PR & Lattes
The PR & Lattes podcast is your jolt of information on everything related to PR and communications. Join host Matisse Hamel-Nelis and her latte as she dives deeper into issues and topics important to communicators today with industry experts and thought leaders. No topic is off-limits.
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PR & Lattes
A latte with Jacquie Severs
In this episode, Matisse chats with Jacquie Severs, Durham Region's Manager of Marketing and Tourism, about all things tourism PR.
About Jacquie Severs
Jacquie Severs is the Manager of Marketing and Tourism for the Regional Municipality of Durham's economic development and tourism division, known as Invest Durham and Durham Tourism. In this capacity, she champions Durham Region, Ontario, Canada's exceptional value proposition for businesses, attracts visitors, fosters downtown growth, and cultivates Durham's creative communities.
With over 20 years of award-winning marketing experience, Jacquie has a track record of developing and promoting brands across diverse sectors, including fashion, home décor, craft beer, and the museum industry. Her knack for storytelling has been shared in various publications, with one series earning her the distinction of the 2018 Ontario Community Newspapers Association's Columnist of the Year.
Drawing from her educational background spanning George Brown College, the University of Guelph, the University of Waterloo, and Durham College, Jacquie is committed to lifelong learning. Presently, she is pursuing an innovative Master of Arts in Place Branding from Middlesex University, U.K. Passionate about exploring emerging social media platforms and learning to write the most effective AI prompts, Jacquie is deeply engaged in community initiatives and enjoys chatting about the impact of marketing on our perceptions, from the nuances of typography to the PR strategies of global figures.
Follow Jacquie:
LinkedIn: Jacquie Severs
Instagram: @JacquieSevers
X (formerly Twitter): @JacquieSevers
Connect with PR & Lattes
Website: PR & Lattes
Instagram: @PRAndLattes
Host: @MatisseNelis
[Music]
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Hello and welcome back for another episode of PR & Lattes, the podcast where you can fill up your cup on everything PR and communications. I'm your host, Matisse Hamel-Nelis, and I am so thrilled to have you join me again today for a brand new episode. Before we get started, make sure that you subscribe to this podcast, wherever you're listening to it, to get notified each week during the season when a new episode drops. You can also subscribe to our newsletter by visiting our website, PRAndLattes.com. On the website, you'll also find our podcast episodes, plus our amazing blogs with new ones being uploaded every Monday morning. And of course, make sure you're following us on social media, on Instagram, @PRAndLattes and on LinkedIn, PR & Lattes. On today's episode, I'm chatting with Jacquie Severs, the manager of marketing and tourism for the Regional Municipality of Durham's Economic Development and Tourism division, also known as Invest Durham and Durham Tourism. In her role, Jacquie champions Durham Region, Ontario, Canada's exceptional value proposition for businesses, attracts visitors, fosters downtown growth and cultivates Durham's creative communities. With over 20 years of award winning marketing experience, Jackie has a track record of developing and promoting brands across diverse sectors. This includes fashion, home decor, craft beer and the museum industry, her knack for storytelling has been shared in various publications, with one series earning her the distinction of the 2018 Ontario Community Newspaper Association's columnist of the year. I am so happy to be chatting with her today about all things tourism, PR and marketing. So grab your latte, sit back and enjoy. I am so excited for today's episode with Jacquie Severs. We're talking about all things tourism and marketing. Welcome to the podcast.
Jacquie Severs:Thank you so much for having me. I'm really pleased to be here.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:This is going to be so much fun. So let's start off with the easy or the basic stuff. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, your own marketing journey and how that led you into the tourism industry?
Jacquie Severs:Sure. So I studied graphic design in college, and I studied some marketing management in university as well, and that it's been a long and widening Road, actually, in my career, but most of my career has been in product marketing. So I worked in home decor and gift for a long period of time. I worked in stationery, like giftable stationery, which led me into art licensing, and I worked in that industry for quite a long time, and that's really where I kind of cut my teeth, in marketing and PR and promotions. I was a product manager and developed new products, and so that was a really great start to my career. It gave me a lot of experience, but I had a fine art background that sort of I had started in fine art and marketing, ended up in graphic design, and a dream job crossed my desk at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa to do their marketing and public relations, and I just basically laid everything on the table to get that job. So I worked there for a number of years, and that gave me some insight into the tourism industry at that time. We were a tourism destination, and we worked closely with our own tourism at that time. So I started to develop some relationships and understand the work of what tourism professionals do on the government side. That gave me some experience working with them on events and things like that. From there, I worked at a place called Bose brewery, which was at its peak, the largest independent craft brewery. It's now owned by steam whistle, but I worked there and was the marketing director there, so I was back in Product Marketing again, but was definitely similar to the museum, in the museum in the sense that it was about building community, but that was another tourism destination. So we sold their products across the province and across Canada, but we were located in a small town in eastern Ontario, one stoplight town that drew tourists from both Ottawa and Montreal, and we brought in people on busses. We also ran a gigantic Oktoberfest festival that brought in 20,000 people into that one stoplight town. So that was a kind of getting into tourism marketing again, right? So not only we were marketing the product, we were also people, bringing people for festivals and events and to the brewery on a regular basis, selling merch and everything else, like a destination. So it was there, and then I had twins, and I was living six hours from my family and my husband's family, and we just really were looking for something else, a different change, closer back to the GTA and ready to kind of have a different lifestyle. The beer industry is certainly a lifestyle that demands lots of present side events and evenings and things like that. And it so happened that a former contact at the Region of Durham, who I had known through my time working at with Durham tourism in the past, had shared this opportunity at the region. And it was like, it was, was one of those things where you see, like a job posting, and you're like, This is so this is mine. There's no one else is going to get this I am going to get this job like if it kills me. And so at that time, it was manager marketing and cluster development. So that was on the investor side of the organization, Economic Development and Tourism. The investor and brand focuses on attracting investment into Durham Region, supporting businesses of all types to grow and thrive in Durham Region. And so I was in that role for a period of time, and then over the last year, our team has realigned. We've sort of had some just some shuffling. I worked closely with tourism on their marketing, and now marketing and Invest Durham and Durham tourism sit under my portfolio. So the manage both teams, and that brought tourism, sort of into my realm of work, officially, and so that's kind of the road that led me here. It's, it's an interesting and diverse experience, but I think that kind of thread that unites it all is, it's been largely about trying to kind of foster communities, right? Try to get like people rallied around either a particular product and feel like an attachment to it, or a particular place and feel an attachment to it. So that's, that's kind of the similarity across all of those different experiences.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah, and I think it's something that tends to be forgotten about or not as widely spoken about is that community building. When people think of tourism, they think,"Oh, just get people to a spot, and then that's it," right?
Jacquie Severs:Yes, yeah. And I, you know, there's a couple of things that's, you know, it there's definitely different types of tourism marketing, and there's definitely different types of tourism development, you know, when you're looking at a place, maybe like Niagara Falls, where you've got, like a wonder of the world, and you are dealing with literally hundreds of 1,000s of visitors a year, and people from all over the world, and that is an absolute economic comparative for your community, that millions of visitors come and fill your hotels. There is a piece of that kind of tourism marketing that really is get people through the funnel from point A to point B in Durham Region, it's a little bit different, and we certainly approach it a little bit different. Strategically. We see tourism. We definitely want to bring people in. You know what? We bring, you know, 1,000s of people in for multi-sport games. We bring way more people in than you would think, for tourism reasons, to visit our National Historic Site or our on-farm experiences, or, you know, our museums and galleries and things like that. But also we use tourism as a lever for community development. So while people are here visiting, we want them to have great businesses and communities to visit. And so we do see it as a bit of a local strategy as well as it a visitor strategy. So, you know, we do focus on supporting events. We spoke, focus on supporting our downtown revitalization. We try to help the businesses thrive and revitalize and grow. So that is better for residents. And then we see it as it will also then be better for visitors. So it's, it's kind of a our team focuses on both aspects of it.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:For sure. And then I'll, obviously, if the tourist has a great experience overall, not just at the one attraction they wanted to go to, but overall, in the community, they're going to come back to explore other aspects of that community as well.
Jacquie Severs:Yeah. And it's, you know, it's word of mouth is really important for destination like ours. People visiting their friends and their relatives is really important for location like ours. So a lot of people, and you probably know this, if you live here, you know, like a lot of the people who come here are people visiting their friends and their relatives. So, but what do they do when they're here?
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:Do they just go to the movies, or they, you know, like something they could do in any community, or are they going out and doing something unique to Durham Region? Are they going apple picking? Are they visiting a festival or an event that they haven't been able to see anywhere else? And so the more unique that we're able to make those experiences and support those sort of independent, truly Durham experiences, the better for our communities, because those are the things that people talk about right when they remember, they remember those experiences that they couldn't have anywhere else.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:For sure. So that leads into the next question, really well, I think, how do you approach the integration of marketing strategies with tourism development?
Jacquie Severs:So, yeah, so tourism development's an interesting piece, because there's, there are two sides of it, which I guess I was kind of pointing to. There is the tourism marketing piece, and that's, you know, that really is my wheelhouse. But there is also the tourism development side. And we do have people on our team that are more specialized, you know, whether they're working in specifically creative industries or specifically, you know, cycling infrastructure, or specifically supporting, you know, it's getting a bit technical in the language, but on-farm, diversified use. So like, are they supporting farmers being able to have farm shops, or more interest, more diversified, I guess, business use of their land, other than just strictly agriculture or, you know, so there are sort of that that side of it as well, and that's the tourism development side, I guess, coming back to your question...what we try to do is focus on from our marketing strategy side, is leveraging our marketing to both attract visitors, but also to support that interconnectedness in our industry. So we absolutely want independent businesses that are the best, unique businesses in Durham region to be working together and collaborating. And so one of the ways we use our marketing strategies to do that is to sort of foster that through for contests. For example, enter to win this contest, and you're going to win something from this business, this business, this business and this business that are clustered together, or make sense together when tickets to an event and a hotel stay or something like that. So it's through that, through that packaging and sort of itinerary style approach to tourism marketing that helps us kind of develop that industry and help some interconnectedness, and hopefully help people that see that kind of marketing understand that there is that opportunity for kind of a multi-destination trip in Durham Region.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Since the pandemic, what have been the biggest challenges in promoting tourism in Durham?
