STEVESTON SEABREEZE ADVENTURES

MEDIA PLAN

Gianna Gillales, Sarah Lo, & Sara Chey

Tourism Marketing II, Tour 312Stephanie WellsNovember 26, 2014

Table of ContentsMedia Budget........................................................................................................................ 2

Media Objectives....................................................................................................................2

Target Selection (Who, What, When, Where, How)..................................................................2

Who............................................................................................................................... 2

What.............................................................................................................................. 2

When............................................................................................................................. 3

Where............................................................................................................................ 3

How............................................................................................................................... 3

Media Strategy....................................................................................................................... 3

Target Market Profile...........................................................................................................3

Key Market Coverage..........................................................................................................3

Timing of Advertising...........................................................................................................4

Market coverage.................................................................................................................4

Timing............................................................................................................................... 4

Reach Consideration...........................................................................................................4

Frequency Considerations....................................................................................................4

Continuity Considerations.....................................................................................................5

Engagement Considerations.................................................................................................5

Media Selection Rationale....................................................................................................5

Facebook Advertisements.................................................................................................5

Google Sponsored Advertisements.....................................................................................5

Brochure......................................................................................................................... 6

Media Rejection Rationale....................................................................................................6

Media Execution..................................................................................................................... 6

Blocking Chart.................................................................................................................... 6

Budget Summary................................................................................................................ 7

References............................................................................................................................ 8

The Media Plan

Media BudgetA budget of $15,000 has been allocated towards the media advertising for Steveston Seabreeze Adventures during the Whale Watching off season, which includes the months of March, April, and May.

Media ObjectivesThe Media Objective is to increase sales of family tour in no-hassle and free spirit traveler types by 10% during the off-season. The off-season is between April, May, and June. The timing of the campaign will be between the months of March, April and May.

Target Selection (Who, What, When, Where, How)

Who

The primary target is families. The types of families that are targeted are those who are in the middle-class with a two-person income, married, and have jobs that range from lawyers, teachers, bank associates, engineers, etc. Steveston Seabreeze Adventures is a global service and is available to all races and cultures. The regions that the company is targeting includes the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley Regional District. The family-based tours will appeal to those who live in the targeted regions because there will be special offers and promotions only for those, and who either book a tour online or who have more than four people wanting to participate in the tour.

The Canadian Tourism Commission’s Explorer Quotient profile exceptionally assists in selecting demographics and psychographics for the target market. The two best-fit traveler types included Free Spirits, and No-Hassle travelers.

The free-spirit traveler is always interested in having fun, and spending time with family. The free-spirit traveller is quite social and very open-minded. Forty-eight percent of free-spirit travelers are families, which makes the traveler type a perfect fit for the family tour. As well, the number one activity for this traveler type is Marine Wildlife Viewing, and whale watching falls under that specific category.

The other traveler type that best suits the company and tour offered is the No-Hassle traveler. This traveler type is interested in keeping things simple – they very rarely plan things. Thirty percent of no-hassle travelers are families, which makes sense because no-hassle travelers appreciate organized tours and smaller-scale operations.

What

The message to be communicated will focus on addressing family tours through social media channels and traditional advertising techniques. This process will be accomplished through rebuilding the company’s website, logo, and brochure. Steveston Seabreeze Adventures would like to make these tours family based by adding many visuals consisting of families into the advertising images. The goal is to have the website, logo, and brochure to represent

families enjoying their experience at Steveston’s Seabreeze Adventures Whale-Watching Tour Company.

When

For our campaign, the best time to advertise begins a month before the family tours begin. The timing of the campaign will run from March to May. The off-season is beginning in mid-April, May, and June. It is best to advertise during the late afternoon to evening, and on weekends when the targeted market is home from work, school, and activities.

Where

Steveston Seabreeze Adventures whale watching service will advertise in the key regions of the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley Regional District of British Columba. Through these priority markets, Steveston Seabreeze Adventures is hopeful to reach at least 40 percent of the total population.

How

The reach is important to Steveston’s whale watching tour because it refers to the total number of people “in the audience” for the advertisement. Frequency is the number of times that the company has connected with each person through marketing messages. Continuity is a strategy used, where the seller launches an ongoing promotion in order to attract and grasp customers. Reach, Frequency, and Continuity are essential because they will help to get in touch with Steveston Seabreeze Adventures targeted family population.

Media Strategy

Target Market Profile The strategy Steveston Seabreeze Adventures will be using is the profile-matching strategy. This is because the target market has been designed based on demographic, psychographic and geographic impacts. The range of the target’s description precisely influences the media strategy decisions. In this case, the profile will include the following: Families who have parents who would be in the ages between 32-53+ years old, the teenagers would be ages 13-19 years old, and the children would be ages 8-12 years old. The average household income suggested in the profile, would be earning of $73,000 to $150,000 annually, living in the urban market of approximately 2.6 million plus. Those families who fit into this criterion will be targeted through several advertising tactics. The objective of the profile-matching strategy is to match the profile as firmly as possible with the profile of the different mediums used.

Key Market CoverageIn terms of key market coverage, it has been decided that the main target market will be families living in urban areas such as the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, as well as the Fraser Valley Regional District. This provides us with a substantial amount of people to reach that may be interested in the new family tour from Steveston Seabreeze Adventures.

Our target market will be reached using three main types of advertisements. This includes a new brochure with a coupon at the back, Facebook advertisements, as well as having a sponsored advertisement on Google when ‘Whale Watching Vancouver’ is searched up. This will allow us to reach to those who are active on social media, as well as those who prefer to use brochures and have an actual item in front of them to look at.

Timing of AdvertisingWhale watching is a seasonal activity, and therefore it is necessary to properly plan out a strategic advertising plan. With Steveston Seabreeze Adventures, their season begins in April and ends in October, however our campaign will be running from the beginning of March to the end of May. This has been decided based on the fact that out of the six months the tours are offered, this time period is considered the ‘off-season’. This timing will help increase the amount of sales for the company during this time period and allow for more tours booked during this period.

As previously mentioned, our three forms of advertisement will include an updated brochure, Facebook Advertisements, and an advertisement on Google when specific keywords are searched. For the brochure, there is no way to figure out exactly when a customer sees it because there is no tracking on it. Brochures would be located where the brochures are already located, such as Vancouver International Airport (YVR), as well as various hotels and tourist attractions around the region. For the Facebook advertisement, we plan on having these advertisements featured primarily in the later afternoon, continuing on into the late evening. Since our target market is families, many parents do not get home from their jobs until that time. That is when families typically are able to spend time together, and that is also when most trips and experiences are booked. In terms of the sponsored ad on Google, this will be shown whenever a customer searches up keywords such as ‘whale’, ‘watching’, ‘Vancouver’, and ‘Steveston’. This ad in particular is the most accessible during any time of day because it is a click away. This one will most likely be the most effective means of viewing the advertisement.

Market CoverageIn terms of coverage, we will be advertising on a regional basis, focusing on the cities of the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley Regional District. The company believes that they will have a large impact on Steveston Seabreeze Adventure’s tours and popularity among tourists.

TimingSince whale-watching tours are seasonal, we will be following a seasonal advertisement schedule. This ensures that having the advertising pre-season will allow for customers to know about the product offered ahead of time for when the tour is booked.

Reach ConsiderationFor the reach strategy the company will be using the brochure, which would be distributed through the Vancouver Airport, major hotels and resorts, and most of the areas of attraction in Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley region, such as (according to FoundLocally.ca) Stanley Park, China Town, Granville Island, Science World, Museum of Anthropology, and Vancouver Aquarium.

Frequency ConsiderationsConsidering the family tour product as a brand new one, the company will focus on a reach factor rather than a frequency factor which can be adjusted by budget limitation. Steveston Seabreeze Adventures concentrates on Facebook ads in late afternoon and evening hours when family members are together, and meanwhile, online sponsored ads on Google are to be seen all day long in order to maximize its product awareness.

Continuity ConsiderationsThe course of the campaign will last approximately three months, starting from March and ending in May, since the Whale Watching season ends in June. Therefore, the last possible time for an advertisement to be seen is the 31st of May.

Engagement ConsiderationsIn order for customers to be engaged with the ad, it is necessary to create an advertisement that flawlessly enables the customer to be interested in it. In terms of the internet ads, it can be simple to use a pop-up feature on the ad to engage the customer. However, for a brochure it is much harder for a company to pop out. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the brochure is interesting and has something to make customers remember it and ensure they consider the company at the very least.

Media Selection RationaleIn the media campaign, the company will focus on Facebook Advertisements, Google Sponsored Advertisements, and a Brochure. We believe that once the advertising images on the Facebook ‘places’ tour has been positioned properly on the pages, then by clicking ‘LIKE’ and ‘SHARE’ , the friends and family share their experiences with potential customers in promoting the tour in a very short time period. They tag the places where friends were visiting, make comments on the pictures they took during the tour, and make connections each other on their impressions, memories, and thoughts.

While company website introduces its product by showing lots of visual images on the whale watching, the Google sponsored search, according to Google Adwords2, could be utilized for the company’s tour package to come up on top of the search lists. This feature could be attracting more potential customers and also cost effective because the company only pays the fees when customers click its advertisement. For example, Google Adwords2 reports that Freshly Brewed Coffee paid only about $300 when they got around 5000 clicks from customers, which means that the Steveston Seabreeze Adventures can adjust its cost by using the statistics and budget consideration.

Facebook Advertisements

The idea for the Facebook advertisement is to have a sponsored link to the Steveston Seabreeze Adventures website with a 15% off coupon for each member of the family tour. This will allow us to track how many customers have clicked on the advertisement, and when the coupon is used, it will allow us to view the ratio between clicks and transactions using the coupon code. As well, ensuring that the company Facebook page constantly gets updated is necessary in order for the company to engage with its customers. Having the advertisements as well as the Facebook page will hopefully result in higher sales.

Google Sponsored AdvertisementsThe second advertising technique is to have sponsored Facebook advertisements when certain keywords, such as ‘whale’, ‘watching’, ‘Vancouver’, and ‘Steveston’ etc., are typed, the sponsored advertisement will be higher up in the searches than other companies, giving them more exposure than other companies. Making this happen allows for customers to hear about Steveston Seabreeze Adventures first, and ensures their company and brand remains in the

mind of the customer when selecting a tour company to go with for their Whale Watching Tour.

Brochure

The current brochure for Steveston Seabreeze Adventures is slightly outdated, which is why the last advertising medium we will be focusing on is the brochure. The current brochure is outdated, with an older overall feeling to it. The new brochure will feature the prices of tours, information about the company, and a coupon for a specific amount off of the total price of the family tour. This will engage customers with the company and the coupon gives customers a reason to remember the company and select Steveston Seabreeze Adventures’ newly developed family tour.

Media Rejection RationaleSteveston Seabreeze Adventures’ campaign will be given a specific budget to divide among the several advertising mediums the company has chosen to use. Steveston Seabreeze Adventures has chosen to not use television ads and radio ads, because of the strict budget. Both of these mediums are typically expensive, and the company feels that it will not be worth the cost to use these advertising mediums. As well, television and radio advertisements do not correspond with our suggested timing of the advertisements. It is suggested that our proposed advertisements will reach the customer when they are at home, during ‘family time’. This why Steveston Seabreeze Adventures has chosen to use brochures, Google sponsored advertisements, and Facebook Advertisements.

Media Execution

Blocking Chart

Budget SummaryThe following charts are a representation of the costs associated with the Media Plan.

Online Advertisements

Online # of Ads/Day Cost of Ads/Day Total CostGoogle Sponsored

Advertisement1 $50 $4500

Facebook Advertisement

1 $25 $2300

Total Cost $6800

Print

Document Cost to Create/Distribute

Brochure $3000Press Release $1700

Total Cost $4700

Prizes

Prize # of Winners Prize Cost Total Cost1st Prize 1 $1000 $10002nd Prize 1 $500 $5003rd Prize 1 $500 $500

Total Cost $2000

Development

Development/Enhancements CostWebsite $1000

Logo $750T-Shirts for Employees $750

Total Cost $2500

References

GoogleAdWords. N.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. Retrieved from http://www.google.ca/adwords/start/?sourceid=awo&subid=ca-en-ha-aw-bkmp0~50826508685&gclid=CjwKEAiAqMajBRCdjejki6yjuDwSJACQeVukoHDPahoee7BzojZj9jFmYO6iRGnItUkbsONCdHDqhhoCoMLw_wcB

Seabreeze Adventure | Whale Watching Vancouver-Shuttle Available. Go Whale Watching Vancouver! N.d., 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2014. Retrieved from http://www.seabreezeadventures.ca/

Must-See Attractions in Vancouver." Greater Vancouver and Lower Mainland. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. Retrieved from http://vancouver.foundlocally.com/Travel/Attr-TopAttractions.htm

EQ Profiles. Canadian Tourism Commission. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. Retrieved from http://en-corporate.canada.travel/sites/default/files/pdf/Resources/ctc_eq_profiles_2012-eng-lowres.pdf

Tuckwell, Keith J. (2014). Integrated marketing communications: strategic planning perspectives. Toronto, Canada: Pearson Canada Inc.