RTO7’s offer of the Operations Implementation Program (OIP) for 2025/26 is contingent upon the Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Gaming's approval of RTO7’s 2025/26 Business Plan.
If you have never participated in a program with RTO7 before, we recommend that you reach out to Kim Clarke, kclarke@rto7.ca or Robyn Hewitt, rhewitt@rto7.ca, and set up a call to talk through your proposed campaign and application.
RTO7 reserves the right to limit the number of programs/funds that one stakeholder may receive per year.
Read the Operations Implementation Program Guidelines for important background information before completing this application.
The documents linked to within this application will open in a new window in your browser when clicked on. We highly recommend that you log into a Google account (directions in the link) to access this form and know that your progress is automatically saved as a draft for 30 days so you can return to it. If you choose not to do this or to work offline;
Please see our Blog on why you should create a Google Account for your Business.
Operations Implementation Program Details
If you have funds to contribute to a campaign, please consider applying through the Partnership Program for Social Media Advertising.
The Operations Implementation Program (OIP) is a support initiative offered by Regional Tourism Organization 7 (RTO7) for tourism operators in Bruce, Grey, and Simcoe counties. Through this program, eligible tourism operators can leverage $1,000 of their operational expenses (such as mortgage payments, rent, insurance, capital investments or inventory purchases) to receive a matching $1,000 social media advertising campaign. The campaign, managed by RTO7's Digital Marketing Agency of Record (The Aber Group), aims to promote the operator's business as part of RTO7's 2025/26 Business Plan. The program is designed to assist with marketing efforts and boost visibility for local tourism operators, with all projects required to be completed by March 31, 2026.
The term ‘tourism operator’ is defined as a tourism, festival, heritage, and cultural, consumer-facing organization that has direct access to the consumer and relies on that tourism consumer for their income. DMOs, BIA's, Chambers, and Municipalities will be considered on a case-by-case basis. If you fall into one of these categories, please contact RTO7 staff BEFORE applying. As noted above, please read the Operations Implementation Program Guidelines. Stakeholders are limited to 1 social media advertising program per season, (i.e., 1 OIP or 1 Partnership Program Social Media Advertising).
FESTIVALS & EVENTS ONLY
Festivals and events may use this program as a part of their marketing efforts. Festivals wishing to applying for OIP must be a minimum 2 days in length and encourage overnight stays in commercial accommodations. 7-8 weeks lead time before each festival or event is required.
Note that this form of advertising is particularly effective for consumers in the 'dreaming' phase of their travel journey. During this stage, potential travellers are exploring ideas and gathering inspiration for future trips. As a result, you can expect to see increased traffic to your website from this campaign; however, immediate conversions or bookings may not occur right away.
Tourism Operators interested in the Operations Implementation Program will be required to demonstrate the following:
In order to launch the campaign, you will need to allow The Aber Group to act as an advertiser on your page. Only individuals with “full control” (not partial) will be able to accept or assign task access. If you have Facebook access to a Page, you can view your access by completing the following steps:
Log into Facebook, then click your profile photo in the top right
Click see all profiles, then select the page you would like to switch into
Click your Page profile photo on the top left side to go onto your Facebook Page
On the left bar that now appears, click settings
From there, click page setup and page access
Under People with Facebook Access, click your profile to see your access levels. Page Owners will have profiles that say that they have full control and will be able to accept access invitations.
If you do not have full control of your Facebook Page, and cannot determine how to move forward at this stage of the program, the campaign will need to run through the BruceGreySimcoe platforms and will be required to pay a $200 administrative fee.
To receive funding for social media marketing, you must demonstrate at least $1,000 pre-tax of operational expenses such as mortgage or rent payments, utilities, insurance, inventory, etc. Partners MUST provide proof of payment of these expenses (i.e. cancelled cheque or e-transfer confirmation) with the final report.
You will have final say on the ads. Note, the ad copy developed by the agency is often fairly straightforward - while it may seem counterintuitive, experience has repeatedly shown that this copy tends to perform better than clever, sizzling ad copy. If you have very specific branding/tone requirements, in some instances it may be easiest for you to contribute to the copywriting under the agency's direction. Once the copy is approved, the agency will then execute the media buy and optimize the campaign over the duration of the project. While the Aber Group will be placing and measuring/optimizing the results of your campaign (the media side), you will be responsible for:
designing your campaign i.e. you will already know the purpose or goal of your campaign, the graphic theme and messaging, etc. before applying for this program (this can be as simple as having a selection of good images and messages in mind through to having full blown ‘ads’ developed by a creative agency).
supplying the campaign creative - a selection of 5-10 current, high resolution images (min 1 MB) and/or at least one video (60 sec. max) - note that Meta will optimize to the strongest performing creative.
