Jen Curtis has spent fifteen years helping people fall in love with Ontario. As Social Media Marketing Manager at Destination Ontario, her job is to inspire travel across one of Canada’s most diverse provinces, from urban experiences to remote, nature-based adventures.
That requires covering a lot of ground.
“Scale and representation,” says Jen. “Ontario offers such a wide range of experiences, and one of our biggest challenges is ensuring we’re telling a balanced story that reflects that diversity. We want to inspire travel across all regions, not just the well-known destinations, which means we need a high volume of high-quality, relevant content.”
With a two-person social media team and 13 regions to cover, that volume was hard to produce. Before Crowdriff Creators, most of their production relied on traditional shoots or organic UGC. “While we had access to a huge range of photo content, developing video content was a challenge, particularly as this became more important to growth and engagement on key social channels.”
Scaling up their video content
Destination Ontario has been working with CrowdRiff since 2015, and added Creators as video became central to their strategy.
“We were looking for a way to scale high-quality, authentic content more efficiently, and the Creators program offered that balance. What started as a way to fill content gaps quickly evolved into a more strategic part of our content ecosystem.”
The more they ran it, the leaner the process got. “We refined our briefs, built stronger relationships with creators, and aligned shoots more closely with campaign goals.”
Today it’s a smooth process. “We set clear objectives for the shoots, provide creative direction, and ensure alignment with brand and partner needs, but creators bring their own expertise and perspective. During the shoot, we stay connected but hands-off. Once content is delivered, we prioritize editing and posting according to our content calendar.”
650+ videos and a YouTube that doubled.
In two years, they’ve produced shoots across all of Ontario’s regional tourism organizations. “CrowdRiff Creators allows us to cover far more of the province than we could otherwise. We’ve completed 126 shoots to date with CrowdRiff, which we’ve edited into over 200 short form videos shared across Destination Ontario channels.”
It’s reflected in performance too. “Creator content has been essential as we’ve expanded our presence on YouTube Shorts, in particular a campaign we ran to build our YouTube subscriber base. Creator content captured at timely holiday season events (in particular the Toronto Santa Claus parade) helped double our fan base on the channel.”
For Jen, the impact went deeper than volume. “Creators helped bring a fresh, authentic perspective that resonated strongly on social platforms and helped drive engagement.”
Partners are an extension of our team
Destination Ontario’s success has never been a solo effort. “Our core team is made up of two, but we collaborate extensively across the organization and with regional tourism partners, agencies, and creators. A big part of our success comes from those partnerships. We’re constantly working with stakeholders within our organization and across the province to bring stories to life.”
As the Creators program grew, partners across Northern Ontario started asking if they could tap in, and so Destination Ontario opened the door.
“We started using partner licensing to give partners access to this content which they can edit and post for their own projects. This benefits both the partner, and our program, as their expertise shapes the shoots, and we also have access to the assets to edit and share on our channels as well.”
It came with a surprise benefit too. Local experts were showcasing places that Destination Ontario didn’t even know about.
What makes it work?
As Jen puts it, “It’s a powerful way to scale authentic storytelling while staying flexible and efficient. For organizations managing large, diverse destinations, having a solution that streamlines content sourcing, organization, and distribution can make a significant impact, not just for your internal team, but for your entire partner ecosystem.”
Some tips from Jen for working with Creators:
Share your inspo. “We develop the brief, including key details like the content piece that inspired the shoot, and essential details to make the creators experience shooting as seamless as possible.”
Build a regular intake process. “We have a quarterly intake process where team members can send us their requests based on their priorities. It keeps production tied to real priorities and makes planning easier.”
Stay hands-off during shoots. “Creators bring their own expertise and perspective. Trust that. It’s what makes the content feel authentic rather than produced.”
A partner program multiplies the value of every shoot. “Having local experts take a hands-on role in the shoot development process was an excellent way to enhance our product knowledge in corners of the province that are less familiar.”
At the end of the day, “It’s the ability to tell diverse, authentic stories from the point of view of the traveller. Ontario is such a vast and varied province, and being able to highlight everything from urban experiences to remote, nature-based adventures, and knowing that it directly supports local communities, is incredibly fulfilling.”
Thank you Jen for taking the time to share your story with us!
See what Creators can do for your destination. Book a demo.
