26 NOV 2018: Brand USA hopes to have a new Canadian regional director in place by the end of February, having recently posted the position internally “with HR” to fill the currently vacant role. The revelation is welcome news to the trade in Canada – pending the nature of the appointment, of course – which has endured a sometimes-tumultuous history with the organization since its establishment in 2009, with many specifically harbouring the belief that this country, which is America’s top tourism provider by virtually every metric, has never been fully respected (including not having had consistent in-market representation), and, moreover, often managed from afar by people who don’t necessarily know the market.

The news was revealed by the destination marketing organization’s senior director of global trade development, Jackie Ennis, at a recent Discover America Canada traditional turkey luncheon in Toronto to celebrate US Thanksgiving, at which the newly appointed Ennis served as guest speaker (and Brand USA as sponsor).

Washington- and Vermont-based Ennis, who will lead Brand USA’s Team Canada, hails from Manchester, UK and says Canada certainly has a friend in her, with one of her previous roles in tourism travel marketing being Canadian product manager for a UK tour operator, based in Boston.

“I spent three years literally travelling the length and breadth of Canada,” she says. “I love Canada, I’ve been from one end to the other – from the Yukon to Newfoundland – several times and it’s a real pleasure being back in Canada promoting the United States. It’s weird having come full circle…”

In addition to herself, Ennis reports that her team has a trade development manager for Canada (Suzy Shepard) plus the new regional director for Canada, who will be an “employee of Brand USA,” reporting directly to her, as opposed to a (non-Canadian) third-party representation firm – a source of friction in the past. “(Canada) is very important to us,” she says.

Discover America Canada president Sue Webb welcomed the development, noting that the committee has previously urged Brand USA of the need to have “someone in market here who can make decisions” as being critical to the relationship between the trade and US tourism. She added, “Having Jackie now on board as someone who understands the market is going to be a huge move forward.”

Webb says Brand USA has also been approached on a number of other initiatives that Discover America Canada would like to conduct in 2019 and that the DMO “is definitely willing to help us financially, though they don’t actually have the resources in-market to do it themselves.”

“But,” she adds, “the conversation has started and we’re very happy about that.”

CANADIAN GOALS

Beyond such partnerships, Ennis says there is much that Brand USA is doing on an ongoing basis that is designed to inspire and promote travel to the US and to help travel counsellors sell it, although she acknowledges that the organization’s overall goals in Canada are based on an integration of both trade and consumer marketing objectives.

“The reality,” she says, “is that when many destinations launched their marketing programs, their focus was almost entirely on the trade – the travel trade represented a bridge from the DMO to the consumer, and destinations simply did not have the resources to go to the consumer in those markets directly. But that has drastically changed in the past five to 10 years with the rise of technology.

“We do have the ability to reach the consumer, through online, digital and social media. (But) trade is still vitally important. My background is rooted in the trade, I believe in the trade and I think the trade that is alive and well and is still selling today is the trade that has reinvented itself and works within that technology and what that technology brings… No one can do this alone. Certainly not the trade and certainly not the DMO. It’s about partnerships…”

To that end, Ennis says Brand USA’s primary trade objective is to stay “top of mind” with travel agents and retail agencies through its suite of trade resources, such as its travel trade web site (launched in 2017), which features trip planning tools, destination information and “all the usual resources that the travel trade needs to provide their client for either trip inspiration or just practical information.”

Another resource is the USA Discovery online training program, which has seen a “significant rollout” amongst retail agents in Canada and will continue in 2019 with the possible addition of incentive programs being added.

Product development – particularly beyond primary gateways like New York – will continue to be one of Brand USA’s “biggest pushes,” continued Ennis, noting that 22 curated itineraries can already be found on the trade web site and in the training program.

Brand USA also engages in multi-faceted partner programs, such as current endeavours with Flight Network and Rogers Media, that are available to “all industry partners, not just those with very big budgets.”

On the consumer side, Ennis says Brand USA’s marketing efforts are aligned with the trend towards experiential and authentic travel through such vehicles as its successful series of IMAX feature films (a third one, currently dubbed Explore Wild America, is in production for release in 2020); the Hear the Music campaign, which will be expanded with new songs and destinations in 2019; GO USA travel-entertainment channel (launched on Nov 5 as an app and on TV through Amazon, Apple and Roku); and sponsorships of places and events like Old Port Montreal and Canadian Music Week in Toronto.

“We are looking at storytelling as a way to move people,” explains Ennis, who is quick to note that “every consumer campaign that is going to be put together by Brand USA will have a trade asset toolkit” to help agents leverage the promotions into bookings.

CANADIAN NUMBERS

So far, Brand USA’s efforts seem to be paying off, with revised tourism numbers for Canadian visitations to the US in 2017 just announced as 5 percent up overall, and +9 percent for air travel. And for the first quarter of 2018, visitations are up 6.3 percent – numbers that Ennis calls “encouraging.”

After all, she admits, “there’s no doubt that the atmosphere has been very difficult in terms of selling and promoting the United States in some respects.”

But she adds, “I think in terms of finishing the calendar year ’18 and starting the calendar year ’19, we’re in a good place.”

The Canadian trade hopes so too.