America: come see the unexpected side of Canada

Destination Canada is aiming its new campaign at its brother down south, encouraging Americans to come visit. But to overcome perceptions about the country (nothing but hippies and junkies in B.C., poutine-eatin' Frenchies in Quebec, Alberta is Texas-lite), they are using Canadians themselves to show off the uniqueness and diversity of the country. Or at least their Instagram accounts.

Found In Canada is uses photos as frames of film and hashtags as script beats to create 17 individual stories. All this stuff is show by Canadians and travelers experiencing the best that Canada has to offer in terms of culture, events, and more. This campaign primarily appears as preroll, social and premium and rich online advertising. And of course the soundtrack always features Canadian artists ranging from Alessia Cara and Jean-Michel Blais, to The Courtneys and Keys ‘N Crates. They could be using Hey! Rosetta or Stars or The Dears, or Malajube for my Quebecois friends, but that might be a bit too hipster for regular Americans.

Anyway, the keep exploring website has 1000 plus Instas populating it already. Pretty cool.

Seems like a neat campaign, letting Canadians speak for themselves. But it's one that still falls prey to the trap of appealing primarily to millennials. Gen X'ers and Baby Boomers are two categories who have more money to spare in the former case, and more time to travel in the case of the latter. Wonder if this will resonate with them?

Client: Destination Canada
Agency: DDB Vancouver