Award winning campaign.

The Greater Sudbury Regional Development Corp. has taken home top honours in a national marketing award for the Dinosaurs 2000 campaign.

The development corporation partnered last year with Science North and four local hotels - Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel, Holiday Inn, Travelodge and Travelway Inn - to pool their resources and better package the attractions and area lodgings to visitors.

The collaborative marketing initiative, specifically the accompanying visitors guide, attracted the attention of the Economic Development Association of Canada, the award's sponsors.

Working with a $250,000 budget, including $50,000 from Science North and their hospitality partners, the campaign's tourism publication garnered first place against submissions from every major Canadian city.

Launched by Science North last March, Dinosaurs 2000 was a collection of life-sized, animatronic dinosaurs - including a six-metre tall Tyrannosaurus - coupled with a giant screen Imax presentation, simulator rides, and various hands-on exhibits aimed at promoting Canada's contribution to dinosaur research.

Rob Skelly, tourism manager for the development corporation, says the visitors guide was developed to be a fulfilment piece to inquiries generated through the advertising in various tourism marketing publications, as well as from a radio and television blitz which ran from mid-February to late August last year.

"'The publication was just one element of a broader campaign that focused on this image of the dinosaur eye," says Skelly. "It was a very complete program in terms of media coverage and this publication was the piece we sent out for people wanting more information. It also had good descriptions of other area attractions, events from March to October, very good detailed maps, areas of interest, restaurants and accommodations."

Marketing consultants 50 Carleton & Associates, working in conjunction with freelance designer Tony Jurgilas, created the award-winning materials.

Science North's attendance at the new exhibit hail was over 120,000 for the first year and over 160,000 for the centre itself. Most of the visitors surveyed were first-time attendees, many coming from Northern Ontario, south-central Ontario or at least within a day's drive of the city. The hotel partners also reported better than anticipated boosts in business and urged a similar marketing program be staged again.

Skelly says the idea originted from a discussion with the Science North officials two years ago about the popularity and the drawing power of dinosaurs. They decided to put together a campaign combining the hotels as an element of the packaging.

The initiative, concentrating their marketing efforts on the exhibit as a destination while tying in other tourism facilities, worked so well they're willing to try again for another upcoming Science North exhibit.

Skelly plans to duplicate the dinosaur campaign in 2001 by focusing on short-run events staged in Science North's special exhibits hail. An upcoming exhibit with a science on the wild side theme will be combined with an Imax movie.

"Our theming and our image will be consistent and focused on that event We're in discussion to bring in more hotel partners on board and even other attractions to extend the packaging further, but use the exhibit as the initial attraction."