Our Work
Zag

Our Work

Flagstaff County

Escape to simplicity: Showcasing the charm and craftsmanship of the Flagstaff Region. 

Opportunity

Take a Moment Campaign

The Flagstaff Region is a warm and welcoming group of communities in eastern Alberta. Filled with ample camping, golfing, and wholesome experiences, it makes from an incredible getaway from the hustle and bustle of city living. 

The issue? Flagstaff was seeing a decline in the number of travellers visiting the region and a shortage of young couples and families looking to settle down. Ripe with industry, stunning landscapes, and family-friendly amenities, it was clear that the challenge was solvable using smart marketing.  

Flagstaff Crafted Gift Guide

The gift that keeps on giving, Flagstaff Crafted is a program run by Flagstaff County that enhances the exposure of local makers, artisans, and retailers. They knew that businesses were suffering in 2020 due to the pandemic and wanted to do something about it. With zag on board, the focus turned to boosting sales and awareness in preparation for the holiday season. 

The audience for this project was residents of Flagstaff County and surrounding areas, specifically people searching for a unique handmade gift item — not something from a big box store, but something with a story. 

Approach

Take a Moment Campaign

zag set out to introduce travellers to the charming experiences waiting for them in the Flagstaff Region. The creative featured the line “Take a Moment” painted across dreamy scenes captured around the beautiful settings of the Region, urging viewers to slow down and get back to a simpler way of living. The custom photography and videography featured just a snippet of the lakes, golf courses, walking trails, and vintage barns found in Flagstaff, positioning it as the perfect locale to bring that dream to life. 

Flagstaff Crafted Gift Guide 

zag created the Flagstaff Crafted 2020 Gift Guide to highlight local businesses. We collected information, planned the layout, wrote copy, and designed it all into an attractive, impactful guide. The virtual guide includes easy, clickable links to the product pages on the makers’ websites for quick and effortless shopping. It also features holiday themed bundles and snippets of business owners’ personal stories to foster connections with new audiences. 

Execution

Take a Moment Campaign

zag designed and executed a comprehensive media campaign that significantly elevated Flagstaff’s visibility and reputation. By leveraging a diverse array of marketing channels—including Meta, out-of-home (OOH) advertising, Google Ads, and YouTube—zag not only captured widespread attention but also fostered greater awareness and engagement. This multifaceted approach propelled Flagstaff to new heights, ensuring a lasting impact across multiple platforms and reaching a broad and diverse audience.

Flagstaff Crafted Gift Guide

A compelling creative concept, engaging copywriting, striking graphic design, and custom illustrations, all meticulously crafted to bring the Flagstaff Crafted 2020 Gift Guide to life. We see the bigger picture and were dedicated to creating something that would effectively highlight local makers and their unique products to truly make a difference in their lives and community.

Awards

This all resulted in both a breathtaking advertising campaign that would pique adventure enthusiasts across Western Canada as well as a beautiful gift guide featuring local craft. Oh, and did we mention we took home 3 EDAC awards, an Alto, and an IABC Silver Leaf Award? 

Take a Moment Campaign

The campaign creative was recognized nationally with four awards from the Economic Developers Association of Canada (EDAC), including their highest accolade, a Marketing Canada Award. In addition, “Take a Moment” was recognized for its tourism excellence by Travel Alberta, winning the 2018 Award of Marketing Excellence Campaign or Project in the $25,000 – $75,000 category. 

Flagstaff Crafted Gift Guide

The Flagstaff Crafted Gift Guide was recognized nationally, winning two IABC Canada awards in 2021, including an IABC Capital Award of Excellence in Communication Skills in the Publications category as well as an IABC Silver Leaf Award of Excellence in Communication Skills in the Publications category.

Interested in the numbers? Check out full results and metrics in detail below.

Results

Take a Moment Campaign

The campaign ran from April 30th to June 24th and saw significant success in digital measurement and tourism spend in the region:  

  • The client experienced a 23% increase in revenue across Flagstaff County-owned campgrounds, and all regional golf courses reported an increase in bookings. 
  • The Battle River Train Excursion, a featured regional activity, saw continued growth, allowing the program to expand its offerings, renovate its train station, add two part-time staff, and gain a feature by CBC: Our Edmonton. 
  • The Heritage Barn Tours were highlighted, resulting in 208 total sales of the Heritage Barns of Flagstaff Volume 1 book, exceeding the sales goal by 148. 
  • The campaign generated substantial earned media, leading to the client’s first interviews about Flagstaff with Global Edmonton and CBC Radio, along with numerous inquiries about billboards and bus shelters. 
  • The campaign achieved a click-through rate of 14.46% on Google Search dynamic ads and 489,288 impressions on Google Display ads, with click-through rates as high as nearly 1% on some creative. 
  • YouTube ads reached a completion rate of nearly 52.44%, with close to 150,000 impressions. 
  • On Facebook, the campaign received over 300,000 impressions, 29 reactions, 19 comments, 42 shares, and 35 new page likes. 
  • The campaign significantly drove traffic to the Flagstaff website, with Google ads accounting for 50.91% of the traffic and Facebook advertising responsible for an additional 36%, resulting in an increase of 7,547 new users during the campaign period. 

Flagstaff Crafted Gift Guide

  • 3 of 4 items made exclusively for the Gift Guide sold out 
  • 52.9% of all website users checked out the Gift Guide 
  • 5 makers made their first ever website in order to participate 
  • 46% of listed products on participants’ websites sold out during the guide’s run 
  • 1250 unique page views  
  • 77% of makers saw an increase in overall sales  
  • 4X the regular number of average web sessions on launch day  
  • 9.73% bounce rate 
  • 70% of makers are set to participate in future guides 

Testimonials

Take a Moment Campaign

The client was elated with the standout copy and breathtaking imagery, offering the following testimonial: 
 
“We received four marketing awards for our economic development initiatives, and zag was instrumental in them all; one award for our Investment Guide and Sell sheets (publication over four pages) and three awards (including the highest award of the evening) for our Tourism and Lifestyle campaign! We were up against some very big players across Canada and Flagstaff County took home the top awards. Pretty exciting!” 

— Jenalee Waring, Economic Development Officer, The Flagstaff Region 

Flagstaff Crafted Gift Guide

The client was thrilled with the final output, offering the following testimonial:

“The idea of creating a gift guide for the Flagstaff Crafted Program was exciting for our team and we had lots of ideas but no experience executing the process of creating a guide. This is where the help of zag was super beneficial. We presented our ideas to the zag team, and they created exactly what we were asking for. They offered us different options/concepts to choose from which was fantastic. The team was creative, professional, quick to respond to our needs, and very experienced. Anything we asked for was executed perfectly. We are super proud of the Flagstaff Crafted Gift Guide and thankful to team zag for helping bring our ideas to fruition. 

We were extremely pleased with the work you guys did on this project.”  

 — Kerri Lefsrud, Economic Development Officer 

“Our challenge was finding a tangible way to promote the businesses/products that are “Flagstaff Crafted” – we wanted our target audience to understand all of the amazing local products and businesses right at their fingertips, and have a beautiful, exciting and tangible product to deliver that message. 

zag approached our problem in a creative, intelligent and inspiring way (as usual). We felt like they were digging in our minds and finding the answers we didn’t even know ourselves. Zag truly sees the big picture of Flagstaff Crafted, and always circles back to our core values and aspirations on a singular project such as the gift guide. 

Our thoughts on the final product are 100% positive and impressed — several of our makers sold out of their products, and we now complete the gift guide bi-annually to showcase new products and businesses.”   

— Kristy Jackson, Economic Development Officer