Jacquie Severs:I mean, I think right now, the pandemic has changed tourism significantly. Let me just start with that, and it has changed the landscape for hotels. It has absolutely changed the restaurant, the restaurant landscape. Restaurants, in many cases, are still overcoming and finding new ways to survive. They are dealing still, in many cases, with loan repayments, staffing issues, I mean, so when I think of how it's changed tourism, a lot of that is related to the industry side and how those businesses are still adapting. They are still trying to recover and get back to where they were. Hotels generally at a high level have recovered past 2019, levels there, the rates are back up. They're full, they're operating, they're busy, and there is a really high demand for hotels in the Greater Toronto Area. And I mean, if you travel to book a hotel in downtown Toronto anytime the last two years, you'll know why that pricing is the way it is. You know, there's a slowing of building hotels, but the restaurants and destination side has certainly not fully recovered. And it's a challenge. It's a real challenge. It's a challenge for them to find staff. It's a challenge for them to be open full amount of hours. And so, you know, for a tourist, that's a real challenge, like, if you come in for, you know, a big event, and you're coming from Peterborough, you want to hit a restaurant for lunch before you go to a big event, and some of them just aren't open. They're just not able to open for lunch hours. And people will will say, like, Oh, it's a shame the restaurants aren't open. Well, they're not open because they can't get staff. It's not that they don't want to be so, you know, the tourism industry is has continues to hurt from all of the broader kind of economic challenges that everyone's experiencing, and then on the visitor side, I mean, the way people are spending is different. The economy is pretty tough right now. There's not as much disposable income as there, you know, has been in previous years. Housing is really expensive, and so all of those economic pressures impact tourism similarly, and how people spend and how long they can stay, and the types of activities. On the flip side of all of that kind of, you know, doom and gloom side of it is there is a really high demand for regional tourism. And when I say regional, I mean, like, you know, within the province, yeah, there's absolutely a high demand for people to stay a little bit closer to home. They're looking for escapes. They want, they have, like, a strong craving to travel. But like, maybe they can't get on a plane and go somewhere else, or maybe they can't even go on a really far road trip. Maybe they just want to go for an overnight so for us, like, it's quite busy in Durham Region, people are really out. People are going to events. People are going to concerts. People are going to the farm, like pumpkin picking, like those things are busy. People are looking for things to do out of their house. So on the flip side, there's a really high demand for it, and a really big interest in local tour, more localized tourism, if you will, like people staying, you know, just for a weekend trip or just a weekend getaway. People are are looking, and are looking for something different than they've ever done before. And for the province, Ontario, that's been really important and to the recovery is people just getting out and exploring like just a part of the province they've never been to before. Yeah, and so, yeah, we're really focused on trying to leverage that and continue to attract visitors in and have them experience a little bit of Durham Region while they're doing that.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah, amazing. How do you use social media or influencers to help with tourism and marketing under your portfolio?
Jacquie Severs:It's big. It's a big part of our marketing strategy, and it's a big part of our efforts tourism, like Durham Tourism currently uses Facebook, X, Instagram, email, YouTube, we're not on TikTok yet. We're not the government is not policy on Tiktok is not favourable right now, though, we are looking at, trying to think about that, and that's a changing landscape, too, with what's happening in the US. Yeah, so I will say we recognize TikTok is important, but probably the biggest channel for us is Instagram, because similarly to TikTok, it has that kind of like first person experience, the way that like influencers go into a space, you get a sense of what a place is like. You have a feeling like you have to get there and get your photos in that place, the you know, pics of it or it didn't happen. Of it all is really important, and so we invest quite a considerable amount of time and energy. We do some of our own content creation, and then we use some user generated content. We asked to be tagged. And then we ask users who if we can share their content. We review numerous collaboration opportunities, both you know that we seek and that people seek us out for to and we analyze every single one of whether it's a fit for us. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a major part. We also have a blog, and we use a lot of written, long form, written content to drive traffic to our website. So, yeah, it's a considerable investment of time and energy into content marketing, for sure.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Has AI changed any of that?
Jacquie Severs:The AI of it all. We, I would say we're experimenting with it, yeah? I mean, it's, it's one of those things, right? Like, I mean, I'm a graphic designer by trade, and, like a writer as a, like, a lifetime outcome.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:Like, I will ask AI, like, we experiment with it, I use it as a tool. Like, I'll, you know, look at the suggestions. And I'm like, some of these suggestions are so bad. I feel like AI is good for brainstorming. Yes, it's good. If you can write really good prompts that are really specific and get some ideas like I do, I will go to, you know, chat GBT and say, like, give me a list of 50 ideas that are, like, a pun that uses this word and that describes this like, really specific. And then I'll look at those 50 ideas. And I'm like, 49 of those are bad. One of those is not so bad. And, like, I can use it this way, right? So, well, I'm not saying we never use it. I'd love it to organize lists into alphabetical the worst chore of all time. It does in a heartbeat, like this list of businesses of 50 businesses, make it alphabetical. So, yeah, we're experimenting with it a little bit. There's some built in ones, like I've, I've used the HubSpot built in one, and I just find it's, it is missing tone. Still, all of this rambling is to say we're in, you know, we're trying it out.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:we're carefully, like, treading into some of it. We don't overuse it. We would never use it to write, like, a full blog post or anything like that. We know it's produces factually incorrect information a lot, and we have to produce factually accurate information, but we're watching it, and I think that any practitioner in marketing or PR or social needs to begin to understand how to write good prompts, how to have taste like, I mean, that sounds like a bit snobby, I think. But like, how to really determine, like, what is your tone?
