Journal de bord

L’office de tourisme de Montréal va acheter les services de 5 blogueurs pour contribuer à la promotion de la ville.

Montreal is about to appoint a small army of bloggers, videocasters and networkers to promote tourism in the city.

Together with agency of record Sid Lee, Tourisme Montréal will be hiring five “brand ambassadors” who will blog, post videos online and use social networks to promote the city as a must-see destination.

From March to December 2009, they will be the “Montreal connectors” on topics like food, arts and culture, nightlife, shopping and the gay scene.

Each ambassador will have a dedicated page on Tourisme Montréal’s website to blog and videocast. They will also use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Yahoo Answers and other blogs to connect with possible tourists. They will report on what’s hot in the city each week.

“Our connectors will also have a dedicated cellphone which people can call anytime,” said Emmanuelle Legault, director of communications at Tourisme Montréal. “They will answer people’s questions and, if they can’t pick up, they will always have a message to let people know what’s happening in the city.”

[Marketing magazine : “Tourisme Montréal hiring brand ambassadors”.]

Certains se posent des questions légitimes :

You also have to wonder just how honest these bloggers will be. Will they relate bad experiences as well as the good? Will they just omit the bad stuff? Being a government agency, Tourisme Montréal will be under a lot more scrutiny than any private body. Since so many restaurants, stores and hotels are stakeholders, it will be interesting to see how they balance authenticity with marketing. [Technocité, Robert Rocha : “Tourisme Montréal takes a chance with bloggers”.]