Well, very little surprise, Vancouver housing prices. They have been known to be going up, right?

They have

Okay. Well, there is a new campaign that launched in just a few years ago, move up Prince George– it’s gaining attraction among young families looking to relocate and with us to discuss these efforts to encourage families to move north is Melissa Barcellos. She is the manager of Economic Development at the City of Prince George and also with us is Kim Pickett, she’s the founder of KIMBO Design, she also worked on implementing this campaign. Melissa, Kim, thank you guys so much for joining us on the program today.

Hi. Thanks for having us.

Well, Melissa, let’s start with you, just explain to listeners what is this concept behind move up Prince George.

Well, in 2014 when we started this campaign and had the website designed by Kim, we were  experiencing a major shortage of workers in Prince George. We had tons of job that were paying high incomes but we were having a hard recruiting people to fill those positions and as an economic development office, our job is to support existing businesses to grow and diversify and when we identified that that as a major constraint for them, we knew that we had to take action and that’s what’s spurred this campaign.

Well, so far, you know, you guys implemented a little while ago what has the response been like from people just examining the possibilities of moving elsewhere in British Columbia?

It’s been fantastic, we get phone calls daily from people across Canada asking us questions about Prince George, about jobs here, about what it’s like to live here and getting feedback about how helpful the website is for them. They can literally log on to that website and get a good feel for what Prince George is like without even having to travel here or visit.

Well, speaking of that website, we have the designer here, Kim Pickett. Kim…

Hi.

Tell me what goes into doing a campaign like this, ’cause it’s a unique campaign. It’s not something that maybe you would typically get a sign, tell me a little bit about your process implementing something like this?

Yeah, so in terms of our process, well, we had great research material and we had great people to work with as well. So, we had a lot of insight to what it would be like to live in Prince George and what a beautiful place it is. So, we really used the great imagery and also all of the areas that people were attracted to such as the healthcare and the hospital, the schools and we created an amenities map on the website. So, users could actually get a feel for the schools in the area, the hospitals, the neighborhoods and what it would be like. If they didn’t have a chance to actually visit, they would get a real sense of what it was like because we had a lot of users that were coming from different countries and also different areas in North America.

Kim, are you based in Vancouver?

Yes, were located in downtown.

Have you been to Prince George yourself?

Yes. Well, that was a part of my process and the KIMBO Design process is to really get involved with our projects, so that was one thing that was a must for me and I had a great tour guide, Melissa, and she took me all over and I had a great time. I love the outdoors so visiting the parks and lakes and the magical forest that are up there it was great and I had a nice run in the morning as well. So, it is for that kind of work life outdoorsy type person for sure and it is like a mid-sized city so you still get a sense of city but also the kind of outskirts of the city as well, so both.

Melissa, Kim touched on it a little bit about why or what features Prince George might have and why that might entice someone to move but can you talk a little bit about the amenities Prince George has and the availability or the demand inherent in its job market place that will be attractive to someone looking to move.

Yeah, as Kim mentioned we did a lot of research about what people were looking for when they were choosing a place to live. Through that research we actually came up with top 10 reasons to make a move and those include buying your home as a realistic goal. Prices in Prince George for houses are much lower than a lot of the cities in Canada and especially those cities that we’re trying to recruit from. So, currently the average price to buy a home is $284,000 in Prince George and that gets you a nice two-bedroom home or sorry five-bedroom home possibly, that’s been possibly, completely redone. My house personally is from the 1950s so it’s completely redone and I bought it for $249,000. So, that’s our first reason, then were actually central so we’re very well connected to Vancouver, we have an international airport, we’re not as remote as some people think we are. Were among the front running cities for job creation, we have over 2,000 hours of sunshine in a year. Even in the winter it’s sunny and blue skies, people love being outdoors. We’re accessible, you won’t spend your free time stuck in traffic. I think that probably means a lot to some of the people that might be listening right now, were the region’s center for healthcare, we have fun for the whole family, lots of parks and outdoor space, we have topnotch education facilities, so we’re home to the University of Northern British Colombia and the College of New Caledonia and we’re urban. So, we are a city of just about 80,000 people.

Well, that is Melissa Barcellos, she is the Manager of Economic Development at City of Prince George, she’s also joined by Kim Pickett, she’s the founder of KIMBO Design. They both worked on this latest project, move up Prince George campaign to encourage more young families to move to this, as Melissa just said, mid-size city that’s more urban than a lot of people think. Melissa, you’re running off a lot of the great amenities, a lot of the great reasons to convince people to move up north– what, and then Kim, you please join in with this question as well but… so, you have, you know, this great thing to sell people but how do you get people to pay attention to this, is there social media campaign, how do you guys actually get the word out there after you design this website, start this campaign?

So, I think that was the easy part. We really thought about locations of where the target audience would be and those people that were looking to relocate. So, we really hit key areas where they would see the advertisements. Such as the sky train, some billboards in areas where the labor pool was high and across Canada and also online, we did a lot of Facebook advertising, we did some Twitter and Google AdWords as well.

Then, Melissa on your part, did you have any goals set in mind about just attracting a certain number of people or even just like reaching out to a certain number of people, getting eyes onto this campaign?

We didn’t have specific numbers in mind, we wanted to see people relocate and we wanted to see an increase in the number of job postings by local companies on the website, so that’s how we mainly tracked the campaign but some of the kind of fun anecdotal results we got were really from the bus ads, so there’s ads in the buses in Vancouver and Calgary right now and people started Twitting pictures of themselves sitting on the buses in front of these ads and sending to them to us and having some good commentary online and we love that, it’s fun, we’re always behind the computer monitoring that and providing any information that people are requesting online.

Kim, tell me what are these bus ads that Melissa is talking about here?

Yeah, so the one that really hit home with people was the housing affordability.

That’s an easy one, it’s in the media, people are talking about it.

Melissa she bought a home for $250,000, you know, that could get you maybe half a condo in downtown Vancouver.

Exactly. So, it was a smart ad, very subtle but it really provoked people thinking about the housing prices. It really connected with what is going on right now and I think that’s why there’s a lot of eyeballs on our campaign and it’s been very successful right now.

So, just Melissa, as we wrap up here we’ve got about 30 seconds left, but I mean if you’re going to look at Vancouver versus Prince George, maybe people have different things in mind that they want but I mean, you mentioned you know the home prices, how it’s urban area but what is like, maybe one last selling point that you think is really important for people to understand if they’re considering making that move from the lower mainlands up to Central British Colombia.

You really have more time to enjoy life when you’re here. The travel time to and from work is lower, you have more money to go out and do activities and spend time with your family and your kids. There are lots of videos on the website so encourage everybody to check out moveupprincegoerge.com and watch some of the videos and experience Prince George for yourself.

Well, thank you so much, Kim and Melissa, for joining us on the show today.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you.

Well, that is Melissa Barcellos, she’s a Manager of Economic Development at the City of Prince George and we’re also joined in studio by Kim Pickett, she’s the founder of KIMBO Design.