Invest in Iconics Brand Strategy: The Foundation of a Brand

The Invest in Iconics Strategy is a long-term strategy to responsibly increase tourism revenue to British Columbia through visitor dispersion, using Place Branding and Place Making (destination development) to competitively differentiate BC on the world stage. By identifying a small number of globally compelling routes and places, this strategy provides a powerful new way to package and market British Columbia to international visitors and facilitate the development of remarkable in-destination experiences.

Place Branding is a key component of the Invest in Iconics Strategy, providing a way to connect people and place identity with visitor relevance and appeal, and inspire the world’s travellers to visit, for years to come. One element of place branding—brand strategy—is the foundation of a brand which guides and inspires how a brand is represented to the world, and how we position travel experiences to our audiences.

Over the past two years, we’ve had the opportunity to engage with many tourism partners, organisations, businesses, and residents across the province to share information and gather feedback to uncover the unique appeal of various iconic routes and places. This information has been synthesised to shape and support the brand strategy phase of the project that is now underway. The brand strategies for each iconic route and place will be rooted in these insights.

Creating brands for the iconic routes and places in BC is much more than creating a logo, and more than choosing colours and tone of voice; it’s about creating a strong, compelling, and differentiated vision and storyline for how we want the world to see and think about British Columbia’s extraordinary routes and places.

The brand strategies for the Invest in Iconics Strategy’s routes and places will exist within a framework consisting of many strategic elements to guide the brands, such as brand essence, purpose, values, attributes, and personality. Destination BC, together in consultation with our partners—Indigenous Tourism BC, Regional Destination Management Organisations, and Industry Advisory Groups—are currently working on the brand essence and overarching brand ideas for each of the Iconic routes and places.

A brand’s essence allows each Iconic route or place in BC to have a specific and well-defined space in the marketplace—and therefore in the mind of the consumer—giving them a reason to travel and enjoy everything the Iconic routes and places have to offer. Once finalised, the brand strategies will be tested in our core geographic markets for appeal, uniqueness, and relevance, and then narrowed down to a final brand idea or essence for each Iconic. Following consumer testing, we will complete the brand strategies for the first two Iconics, which will launch in 2023.

Communities across the province can align themselves with these new brands to amplify their own tourism efforts and deliver on the experiences that the Iconic route and place brands inspire. These new route and place brands aspire to bring global recognition to BC and bring respectful travelers at the right time to destinations who are ready to welcome them.

Learn more at DestinationBC.ca/Iconics