Creating a 'Monster' of a Campaign

How Consultant Kevin Palmer Lures Fishing and Hunting Enthusiasts to Neighboring Province

By Nathan J. Silverman - March 16, 2010

Independent marketing consultant Kevin Palmer of Thunder Bay , Ontario , coined the slogan "Manitoba Monsters" to promote the central Canadian province's trophy fishing and wild game hunting opportunities to well-heeled outdoors enthusiasts.

Now in its second year, Palmer's successful “monsters” campaign for client Travel Manitoba is creating jitters in Ontario 's hunting and fishing industry while winning the admiration of some competitors there.

(Above) Webbers Lodge

“Kevin's brought a lot of awareness to a province with very little marketing funds,” said Ed Henn, owner of northwestern Ontario 's Tetu Island Lodge. “He's doing a phenomenal job with a small budget. We outspend them by a ton of money.” Henn, a 20-year veteran of Canada 's hunting and fishing industry, said visitors were approaching him at this winter's consumer outdoors shows in the U.S. and asking if his lodge was in Manitoba . “It came from this Manitoba marketing campaign,” Henn said. “We've seen a real decrease in the bookings at the sports shows because of the program he's put together to convince people they need to go to Manitoba .” "How can you keep up to this guy? He's the guy that does the research initially - and those comments stick in his mind as he produces the creative himself - all the while retaining those key sales triggers as he shoots the images, calls for the creative theme - and then lays them out, huge cost savings that goes right to the media buys"

Another Ontario lodge operator, with 25 years of experience, said, “I've never met anybody like Kevin. He's aggressive in a good way. He's not a business-as-usual person. The man does great work.” He added, “The word among Ontario lodges is that they feel Manitoba really has its act together.”

Hunting for insights

Travel Manitoba retained Palmer in 2007 to develop and manage a new marketing strategy to increase the province's share of the Canadian hunting and fishing market and to attract outdoors enthusiasts who had never hunted or fished in Canada .

The founder of Thunder Bay-based Superior Image and Project Management , Palmer is a target-marketing specialist who believes in getting inside the heads of his client's “best customers” to find words, images, and new products and services that will resonate with their sales prospects.

Palmer is also an accomplished commercial photographer who has handled assignments for General Motors, the province of Ontario , and Canadian Geographic magazine, among other blue-chip clients. And he puts his visual communications savvy to work for his marketing clients.

To lay the groundwork, Palmer conducted in-depth interviews with

•  Travel Manitoba 's management to understand their goals

•  A cross-section of the province's fishing and hunting lodges and outfitters to understand their needs

•  A sample of the most loyal and enthusiastic customers of some of the province's premiere fly-in resort lodges and outposts to understand their motivations and expectations. These customers, in Palmer's opinion, were the most important marketing information sources of all.

Palmer's photography ability comes in handy from time to time - as the studio work has made thousands of relevant, usable images to ad agencies all over the world...and has reduced the outgoing budget amounts for imaging - able to spend more on relevant, in-market media.

(Above) Marcel Moose of Big Sand Lake Lodge

The “best customer” interviews provided essential insights into the wants, needs, and thought processes of these valued lodge patrons, which proved useful for creating new promotional literature, advertising, and trade show exhibit materials

Palmer also visited a number of lodges first hand to experience the atmosphere and operations of the industry he would be trying to help and to take photos — including dramatic aerial shots — that reflect the compelling images that customers spoke about in interviews.

Some of the creative for the newly constructed hunting campaign for Manitoba. Site visits and having creative delivery skills have amplified the available budget for purchasing more media for the Province.

The customer interview process has an overlooked and beneficial side effect, Palmer notes. When a customer endorses a company, the psychological principal of “consistency” automatically comes into play and works to the company's benefit. It's human nature to act in a manner consistent with one's stated principals – to be true to one's beliefs. So, a customer who speaks well of a business during these in-depth interviews will tend to remain a loyal customer, barring any major disappointments.

KEY*Constant Contact - Palmer has provided his lodges with a steady diet of information, requests for their input and more over the course of the last three years - this creates teamwork - and elevates the overall thrust of the in-market campaigns. As for the design "overkill" Palmer quipped "well, if it doesn't look attractive, no one will read it!"

Lodges provided Palmer with the names of some of their best customers for consumer research interviews, which, in turn, helped assure that these individuals would remain loyal customers of those lodges. Ken Gangler of Gangler's North Seal River Lodge and Outposts in Manitoba , said Palmer “quickly grasped the idiosyncrasies of our industry and laid a foundation for success that will pay off for years to come.”

Shawn Gurke, owner of Nueltin Fly-In Lodges, said, “What is remarkable is that Kevin didn't just absorb facts and figures. He took the initiative to immerse himself in the culture of our industry, identify our clients, and gain perspective from them. Initiative is the one thing that brings his talents to the surface.”