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:Who is, who is your audience that you're talking to? And like, the what the AI puts out is not necessarily going to match. It doesn't mean the idea might be bad, but like, the idea might be good, might...
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:Like, but like, you have to own that tone of voice and figure out how what that kind of machine gives you, and how to transpose that into something that's actually useful for your audience and your tone of voice and your brand identity and things like that, until we get to a place where we can train the AI and our brand identity, which probably will come,
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:yeah,
Jacquie Severs:Barely enough, yes, yeah, yeah. And so I think that's it feels like it's coming right? So, like, as the practitioner, like, you should be smart to be the expert in your team, right? Like, our marketing team was immediately like, well, we're going to be the experts. Like, when it comes up in a meeting, we know how to answer, how to use it, where, what the best cases are, when not to use it, yeah. I think anyone who's paying attention right now is starting to recognize the language as well. I know if I see a social post go up and it's written by AI, it's like, immediately I'm like, oh, that's written by AI, and my brain just shuts it out. Now, I don't know if other people are doing that, but it has patterns, right? Just like any other
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah, no, it's true. Anytime I see an article and it's starts with in the world of blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, okay, AI. And then it ends with In conclusion, or, like, the words public relations, public relations, and in brackets, PR, I'm like, Oh, just a little bit of editing, even just a little bit of editing.
Jacquie Severs:Just a little bit of editing. Yeah. So, I mean, like, I said, it's like, it's a good idea generator. It's not a bad place to bounce ideas off of. I like to, I like to give things acronyms. Like, we're like, oh, we're gonna do this project and what we're gonna call this project, so that we're not calling it the, you know, big, long titles word project. I'll be like, I put those seven words in the I'd be like, give me, like, a clever acronym for this. Like, generate like, 100 ideas of like, you know, D.R.E.A.M., can you make this project the dream project, but, like, it's dance or something. Love to use it that way. Yeah. So, I mean, it's, it's interesting. And I would say on, like, on the design side, even on the sort of visual side, there are absolutely great uses for it. You know, whether you're you need more sky and the picture that you have for your report cover or whatever. Yes, you know, that's great, but the generated images, I am still and I don't think it's there yet where people should be using them. Certainly, I've seen some, you know, things being promoted with a generated logo. And I'm like, this is spelling mistakes in it, right? Like, we're not there yet, but it's interesting to see people experimenting with it. So...
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:For sure, how do you ensure that you know, with all the marketing strategies that you create and everything that you're doing, and given that you are government, essentially right with tourism, that it is both inclusive and culturally sensitive in what you're promoting?
Jacquie Severs:Yeah. I mean, that's very important to what we're doing. One way I would say that we are inclusive, or strive to be inclusive, is centering voices of people of various backgrounds. Yeah. So when we hire writers for our blog. We find writers from different communities or different backgrounds, different perspectives, different ages, cultural groups, things like that, so that we're having different voices on our blog. Like it's not just all us writing about things, it's different writers writing about things. For example, right now we have a writer who's writing about black owned businesses, and she is a black writer, right? Like, we work together in partnerships like that. We also work like more broadly, regionally, or we have a dei office, and we do work closely with that office on understanding the various events that are happening throughout the year, we try to find partnerships that make sense in different communities, whether that be food festivals, cultural events, things like that, where we're supporting different opportunities for people to explore culture. We're very particular when we're promoting tourism destinations that we're looking essentially through that lens on everything. So whether that's like a, you know, a list of great patios to explore across the region, right? Like, where's it great? Where are you going to patio seasons here? Where are you going to go to have a game? We will look through that lens of like, have we covered all eight municipalities in that region? Have we covered different kinds of business ownership. Have we covered places that are welcoming to all different kinds of people? Have we considered accessibility? Right? Like all of these things are kind of included. Now, it's not perfect. We don't know if we're trying to do the eight best patios in the region. It's not always perfect. We can't always, you know, hit all of the marks, if you will, but we certainly look at it through that lens on everything that we do and everything that we publish, all of the partnerships that we form, we try to find and go out and find it. Because sometimes it's not easy, you know, sometimes I think when people try to do the work of being inclusive, or try to, you know, build a panel discussion, the easy thing to do is the people that you already know, and that group of people that you already know might be very similar to yourself and might not be that diverse or inclusive. I think that's a human thing.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yes.
Jacquie Severs:It is an extra step to go. No, you know what? We need a woman on this panel. We need someone from a different cultural background on this panel. We need someone who is older on this panel, someone who is younger on this panel, like, let's, let's take that extra step and really think and dig deep and make sure that we're representing all different voices. So we do try to go through that process on anything that we partner with. It is kind of part of our work culture. And then it's also, I think, a really important thing in tourism, people want to feel like they see themselves in your marketing. So there is, you know, it is the right thing to do and it's a strategic thing to do. Yeah, put it that way, right, like it is both and so we, we do those things absolutely for both reasons,.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Amazing, amazing. When you're putting together a campaign, how do you measure success?
