As a brand, the Shuswap is one of the most memorable in the country.
The Shuswap Tourism marketing campaign was the recipient of two top honours at the recent Economic Development Association of Canada’s Marketing Canada Awards: Best Brand Identity and Application, and Best Advertising Campaign, for budgets under $600,000.
The former award recognizes a brand for having a creative, memorable, meaningful and consistent identity.
Shuswap Tourism, and the company that helped develop the brand, Story & Co., were also honoured at the 2011 Summit International Creative Awards with a silver award for Complete Branding Package and a bronze for a Travel/Tourism Website.
A function of the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, Shuswap Tourism is headed up by manager Robyn Cyr.
Asked to explain the Shuswap “brand,” Cyr explained it’s how the region identifies itself.
“I think you can explain it a little bit better as an image. It’s the story you tell about your community. It’s when you look at the brand, it gives the story of the community, it gives the feel of the community. It’s not just a logo,” said Cyr.
The Shuswap’s brand, Cyr continued, convey’s the things that are important to its communities: farming and agri-tourism, arts and culture, outdoor activities such as hiking and swimming and, of course, Shuswap Lake. Cyr notes that with the change of seasons, Shuswap Tourism will soon put a focus on local winter pastimes such as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, skating on the lake, hockey and ice fishing.
Thrilled with the awards, Cyr gives credit to all those whose input helped define what the Shuswap is, whose stories and vision helped to realize the award-winning campaign.
Locally, Cyr says the Shuswap Tourism campaign has been very well received.
“The feedback has been very positive and people have actually come up and went, ‘yep, that’s who we are as a region,’” says Cyr. “It’s been pretty rewarding to be able to know that the people here are adopting it.”
With provincial awards coming up, Cyr is hopeful Shuswap Tourism received similar recognition as it has on a national level. Regardless, she says that with the national awards, the Shuswap Tourism campaign has given the region national recognition.
“The people who didn’t know where the Shuswap was now know where the Shuswap is,” says Cyr.