Summer is around the corner and Travel Manitoba is promoting road trips, beachy getaways, weekend adventures, Indigenous experiences and festivals, events and the arts as part of a new campaign.

This year’s campaign creative plays on a popular social media trend called “POV” or “Point of View”, which uses videos and photos to show an experience from a first-person perspective.

Using “POV” as the creative theme, Travel Manitoba created a new series of print, video and social media ads that showcase summer travel experiences from a first-person perspective, including road trips, stunning stays, and northern, Indigenous and Winnipeg itineraries.

“Our new campaign taps into a popular social media trend to really show what it’s like to explore so many incredible places in Manitoba,” said Ally Sigurdson, Digital Marketing Specialist for Travel Manitoba. “We want potential visitors to know what makes this province unique from the perspective of someone who’s travelled here.”

Campaign goals include driving overnight bookings, increasing awareness of attractions and experiences, and increasing business leads to tourism partners throughout the province.

The campaign will run from April until September in primary target markets of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Ontario, North Dakota and secondary markets including Alberta, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Ottawa and Toronto.

Campaign tactics include print, radio, connected TV/OTT, public service announcements (PSAs), digital search and display, and social media advertising alongside sponsored content partnerships and travel media and influencer relations activities to encourage content creators to promote Manitoba on their own channels. French advertising will appear throughout the campaign for targeted French-speaking audiences.

“Our spring summer campaign builds on 2023’s strategy and is poised to drive visitation and visitor spending over the next four months,” says Cody Chomiak, Vice-President, Marketing for Travel Manitoba. “Summer is a peak travel season and we want Manitoba top of mind when travellers choose their next destination.”

Travel Manitoba recently launched a fly-in fishing campaign, a partnership with Destination Canada and Tourism Saskatchewan to recover U.S. anglers from nearby markets. Additional marketing efforts include hunting and angling promotions on Facebook, Instagram and through Google.

Hunt Fish Manitoba is also promoting content through partnerships with Outdoor Sportsman Group, Fishing the Wild West, Jason Mitchell Outdoors, Angling Edge TV and The New Fly Fisher.

“We work with key outlets to improve the reach of our content,” said Keevin Erickson, Hunt Fish Marketing Consultant for Travel Manitoba. “It's crucial to engage with the right audience and leverage the platforms they trust, ensuring our message resonates effectively within the hunting and angling communities.”

Travel Manitoba is also launching a new Manitoba Experience Pass called the Manitoba Kids Choice Pass this summer. The pass offers exclusive discounts at partnering attractions like the Manitoba Children’s Museum, the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, and the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre.

Travel Manitoba will also be running a contest through the Manitoba Explorer program to encourage more residents to sign up and use the app. By checking-in at various points of interest throughout the province, users can earn digital badges and physical pins.

In May, the organization will launch new limited edition summer products for its Manitoba lifestyle merchandise line. Products will be available in person at Visitor Information Centres at The Forks and in Emerson, as well as online through shoptravelmb.ca.

“Our Manitoba and Hunt Fish lifestyle branded merchandise continue to be popular among Manitobans, especially anglers and hunters,” said Lindsay Egan, Partnership Manager for Travel Manitoba. “Each season we aim to launch new items curated for explorers to use and wear while they visit all of the amazing places Manitoba has to offer.”

Sponsored content for this year’s campaign includes a partnership with CTV Morning Live and North Dakota Today for live on-air and on-location promotions of attractions in Winnipeg and throughout Manitoba. The CTV Morning Live spots will begin airing once a week starting in May. The North Dakota Today segment is slated for later in the summer.

A partnership with Lonely Planet will launch this summer using their “Swipe, Save, Go” feature on Instagram. The feature is a profile series that includes 10 stylized carousel images using materials from Travel Manitoba partners and is shared to Lonely Planet’s 3.2 million followers.

This summer, Travel Manitoba will become a member of the Culinary Tourism Alliance with an enhanced destination presence on canadaculinary.com, including new blogs and short videos around agritourism, culinary events, restaurants and Manitoban chefs as part of the profile. More promotions will be added in the future.