Once the project is approved, all communications regarding the project MUST be conducted in Basecamp (provided by RTO7).
It is assumed that you have a fully functional website already (since you will be driving traffic to it with a social media advertising campaign) that:
is up to date, easy to navigate and reflects current offerings, hours and contact information
displays properly on desktop and mobile devices (this is critical as over 80% of our target markets are using mobile devices to access your campaign)
is under your control for the purposes of updating content in a timely manner
Partners will need to have or develop a landing page consistent with what is portrayed in the video/imagery (e.g. an ice fishing video should direct traffic to an ice fishing landing page or at minimum a page outlining a variety of winter activities, of which ice fishing is one).
Campaigns will run for 4 weeks.
Facebook and Instagram posts will be posted from the partners account (by Aber who you will need to provide access to) and copy, a call to action and a physical link will drive traffic to your website.
Partners will be responsible for responding to comments generated as a result of the campaign every day
It is possible to be funded for both a video/image development and social media advertising project (using the video/images developed) in one Partnership year; however, this requires SIGNIFICANT lead time to ensure the collateral is edited and ready in time for the campaign
We want you to be open to the idea of starting on a journey towards economic, social and environmental sustainability. Sustainability isn’t a requirement to get funding for 2025/26. However, projects that show they’re working to include or improve sustainable practices—using clear and measurable plans—may be prioritized in the application review process. The Operations Implementation Program application process is competitive, and many people apply for the available funds. We welcome applications from all eligible businesses and organizations. No matter where you are in your sustainability efforts, we’re here to guide you through the process.
The red asterisks below indicate required fields.
Please use the exact address as it appears on Facebook
To launch the campaign, you will need to allow The Aber Group to act as an advertiser on your page. In Facebook, only individuals with “full control” (not partial) will be able to accept or assign task access.
To prevent delays in the campaign setup stage, please provide the name of the individual who has full control of the Facebook Page by following these steps:
Log into Facebook, then click your profile photo in the top right
Click see all profiles, then select the page you would like to switch into
Click your Page profile photo on the top left side to go onto your Facebook Page
On the left bar that now appears, click settings
From there, click Page Set up and Page Access
Under People with Facebook Access, click your profile to see your access levels.
Page Owners will have profiles that say they have full control and will be able to accept access invitations.
Please take the time to check on this - If it turns out you do not have full control of the Facebook Page, it will greatly delay the campaign (until Meta sorts it out) or it will need to run through the BruceGreySimcoe platforms and you will be required to pay a $200 administrative fee.
This could be an event, an attraction, an asset, a season, a destination, an activity, etc. And you could be promoting it to couples, families, young professionals, grandparents, age, gender, interests, etc.
Please keep in mind that although this is an awareness campaign, revenue generation by tourism operators is of key importance and should therefore be considered in what you are promoting to your target audience e.g. we are more likely to approve/promote activities that are associated with businesses that stand to benefit e.g. a tour guide, an outfitter, etc. than simply beautiful vistas or free hiking trails.
What is the specific message(s) that will be communicated through the campaign?
Last Year's Baseline Data
If you did a comparable campaign in the recent past, please provide a baseline value to which you’ll compare this campaign - typically data from the same period last year as the proposed campaign period this year.
Anticipated Result This Year
We also want to know what your expectations are of the campaign this year (in equivalent units to the baseline data if provided above).
Please be sure to include your rationale for what you hope to achieve e.g. if you expect to increase a metric by X, what is that based on? (e.g. a significant budget increase, a modest annual increase based on prior project learnings and efficiencies, etc.)
In addition to the metric identified above, if you would like to also measure conversions (i.e. downloads, bookings, sales, signups, etc.), then please provide:
a) The Metric You Will Measure (in what units)
b) Last Year Baseline Data for that Metric
c) Anticipated This Year
Keep in mind that conversions i.e. tickets sold, overnight bookings etc. can only be attributed to the campaign if you are selling tickets/rooms online. Note that (as depicted in the graphic below), this form of advertising is particularly effective for consumers in the 'dreaming' phase of their travel journey. During this stage, potential travellers are exploring ideas and gathering inspiration for future trips. As a result, you can expect to see increased traffic to your website from this campaign; however, immediate conversions or bookings may not occur right away.