The City of Thunder Bay Invites People To Tell Their Stories About
Our City
by Scott A. Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
Recently at the Community Auditorium a new web site, mytbay.ca was announced by the Economic Development Commission, Tourism Thunder Bay and Corporate Communications along with input from Generator Advertising. The goal is to have people visit the site and tell their stories of Thunder Bay to a wide audience. “ Our goal is to finally tell the story of who we are through our people and at that pont it will provide a beacon for others to get involved. There is a tremendous amount of good that is happening here, we just need to tell people,” said Jack Hudolin of Generator Advertising. “ We want to attract more people, more business, and people to come back home. Our goal is to commicate Thunder Bay is one of the finest
places on the planet to live your life.”
“ It is a collaborative community effort of the Economic Development commission, Tourism Thunder Bay and Corporate Communications. This is an opportunity to engage citizens to hight lite all the great things there are to do in Thunder Bay. Why it is a great city to live in, do business in and a great city to visit. This really reaches out to our audience in a very authentique way where they can tell their story. We will get a lot of material that will help guide our future marketing campaigns for the community,” said Paul Pepe, Manger Tourism. “They can go to the mytbay.ca web site and upload their photos, videos and write their own stories about Thunder Bay. It could be a story about the fish that got away, the exceptional meal they had in a restaurant or exceptional service they got in a retail store. It could be why there is competitive advantages to doing business in Thunder Bay. It is being done done with the support of the local media so it is a cooperative community effort. The media will drive people to the mytbay.ca website. We will be out at events with the t shirts the buttons and postcards as well.”
“ We think it will be huge and people really do love the community they live in. It will give them an opportunity to brag a little and will build ambassadors who will really appreciate the
community more. It was done in collaboration with Generator Ad, the creative agency for the City of Thunder Bay. We are currently using Face book and other media so it fits well. It will be very unique. It is new to Thunder Bay and all the media partners are behind it which
will help us drive our future marketing,” said Pepe. “ Last year we had 1.2 million visitors and 180,000 of those came to visit friends and family. We have a chance to create an army of
ambassadors.”
“ In the branding of cities or towns it is all about the people, not the geography or bricks and mortar. It is the people who bring the brand to life, so we needed a mechanism to connect to people so they can share their experiences. As we go along we know there are 38,000 local people on Face book and more going to the high speed network each month,” noted Hudolin. “ We will gain a following from those who were born here or are living in other cities and can create the common platform for all to share. It will be great. It could effect millions of viewers. Tbaytel will have the horsepower to handle the site and we will be monitoring it as we go. Electronic media is the way of the future with most media having online versions.It will continue to grow. “
