This Is How We Live Tourism Promotional Video

The City of St. Catharines is proud to submit the “This is How We Live” tourism attraction video. The central premise of the video emphasizes the recovery of the tourism, culture and culinary sectors in St. Catharines by providing a highlight of dynamic footage from several events that took place in St. Catharines in 2022 as restrictions from the COVID 19 pandemic began to lift and in-person events returned.

The intent of the video is to offer both a visually and emotionally stimulating collection of footage focused on events that included the historic “Born & Raised” 4-day homecoming concert series featuring Alexisonfire in July of 2022, Emancipation Day festivities in August and “Let it Glow” holiday festival in the winter.

This ‘comeback reel’ of both new and traditional events underlined key themes that were seen in the tourism industry in St. Catharines coming out of the pandemic including:
• Emphasis on creative and innovative uses of public space (ie. Road closures/activations, public realm enhancements through lighting and installations, focus on St. Catharines as the urban centre of Niagara)
• Cultural diversity and representation of groups through events such as Emancipation Day as well as the annual Pow Wow and Celebration of Nations events
• Highlighting St. Catharines as a destination for marquee events and festivals year-round, attracting visitors from across the continent (ie. Born & Raised, Cicada Music & Arts Festival, and Niagara Grape & Wine Festival).
• Through subthemes such as “This is How We Live,” “This is How We Dine,” and “This is How We Celebrate,” the campaign for the video touched on the experiential elements of visiting St. Catharines, that include celebrations, wine and culinary selections, as well as cultural diversity and livability through footage of cityscapes, urban activations, culinary festivals and the diverse cultural offerings of St. Catharines.

Although a highlight of events that took place in 2022, the intent of the video and campaign was primarily to promote the 2023 tourism season while also attracting future events to St. Catharines.

Effectiveness
The “This is How We Live” video was posted to the event listing page on lovestc.ca to support the relaunch of the City’s tourism website. The full video was also posted to Instagram and has been recut for shorter Reels posts as part of the City’s ExploreSTC campaign promote events and things to do in St. Catharines.

Since launching on May 19, the videos have generated more than 8,300 impressions and have contributed to 45 per cent of Instagram impressions and a 17 per cent increase in engagement generated through the ExploreSTC campaign.

Since May 19, Reels linking back to the full video on the webpage promoting events and activities in St. Catharines generated a 30 per cent increase in pageviews over the same time period in 2022.

The video can also be viewed on YouTube at: This Is St Catharines – YouTube