canada, and we didn't want to kind of cut off our leg to then have this other thing, right? So I think just a full I think we're very appreciative of the various levels of government stakeholders and groups that were involved, especially the Ministry of Tourism, and just kind of having the faith investment Ontario to come to the table with something here, and an extremely supportive the whole way through. So yeah, really, thankfully, this is a bit of unfred territory, at least my time in the organization, of having this level of concurrence and support through various levels of government. It's a real great example of things that we can do together and just rising to a challenge that's kind of set out there, and then being opportunistic based on an opportunity for a sector and for this province as a whole.

Andrew Siegwart  44:10  
I also think it, it's a really good example of where tracking data and tracking where things like how things are performing and what's taking place in the bigger picture, and as an industry, I feel like we're all doing a really good job of identifying where opportunities are when they're most needed, and when you have this tight collaboration and awareness and good data to support decision making, we can be more responsive. And so I think the whole ecosystem is really sort of advancing forward as a result of that, and it was just, it's great to see that kind of support from our provincial government and the agency, and I think it bodes well for the future. So yeah, absolutely. Well, I want to thank you so much for spending some time with us, sharing a little bit of your marketing experience and advice, especially this campaign and. I look forward to, you know, seeing how it progresses, and hopefully, you know, in a few months time, we can have you back, and we can talk about some of the results. And I'd like to sort of close with one, one final question. You talked about all of us, you know, creating itineraries, and when we welcome people, finding places to bring our friends. So is there, are there any special places in Ontario, or experiences that you like to bring visitors to, anything that stands out.

Lauchlan Rogers  45:24  
Yeah, so the GIS background is always interesting when it comes to little planning, especially around brewery tours. I think for many years, I was having my birthday at company with a GIS map that people could download on their phone and kind of join us along the way. I think it's an interesting question. I think I, like I said before, I think I have some roots in social Nova Scotia, and then kind of had, kind of grew up in Toronto, and had my formative years in downtown Toronto, and just kind of fell in love with the nooks and crannies of the city. So from a personal experience perspective, I know had some friends that came to visit recently, and I just kind of challenged myself to put a bit of a new spin on it, and did kind of like a no sign tour. Oh, that was all speakeasies and kind of secret restaurants and pop ups. And I think again, just kind of leaning into the sense of like something that someone hasn't seen before, seeing something a little bit differently, or having a bit of a lens on on what you love, and sharing that with the world, right? I think that's what I love to do. I think every time I kind of and all my travels, like, Hey, if you come to visit, here's my number. I would love to show you around. And I think I'm just fiercely, fiercely proud of it. I think I've fallen in love with many different corners of the province, but that's what comes to mind when you ask that question, is it's kind of digging a little bit deeper and kind of sharing something that someone wouldn't otherwise have access to. That's

Andrew Siegwart  46:43  
right, those hidden gems and those special places. Yeah, for me, I often try to relate a destination to something I know my visitors really love, right? So I'm always playing with that, and I'm like a amateur tour guide, so I love that kind of stuff as well. But yeah, wineries, breweries, high on my list, and also very unique neighborhoods that people might not know of. I love to explore different neighborhoods, so that's always my jam, no matter where I am, yeah, well, thank you again, and congratulations on this campaign, and thanks for all the work that you and the entire destination Ontario team do all year round to support our sector and to support travelers finding great destinations. It's it's really important work, and we are all grateful for the role that you play. So thank you. Well, likewise, very much. Reciprocal. Thanks

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  47:34  
for listening to forward motion. This show is created by the tourism industry association of Ontario and is recognized by government as the voice of tourism and produced by everyone at the sound off media company you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai