2025 Winner
BronzeBest in Travel and Tourism
Tourism New Brunswick
"Get a Sense of New Brunswick"
Time & Space
"Get a Sense of New Brunswick"
Time & Space
New Brunswick faced a key challenge: it lagged its Atlantic peers in unaided awareness, digital engagement, and share of voice. Although it converted more efficiently from dreaming to booking, it remained under-considered in the early inspiration phase — especially in Ontario, Quebec, and New England.
At campaign launch, only 40% of Canadians were dreaming or seriously considering NB, compared to 51% for PEI and 53% for Nova Scotia. The task: grow the dreaming pool. But instead of simply adding media weight, the agency reframed the problem. Travel dreaming doesn’t begin with logic...it starts with a feeling.
Research showed the brand’s core audiences — suburban families and urban millennials — experience frequent, fragmented moments of disengagement: commuting, scrolling, waiting. These were ideal moments for emotional interruption.
Their insight was that in a world of stress and sensory overload, NB’s most compelling draw wasn’t what you could do there, but how it made you feel. The province offers something rare and emotionally urgent: stillness.
This idea emerged from a moment of walking across the Bay of Fundy’s ocean floor at low tide. It became the emotional blueprint for the campaign: “Get a Sense of New Brunswick.” More than a tourism ad — it was an invitation to pause, breathe, and feel again.
The media strategy prioritized resonance over reach, using a multi-sensory ecosystem to interrupt the mundane with immersive storytelling. The agency aligned media placements with emotional availability — creating unexpected “pauses” during people’s days. “Get a Sense of New Brunswick” Tourism 2025
In Toronto’s Union Station, a custom-built viewfinder streamed live Bay of Fundy tides, grounding commuters in quiet nature. A full Bloor-Yonge takeover featured lenticular wallscapes mimicking tidal motion.
In Montreal, a transit shelter topped with a replica lighthouse released ocean mist and scent, paired with ambient Atlantic audio.
Digital followed the same sensory-first logic. YouTube, Pinterest, and Connected TV delivered calming snippets during high-scroll windows. Pinterest creative was built natively to stop swipes; YouTube formats were designed to slow, not skip.
Audio played a pivotal role. Host-read podcast integrations on shows like Giggly Squad and Sans Filtre carried emotional storytelling rooted in calm and escape. At the same time, 60-second ambient radio spots aired during rush hour — turning gridlock into reverie.
The experiential peak was Imaginature, a free, immersive two-day Montreal event that welcomed over 18,500 guests into a multi-room installation simulating New Brunswick’s most breathtaking natural environments. It earned widespread national media coverage and drove top-funnel buzz.
To pull it off, media, creative, and production teams collaborated seamlessly. Sensory activations required scent formulation, mechanical prototyping, and transit authority coordination. Real-time adjustments ensured consistency across placements and platforms.
This campaign marked a category shift — from awareness-based messaging to emotion-led, sensory immersion. Notable firsts included being Canada’s first scent-dispensing transit shelter tailored for tourism.
A real-time streaming viewfinder installation at Union Station.
The launch of Imaginature, a museum-scale nature installation led by a provincial tourism board.
Use of Attention Units (AUs) — a custom metric evaluating not just viewability, but time spent and interaction quality (scored 1–100) — as a planning and optimization tool. This reframed the focus from media cost to media impact.
Everything was designed to slow the scroll, stop the commute, and connect emotionally — a break from the louder-is-better norms of tourism advertising.
The campaign delivered strong progress against the core goal of expanding the dreaming pool and deepening engagement.
Search traffic to NB-related destinations increased by 25% year over year. In Ontario, dreaming rose by 13% and considering by 27%, while in Quebec, dreaming was up 8.7% and considering climbed 33%.
Engaged time on the tourism site grew by 14%, and short-term rental bookings rose 15% year over year for the summer. Social engagement also strengthened, with Pinterest mentions up 36% and TikTok activity up 14%.
Most critically, the campaign prioritized quality of attention over impressions, measured through Attention Units: YouTube achieved 75 AUs, Connected TV 58 AUs, Podcast 48 AUs, and Streaming Audio 42 AUs.
Each channel was intentionally designed for immersion, not just visibility. The campaign achieved standout impact without increasing spend — setting a new benchmark for emotional resonance in the tourism category.
At campaign launch, only 40% of Canadians were dreaming or seriously considering NB, compared to 51% for PEI and 53% for Nova Scotia. The task: grow the dreaming pool. But instead of simply adding media weight, the agency reframed the problem. Travel dreaming doesn’t begin with logic...it starts with a feeling.
Research showed the brand’s core audiences — suburban families and urban millennials — experience frequent, fragmented moments of disengagement: commuting, scrolling, waiting. These were ideal moments for emotional interruption.
Their insight was that in a world of stress and sensory overload, NB’s most compelling draw wasn’t what you could do there, but how it made you feel. The province offers something rare and emotionally urgent: stillness.
This idea emerged from a moment of walking across the Bay of Fundy’s ocean floor at low tide. It became the emotional blueprint for the campaign: “Get a Sense of New Brunswick.” More than a tourism ad — it was an invitation to pause, breathe, and feel again.
The media strategy prioritized resonance over reach, using a multi-sensory ecosystem to interrupt the mundane with immersive storytelling. The agency aligned media placements with emotional availability — creating unexpected “pauses” during people’s days. “Get a Sense of New Brunswick” Tourism 2025
In Toronto’s Union Station, a custom-built viewfinder streamed live Bay of Fundy tides, grounding commuters in quiet nature. A full Bloor-Yonge takeover featured lenticular wallscapes mimicking tidal motion.
In Montreal, a transit shelter topped with a replica lighthouse released ocean mist and scent, paired with ambient Atlantic audio.
Digital followed the same sensory-first logic. YouTube, Pinterest, and Connected TV delivered calming snippets during high-scroll windows. Pinterest creative was built natively to stop swipes; YouTube formats were designed to slow, not skip.
Audio played a pivotal role. Host-read podcast integrations on shows like Giggly Squad and Sans Filtre carried emotional storytelling rooted in calm and escape. At the same time, 60-second ambient radio spots aired during rush hour — turning gridlock into reverie.
The experiential peak was Imaginature, a free, immersive two-day Montreal event that welcomed over 18,500 guests into a multi-room installation simulating New Brunswick’s most breathtaking natural environments. It earned widespread national media coverage and drove top-funnel buzz.
To pull it off, media, creative, and production teams collaborated seamlessly. Sensory activations required scent formulation, mechanical prototyping, and transit authority coordination. Real-time adjustments ensured consistency across placements and platforms.
This campaign marked a category shift — from awareness-based messaging to emotion-led, sensory immersion. Notable firsts included being Canada’s first scent-dispensing transit shelter tailored for tourism.
A real-time streaming viewfinder installation at Union Station.
The launch of Imaginature, a museum-scale nature installation led by a provincial tourism board.
Use of Attention Units (AUs) — a custom metric evaluating not just viewability, but time spent and interaction quality (scored 1–100) — as a planning and optimization tool. This reframed the focus from media cost to media impact.
Everything was designed to slow the scroll, stop the commute, and connect emotionally — a break from the louder-is-better norms of tourism advertising.
The campaign delivered strong progress against the core goal of expanding the dreaming pool and deepening engagement.
Search traffic to NB-related destinations increased by 25% year over year. In Ontario, dreaming rose by 13% and considering by 27%, while in Quebec, dreaming was up 8.7% and considering climbed 33%.
Engaged time on the tourism site grew by 14%, and short-term rental bookings rose 15% year over year for the summer. Social engagement also strengthened, with Pinterest mentions up 36% and TikTok activity up 14%.
Most critically, the campaign prioritized quality of attention over impressions, measured through Attention Units: YouTube achieved 75 AUs, Connected TV 58 AUs, Podcast 48 AUs, and Streaming Audio 42 AUs.
Each channel was intentionally designed for immersion, not just visibility. The campaign achieved standout impact without increasing spend — setting a new benchmark for emotional resonance in the tourism category.
Credits
Client: Explore NB, Department of Tourism, Heritage and CultureDirector Strategic Marketing: Katie Kohler
Director Strategic Marketing: Vanessa Burley
Manager Advertising and Technology: Kyle Copp
Manager Destination Brand and Explore NB Programming: Trena LaPointe
Creative Strategist: Jennifer Thompson
Integrated Media Strategist: Angélique Binet
Senior Marketing Strategist: Becky Caissie
Senior Brand Strategist: Suzanne MacDonald
French Content Specialist: Martine Dugas
Brand and Production Strategist: Matt Hewitson
Campaigns Advisor: Mike Elliott
Consumer Technology Specialist: Evan Ricker
Digital Assets Coordinator: Elana Kelly
Marketing Coordinator: Becca Cotton
Advertising Specialist: Emma McCluskey
Brand Coordinator: Sylvain Pitre
Agency: NATIONAL
Executive Creative Director: Shawn King
Creative Director: Trina Tucker
Art Director: Antonio Rosa
Copy Writer: Jean-Sébastien Marcoux
Designer: Arin MacNeil; Talita Caballero Wang
Strategy Lead: Kristie Forbes
Project Lead: Milaine Robichaud
Project Manager: Sophie Blondin
Imaginature Event Lead: Mary Navas
Project Coordinator: Anna Maria Nasrallah
Studio Director: Darcie Muise
Digital Lead: Lee Stafford
Media Partner: Time & Space
Account Director: Jenny Hastings-James
Strategy Director: John Wearing
Associate Director: Erin LeBlanc
Supervisor: Shelley MacKenzie
Project Manager: Brad Wilton
Insights Analyst: Jessica Parsons
Campaign Specialist: JoAnne Grey
Broadcast Specialist: Kelly Murray
Programmatic Lead: Matt Jamieson
Social Specialist: Kes Szymanski
Search Specialist: Dharmendra Thakkar
Production: Ninen Productions
Producers - Adam Lordon and Michelle Cadogan
Director - Adam Lordon
Editor - Lauchlan Ough
Assistant Editor - Pierre Cormier
Audio: VillageWorks Content Co.
Project lead: Jason Michael MacIsaac
Sound design: Ben B Creelman, Tony Jules