In a video making the rounds on social media, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson warns Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi: “Eight of your precious citizens may be taking a trip to Edmonton sooner than you think.”
He then laughs maniacally.
The dramatic clip is actually a campaign by Edmonton Tourism. There’s a link to the website at the bottom of the video, where eight Calgarians could win a fun-filled weekend trip to Edmonton.
It’s a play on Calgary Tourism’s tagline and hashtag: “Capture Calgary.”
“We thought, ‘let’s play on that and create a campaign that would be targeted to Calgarians, to entice them to enter our contest’ and get eight Calgarians ‘captured’ as it were to come check out Edmonton and see what YEG has to offer,” Renee Williams with Edmonton Tourism said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than 14,000 times and over 500 people had entered the contest.
Williams credits a lot of that interest to the mysterious quality of the campaign and – of course – the mayor’s participation.
“Mayor Iveson came on board rather quickly and did a great job,” she said. “A little bit of the dramatic flair.”
The video is also airing in Cineplex theatres in Calgary.
The prizes will be a weekend getaway to Edmonton and could include hotel stays, restaurants, events at Rogers Place, shopping and winter festivals.
“The Rogers Place piece is really the key and kind of the hook,” she said. “A lot of people are excited to either come to go to a hockey game or see a concert.”
Williams said this is the first time Edmonton Tourism has specifically targeted Calgary.
“We thought, ‘why not?’ We’ve seen Calgary campaigns come to the Edmonton market. With the economy the way that it is, a lot of staycations are happening, people in the province are kind of staying put, staying closer to home and we thought, ‘why not strike while the iron is hot and get into Calgary?’ … and see if we can entice visitation.”
To learn more about the Capture Calgary contest and to enter, click here.
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