Travel Alberta is turning to fashion for the first time to reach a new audience. Its new campaign promotes a mysterious new luxury brand called Larch – which is actually a fictional company that Travel Alberta is using to showcase the bright golden colour of the province’s alpine trees as an autumnal fashion experience.

The media plan includes partnerships with publications such as Condé Nast’s GQ, Vogue and Vanity Fair, social media and online video. The social assets encourage consumers to explore Larch’s fall collection on a microsite that invites them to experience the colours of Alberta’s autumn landscape.

Initiative handled media buying, while C&B Advertising was behind the creative.

Targeting fashion-forward consumers via programmatic and fashion publications is new for Travel Alberta, the company’s senior VP and chief marketing officer Tannis Gaffney says. “By planning for the unexpected, it enables a level of creativity that is not commonly associated with traditional ways of media planning.”

Gaffney tells Media in Canada that the brand is investing in fashion magazines because they wanted to pique the interest of curious adventurers, known for diving into new destinations and getting off the beaten path, as well as style-conscious travelers, especially Americans.

“Alberta’s Canadian Rockies have many luxury offerings for this audience, and Larch was the perfect way to draw them in. Alberta’s seasonal changes are captivating for international travellers who don’t experience nature’s transformational power at home,” Gaffney says.

Partnering with fashion magazines is also a subversive way to encourage that audience to visit Alberta during the off-season, coinciding with the time when fashion houses are launching their fall lines. The high impact Condé Nast publications have on the fashion industry can also drive brand engagement, Gaffney adds.

“Bringing the season of fashion and the season of fall together was right on brand for Travel Alberta to pique the interest of curious adventurers and showcase their wild side with style. Something we feel fashion readers will receive as an unexpected surprise,” Gaffney says. The ads are intended to appear in many of Condé Nast fashion publications, not just the three mentioned.

The campaign is an extension of Travel Alberta’s positioning, which has been emphasizing Alberta as the wild side of Canada that few tourists know about and should explore. Its previous campaign, “Face Your Wild,” also targeted U.S. audiences through DOOH, radio, cinema, and podcasts. That campaign encouraged U.S. visitors to embrace their wild side through a series of outdoor experiences in the province, including snowboarding, skiing and snowball fights.