Jacquie Severs:It depends on the campaign. It's interesting, working into both tourism and economic development. A lot of the story, well, basically, all the stories that we're telling and all of the things that we're promoting are not ourself.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:Right? Like we are building our brand as a trusted voice, both for business and for tourism in the region, we use those brands outside the region and try to create trust, but everything we're promoting is not ourselves. And so how we measure success is overall economic success in the region. So when we're looking at overall economic success, we are looking at job growth, we are looking at income and GDP, like, how, whether that's raising, whether we're kind of raising the quality of life for people who live in Durham Region. So it's a little bit different. So that's kind of like the high level, but when you get into the actual campaigns, I mean, we are looking at things like impressions, click throughs, landing page views, our growth, our engagement rate on our social media and things like that. Like, we do measure those and have targets for those as well. But yeah, ultimately, our ultimate, highest level goal is job creation. So it all kind of funnels up to that.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Amazing. How does sustainability and tourism marketing come into play when you're incorporating that into your strategies?
Jacquie Severs:That's an interesting piece for us, we...we do a lot of work on sustainability as, I guess, a regional government organization. You know, we have a sustainability office in our planning team, which of which we're sort of clustered with together in terms of the organization, are doing a lot of work on things like walkable communities, cycling infrastructure. So on the tourism side, that's sort of, I guess, the fit with those kinds of initiatives are things like promoting local food. We do a ton of work around agriculture in general. It's a big economic sector in Durham Region, and so we have a lot of resources dedicated to supporting agriculture and agricultural growth, urban farming, things like that. And then on the tourism side, it is promoting local food. So local, independently owned restaurants, particularly those that use sourcing, are sourcing local ingredients, which may be outside of Durham Region, but, you know, relatively local Ontario or Canadian ingredients, and then also like farmers markets and sourcing local food like that has been a very big piece of our promotion in an ongoing way every year. The other one, I would say, about sustainability and that sort of walkable cycle will communities and making them a better place to live is downtowns. So on the tourism side, we have a big focus on downtowns, whether that's supporting grant applications for like federal funding for downtown revitalizations or economic development, promoting events and supporting events that happen in our downtowns, promoting downtowns in general through our content and promoting people going into their downtowns and feeling ownership of their downtowns. That's a big area, and it's maybe funny to say that as a sustainability but when we think about how our communities are growing in the way that communities are changing, in terms of density of housing and how people are going to be living in the next 10 or 20 years, keeping our downtown strong as a really, really important piece to having sustainable neighborhoods with strong local businesses lots of places to work a better quality of life and not feeling like you have to drive a great distance to go do things or go places or experience that kind of community that people want. So downtowns are really important piece of sustainability for for our region.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:With everything going on, how do you stay up to date on the tourism and marketing landscape, to make sure that you are going with the latest trends, or being ahead of the trends even?
Jacquie Severs:I just never stop. There's this thing I learned. So I'm, I'm doing a master's right now on the side, and I have my the prof, who's the PhD prof who's running that program, is this amazing woman, and I love learning from her. And she has this idea. She did her PhD on cultural intermediaries, and I've been obsessed with that idea ever since I watched the lecture on it. It's very much my life, right? So when you're a cultural intermediary, you sort of sit in between a lot of things. You sit between government and business and arts and culture, and you know, people who live in communities, and you sort of connect, and you interconnect all of those things, yeah. So that's great. That's an exciting place to be in. But it also means you kind of never stop working. Like, even when you're not working, you're still like,"Oh, I gotta introduce you to this person," "Oh, I read about this podcast. I've gotta, like, send it to it," right? Because it is, like, your life's work, right? Yeah, like your life and your work are kind of what. So I would say that is kind of one part of my personality that is absolutely true. I felt so seen when she was doing that lecture. I was like, oh, there's a term for that. I just thought I was a workaholic. I'm a cultural intermediary. That's a much kinder term, but that's just also being a person who's a lifelong learner, who's really passionate about their community and what they're doing. So it kind of like never want to stop learning and getting better at what I'm doing. So, I mean, I read newsletters. I There's great people I follow, you know, like experts at social or experts and content writing, or those kinds of people. I read those newsletters, I follow those things. I try to pick and choose conferences to go to that are extremely relevant for me. I struggle sometimes with industry conferences because you always want to go. You're like, oh, this is fun. I get to go go to Kingston, yeah. But I will look at the agenda, and if the agenda has like, one session, that's like, social media 101, I'm like, This is not my conference. Yeah, I will enjoy it. It'll be interesting, but it's not actually going to level up my skill. Yeah, that's not the one for me. So I will try to identify things that are actually the best use of my time always, and attend those and really like where I know I'm going to sit the whole time and not look at my phone. Those are the ones I want to go to, staying connected with people in post secondary, you know, finding opportunities to go to webinars and things like that. That's it's kind of just an ongoing thing. I always am trying to learn from people who I think are better than me, or that are mentors, or that have had success in the past. So for like, tourism is interesting because it's a little bit new, like I've come from the other side of tourism, new, word to tourism and government. So even in that I'm like, I'm going to the tourism conferences, I'm trying to learn from people who talk about industry development and and hear what they're saying, and hear what the latest trends are, and make connections. And you know, higher levels of government where people are much more deeply experienced and have their perspective, read their reports like, I love reading, like, provincial reports on tourism and things like that, to really have a broader perspective outside of the space that I work in.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah, I love the point about the conferences in that, you know, a lot of people be like, "Oh, it's a big name conference. I have to go." But if you look at the sessions and it's not actually going to help you, or it's basic in comparison to where you're at in your skill set, why would you go right? Like you said, otherwise you're just on your phone and checking emails, which you could do at the office or at home.
Jacquie Severs:Yeah, and I think it depends on your Yeah. It's not going to be for me. I need to go to the marketing personality. I know a lot of people use conferences like that for networking. They want to build their network. They want to be present. And I applaud those people I am not the greatest at in person networking. I like, I'm an introvert, you know, like I struggle a little bit in those environments. I know I struggle a bit in those environments. So if I am going to push myself, because I will go and I'm like, I'm an extrovert, this week, I'm meeting everyone. If I'm going to go to that effort and, like, push myself to do it like, I really, really just want to find it valuable in all of the possible ways, of course. And so, like, I'm not necessarily saying about any specific conference, believe it or not, I conference, right? Like, I need to go to that market con used to decline going to beer conferences. I was like, I know that's going to be fun. I know there's going to be a lot of fun had at that conference, but there's going to be one session on marketing. conference and learn for the best marketers, and then think about how that applies to the industry I'm working in. And so sometimes I think, as marketers, that is the case, right? Like you're gonna be in whatever product industry we're in, whatever kind of you know, channel your marketing. That might actually not be the conference for you. The Marketing Conference might be for you, the PR the social media events. Those ones might be the ones where you need to go. Even if they seem less relevant because they're not industry specific, they are industry specific for you. So that's something I've looked at doing for a number of years in different industries I've been in.
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Matisse Hamel-Nelis:How? Not how, but what trends do you see coming up for tourism and marketing in particular?
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Jacquie Severs:That's interesting trends. I would say the biggest trend this year is, or this past year, I would say, like, the past 18 months has been, like, social media in its flop era. Like, I just feel like this is the conversation of most of the marketers, of like, my kind of age and like level of experience they're talking about, because we have been in marketing now for 20 years, and that, basically, that entire 20 years has been driven by the gross of social media. So you've gone from being a person who wrote press releases to launching your company's first Facebook page to or MySpace. With my case, the first one I launched corporate was in MySpace, and now you've kind of, you built it up. And now, like, you know, two years ago, you were running a mega Instagram account, and I'm being Facebook and like, Twitter was popping you were, like, dropping money on Twitter ads. And now it's like, okay, what are we doing now, like, news isn't on meta and Tiktok may be getting banned, and Twitter is X, and it's not really working anymore. I don't even want to go on there to publish content, because it's upsetting. And like Facebook, it's like, it's so pay to play, and the Facebook advertising platform is frustrating. It's like, it just feels like, and no one really knows what's coming next. To invest their time. People are asking, should I get on Threads? I'm like, Well, we're on threads. We parked our threads account.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:We're not sure yet. We can't publish to it from our publishers. So you know, it really is just a time of uncertainty. So that's a big trend. A lot of people, including us, are really focused on building their e-news lists as a result. Like, let's own our contacts. Let's really focus on that again, and that seems to be the biggest conversation happening all the time. Otherwise, I would say another interesting trend, and this is more, I guess, a social trend that I'm paying attention to, because I think it's important in community building, is the lack, sorry, it's two, sort of two things. It was, like, the lack of a cultural monolith, like the way that, like I said this recently to a co worker. She was like, Oh, I went to see this podcaster, and it was at the Scotiabank arena, and she said his name. And I was like, Oh, that's weird. I've never heard of him. She was like, Oh, I'd never heard of him either. Like, I went with my partner. And I was like, it is. It continues to be baffling to me that there can be artists or entertainers of any kind that are big enough to fill the Scotiabank arena, and I have never even heard their name. Now, I don't need to know everything about everyone. I don't need to know every musician. I know that. I don't I'm in my 40s now I'm like, I'm not hip to everything. But like, if you're big enough to fill the arena downtown Toronto, I think normally your name would have at least crossed my radar at some point.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:It's not the case anymore, right? Like, there's so many niches and micro niches and niches within niches, and like Tik Tok and YouTube stars that are like massive, like global things, and I've never seen their content before, and that is a real interesting arena to play in as a marketer, because you're also competing with all of those people out for attention and time, along with all the global brands. And so it's just it feels like a wild west a little bit. And so the other side of that is like jumping on trends and understanding the discourse, if you will, like the time that it takes to understand trends on Twitter or, sorry, trends on TikTok trends that are filtering into reels, the music, the why those clips are trending, what it actually means, like understanding all of those things is a part of both having good content and then also, kind of on the government of it all is having content that's not super risky, like making sure that you're not jumping into a trend that you think is just this innocent thing, but it's actually, like, not that you should be in and that just gets more and more challenging as our, like, our culture divides up, right? Like, yeah, power to creators. Like, it's amazing that you could be a creator. Like, walk down the street, no one recognizes you, but you have like, multi million followers and this amazing income. Like, that's amazing,
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:It was a challenge for marketers, right to kind of keep up with everything.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah, of course. Of course. So with everything we've talked about, I want to hear from you, what was the most memorable experience or learning moment in your career when it came to marketing and tourism, or what was your like big we did it. This was amazing.
