Tourism Calgary

Building a media center so journalists have the tools and information to write pieces to grow the 3.2 million visitors a year and $1.5 billion tourism contribution to the local economy even more.

Tourism Calgary needed a newly designed media room website that would familiarize journalists with the many attractions and fun to be had in Calgary, arm them with the facts and figures they would need to write informed and interesting pieces, connect journalists with more resources, and give them a number of potential thematic itineraries for trips to Calgary. TC described it as “A one-stop shop for story ideas, suggested media tours, upcoming events, news releases and coverage, you will also find links to videos and photography for editorial use.

The previous site was outdated in design, needed better information architecture, and needed a greatly expanded set of content for maximum engagement with journalists to increase Calgary’s visibility as a vacation destination. Our friends at Immedia PR engaged us for the build based on our history of managing the media room website for a wall street bank.

Process and Insight
Tourism Calgary had information on what journalists were most interested in when they approached them, and based on that data, an outline of what information sections would be created was made. That list was further expanded to include areas of interest they wanted to promote as part of the organizations’ strategic goals.Content sections were then built out by season, family oriented trips, history, food and drink, art and culture, sport and recreation. Golfers, Music and Beer fans, foodies, Urban Explorers, Art and Design Buffs, nature Seekers, Shoppers, and fun excursions.

The Solution
Tourism Calgary’s brand guide was fairly straightforward: beautiful photography, clean layouts, bold primary and secondary colors. We sourced photography for use in the various categories in addition to making use of Tourism Calgary’s stock library.

We then designed the site with content, engagement, and readability in mind, focusing on a clean layout that made use of the fun secondary brand colors. We made sure to hook into email marketing efforts. The site was six months in content development.

Results
These new resources for journalists, including, access to photo and video archives for use in their work, information and background on key areas of interest, and more, have led to great media success for Calgary, contributing to a influx of new media features on Calgary.