Member Marketing Programs

Outdoor Message Centre Map Board

Located directly outside the Welcome Centre in Grand Bend, the Outdoor Message Centre board provides a large map of the business centre of Grand Bend flanked by two advertising areas. Each of these advertising areas can display up to 8 ads and each ad is 13-inches wide by 8-inches high. There are a total of 16 advertising spots which are sold on a first come, first booked, first paid basis. These ad spots are available to Members and Visitor Guide Advertisers.

The Message Centre board also features weather-protected literature slots where we display copies of the visitor guide. Each slot holds 10 guides and typically in the summer months we replenish supply weekly. This means we know at least 70 people or groups of people have viewed the board during a week!

  • The advertising period runs from July 1 to June 30
  • Advertisers can change their ad as many times as they like during that period.
  • Cost is $249+HST
  • Advertisers get first right of renewal before the spot is sold to another member

Official Area Visitor’s Guide

Annually, the Chamber produces a full-colour area visitor guide called It Starts at the Beach…and ends where you want and distributes 30,000 copies throughout Ontario in official provincial tourist information centres, independently operated welcome centres and locally along the Highway 21 corridor from Sarnia to Goderich, highways 4 and 8 and at key locations such as restaurants, hotels, gas stations, libraries, banks and merchants throughout the area – more than 240 separate locations! At the Welcome Centre in Grand Bend, we handout about 4,000 copies a year to area visitors and residents.

The guide has become the “go-to” guide for information about what to, where to eat, where to go, local events and where to obtain  services to local residents and area visitors. The guide showcases key attractions – natural and commercial – promotes more than 140 local festivals and events, includes area maps and offers businesses – Members and Non-Members – the opportunity to purchase display ads.

Chamber members are offered discounted advertising rates (note – this guide is fully advertising sales supported and is not the Chamber’s membership directory).  More Information about the Guide.

Website Exposure

WebLink! Advertising Program — $50

Your Chamber membership includes listings on both grandbendchamber.ca and ItStartsAtTheBeach.ca websites for a single marketing fee of $50 added to your annual membership fee invoice. It includes your business name,  address, phone, email and description, links to your website and any social media presences you have, photo(s), logo and interactive Google map.

Web Badge / Banner Advertising

Information on our websites is organized into key categories that helps customers find businesses and services. Key categories are named to match a consumer’s thought process and goal:  find accommodation, find a place to eat, search out great places to shop and obtain services. Your business is listed under the appropriate category or in some cases multiple categories.

Increase your visibility through a banner ad. The banner ad is 250px by 250px. Please note: we are in process of installing a new ad banner management program on ItStartsAtTheBeach.ca which will offer additional ad banner sizes and locations. Details will be published here when installation and setup is complete.

Badge Ad Specifications

  • Acceptable file formats: gif, jpg, jpeg, png, swf
  • Acceptable file sizes for large web badge: 25kb for standard graphic file; 35kb for Flash/swf
  • Acceptable file sizes for small web badge: 15kb for standard graphic file; 20kb for Flash/swf

Contact Sydney MacDonald at 519-238-2001 or email info@itstartatthebeach.ca if you are interested in this option.

Sponsorship Opportunities

All Member events are open to sponsorship. As an event sponsor of the Breakfast with the Mayor or Members’ Mixers events, you are given an opportunity to speak/present to the attendees for up to 10 minutes. Sponsors of previous events have used these opportunities to celebrate business anniversaries and launch of new product lines and services.

The annual Fall Classic Golf Tournament offers many sponsorship opportunities and levels with corresponding business recognition methods from tee and hole signage, power cart signage, banquet table-talkers, large promotional boards and customized wine bottle gift tags. As well, we include all sponsor logos on this website leading up to and post event, business recognition in our post-event thank you ad and annual report. As well, items donated to the golfers’ prize table are identified with your business card and your business name is listed on several table-top flyer stands recognizing your contribution.

All sponsors are provided with invoices for tax reduction purposes.

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