Tourism Kingston
Over the past five years, working directly with Tourism Kingston as well as with their Agency of Record, Alphabet, we’ve created a vast network of content and films for their brand.
We’ve told stories to drive awareness, raise the affinity of the brand, and drive action with Tourism consumers.
Kingston is a unique destination with a long history, so telling the right stories to attract a diverse audience has been an exhilarating challenge.
Awareness
CAMPAIGN: CLOSER
Film title: “I Can’t Wait Until You Get Here.”
Awards:
Summit International Awards:
Gold - Travel/Tourims/Nature VideoTelly Awards:
Bronze Winner - Branded Content: Travel/Tourism
Silver Telly: - Branded Content: Cinematography
When Alphabet approached us about creating a brand anthem for Kingston, we were extremely excited. For us, it's not often we get to create a piece about the city our team calls home.
Despite being delayed by a pandemic, we create a script and film highlighting some of the pieces of Kingston that make this city so unique. It's one of Canada's oldest cities, right on the water where Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River meet, steps away from some unique pieces of nature.
We wanted to create a feeling of what it means to be here, through a nostalgic feeling of when you were here before.
Agency: Alphabet + Tourism Kingston
Director: Untold
Story Lead and Script: Braden Dragomir
Cinematography: Braden Dragomir & Brody McMaster
Editor: Taylor Leeder
Original Score and Audio Master: Jonas Bonetta & Port William Sound
Voice Artist: Samantha Glovin
Affinity
History is Brewing
When we say History is Brewing in Kingston, it has been for over 200 years.
In the late 1700s beer and fermented drinks were a way to stay sustained and ensure what you were drinking was safe. But as the railroad connected Ontario, Kingston’s brewing scene mostly disappeared vanishing completed during prohibition.
That was until 1986, when Ontario’s second brewpub license was issued to the Kingston Brewing Company. Since then, Kingston is now home to 8 distinct craft breweries and a local cidery, all boasting unique brews and approaches to the craft.
Director: Untold
Story Lead: Braden Dragomir
Producer: Hannah Bird
Cinematography: Braden Dragomir & Brody McMaster
Editor: Taylor Leeder
Colour: Braden Dragomir
Audio Mix and Master: Nicholas Kallman & Skew Sound
Affinity
The Makers of Kingston (Ongoing Series)
Awards:
2017 Tourism Marketing & Travel Media Awards of Excellence - Tourism Marketing Campaign over $50K
In 2016, Alphabet® approached us to conceptualize a video series on the Makers of Kingston that would define a new look within the recently relaunched Visit Kingston brand.
We developed the Makers of Kingston film series which has since been wildly successful in boosting the recognition of the local creators both within and outside of Kingston. Now, a series has over 10 films, plus the digital assets Alphabet® has built including a custom landing page, blog content and more.
We wanted to strive for a completely natural feel, so all of the visual effects in the films are captured in-camera, meaning everything used practical camera techniques. Everything working together to embrace the idea of true authenticity.
Through the integrated digital campaign developed by Alphabet®, the videos have garnered well over 2 Million impressions and 1 million views on Facebook alone.
The videos were also a part of the Makers of Kingston campaign which won the “2017 Tourism Marketing & Travel Media Awards of Excellence - Tourism Marketing Campaign over $50K”, showing that the content not only resonated locally but was industry recognized as leading work.
The Makers of Kingston series and the campaign has continued its award-winning ways, winning another Ontario Tourism Award in 2019.
Director: Untold
Story Lead: Braden Dragomir
Cinematography: Braden Dragomir & Brody McMaster
Editor: Taylor Leeder
Colour: Braden Dragomir
Awareness
Tourism Covid Response
2020 was a year of unpredictability, to say the least. With Kingston and the country in lockdown, Tourism didn’t want to encourage anyone to travel.
Instead, we embarked on a #TogetheratHome campaign. We worked closely with Tourism Kingston to develop this film that told the story of what Kingston was going through. We wanted to find the little details in the community that gave instances of hope to others.
Tourism’s full campaign included Live Social Media Takeovers, promoted takeout and delivery of local shops and restaurants, and told the stories of businesses affected by COVID-19. In total, the campaign reached well over 3.7 million people, led to 22,000+ partner referrals and more than 95,000 page views.
This film alone had almost 200,000 views, 4,000 shares, and over 2,000 likes and engagements on Facebook alone.
Director: Untold
Story Lead: Braden Dragomir
Cinematography: Braden Dragomir & Brody McMaster
Editor: Taylor Leeder
Colour: Braden Dragomir
Awards
Summit Creative Award - Best Coronavirus Response
Canada Day 2020
We followed up our #TogetheratHome film with a uniting performance of “Oh Canada” for Canada Day.
The community had just started to open into Phase 2 of the lockdown restrictions and restaurants were beginning to open their patios. The goal was still non-traditional in that we weren’t encouraging tourists to come into the community. Instead, Tourism wanted to create a feeling of community, and the start of people feeling comfortable to patron their favourite Kingston restaurants and shops.
We filmed the production over two days. Each of the artists was recorded live through a multi-track session by Jonas Bonetta of Port William Sound. We collaborated with Six Degrees to make the final composition and master of the recording.
The video had over 250,000 views with massive reach and engagement across the country.
Director: Untold
Story Lead: Braden Dragomir
Cinematography: Braden Dragomir & Brody McMaster
Field Recording: Jonas Bonetta
Original Composition and Sound Mix: Six Degrees Sound
Editor: Taylor Leeder
Colour: Braden Dragomir
Action
Food Tourism
You might not know it, but Kingston has the unique distinction of having the most restaurants per capita in all of Canada.
With the challenges presented by the pandemic, restaurants have been particularly impacted, so we set out to create a food-focused campaign to really show the quality and diversity of the dining experience.
This campaign had an action focus, with the intent to really encourage consumers to get out and try a little taste of what Kingston has to offer.
Agency: Alphabet
Director: Untold
Story Lead: Braden Dragomir
Producer: Emese Kiraly/Patrick Bisson
Cinematography: Braden Dragomir & Brody McMaster
Editor: Taylor Leeder
Colour: Braden Dragomir
