2023 Winner
BronzeBest Integrated Campaign - Budget Under $250,000
Indigenous Tourism Alberta & Explore Edmonton
"Reclamation Nation"
Initiative
"Reclamation Nation"
Initiative
The Edmonton region has a wide variety of Indigenous owned & operated businesses that rely on revenue from tourism. Visitors to Alberta often overlook these in favor of more popular attractions, so Indigenous Tourism Alberta and Explore Edmonton partnered to spark more interest in these experiences over the winter season.
A big reason travellers don’t often consider Indigenous tourism experiences is because Indigenous culture has been largely absent from mainstream media in Canada. Despite its significance to their country, it’s rare to hear Indigenous music on the radio, see representation on TV, or encounter Indigenous languages in print. For Canadians, Indigenous culture is out of sight out of mind, and therefore doesn’t factor into trip planning.
The biggest music event in Canada, the Junos, were coming to Edmonton which presented a major opportunity to bring attention to the region’s Indigenous culture when all eyes were on Alberta. Unfortunately despite having two Indigenous award categories, the Junos weren’t going to broadcast the Indigenous awards – they never have. They needed a way to insert Indigenous music, art and culture into the conversation.
They enlisted a Juno-nominated Indigenous musician from Edmonton, Matthew Cardinal, to visit three Indigenous tourism experiences across the region, and compose an original song based on his trip that they served up to fans of the Junos across digital, print and in-person.
After visiting three Indigenous experiences, Matthew Cardinal produced “three visits”, an original composition intended to cross cultural barriers. They released it as a single across all music streaming platforms (i.e. Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and Bandcamp) to build organic interest.
As interest in the song grew, they capitalized on the Junos by arranging for Matthew to perform his music for a live audience at the Road to the Junos event series in Edmonton, generating further interest in his story leading up to the big night.
They told the behind-the-scenes story of Matthew’s inspiration and artistic process by documenting his trip in Edmonton through an interactive digital travelogue on The Globe and Mail that they promoted to Junos fans across social media.
They worked with an Indigenous language keeper from the University of Alberta to translate Matthew’s story into Plains Cree, his ancestral language, which they published in the Globe and Mail, alongside the original English version of the piece on the next page so all Canadians could read further after they caught their attention.
The publication of Matthew’s story in the Globe & Mail in Plains Cree Indigenous Syllabics marks the first time in Canada’s 270-year newspaper publishing history that an entirely Indigenous language story has run in one of their national newspapers. Aside from being an eye-catching way to grab the reader's attention and generate conversation, it’s a meaningful step in language revitalization.
The program supported Indigenous talent at every stage of development from Matthew Cardinal’s original music composition and album photography, to Bryce Many Fingers Singer’s illustration and animation, and Alyson Tedford Seaweed’s writing to promote Indigenous tourism in an authentic and meaningful way.
“Reclamation Nation” was fully designed around Matthew Cardinal’s song “three visits”, integrating it across every channel. Users were prompted to listen as they read the content, QR codes driving to Spotify were embedded in print, and the song was sampled across traffic drivers promoting the project.
The campaign received 15.31M total program impressions, 1.86M content views across digital & print and the song featured on CBC National radio show “Reclaimed with Celeigh Cardinal.”
There were 20,315 streams of “three visits” song , 119,814 total social engagements and 4.88% engagement across social promotion. They also had a 2% increase in awareness and consideration and 2.2% increase in booking preference.
A big reason travellers don’t often consider Indigenous tourism experiences is because Indigenous culture has been largely absent from mainstream media in Canada. Despite its significance to their country, it’s rare to hear Indigenous music on the radio, see representation on TV, or encounter Indigenous languages in print. For Canadians, Indigenous culture is out of sight out of mind, and therefore doesn’t factor into trip planning.
The biggest music event in Canada, the Junos, were coming to Edmonton which presented a major opportunity to bring attention to the region’s Indigenous culture when all eyes were on Alberta. Unfortunately despite having two Indigenous award categories, the Junos weren’t going to broadcast the Indigenous awards – they never have. They needed a way to insert Indigenous music, art and culture into the conversation.
