2024 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Two years of a global pandemic have taken a toll on the tourism industry, and Canada’s Québec City wasn’t spared. Its reputation and international appeal have also taken a hit, often to the benefit of larger or better-known Canadian cities like Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver. In concrete terms,they’re talking about a 53% loss in tourist traffic between 2019 and 2020 (Conference Board of
Canada, Spring 2022).

Despite an encouraging rebound among intraprovincial tourists after the pandemic, there was still a lot of work to do to win back international visitors. Destination Québec cité needed to try to promote its brand in a number of
markets on a small budget.

Their objectives were to generate 20 media headlines (including one on a national channel), go viral on digital and social platforms (yeah, they know…viral) and achieve an ROI of $0.50 cost per contact.

Some key insight was uncovered while trying to find a way to reach their ambitious objectives. After the pandemic, nearly 1 in 4 people seriously considered travelling to the destinations they saw in popular series or films (Expedia, Unexpected Travel Trends in 2023).

This growing trend, set-jetting, was intensified by series like Emily in Paris and HBO’sThe White Lotus (the latter of which was watched by over 10 million French and American viewers per episode — two markets coveted by Québec City).

This sparked the whole idea.

Just a few days after ‘The White Lotus’ white-hot season 2 finale — on December 20, 2022 — Destination Québec cité publicly tried persuading HBO to film season 3 of The White Lotus in Québec City.

How? By creating the world’s first tourism brochure disguised as a location bid, pitched to the show’s producers on social media.

They knew how big of a stretch it was… but their real goal was to get
attention from viewers.

The stunt paid off. Not only did their tourism brochure catch the attention of HBO, it also went viral with +16 million views across North America, a cost of only $0.0003 per contact (an incredible ROI considering their objective of $0.50).

Media coverage spanned three weeks and generated 102 headlines in North America and Europe (five times what they hoped for!), including press reports and mentions on major television stations. Even Crave — the exclusive broadcaster of the series in Canada — relayed the information on the series’ homepage.

As for the advertising value, the 13 largest media outlets alone represented 20 times their initial budget.

Now, will there ever be a season of The White Lotus filmed in Québec city? Honestly, they don’t know.

But if HBO’s (somewhat suspenseful) answer was any indication, their faux
tourism brochure was a major hit.

Credits

[Company Credits]
CREATIVE AGENCY: LG2
CLIENT: Destination Québec cité

[Individual Credits - Agency - LG2]
CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER: Marc Fortin, Luc du Sault
VICE-PRESIDENT, EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Marilou Aubin
VICE-PRESIDENT, STRATEGY: Sophie-Annick Vallée
VICE-PRESIDENT, ACCOUNT SERVICES: Marie-Christine Cayer
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTION: Geneviève Langlois
CREATIVE DIRECTION: Alexandre Jourdain
COPYWRITING: Christian O’Brien
ART DIRECTION: Gabrielle Turcotte
ACCOUNT SERVICES: Claudia Trudeau
STRATEGIC PLANNING: Arnaud Mollé, Laura Danino

[Individual Credits - Client - Destination Québec cité]
DIRECTOR, DESTINATION QUÉBEC CITÉ: Robert Mercure
DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING DIVISION: Philippe Caron
DIRECTOR, INSIGHT AND DIGITAL MARKETING SECTION: Marie-Pier Larochelle
MARKETING ADVISOR, COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING DIVISION: Julie Genest