Magnifying Manitoba 's marketing dollars

Palmer says a key to Manitoba 's success was creation of cooperative marketing and advertising programs that have excited, motivated, and mobilized a critical mass of the province's approximately 130 fishing and hunting lodges and outfitters. This was no easy task, Palmer says, given that the industry comprises a group of fiercely independent, competitive, mostly family-run businesses that had become disillusioned with other marketing campaigns, which they felt had grown stale and brought them no direct benefits.

 

Rick Bohna, general manager of Big Sand Lake Lodge, said, “Kevin has done in two short years what has never been done before. We now have over 100 companies working together through his unique marketing initiatives. It's taking the marketing of our product to a new level.”

The benefits for his client Travel Manitoba have been manifold. Palmer estimates that with the financial participation of the province's lodges in the various marketing programs and the leverage achieved through sponsorship investments, Travel Manitoba is receiving three dollars in promotional value for each dollar the organization spends.

 

 

The cover of our 2009 Fishing and Hunting Guide - Palmer says he "borrowed" the design from Fortune Magazine. The book was a testimonial to partnership and teamwork - producing more synergy with more participation from more clients.

 

It's showtime

A cornerstone of Palmer's strategy for Travel Manitoba has been a multifaceted campaign to support the province's fly-in and drive-in fishing and hunting lodges and outfitters exhibiting at the annual All-Canada Show, a traveling expo staged in January and February in a series of major Midwest U.S. markets and also in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The show focuses exclusively on Canadian hunting and fishing.

In a novel cost-sharing venture, Manitoba lodges paid to participate in locally produced Chicago television advertising campaigns designed to spark interest in Manitoba exhibitors at the Chicago edition of the All-Canada Show. The commercials, shot on the show floor prior to the public opening, featured lodge representatives jointly preparing a classic Manitoba shore lunch and included video clips of each lodge. Lodge owners reported that visitors to their exhibit booths mentioned seeing them on TV.

Hammering down on the hunting side of things - this year, the Safari Club International promoted the Manitoba Monsters Grand Slam Auction - with resounding success! Manitoba's operators are well placed now in the top-of-mind-awareness of most participants in this show in Reno, Nevada - the largest in the world!

In 2009, Travel Manitoba stepped out with a new and larger exhibit booth, including a eye-catching, 20-foot inflatable replica of a “ Manitoba monster” northern pike, a principal show sponsorship role, and a redesigned Manitoba fishing and hunting guide. But Palmer's most radical trade-show innovation was making a concerted effort to connect visitors to the Travel Manitoba booth with the Manitoba lodges on the show floor.

“We had to ask ourselves what value our presence at the show brings to the lodges,” Palmer says. “What's the point of just smiling and handing out maps and brochures?”

Gutting the competition

Palmer engaged visitors in conversations to ascertain their interests and their likelihood of fishing or hunting in Canada. Relying on his first-hand knowledge of Manitoba lodges, he directed them to the ones that best fit their requirements. In many cases he personally escorted visitors from the Travel Manitoba exhibit to a lodge's booth and introduced them to the proprietor.

Handing out maps to guests at shows - Mimicking the creative from our Fishing and Hunting Guide available at each show, Palmer created little "mini-maps" showing only the locations of the participating Manitoba Lodges at each particular show. Here, in Minneapolis - the mini map featured the "love" that Manitoba has for it's #1 geographical destination.

By one count, during a single day of the Chicago All-Canada Show, Palmer funneled 58 groups of prospective customers from the Travel Manitoba booth directly to various Manitoba exhibitors, bypassing out-of-province lodges.

“That's where he destroyed us,” Henn, the Ontario lodge owner, said. “Kevin walked them over to Manitoba booths. Without a doubt, he brought them business.” Palmer's unconventionally pro-active sales tactics ruffled Henn's feathers, but he acknowledged its effectiveness.

“I watched the Manitoba booth and exhibitors, and they were having a very, very good show,” Henn said. “There were several large groups that I didn't even get a chance to talk to this year.”

Guerilla marketing to bear hunters?

The ability to complete creative AND surveys of best customers again proves to be successful - this creative published in multiple issues of Bear Hunting magazines attempts to capitalize on the lack of Spring Bear Hunting in other jurisdictions - Palmer shot this upclose photo of a Sow alongside the highway enroute west to Manitoba.

In addition to blanketing the local TV and radio airwaves with innovative and cost effective advertising — purchased at extremely favorable, negotiated rates — Palmer also commissioned a public relations program in each of the All-Canada Show cities. Centrally handled by a Chicago-based PR firm, the PR campaign utilized traditional and online media to reach outdoors enthusiasts through local newspapers and Web-based media by means of news releases, personal contact with local outdoors editors and writers, posting content on special-interest online forums and community news sites, and posting comments on mainstream media Web sites. A 2010 press release highlighting the 50 th anniversary of Travel Manitoba 's Master Angler Awards program resulted in a sports section story in the Des Moines Register, one of the Midwest 's largest newspapers.

