A New Name, A New Brand.

When trying to re-vamp an already well-established association, the new name and image must have potential brand recognition. In the development of the new name as well as its new image we had to make sure Ontario’s Wilderness Region had the ability to stick in a consumers mind and create a perception of what the region offers.

Along came the name Ontario’s Wilderness Region - followed by the perception of wilderness, from the color palette and the images chosen in the logo. The complete piece does a great job in describing who and what we are, in a simple manner – we are trees, rock and water in the Canadian wilderness.

Why select Ontario’s Wilderness Region?

Many people have been wondering why the name change? After the James Bay Frontier has been around since 1974, what was the point of starting fresh and re-vamping everything that the James Bay was? Well, it’s quite simple. There were a few main points that made us determine if a name change was going to be part of our restructuring.

The James Bay Frontier region is not as far as you may think.

The first main point of this argument is exactly what is stated above. Many travelers (especially from the United States) do not see Ontario as a place for travel destinations. If they are planning a visit to Ontario, they will more than likely state that they are coming to “Canada” for a vacation and not Ontario, even less will they say Northern Ontario. Most of them will look at the map and determine the region they want to visit, but they will only remember that they visited Canada.

This is a problem that Ontario has yet to figure out how to really get around. Since our region is the largest in Ontario, the perception of James Bay reaching all the way up to James Bay and Hudson Bay gave the potential visitors an understanding that a vacation north would be much further than it really is - without realizing that most of the experiences held in Ontario’s Wilderness Region is a lot closer than the lowlands of James Bay.

Ontario’s Wilderness Region puts more focus and delivers a better understanding of experiences offered within the area.

Fishing, hunting, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, wildlife viewing, snowmobiling, ATVing, boating. All of these activities have something in common. They can all be done outdoors, and most of them need a vast array of wilderness to make the experience memorable. Since our region has a combination of over 390,000 square kilometres of remote wilderness, water, and communities, we felt that including the word “wilderness” in our new name was a must. Ontario’s Wilderness Region flows very nicely and it really creates that image of what can actually be experienced here.

Pillars and Slogans

To make it easier for the potential visitors to narrow down their experiences, we have segmented the region into four separate product pillars.

The four pillars are:

• Attractions and Events - There’s More To Do

• Fishing and Hunting - Where Bigger Is Better

• Outdoor Adventures - Explore The Wild

• Recreational Motorsports - Wide Open Spaces

All of these slogans correspond with the experiences waiting to be had within each pillar. Each pillar also cascades very nicely with the experiences to be had throughout Ontario, and how they are being promoted.

Ontario’s Wilderness Region has taken an online approach.

The association has taken a considerable amount of time to make sure our strategies were of the most current and made the most sense in terms of what we want to accomplish as a not-for-profit association. In this day and age, we all know the importance of online marketing. That is why OWR has taken strides to make sure we have the most up-to-date, easy to navigate, full of creativity and multi-media, online web portal there is in Canada, and perhaps around the world.

The OWR portal acts as the main marketing tool for the association, and serves as the resource for wilderness experiences in Northeastern Ontario. Other marketing tools, such as the year-round travel guide, tradeshow attendance, and promotional programs have the objective to lure visitors to the OWR portal.