The Drama Of A Winter Storm

Day two in Tofino was fantastic. We were greeted with a High Wind Warning, and sure enough, breezes in the 30mph to 45mph range were in effect by early afternoon. The passing of a cold front stirred the ocean. I hearken to George Costanza's line on Seinfeld: "The sea was angry that day, my friends. It was like an old man sending back soup at a deli."

Tofino is a town that embraces its biggest flaw, weather. From San Francisco to Alaska, big windstorms, many with winds over 60mph, pelt the coast from November through February. It does not make sense that a person would travel seven hours from Vancouver, twelve hours from Seattle, or farther away, to spend a December day watching gigantic waves crash into the shore, while fifty mile-per-hour winds drive rain sideways on a raw, forty degree gray afternoon.

But that is just what people do. Tofino markets this horrible weather as something that is romantic, something worth experiencing. On the bottom of our dinner receipt this evening were twelve simple words: "Join us for the drama of a winter storm, November through February".

All marketers have an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive.