In short
The folks at Clear Lake Country know their town well—and a lot’s at stake with their brand. The very people who run small businesses in town have forged a destination enrichment organization to collaborate with Travel Manitoba on tourism experiences and goals, as well as represent the interests of other small businesses in the area, the national park and the increasingly expanding tourism audience.
Clear Lake was the first inaugural “place brand” initiative with Travel Manitoba—they recognized the need to invest in building a brand personality to attract visitors. The success of this spurred place brand investments across the province and maxed out Clear Lake’s capacity for visitors in the summer.
But that was almost 10 years ago—and while the brand helped them smash visitation goals, the once of-the-moment mark was feeling a little tired after nearly a decade in use. They also didn’t have a flexible visual identity system to express the varying experiences and adventures available during all four seasons out in the wild in Clear Lake.
Methodology
During our brand workshops, we learned that Clear Lake Country really was “adventurer focused.” While Clear Lake Country wants people to visit and fill their shops, restaurants, spas and accommodations, they want to stoke a love for the outdoors first.
They are at peak capacity in summer, and now, they need to appeal to the brave folks who want a town to themselves and a few other like-minded adventurers come winter or the shoulder seasons.
While there is plenty of potential to capitalize on tour guide offerings in the summer, for example, the team feels that if they can’t add extra value to an experience—like getting between you and an interaction in nature—they’d sooner get out of the way.
They want people to come and get lost in nature—finding their way to a deeper connection to the land, themselves and each other along the way. So, we wrote a brand story to appeal to the adventurer in everyone—and landed on the tagline “Let the Wild In”—suggesting that if people were to let nature into their lives and discover a love for this crown jewel in our province, they’d leave better for it.
Execution
Armed with the brand story, our tagline and a sense of “wildness” as our guide, we created a flexible visual identity system that gave Clear Lake Country a huge runway to develop different assets that draw upon seven different font styles, iconography and custom illustrations. The wide array of assets helps them communicate the diversity of experiences available in Clear Lake Country—as well as the imperfections and raw shapes and textures we see out in the wild.
By studying previous park promotions and materials from their history, we were able to bring in elements of the past to help create a timeless mark that feels of-the-moment while being grounded in research.
The website design took a clean, pulled-back approach to make space for the adventurer to take the reins and plan their own itinerary, drawing heavily on photography to spark the adventurer’s imagination and plans. White space helps express that there’s room to let the wild in—the magic happens when you let the outdoors become your only guide.
In collaboration with Travel Manitoba, we created a co-branded video that helps promote the virtues of this vast tourism destination open wide—a place to embrace winter and the lessons it teaches.
Drawing on Travel Manitoba’s heart word framework, we settled on “When your heart needs discovery” for Clear Lake Country—because they want to drive intrigue and encourage folks to get outside and let nature make its imprint on your life.
Outcome
The Clear Lake Country brand managed to capture the needs of many stakeholders and folks who are invested in the town and what it means to them.
By designing them a flexible system, the Clear Lake Country team will be able to create an unlimited supply of expressions and different ways to celebrate their wild home. They can pair the unique brand elements together in unexpected ways—while still staying on-brand and building recognition.
The video-led co-promotion with Travel Manitoba ran on Direct TV/OTT, Meta and YouTube in February and March of 2024 and earned 2.03M impressions and 1.3M views, establishing Clear Lake as THE place to visit for the winter-adventurous in Manitoba.
The biggest measure will be the launch of their new merch line for 2024—one of the biggest sources of funding for the organization—and a direct measure of how visitors respond to the brand.
While they want to measure the hard numbers, they’re also interested in sustainable growth and qualitative feedback—like whether they’re successfully stoking a love and appreciation for the outdoors and this place they call home.
Credits
Creative Director – Brenlee Coates
Art Director – Sheena Case
Marketing Director – Sade Ogungbemi
Marketing Coordinator – Kelsey Norquay
Graphic Designer – Robyn Kacperski
Website Manager – Danielle Kayahara
