When something is familiar, it’s only natural to take it for granted. Ontario is no different. It conjures up images of Niagara Falls, the CN Tower, trees and lakes.

For Canadians it all seems too familiar, too much like home, with nothing new or intriguing. So they tune out communications from the province.

Research revealed that when it comes to travel, people are looking for the unfamiliar, seeking experiences that are new and different from where they live and what they know.

This contradicted the conventional approach to marketing within the tourism category of focusing on well-known landmarks.

The Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Commission (OTMPC) realized that to break through and change Canadians perceptions of Ontario, it needed to take the counter-intuitive approach and focus on all the people, places and experiences in Ontario that people don’t know about.

Working with FCB, the brand created a campaign that didn’t reveal that the creative was from Ontario but instead challenged Ontarians to answer the question: “Where am I?”

Using the power of intrigue, on June 22 the team launched a ten-day teaser phase to the campaign using 60-second TV, video and social media. Intriguing, unfamiliar yet desirable content were crafted in the form of riddles, and challenged people to answer the question of “Where Am I?” without revealing the answer.

The campaign drove people to a microsite to take a guess. A built in geo-guesser using Google Maps API created a virtual game of “hot and cold” in kilometers.

The team then revealed a new clue each day and on July 2, they revealed that the incredible places and experiences were actually in Ontario. People could find more details by visiting Ontariotravel.net and exploring more of what Ontario has to offer.

Participation and engagement with the campaign was extraordinary, with one in 309 Canadians from 480 cities participating in the online guessing game (only 13% guessed correctly).

After the big reveal, travel to and within the province increased dramatically, with overnight visits tripling, summer trips nearly doubling and the campaign returning $7.23 cents for every dollar spent. It has also now been launched across the U.S. and the U.K.