You know I constantly talk about the need to market the heck out of the province as a location for business.
Increasingly I am becoming convinced that we need to market the heck out of the province to its own citizens. If we aren’t ‘true believers’ than how can we expect outsiders to be?
From Marketing Magazine:
It’s been two years in the making, but Manitoba’s new brand strategy launched yesterday with the slogan “Spirited Energy.”
The brand website, spiritedenergy.ca, serves as both a brand primer and as a pitch to Manitobans to support the brand. But it could be a Herculean task convincing the province’s population, and then the world, that Manitoba means Spirited Energy.
The evening before the launch, a Winnipeg TV station ran a web poll asking viewers if a new brand would improve the province’s image–and 79% of 600 respondents said no.
Brand Manitoba is also being promoted with a government-backed, million-dollar ad campaign about to unfold, plus $600,000 for brand development as well as private funding. Overall, the rebranding project will cost $2.1 million, with the government commitment to carrying the campaign for a year.
I don’t know, I kind of like it. But what’s the deal with the Premier and his tie? Also, a pet pieve of mine is the fact that Canadians seem to be deathly scared of our winters. I have seen numerous promotional videos and such and you rarely see shots of the winter. Well, folks, there is snow on the ground for upwards of seven months so get used to it. There’s a two minute video of Manitoba with the full range of shots urban-rural, native, music, arts, business, agriculture, tourism, etc. but nada on the winter – except an 0.5 second snippet of a polar bear.
That would be a bit like Iceland branding itself as a beach destination.
Other than that, bravo. Manitoba, like New Brunswick, needs some work.