Co-operative Marketing Partnerships Program Guidelines Have Been Updated for 2020/21

The Destination BC Open Pool Co-operative Marketing Partnerships Program (the Co-op Program) is an application-based program that provides co-operative, consumer-focused marketing and promotion support to Community Consortiums, Sector Organizations, or approved Paired Communities in British Columbia.

The Co-op Program was developed in 2015 based on recommendations from a cross-section of stakeholders and Destination BC’s Tourism Marketing Committee — an industry-based advisory committee with representatives from all regions across BC. Input for the program was also provided by participants from over 20 community consultation sessions across the province.

A review of the Co-op Program was conducted between September 2018 and June 2019 to ensure it continues to align with Destination BC’s priorities and changes within our tourism ecosystem. The program review included consultation with current program participants, as well as Destination BC staff. The results of the 2018/19 review concluded that the Co-op Program was working well and did not require substantial amendments. However, a summary of changes that were incorporated is listed below.

• Expansion of the program objectives to:
  • Focus on driving consumer demand and increasing tourism revenues by investing resources where and when capacity exists. This ensures we are collectively working to promote year-round visitation where possible.
  • Ensuring the Co-op Program evolves to support the Powerful Marketing Network and Destination BC corporate priorities such as industry readiness.

• Inclusion of the Destination BC performance measurement framework into program reporting. Sharing a common set of measures with meaningful and consistent data tells us if our collective efforts are making a difference and driving the results. These metrics are incorporated into the Key Performance Indicators(KPI’s) found in Appendix 5.

• An increase in the eligible program administration fee from 15% to 20%, and removal of the $25,000 cap. This is to reflect the resources required to manage the projects in this program.

• A requirement for consultation with the Destination BC brand team for any content acquisition portion of the project costing $30,000 or more. This will ensure that asset development using the Co-op Program funds supports our goal of building a content commonwealth and maximizes marketing opportunities.

• An emphasis in the application evaluation on industry digital readiness and signal to industry that a minimum level of digital readiness will be required to access co-op marketing funding in the future. This will focus our collective efforts on capabilities that businesses and organizations need to compete to win in a competitive digital environment.

• No new Single Community applications. This will continue to encourage the strong partnershipsexisting in the program.

• Removal of the requirement for each community in a Paired Community application to contribute $7,500 equally towards the $15,000 total. Communities applying for a paired application can determine their contribution to the project to meet the $15,000 total. This will allow communities with varying budgets to partner and contribute to the program.

• While maintaining the primary focus of an application-based program, Destination BC will reserve the right to ensure regional distribution of funding. Destination BC may identify an opportunity to further support a small or rural community through funding, based on the business rationale and availability of funds.

• The Post Project reporting deadline will be moved from March 15 to April 15. All other timelines remain the same. This will allow for complete reporting of marketing activities up to March 31.

• The creation of an Emergency Marketing Fund to provide additional funds, separate from the existing Co-op Program budget, and as a component of the Open Pool program in line with program criteria, in the event of a natural disaster where additional marketing efforts are required to conduct recovery marketing. This is to provide additional support directly to applicants in difficult circumstances due to natural disasters. Conditions to access funds will apply.

• A list of definitions can be found in Appendix 1.

Download the new guidelines and application form and ensure your submission is received by 4:30 pm PST on November 30, 2019.