• by Aaron Baar , June 2, 2016

Come November, there may be a lot of Americans thinking about moving to Canada, but perhaps they would like to pay a visit first. 

Air Canada has launched a new digital marketing campaign encouraging U.S. citizens to “Test Drive Canada” this summer before they make a hasty big move. 

“As with past U.S. election campaigns, every four years we see the phenomenon of Americans musing about moving to Canada,” Peter Fitzpatrick, a representative for the airline, tells Marketing Daily. “With recent stories about interest south of the border in Canada, we recognized it was an opening for all these and the idea took a lot of work but came together fairly quickly, in a few weeks.”

The effort, from J. Walter Thompson Canada, is targeted at travelers in five U.S. markets. The effort includes pre-roll video showing the increasing number (well over a million and counting) of Americans searching, “How can I move to Canada?” “It’s very flattering, and we certainly have the room,” an airline agent says of the interest. “But before you sell your house and book a one-way ticket, maybe it makes sense to check us out first.” She encourages people to book a long weekend to visit, see one of the sights and “try out the metric system.” 

“We thought we would have a little fun in a tongue-in-cheek, creative way using typically understated Canadian humour,” Fitzpatrick says via e-mail. “We are always looking for opportunities to launch innovative campaigns, particularly if we can combine conventional and social media as well as other platforms to raise interest.”

The five markets — Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. — were selected based on the airline’s network and schedule, Fitzpatrick says. Throughout the campaign, Air Canada will monitor social media conversations and respond to U.S. residents with messages and targeted videos.