Intense emotion, in-house production, attracting national interest
View the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQMYQcTEX-Y
Sport tourism is integral to Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo’s tourism strategy. The goal of this promotional video was to energize bid selection committees to help secure tournaments and events in our region. This video has become more than content, it has reassured the community of its dreams and allowed us to remember the belief we have in ourselves.
Our region is known in the sports community for having the largest recreation center in Canada- attracting national and even international events. This promotional video showcases our venues while inspiring athletes, and sport tourism. Our aim was to capture athletes in the moment — nothing staged — to convey the raw emotion of tenacity and triumph sport commands.
The primary audience is organizers responsible for reviewing and awarding bids on provincial and national sporting events. Our tourism team secured a sponsorship of Canada’s premier sport organizer’s conference – Sport Events Congress. This video was a principal element of the sponsorship package. It played in advance of several keynote speeches. We knew our primary audience would be in the room – we created an emotional video to resonate with them.
This video provides tremendous marketing collateral to continue our efforts to attract sport tourism opportunities. We leverage this asset when bidding on national events. It has increased positive public sentiment towards FMWB’s sports culture, and it’s used as evergreen content we post on social media and our website.
We had a generous lead time on this project, so we were able to capture content across nine months. We focused on provoking emotion through key moments during games and events instead of listing facts or stats so that the content remains evergreen. We did this by using minimal text and focusing on the athletes and their moments of glory.
We ensured the key message was sustainable, “creating champions through sport”. FMWB has the infrastructure, community, and passion to host major events and develop youth into outstanding athletes. Not only did we achieve our goals of creating a memorable marketing asset used to grow sport in the region, but it continues to inspire athletes and capturing the true spirit of sports in FMWB.
The main challenge was choosing which sports events to include in the video, as there are seemingly endless possibilities to choose from. We approached this promotional asset strategically from the start. We engaged key partners and understood what the next several months of sports looked like. We then mapped each event back to our target audience, ensuring a strong impact. This promotional video continues to inspire sport tourism and athletic champions– creating champions of the region.