Digital Boards were employed this past year in the Minnesota Markets - posting takes about a minute - and this webcam delivered proof of fulfillment within a two or three minute time period. Technology allows Palmer to have very large arms around the world - working from his office in Ontario Canada.

For the Minneapolis-St. Paul show, Palmer deployed digital billboard advertising at 19 locations in the metro area, including billboards promoting the availability of bear hunting. Visitors en route to the show were literally ambushed by outdoor advertising for Manitoba 's outdoors.

For good measure, Palmer also secured long-term billboard contracts at three high-traffic locations in western Ontario proclaiming “There's better fishing in Manitoba .”

 

 

 

This billboard is up in a key competitive market - showing the incredible fishing opportunities found in Manitoba. Pricing and developing creative in-house were both keys to obtaining a long term deal on this work.

 

 

 

Beyond the All-Canada show initiatives, Palmer has organized and led delegations of Manitoba lodge owners to sales venues that were new to most of them, including an international meeting planners' convention in Dallas and a consumer expo in Germany that drew 75,000 visitors.

 

Fishing for physicians

An outgrowth of Palmer's “best customer” surveys is a new program to expand the market for Manitoba 's outdoors offerings.

After discovering a niche market of fishing physicians through the “best client surveys”, Palmer spearheaded the creation of a “Hook and Learn” continuing medical education program for licensed health care professionals, another collaborative venture with the lodges.

 

The fully accredited program, launched in 2010, was developed and will be taught by instructors from the University of Manitoba . The programs will be held at participating Manitoba premium lodges. Tuition is free, subsidized by Travel Manitoba and the lodges, which are also helping to underwrite the cost of a pilot advertising campaign in a Canadian medical magazine and the production and distribution of program brochures.

Manitoba's Lodges Lodge Their Praise

Gangler of Manitoba 's Seal River Lodge said Palmer's campaign “has raised the bar so high for the other provincial tourism agencies it will take them years to catch up to Manitoba .”

 

 

 

 

Palmer's trademark - sharp, focused imagery designed to hit the target right between the eyes - with their own imagery - which they freely report during "Best Client Surveys" conducted early on in the relationship with Palmer's firm - this shot was taken at Gangler's Premium Lodge in Northern Manitoba Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The in-market media for Manitoba's new hunting program. In-house media allowed this piece to quickly develop at a low cost to the client and allowed more room for in-market media buys. “Kevin Palmer's branding work for Travel Manitoba is innovative and right on the mark,” said Joel Prunty, long-time media manager for the All-Canada Show, who has observed many provincial marketing efforts over the decades.

Mark Clarke, manager of market development for Travel Manitoba , Palmer's client, said Palmer's work “gave us an elevated and sustained presence in the marketplace.”

 

 

 

While Palmer's “Manitoba Monsters” might be haunting the sleep of the province's competitors, they're creating sales possibilities that Manitoba 's lodges and outfitters once could only dream about.

Palmer, strangely enough - was never a fishing or hunting expert - and was initially teased in gest by competing lodge and outfitting owners while at shows - "hey, there's the Manitoba fish and hunt guy that don't fish or hunt" - one can only imagine what they may be saying now...

 

 

 

 

Palmer (above right) with TM's Mark Clarke

 

Kevin Palmer, RPM, CMInst.M, CTB (hons, Arizona) can be reached at his company, Superior Image and Project Management, at (807) 473.3648 or kpalmer@tbaytel.net . His personal page on Facebook Palmer is on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Institute of Marketing and is certified as a “Registered Professional Marketer” member #801.

All images, design, layout, writing, creative stuff - Kevin Palmer, 2009.

 

Reference materials / more on this company:

creative sample one(3min)- video edit for booth loop:

creative sample two (1 min) - Manitoba Monster Minute - a series of viral video designed to flood the social media on Manitoba's incredible fishing resources. Low budget, designed to look "real" more than a sell. This program was constructed this year for my client - Travel Manitoba.

creative sample 3 (60 sec) - CBS Chicago #3 market - negotiate buy, set budget, measure results, partnered lodges

creative sample 4 (60 sec) - Clientele development, Chicago - group travel

interview on CBS with Kevin Palmer on Travel Manitoba (5:30seconds) Benefit and feature repeating for Manitoba! Notice the pricepoint segregation - dicey stuff. Tried to give them a script - no such luck! Off the cuff, on the fly - yikes!!!

80 other links to review if you are a glutton for punishment! The Manitoba Monsters Facebook page was created this year to enable the ease of promotion for some of our lodges that aren't overly "techy" - which is cool, they fish and hunt well and are incredible hospitality professionals - best in the world!

Imagery of stuff by Kevin Palmer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nathan J. Silverman is a freelance writer and public relations consultant based in Evanston , Ill.