Canada 150 social media posts cost $2 million

The Canadian government has spent nearly $2 million promoting the Canada 150 celebrations on social media.

That’s from 13 different social media campaigns paid for by Canadian Heritage, according to numbers revealed in documents tabled last week in the House of Commons in response to a question from Conservative MP Guy Lauzon.

Around $950,000 was spent on five Facebook campaigns, another $375,000 for five on Twitter, and $426,000 on two YouTube campaigns.

Another $17,000 (US$13,000) was used to create custom Snapchat geofilters.

That makes for a total of $1.916 million dollars.

An example of a #Canada150 Facebook post 

In addition, there are four social media campaigns (two on Facebook, and one each on Twitter and YouTube) that haven’t been accounted for because they are still ongoing.

The budget for Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations was $500 million dollars, and one poll found the majority of Canadians thought that was too much money spent. Infrastructure accounted for $300 million of the budget, and another $200 million was delegated to Canadian Heritage for Community Events, Signature Events and Major Events.

The $2 million on social media spending amounted to 1 per cent of the budget for events, or 0.4 per cent of the total.

While Canadian Heritage spent $17,000 on Snapchat filters, other departments spent much less on similar items. For example, the Snapchat filter created for museums were less pricey –the Canadian Museum of History paid $190 for an “on-demand geofilter used to promote opening of Canadian History Hall.”

Geofilters range in price, but usually run around $5 per 20,000 square feet, according to a Snapchat blog post.

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Officials at Canadian Heritage said they believe the social media advertising “successfully met the objectives of the campaign,” and said it was low-cost advertising.

“With social media we are able to leverage the targeting options and purchasing options to lower costs while delivering an effective campaign over a specific period of time,” a spokesperson for Canadian Heritage told Global News in an email. “These costs are often lower than other tactics and can be easily measured through analytics.”

The majority of the work ($1.8 million worth) was contracted out to Cossette Communications, a Montreal based company. Heritage officials say the contracts were awarded based on the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada.