CBC Revenue Group

The Calgary Exhibition & Stampede has doubled its social networking content in a marketing campaign that rolled out in Calgary yesterday to promote its iconic 10-day rodeo and fair in July.

Advertising on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and several other online sites is complemented by more traditional TV, print, radio and outdoor executions in the new "I Promise" campaign from Calgary's Karo Group. 

The switch of advertising dollars to social media at the expense of outdoor is a response to how consumers are spending their time and is the most integrated campaign in the Stampede's history, said Karen Connellan, senior manager of consumer marketing.

"We are also being more surgical with our execution," said Connellan, pointing to the six different TV spots each aimed at a specific demographic, from teenagers to young families to seniors.

The campaign's "I Promise" theme focuses on how people transform themselves into cowboys for the 10-day Stampede, said Phil Copithorne, creative director for Karo.

"It's a time when regular people become cowboys and cowboys become heroes."

Each of the TV spots feature a real cowboy competitor from either the rodeo or chuck wagon races extracting a promise from individuals to transform themselves into cowboys. In one spot, a cowboy hands his hat to a sullen goth girl and she promises "plaid will be my new black" during the Stampede.

Although Calgarians are known for embracing all things Western during Stampede, Connellan said the city has grown in the last five years with a large influx of newcomers, "and this campaign is a reminder and an invitation to participate."

The Calgary launch was preceded by a regional Alberta "I Promise" campaign introduced earlier in the month.

Marketingmag.ca | June 01, 2010 | By Norma Ramage

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