Jacquie Severs:I've had a few of those. I've had a few of those, I would say. And this is maybe not, it's not related to the role I'm in right now. I've had some big we did it, but I'm gonna actually focus on a tourism destination I went to as a marketer, paying attention to the experience of what they were doing. At one point in my career, when I worked in beer, we were working with Jameson Whiskey folks. We had a partnership with them, and as a result of that, got to go to Ireland with the Jamison Whiskey team for like a 48 hour whirlwind trip. And they immersed us in how they train for their brand. How they operate the tourism experience at the cork distillery and the Dublin distillery, which is essentially just like a tourism wonderland of Jameson. And we also got to see their barrel fields, which we had to, like, put our phones away, and we got to like, it was just like the most insane. I can't even possibly articulate how many barrels there are, and particularly in the Dublin experience, when they walk you through like, I 'm not, I wasn't a whiskey drinker before this, and I was certainly not a Jameson like, a super fan or anything. It was like a good branding partnership. But when they explained how they walk you like, essentially, you sign up, you pay and you go through, like, what is like, you know, you know, Disney World is, like, It's A Small World After All...
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:Like that. It was kind of like that for, like, the whiskey-making process with like, multiple, like, small tasting. So you understand, like, they had you taste their competitors inside this experience. So you could compair and understand with a person the most passionate, like advocates for their brand, explaining to the difference between their competitors and them. The difference between American whiskey and Irish whiskey is the making process, spelling all the ingredients in these like, absolutely like, bonkers, beautiful brooms, like, just totally, like a light show, like, just the whole, like, yeah, just overwhelming of the senses, and you come out the other side and you're like, I absolutely are the biggest Jameson Whiskey fan. All the other whiskeys are trash, like, and like, it was just, it, like, blew my mind, and I was like, this is like, and then meanwhile, in that trip was learning, like, how they train their ambassadors, the programs that they go through, how they get the staff, like, where you can start, where you can go, they'll send you around the world. Like, there's a whole kind of ladder, sort of style program for their ambassadors in their marketing team. And like, you don't work in their corporate marketing team, until you've done all those rungs of the ladder, until you've sold someone in the distiller, until you've travelled to Canada and sold someone, until you've been like, you know, creating social content for like, all of those steps up to get into like, corporate marketing for them. And it just completely, like, changed my I was like, okay, global brand. And how you build a global brand, how you build that loyal following, how you can completely, like, change the narrative. And they talked about this, like, you know, we're really trying to convince people, like, all around the world, one of the things we don't have is, like, people go into a bar and they'll say, like, a rum and coke.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:And, like, we don't have that for whiskey, but we're trying to make, like, a whiskey and ginger beer, a bar order.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:Like, they're trying to change, like, a global, like, like pattern, you know, and like, how people behave in bars, like, that's the like level of like aspiration they have, yeah. And so it just really, really, like, completely, like, reformed my brain. I came away from that. I was like, there is, like, a whole world of experiential marketing, ambassadors, immersion in, like, a culture that just kind of came away I was like that. I just learned more in that, like, 48 hours that I can take into my career then, like, I have learned everything up until this point, like it just kind of threw everything out the window for me. So it was, it was a real interesting game changing experience, and kind of just sort of transformed, I guess, how I behave as a marketer thinking about, like, customer experience.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah
Jacquie Severs:Who are you trying to talk to? What are you trying to convince them to do? Like, understand that and then think about everything else afterwards.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Oh, that's incredible. That sounds incredible. Absolutely incredible. That it was a great experience, yeah, if only, for example, colleges or universities could say we're gonna send you to Jameson for two days. You're gonna do this. This is gonna be your crash course. Yeah, there you go.
Jacquie Severs:Right. Yeah. I mean, you know some of those things you can only learn, like, I mean, that partnership also came from taking a risk, from accepting a phone call, from having a conversation, and feeling kind of out of my depth, talking to like someone and being like, yeah, like, let's actually get together and form a partnership. Like, let's get to know each other, right? And so, you know, amazing things happen. I guess when you get a little out of your depth, yeah, exactly, sometimes comfort zone isn't the best place. Just absolutely, just, yeah, get out of that.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah. To wrap up, this has been absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for all this great insight and the stories and like, I'm going to think of that Jameson one. I'm not going to lie for quite some time. And when my husband gets home, who is Irish.
Jacquie Severs:I probably just sold, like, the trip to Ireland.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Oh yeah. It's like, we have to go back to your home country because he's from Ireland. And be like, we did the Guinness one. Now I have to do Jameson, let's do this. Yeah, so next on the radar. But what tips or advice would you give someone who's considering entering the tourism sector as somebody either in marketing or PR?
