Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
A preview of Greater Napanee’s summer marketing campaign was offered during last week’s regular council meeting.
Annie Manion, economic development coordinator for Greater Napanee, was on hand to offer a powerpoint presentation to council highlighting some of the plans for the upcoming tourist season.
“The new marketing campaign that will highlight the municipalities gems is great food and great views,” said Manion. “We’re playing off the idea of Greater For Many Reasons with a great marketing campaign.”
The focus of the campaign will be to promote various restaurants and food vendors within the town as well as its natural landscape beauty.
“After we did the Local Food First Impressions community exchange, we noted that we needed a new local food section in the visitor’s guide,” said Manion. “The goal of this initiative is to further the municipality’s support in local food and there will also be the creation of a dining guide that will be showcased on the town’s website, as well as new food festivals such as Picnic in the Park.”
Manion also stated that there will be a few changes to the town’s Hometown Market. Most notably it will be moved from Market Square to Conservation Park and will run once a week from June to September, instead of every two weeks. Manion noted the reason for the relocation was out of safety concerns, as out of town visitors were ignoring the barriers and still driving through the Market Square during instances when the town was gridlocked due to Hwy 401 closures.
“We’re slowly hoping to become closer to a farmer’s market as opposed to a hometown market,” said Manion, stating more farmers expressed interest in taking part in a weekly market.
Also planned for the upcoming season are a series of pop-up events, such as Picnic in the Park, which would call on residents to fill a picnic basket with local products and then snap a picture for social media. A set of Muskoka chairs will also be set up at various events throughout the town, and people will be able to snap a picture of themselves in the chair for this year’s photo contest. They’ll be awarded points based on where the photo is taken with additional points awarded for including local products in the photo.
Other pop-up events will include a free paddle board day, kayaking and farm tours as well as favourites such as Music by the River, Family Fishing Day and the Multicultural Festival, among others.
Manion also spoke of a partner opportunity with the city of Cobourg, piggybacking on their ON2 marketing campaign. They’ve developed a short video that highlights all the day trips available within their community with the intent of getting guests off Hwy 401 and ‘onto’ ON2-Ontario Route 2. The campaign would include funding for signs and GPS advertising.
Council voted to receive Manion’s presentation and would discuss it at a future meeting.