Calgary Anthem Video 2.0

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Calgary Economic Development promotes Calgary through the “This is Calgary” videos. Our first, award-winning installment was released in 2019 and helped us to share the story of Calgary’s unique entrepreneurial spirit and quality of life.

This second video reflects Calgary as a diverse community of entrepreneurs making a global impact told through the lens of the entrepreneurs themselves: a city of innovators, dreamers, visionaries, and game changers.

PROJECT PURPOSE AND EFFECTIVENESS

The goal was to highlight the expansive diversity of the city, while simultaneously inspiring like-minded entrepreneurs, companies, and all people to believe, “I need to be in Calgary.”

The 1-minute cut used primarily in out-of-market ads, was uploaded on YouTube in November 2021 and to date has received over 1.7 million views and 28,500 hours of watch time. The average view duration is 0:57 showing that most users finish the full video, an outstanding result considering the average viewer typically only watches 58 per cent of a 1-minute video.

The full 2-minute video is the top-performing video across our main website. Since its upload onto YouTube in October 2021, it has received more than 4,400 views and 98.8 hours of watch time. It has also received more than 1,700 views and 43,000 impressions across our Vimeo website video player. The average view duration is 1:21, showing that the majority of viewers watch the full video.

PROJECT CHALLENGES

As the goal of the video was to depict abundant perspective and business opportunities, Calgary Economic Development had to ensure a diverse cross-section of industries, businesses and community leaders were captured in the video while being restricted by budget and timing for the video shoot.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The audience for this video is both local Calgarians, who act as city ambassadors sharing their energy for their city with pride to help retain or attract talent to Calgary, as well as individuals living outside of Calgary, used as a recruitment tool for talented professionals and industry diversification while breaking current perceptions of Calgary.

PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY

By taking an inspirational and journalistic approach to this video, Calgary Economic Development aimed to evoke the community spirit in Calgary. From startups to established enterprises and everything in between, we’re inspiring like-minded entrepreneurs, companies, and talent to grow their innovations in Calgary.

Rather than highlighting statistics about Calgary this project was innovative in its focus on telling stories of local Calgarians and their businesses, scientific innovations, and artistic expressions to the rest of the world.

A prosperous economy starts with people. Instead of highlighting Calgary’s advantages, Calgary Economic Development wanted to shine the light on those that live and work in the city to emotionally connect viewers with the people who make Calgary the outstanding community it is.

This piece highlights that the economy is connected through everyone in a unique storytelling format. With its focus on diversity of people, diversity of economy and diversity of the city’s energy, the video resonates with all Calgarians, demonstrating that Calgary is a welcoming, inclusive community.