This week, the Canadian Tourism Commission is kicking off a US-aimed campaign whose theme is ‘You haven’t skied, until you’ve skied Canada.’ The multifaceted initiative, developed with Vancouver’s DDB Canada and Tribal DDB Canada, is also aimed at snowboard enthusiasts, and will continue until April.

‘The new campaign communicates that skiing and boarding in Canada is not just one thing, it’s the sum of parts – the hospitality of the people, the amenities at the resorts, the contrast and variety of activities, the culture, the amazing terrain and the abundance of snow that make Canada the ultimate ski experience,’ says Yolaine Dupont, CTC marketing specialist – US leisure marketing.

With media buys by OMD Vancouver and the CTC, the campaign includes national print ads in Outside Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Departures and Food & Wine as well as in-room Fairmont Hotel publications. Outdoor executions will appear in the San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., markets. Online, rich media ads are being placed on Travelocity.com, OnTheSnow.com and TripAdvisor.com.

The print and OOH executions highlight various elements of the Canada ski experience and aim to create intrigue by showing arresting images accompanied by questions like: ‘What’s a black diamond run without a hot tub to finish?’

The positioning statement, ‘You haven’t skied, until you’ve skied Canada’ is the dominant theme on the new microsite www.canada.travel/skinow. In this venue, skiers and boarders can enter the ‘Canada Ski Experience of a Lifetime Sweepstakes’ for a chance to win a 12-night/13-day Canadian ski vacation for six people at three ski resorts (in Québec, Alberta and British Columbia).