KORE’s Kootenay Approved Campaign Report

In the Autumn of 2023, Kootenay Outdoor Recreation Enterprise (KORE) launched “Kootenay Approved,” a branding and attraction campaign promoting the south-eastern region of British Columbia, its designers, manufacturers, and business people in the outdoor rec-tech industry who are responsible for the craft gear from here.

Funded by ETSI-BC’s Innovating and Advancing Key Sectors program, the “Kootenay Approved” campaign’s primary mission is to raise consumer awareness of the KORE gear maker and creator cluster, increase sales of the products they’re responsible for, and attract business growth in the Kootenays. As part of the initiative, KORE is collaborating with Kootenay economic development offices and tourism destination marketing organizations to promote Kootenay brands, tourism, and municipal and regional development. Elements of the project include:

  1. “Kootenay Approved” branding creation
  2. Banff Mountain Film Festival Attraction Event
  3. “Make Gear Here” Video Series Pilot
  4. “Kootenay Approved” Success Stories
  5. “Kootenay Approved” advertising and in-store displays in retail brick and mortars
  6. “Kootenay Approved” integration into KORE brands
  7. Podcast Guest Outreach
  8. “Kootenay Approved” Journalist FAM Trip (Powder Highway)
  9. Creation of a “Kootenay Approved” promotional toolkit

Below is a report about where KORE is with these elements of the Kootenay Approved project.

#1. “Kootenay Approved” branding creation

Nichola Lytle, a designer based in Nelson, British Columbia, as well as the brainchild behind the Happy Way App was hired to construct the Kootenay Approved logo and she came up with three options that can be used in a variety of ways. (See logos above.) One logo includes KORE and is for use by outside companies and organizations. The second includes the campaign’s hashtag, which is #kootenayapproved, and the third is a cleaner version for use via KORE communication channels.

#2. Banff Mountain Film Festival Attraction Event

Involvement with the 2023 Banff Mountain Film Festival was a huge success that culminated with more than 10 million campaign impressions. Other achievements of the partnership are listed in our Banff Festival article that summarizes it all. Another of the highlights included having a booth at the Banff Centre’s three-day marketplace that showcased products from 20 manufacturers and designers based in the Kootenay region. The custom booth was designed by Selkirk College’s Technology Access Centre and displayed everything from bikes and skies to beanies and snowboards. Other highlights included:

  • hosting an hour-long Fireside Chat in which Kootenay makers discussed their products and the region;
  • having the KORE “Kootenay Approved” logo and branding included in the festival’s official trailer
  • being a part of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour via the contest that included a “Kootenay Approved Craft Gear Crate” prize that included an assortment of equipment designed and perfected in the Kootenay region of British Columbia.

Numbers from that event are impressive. Festival organizers calculated the trailer was viewed over 92,000 times at the event alone. Overall impressions were 10.5 million. The majority of in-person visitors were from Alberta and the US, areas in which KORE is targeting, and being part of the World Tour Contest ensures the Kootenay Approved messaging is featured at 457 screenings in 250 communities to an approximate audience of 250,000.

For a full numerical breakdown of the Kootenay Approved Campaign as it applies to the partnership with Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, visit our article, “Banff 2023 Photo Journal.

#3. “Come Make Gear Here” Video Series Pilot

A “Come Make Gear Here” video series pilot has been created by Eric Gonzalez and features makers, marketers, and Tom Thomson, executive director of the Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce, speaking about the value of working and playing in the Kootenay region of British Columbia. The intent is to create another 10 episodes around the Kootenays as an attraction initiative to have business people start up or relocate their companies to the region.

#4. Kootenay Approved Success Stories

#5. Kootenay Approved Advertising and In-Store Displays

Kootenay Approved advertising was placed in a variety of publications from Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine to the Banff Mountain Film Festival programme. An example can be seen above.

#6. Kootenay Approved Integration into KORE brands

Certain KORE members have already been given the Kootenay Approved tool kit and all members will have access over the course of Spring 2024.

#7. KORE Outdoors Podcast

The outdoors and the office unite in a new podcast that helps entrepreneurs, designers, and makers improve the way they do business in the gear manufacturing sector. Through conversations with various professionals, the KORE Outdoors podcast shares strategies and insights that can help every creator working in the outdoor equipment space to take their craft gear from here and catapult it into the global marketplace.

Episodes will be found on all major podcast platforms starting in April and will include conversations with various business people including:

🎤 Jamie Bond, co-founder of Rux, the Squamish-based gear storage brand.
🎤 Greg McDonald, GM of Ridley’s Cycle in Calgary about the bicycle industry.
🎤 Louis-Julien Roy, founder of sales agency Mountain Exposure.
🎤 Ryan Popoff of Popov Leather in Nelson about his e-commerce success.
🎤 Carina Hamel and Robby Ringer, co-founders of Bivo, which makes unique stainless steel bottles for biking.

#8. Kootenay Approved Journalist Trip

This aspect of the campaign is still being worked on.

#9. Creation of a “Kootenay Approved” Tool Kit

The Kootenay Approved Media Kit has been created and can be accessed by emailing Kevin Pennock.

About KORE

KORE is an economic development and diversification initiative managed by the Kootenay Outdoor Recreation Enterprise Society located in Kimberley, British Columbia. It is an industry alliance of outdoor recreation gear manufacturers and designers in the Kootenays and has brought together a network of 60+ craft gear makers and designers who have organically started up production manufacturing and designing in the region. KORE’s mission is to foster growth within the alliance through education, collaboration and connecting businesses to resources, grants, financing and capital, and to attract outdoor recreation product manufacturing and designers into the region to relocate or facilitate new entrepreneurial start-ups.

About ETSI-BC

The Kootenay Approved campaign is funded by ETSI-BC’s Innovating and Advancing Key Sectors program. With this funding stream, ETSI-BC prioritizes collaborative/regional industry partnership projects with industry groups that are established or emerging in the Southern Interior region. ETSI-BC hopes to serve as a catalyst for new economic development initiatives supporting industry cluster development, research and adaptation of innovative technologies, industry wide collaboration to address business challenges or opportunities, reduce environmental impacts, such as waste or energy utilization and improve sustainability.