#ExploreNextDoor – Promote your community to your neighbours

Vancouver Island’s Comox Valley and Campbell River have neighbouring communities with unique flair that have worked hard to offer uncommon visitor experiences. They all have a rich natural beauty, a variety of family-friendly activities, and have developed their downtowns to provide boutique shopping experiences.

COVID-19 restrictions limited travel and closed businesses, which made the normally bustling downtowns feel like ghost towns. The Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Campbell River & District Chamber of Commerce found a way to help by launching the #ExploreNextDoor campaign. The campaign encouraged residents to explore their neighbouring communities and showcase businesses that had safely reopened.

The challenge

In late spring 2020 as the Province started to lift COVID-19 restrictions, the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Campbell River & District Chamber of Commerce came together to brainstorm ways they could support their business communities. Going into the 2020 summer season, businesses faced unprecedented hardships.  The Chambers' goal was to help with two significant challenges:

• COVID-19 restrictions had temporarily forced the closure of many businesses. Businesses needed a way to share they had reopened with new procedures to keep customers safe
• International and interprovincial travel restrictions were significantly reducing the number of visitors to the region

The strategy

Knowing the challenges businesses were facing, the Chambers launched the #ExploreNextDoor social media campaign. The campaign encouraged locals to use their time at home to explore neighbouring communities. The campaign invited residents to take their bubble and visit the local businesses and world-class attractions that make the region a tourist destination. Local explorers were then encouraged to share their adventures on social media with the tags #ExploreNextDoor #MeetYourNeighbours #MeetOurNeighbours and #ExploreBC. The campaign gave residents a chance to promote reopened businesses they visited and replace some of the lost visitors with local tourists.

In mid-July, to launch the campaign the executive director and CEO of the neighbouring Chambers designed for each other a day-trip itinerary to their community. Itineraries included boutiques, cafes, local galleries, restaurants as well as local free activities in the community. They hired a local media studio – conveniently located in Black Creek, between the two communities – to document the day so they could share the experience with the world.

Both parties had a great day of exploration under blue skies. Even as long-term residents, they found the prepared itineraries brought them to new and unexpected locations. 

Three videos were created: two one-minute videos of Campbell River and the Comox Valley, and a longer video sharing the full days of adventure shopping, eating and activities, along with clips of local business owners sharing their story. The videos were posted on the Chambers’ Facebook pages, uploaded to YouTube and shared with the Chambers’ email distribution list.

Successes

• When the videos were launched, they went viral – 4,500 hits on the campaign – with lots of people sharing and commenting on the video
• The campaign was shared widely by local media: Douglas magazine share the initiative and a local radio station, 97.3 The Eagle, talked about the campaign often and encouraged people to take part
• #ExploreNextDoor built relationships in the communities and made people feel seen and cared for
• Shops loved the opportunity to be involved and to share that they were open and safe for visitors

The campaign is not finite. Based on the success so far, both Chambers plan on continuing to promote and share #explorenextdoor. The campaign can pivot if required by the pandemic and will be looking for new ways to grow. This spring, the Chambers plan to put together another itinerary of activities and head out to share more hidden gems that their neighbours may not be aware of.

Lessons learned

• The golden rule of 2020 – Be flexible and don’t wait to put ideas into action because things change quickly. The campaign worked because it was three weeks from initial idea to launch  
• Be authentic, have fun, and keep it simple. When promoting your community use real people, show up as yourself, and share real experiences so people can put themselves in your shoes 
• Chambers aren’t in competition with one another, so partnering for cross-community promotion works well. #ExploreNextDoor could become a provincial initiative

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