Tourism Marketing Agency Driving Year-Round Visitor Growth for City of Vernon, BC

Building Year-Round Campaigns for Vernon, BC

Context & Challenge: Tourism Marketing Agency Support for Municipal Growth

When Tourism Vernon came to us, their challenge was clear: they needed a reliable tourism marketing agency to deliver cohesive, high-quality creative across multiple channels on a consistent basis.

Like many municipalities, Vernon faced two pressures:

1. Keeping their brand identity consistent while managing dozens of campaigns.
2. Maintaining visibility across local, regional, and national audiences without exhausting their internal resources.

They didn’t just need one-off ads. They needed a partner to act as an extension of their tourism marketing team — producing display ads, videos, event graphics, and large-format media like airport banners and stadium advertising.

By winning RFP, we became their agency of record, contracted to deliver design and marketing services on an ongoing cadence. For us, this wasn’t just about execution. It was about building a repeatable, results-first marketing engine that would help Vernon tell its story year-round.

Approach / Strategy: Digital Marketing Services for Tourism Boards

Our strategy was grounded in simplicity, consistency, and scale. Instead of creating disconnected campaigns, we built a system that Tourism Vernon could rely on month after month.

We focused on three priorities:

1. Cohesive Brand Platform – Organize their visuals, colour palette, typography, and templates to ensure every piece of creative — whether a Facebook banner or a Saddledome video — felt instantly “Vernon.”
2. Monthly Cadence – Establish a reliable schedule of digital marketing campaigns that covered seasonal tourism pushes, event promotions, and evergreen awareness ads.
3. High-Impact Placements – Push Vernon beyond the Okanagan, showcasing the brand in airports, stadiums, and national media outlets to reach visitors where they make travel decisions.

Creative Process: Tourism Branding and Design Agency Solutions

We started with brand organization. Our team dug into their identity and created a toolkit of ad templates and creative guidelines that aligned with their vision: approachable, nature-driven, and confident.

From there, we built assets that could scale:

• Digital Display Ads – Produced monthly, tailored for Postmedia, Castanet, and other outlets.
• Video Ads – Short, high-impact loops designed for arenas and large screens.
• Print Media – Quarter-page ads and event graphics supporting festivals like Pride.
• Out-of-Home (OOH) – Airport banners and Saddledome placements that positioned Vernon on the national stage.

Throughout, we worked closely with Vernon’s marketing team, taking on ad hoc projects while also keeping to their planned cadence. This balance of structured campaigns and flexible support built trust — and allowed us to scale alongside their needs.

Execution & Deliverables: Multi-Channel Tourism Advertising Campaigns

Over the first year, we delivered 20+ projects for Tourism Vernon, ranging from quick-turn event ads to full-scale seasonal campaigns. Highlights included:

• Monthly Display Ads – Creative variations delivered across multiple formats for consistent visibility.
• Airport Banner Campaign – Large-scale design placements targeting incoming travellers.
• Saddledome Video Ads – Cinematic content shown during Calgary Flames games, reaching thousands of sports fans.
• Pride Fest Graphics – Inclusive and bold visuals that tied into Vernon’s community-focused tourism strategy.
• Print & Digital Media – Quarter-page ads, embedded banners, and animated assets.

What set this partnership apart was consistency. Instead of scrambling for assets before each campaign, Tourism Vernon had a steady pipeline of creative they could trust.

Tangible Outcomes: Tourism Marketing KPIs and Business Impact

The real measure of success wasn’t just the number of deliverables — it was the business impact.

• Reach & Visibility – Vernon gained exposure across stadiums, airports, and major news outlets, ensuring visitors saw the brand at key decision-making moments.
• Operational Efficiency – By outsourcing creative production, the city team could focus on strategy while we handled execution.
• Consistency & Trust – After more than 20 projects, Tourism Vernon continues to renew and expand our role.

While municipalities often struggle to maintain cadence, Vernon now has a repeatable marketing system. Every month, fresh creative rolls out — seasonal campaigns, event branding, digital ads — all consistent, on-brand, and effective.

Client Impact‍

The Vernon team expressed how much smoother their workflow has become, knowing they can rely on Setsail to deliver creative assets that are both on time and on brand. That trust has translated into long-term partnership, not just project-based wins.

Lessons Learned: Performance Marketing for Municipalities

Working with Tourism Vernon reinforced something we already believed: municipalities and tourism boards need partners, not vendors. Their teams are often lean, juggling multiple priorities. By giving them a scalable tourism marketing system, we reduced their workload while increasing their brand’s impact.

For us, the next step is continuing to expand placements – more video advertising, more digital media distribution, and even greater focus on seasonal tourism pushes that showcase Vernon as a year-round destination.

This case study isn’t just about Vernon. It’s a model for how any municipal tourism board can work with Setsail to scale their marketing without scaling their stress.