THE OPPORTUNITY

The Group of Seven are iconic Canadian artists who spent considerable time exploring the rugged landscapes of Northern Ontario. The region realized the potential in developing tourism offerings celebrating the artists, their paintings and the landscape that inspired them.

THE PROCESS

The Group of Seven experience development in Northern Ontario was a multi-phased project, entailing numerous initiatives, several of which were undertaken in partnership with ^the Tourism Company.

During Phase 1 of the initiative, the development team undertook research and gathered stakeholder input to assess the feasibility of the development of a Group of Seven experience in Northern Ontario. The project produced four documents.

• The Foundations document was used to answer questions, understand the nature of the asset, identify limitations and to set parameters for future experience opportunities.
• The Experience Assessment outlined a long list of potential products and identified the highest potential opportunities.
• The Experience Development Handbook was developed to provide operators with the tools to implement and build market ready Group of Seven experiential tourism products or offers.
• The Master Plan provided a road map for implementation tactics.

Phase 2 of the development saw the marketing team develop a brand and corresponding brand toolkit for the Moments of Algoma and the Awakenings of La Cloche Group of Seven experiences as well as an additional overarching brand position for the provincial initiative, Group of Seven Continues. The Group of Seven Marketing Plan outlined the tactics to be used to position the Group of Seven experiences in front of the consumer audience.

The initiative continued during phase 3 with interpretive planning and the design and installation of 21 artist’s easel interpretive installations.  Additionally, a series of educational workshops were held with three levels of training materials developed and in person workshops delivered to educate front line staff about the Group of Seven and “train the trainer” modules were created to allow attendees to deliver subsequent workshops.

Phase 4, the most recent initiative, covered multiple tourism developments and included the following initiatives.