Toronto doesn’t really do ‘quiet’.
It moves fast. Talks fast. Walks fast. Zone out at a crosswalk and pray you don’t get a death stare. It’s big, busy, layered, loud, multicultural, creative, chaotic in the best way, and from a marketing perspective, one of the most saturated activation markets in Canada.
There were 450 guerilla marketing campaigns executed in Toronto streets in 2023 alone, according to a report by Gitnux. So, people have seen things. They've seen pop-ups. The oversized props. The QR codes. So. Many. QR codes.
So, when you bring an activation to Toronto, the challenge goes from being noticed to earning a pause. The kind where someone stops, looks around, smiles, and decides, “This looks interesting, I’ll step into this.”
That was our challenge as we set out to bring Tourism Calgary’s Campaign - Calgary Colours – east. How could we activate the warmth, spirit, and sunshine of Calgary in the heart of Toronto?
Our key strategy was building the experience around that feeling. And here’s what I learned.
Zeroing in on Emotions Will Take You Places
Our core approach was simple: make people feel like they were in Calgary. Not just see it, not just hear about it, but experience it. Using that north star, we tapped into all of the senses, and a little Cowtown hospitality (we have been voted friendliest city in the world, after all). From warm welcomes and friendly faces to coffee roasted by the award-winning Monogram Coffee. From the spin-the-wheel trivia to the white-hat photo moment at the honorary Calgarian ceremony, we ensured every layer zeroed in on emotion.
Once we did that, we noticed how the people who wandered in just to “see what this is,” stayed longer than they planned. How strangers bonded over trivia questions. How people put on a white hat and suddenly stood a little taller, smiling like they had been invited into something special.
People Can Tell When an Experience Has Soul
In the agency world, we spend a lot of time thinking about the mechanics of an activation. Permits. Production. Footprint. Flow. Staffing. Timelines. Weather plans. Backup weather plans. Backup plans for the backup weather plans.
But what I was reminded of that day is that people don’t remember your run of show. They remember how the space made them feel in the middle of a city that is constantly asking them to keep moving.
At one point, a young woman stepped up to spin the trivia wheel. She hesitated for a second but when it landed on a question about Calgary’s sunshine, her friends immediately started cheering her on, turning a simple trivia prompt into a delightful moment. She laughed, took a guess, and for a tiny moment, the rush of Toronto softened around them. Was it a massive cinematic moment? No. Was it the kind of moment that makes you remember why experiential marketing matters? Absolutely.
If People Don’t Want to Leave, You’ve Probably Done Something Right
As the day went on, the crowd kept growing. People were laughing, chatting, taking photos, sipping coffee, spinning the wheel, asking questions, and stepping into this little pocket of Calgary in the middle of Toronto.
When it was time to close at 6:30 pm, people were still lining up. We had to gently bring out the barricades to signal the end of the day, which, honestly, is one of the best problems an activation can have.
More learnings I took home with me (and you should, too)
- In a market where audiences are used to being marketed to, create work that feels honest. Work with your team to give people a feeling they want to hold onto.
- Ultimately, marketing is human to human. It’s someone putting on a white hat and feeling like they belong to a place they may not have known much about five minutes earlier.
- When you create something that people can connect to, your work has the power to slow down even one of the busiest cities in the world for a moment.
About the Author:
Sarah Fernandes is a Copywriter at ZGM Modern Marketing Partners with a diverse background in marketing and advertising, spanning 5 years across India and Canada. Apart from being a copywriter, she’s also been a Content Writer and a Marketing Consultant, so she’s gotten a lay of all the lands, from social to strategy to digital. She’s also a proud pop, culture, and pop culture enthusiast. Ask her anything about advertising and she’ll tell you all about it while she solves the Rubik's cube and makes a mean biryani to go with it.