Jacquie Severs:Networking is great if I think in my career, like all along the way, a lot of opportunities have come from people I've known that have developed relationships. You never know where someone is going to end up. Definitely stay connected to everyone you knew in college, because you never know where they were going to end up and how you might cross paths again. And like, what those relationships, whether they just be like someone you can reach out to for, you know, speaking events and things like that. Or, you know, you never know where that is. So the network piece, I know that that is advice that I got when I was a younger marketer, that I was like, I don't like that advice, because I don't actually like networking. But I think it's important to think of it's like, does it? I'm not talking about going up to people at events and introducing yourself and giving a business card necessarily, although it is that. I think it's that like building relationships and whoever that is, and maintaining them right? Like maintaining them and being present for them. Online networking is easier now that LinkedIn exists. Try different types of marketing careers and industries. The skills are transferable. It's one of the best things about being in marketing PR design is that you can work in all different kinds of businesses because the lessons you learn in beer will apply to government marketing, and the lessons that you learn and the art gallery will apply to fashion marketing. Like, there is different skill sets you learn along the way. Absolutely learn all the new softwares the second they drop. Like, that's how I feel about AI. It was like, Well, I better become an expert in writing prompts. Then, like, Oh, we're doing, like, reels now. I better be the best there is at reels. Like, I even don't do it personally. Like, I was like, reels is thing, okay, transitions are a thing. I'm just gonna use my personal account and, like, do this little project where I, like, I've changed my clothes, like I do outfits with reels and like, then I become an expert. So I can use that at work, like you have to adopt whatever it is, like, even if you feel that resistance. Because I feel the resistance to all the new things all the time, because I've gone through enough of them that I'm like that I'm feeling that resistance, I better learn it. So, yeah, just learn the new things, whatever that is, yeah, and then find mentors. Like, I always feel like a little lost when I don't have a great mentor. The best mentors for me, who are people who push me to do things that I didn't think I could do, that have really been, like, really seminal moments in my career, or someone who's like, Oh, you're going to do this because you're going to be great at it, like, find those people and work for them. They are the ones that will actually transform your career and accelerate it, not the people who tell you that you're not the people that you feel intimidated to share your ideas with because they don't hold you up. You're going to have bosses like that along the way. I've had many bosses like that along the way. Find the ones that are like no you can do this insane thing you've never done before. I believe in 100% those are the people who are going to progress propel your career, for sure.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:100% agree with that. 100% agree. So before I let you go, this is PR and latte. So I have to ask, what is your favourite caffeinated go to beverage?
Jacquie Severs:I drink black coffee. Feel like ashamed to admit it on a latte.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:No, don't.
Jacquie Severs:Milk is an essential ingredient. I will occasionally order a flat white if I'm feeling fancy, but lactose-free, but um, black coffee. So it's either a black coffee or an Americano.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Oh, fancy.
Jacquie Severs:I just don't want any. I do not I do not believe sugar belongs in coffee. That's my controversial hot take. Sugar does not belong in coffee.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:Coffee is not a dessert.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:You were the third person I've had on this would be like, coffee is not a dessert. It is either black coffee or there's a little bit of milk. That is all we need.
Jacquie Severs:That's it.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:What is it with this,?
Jacquie Severs:If you feel like you need sugar in a coffee, I would argue you need better coffee?
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yes, agreed. Okay, I agree with you. I put milk in my coffee, and that's it, unless it's from, you know, Tim Hortons, then I do put a little bit of sweetener, just kind of, sometimes, it sometimes comes out tasting a little burned, so little sweetener.
Jacquie Severs:But I like, I love all types of coffee, like, I never. I will drink too. I will drink Tim Hortons. I'll drink McDonalds. I will drink that like Van Hooten, like I will drink all types of coffee. I do love. I'll give the shout out to Deadly Grounds. Yes, coffee is so good. Their Death by Chocolate is like, oh so good. The if that's brewing in my house and I smell it, I'm like, today is going to be a good day.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yeah.
Jacquie Severs:So if you haven't had deadly grounds, they're in a mall and strip mall and Courtice. You gotta get out there and get some horror theme coffee and get their death by chocolate. The best.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:They are amazing. Oh, now I kind of want to go and just be like, coffee, excuse me.
Jacquie Severs:Like a doughnuts that look like eyeballs, whatever they got on that day. But, yeah, their coffee is so good.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Yes, so good. Well, thank you again, Jacquie, for being on today's episode. If people want to get in touch with you on social or send you an email or anything like that, where can they find you?
Jacquie Severs:I'm at Jacquie Severs. It's Jackie with a Q that's important to know. J-A-C-Q-U-I-E, Severs. I'm at Jackie severs basically on every platform. So you can find me on on any platform.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis:Amazing. And we'll make sure to put those links in the episode description as well, so it's easy for people to find you again. Thank you so much for being on today's podcast.
Jacquie Severs:Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
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Matisse Hamel-Nelis:You've been listening to the PR & Lattes podcast. Make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, so you can get notified each week when a new episode drops. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter by visiting our website, prnlattes.com on the website, you'll find our podcast episodes as well as amazing blogs with new ones being posted every Monday morning. And of course, make sure to follow us on social, on Instagram, at @PRAndLattes, and on LinkedIn. I've been your host, Matisse Hamel-Nelis. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next week with a new latte and guest bye for now.
