Rush hour is described in Webster's Dictionary as a period of day when the demands especially of traffic or business are at a peak.
For Cold Lake, it means something completely different.
Over the summer, the City of Cold Lake took advantage of those stuck in their morning commute to share with them a rush hour that takes on a totally new perspective.
The “This is Our Rush Hour” campaign was aimed to bring those living and working in and around Edmonton to the wonderful outdoors of the city by using snapshots of some of the local activities with the slogan “This is Our Rush Hour.”
It featured photos of residents fishing off a boat, sailing on the lake, hitting the trails on a snowmobile, and ice fishing.
The campaign proved successful, through a trial run June 27 to July 24 in 20 locations across Edmonton, an endeavor that cost just shy of $9,000 thanks to funding from Travel Alberta, who covered 35 per cent of the cost.
“We were able to deliver the program, although it was scaled back from what we had initially thought we would be able to deliver,” explained Andrew Serba, Strategic Initiatives Manager for the City of Cold Lake. Originally, the city had planned to also include transit advertising, but was unable to do so this year.
Over that four week period, the city's website saw an increase of unique users to a tune of 29.5 per cent, with an overall traffic increase of 38 per cent.
Sherri Bohme, executive director for the Cold Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, helps run the city's Tourist Information Centre, and said they saw more foot traffic coming from the Edmonton area than usual this summer, which sparked the centre's curiosity. Those working at the tourist centre began asking visitors why they decided to visit Cold Lake, and were told it was after seeing billboards in Edmonton.
“Most people that would come from Edmonton would be here likely to visit family, for a wedding, for a specific event… But these people were really just coming to see Cold Lake,” said Bohme.
“These kinds of things are hard to gauge sometimes,” said Serba, adding local residents and city staff made mention that during their travels they had seen the billboards throughout Edmonton.
“That was certainly encouraging.”
The idea stemmed from last year's budget talks, after council was brainstorming ideas on ways to bring tourists into the area. Council budgeted a total of $44,000 for the campaign as a way to test the outdoor marketing program, but only spent a fraction of their overall budget for the project.
“We really want to start to promote the city and what it has to offer to try and get more people to come here… We are trying to give a helping hand to help boost local business,” said Copeland.
He continued, “We wanted to focus on the tourism angle because the economy is going down, and we are trying to boost the local economy in Cold Lake. I think we did well in the campaigning… because a lot of people don't know about the Cold Lake area and the beauty of the lake itself.”
For the trail, the city used an image of a young girl holding a fish, with Cold Lake fading into the horizon behind her.
“I think that the billboard is pretty cute… With the beauty of cold Lake in the background, it is just a great message of our area,” said Copeland, adding it shows off the relaxed atmosphere the area has to offer.
“It sends a really good message to the people in Edmonton about our area.”
The slogan, This is Our Rush Hour, was brainstormed by the marketing team, using the idea that the signs would be located around high traffic areas.
Heading into 2017, Serba said council is considering it for budget talks, and will discuss whether or not to move forward at that time.
For now however, they are planning as if the campaign is going forward.
On Tuesday, Serba shared some images of potential billboards, and shared the marketing team's idea of a contest, where residents snap a photo of them in the area for future campaigning.
Copeland said the city is working on improving their Facebook, Twitter and other social media presence to help promote the city and all of its amenities, and the billboard campaign is just a piece of the puzzle.