They enlisted a Juno-nominated Indigenous musician from Edmonton, Matthew Cardinal, to visit three Indigenous tourism experiences across the region, and compose an original song based on his trip that they served up to fans of the Junos across digital, print and in-person.
After visiting three Indigenous experiences, Matthew Cardinal produced “three visits”, an original composition intended to cross cultural barriers. They released it as a single across all music streaming platforms (i.e. Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and Bandcamp) to build organic interest.
As interest in the song grew, they capitalized on the Junos by arranging for Matthew to perform his music for a live audience at the Road to the Junos event series in Edmonton, generating further interest in his story leading up to the big night.
They told the behind-the-scenes story of Matthew’s inspiration and artistic process by documenting his trip in Edmonton through an interactive digital travelogue on The Globe and Mail that they promoted to Junos fans across social media.
They worked with an Indigenous language keeper from the University of Alberta to translate Matthew’s story into Plains Cree, his ancestral language, which they published in the Globe and Mail, alongside the original English version of the piece on the next page so all Canadians could read further after they caught their attention.
The publication of Matthew’s story in the Globe & Mail in Plains Cree Indigenous Syllabics marks the first time in Canada’s 270-year newspaper publishing history that an entirely Indigenous language story has run in one of their national newspapers. Aside from being an eye-catching way to grab the reader's attention and generate conversation, it’s a meaningful step in language revitalization.
The program supported Indigenous talent at every stage of development from Matthew Cardinal’s original music composition and album photography, to Bryce Many Fingers Singer’s illustration and animation, and Alyson Tedford Seaweed’s writing to promote Indigenous tourism in an authentic and meaningful way.
“Reclamation Nation” was fully designed around Matthew Cardinal’s song “three visits”, integrating it across every channel. Users were prompted to listen as they read the content, QR codes driving to Spotify were embedded in print, and the song was sampled across traffic drivers promoting the project.
The campaign received 15.31M total program impressions, 1.86M content views across digital & print and the song featured on CBC National radio show “Reclaimed with Celeigh Cardinal.”
There were 20,315 streams of “three visits” song , 119,814 total social engagements and 4.88% engagement across social promotion. They also had a 2% increase in awareness and consideration and 2.2% increase in booking preference.
Credits
Indigenous Tourism Alberta:Tom Babin - Director of Marketing
Lysandra Nothing - Marketing Specialist
Shae Bird - CEO
Explore Edmonton:
Jessica Bertolo – Marketing Account Manager, Consumer
Nykala Shone – Director, Marketing Accounts
Mikey Scott – Director, Global Marketing
Paul Hawes – Vice President, Destination Development & Marketing
Initiative Media:
Chris Gairdner - Vice President, Head of Creative Partnerships
Stefan Ruby - Manager, Creative Partnerships
Ryan Gentile - Senior Manager, PM and Client Advice
Olivier Leblond - Executive Vice President, Client Advice & Management, Global Managing Partner
The Globe and Mail:
Ryan Cunliffe – Brand Partnership Manager
Jessica Robinson – Content Lead, Globe Content Studio
Stacie Campbell – Creative Lead, Globe Content Studio
Aashish Arora – Interactive Designer, Globe Content Studio
Shazia Khan – Social Media Strategist, Globe Content Studio
Kirstie Ciccone – Senior Manager, Content Marketing and Strategic Solutions
Vadeem Semko – Media Strategist
Kyle Young – Web Designer, Creative Studio
Frank Perito – Designer, Creative Studio
Kamille Chin – Designer, Creative Studio
Sonja Tasovska – Manager, Program Delivery Team
Matthew Cardinal – Musician, Composer and Sound Designer, Freelance
Leslie Skinner – Language Keeper
Maryam Siddiqi – Project Editor, Freelance
Alison Tedford – Writer, Freelance
Noella Steinhauer – Photographer, Freelance
Bryce Many Fingers / Singer – Illustrator, Freelance
Yan Aftimus Rosa – Motion Graphic Designer, Freelance