For the second year in a row the municipality's marketing campaign, Explore Sundre, was named one of three finalists at the recent annual Alto (Alberta Tourism) Awards.
"It's a great recognition for the town that helps put Sundre and its surrounding area on the map for visitors," said Jon Allan, Sundre's economic development officer.
"Even though we didn't win, it was super fun to be a finalist and to be in such great company."
The awards were presented Oct. 23 during Travel Alberta's industry conference in Banff.
Sundre was up against two other finalists in the Marketing Excellence Over $50,000 category ó Marmot Basin in Jasper, which won the honours for its campaign to promote the ski resort's ëescape card', as well as the Conseil De DÈveloppement …conomic de l'Alberta (Alberta Council for Economic Development) for that group's campaign to promote this province to residents of QuÈbec.
"We were at the finals with the big guys," said Allan.
Last year, the Explore Sundre marketing campaign was also a finalist against heavy hitters such as the Calgary Zoo's Illuminasia campaign, he said.
"Being there with other top notch marketers gave me a whole lot of ideas to continuously improve our own campaign," he said, adding one area with room for improvement is expanding the municipality's online presence.
"Even though we have a huge social media presence on Facebook, we need to ramp up other social media techniques such as Instagram," he said.
More multimedia micro-content ó essentially short but captivating and informational video clips ó could also be created by pursuing avenues such as inviting more travel bloggers in the area than has previously been done, he said.
"There's so much more we could do."
Sundre's 2015-2016 marketing campaign had a combined budget of about $117,000, of which half was paid for by Travel Alberta. Local business partners contributed an additional $13,000 with the remaining balance covered by the municipality over the two years, he said.
That investment in turn spurred an estimated $2 million of inward capital flow into the region, which was basically double the initial goal to generate at least $1 million, he said.
"That's a 1,700 per cent return on investment."
That figure was based on the increased number of people stopping at the Visitor Information Centre ó which set another record this year ó as well as the local and regional business partners involved in the campaign, he said.
"We assign a dollar value of approximately $80 to people who stop in at the Visitor Information Centre."
While not everyone necessarily spends that much, there is a correlated increase in money spent in town based on the number of visitors who stop at the centre, he added.
Residents of Sundre and the surrounding area have every reason to be proud of their community -- which is situated in a beautiful region -- and the partnerships that have helped spread the word to generate more interest in the area, he said.
"People are realizing that Sundre and the surrounding area is a destination for outdoor adventure and culture."
