This was an exciting year for the JCTA Marketing Campaign that just ended June 30^th. The campaign started 45 days earlier this year due to additional funds and proved that marketing in October and November is worth doing to promote pretanning, sunbeds and spray tanning. Check out the Google analytics chart below to see for yourself. The chart shows the number of people going to the JCTA Consumer website TanResponsibly.ca.

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The campaign was divided into the following segments: Outdoors to Indoor Tanning, PreTan, Lifestyle, Sunburn Prevention, Survey Says and Spray Tan. Outdoor to Indoor, which was new this year, started off the Tan Responsibly Campaign, which moved into the Pretan in December. The Pretan Campaign ended in February, overlapping with Lifestyle starting at the end of January. Then, Lifestyle and Sunburn Prevention along with Survey Says went through to May, when Spray Tan took over from Lifestyle in mid-May ending the campaign at the end of June.

For those that love stats, here are some numbers you can sink your teeth into. Remember every time someone goes to the JCTA consumer website, no matter what page they go to, they see the closest 3 salon members to them. No other association website in the world does this. On average, 644 Canadians visited the website that’s just over 161,000 Canadian for this campaign, and 87% were new visitors to the website. We had almost 6.2 million impressions on Google and 1.4 million on Facebook for a total of 7.55 million impressions. We increased impression rates by 420% over the previous campaign. This was due to using Google’s new Responsive Ads that came out in October. This type of ad seems to engage people to take time to review the TanResponsibly website. Visits to the website from Google increased by 630% and Facebook increased by 34%. In the peak season the consumer website traffic was averaging about 1000 to 1200 people a day.

One of the best ads we ran for both women and men was Indoor Tanning Checklist, check it out below. Followed by Mum Needs a Break and GTLG – Gym Tan Look Great in the lifestyle part of the campaign. The best ad for the Survey Says was the Conga Line, where we promoted that The Canadian Tanner Survey reported 87% of Canadian have a more enjoyable holidays with a base tan.

Note: Sorry, we can only display still images here. All ads are videos on Facebook.

As you can see, the ads were all about getting your tan on in a responsible way, promoting what indoor tanners have to say about sunbeds, base tanning and,at  the same time, having fun with ads that promote the industry in a positive light. The JCTA believes we should be part of the solution in reducing the risk of sunburns and skin cancer. That’s why one of our segments is on sunburn prevention. Here’s one of the ads we used.

As always, we promote both UV tanning and spray tanning. We used ads like this one, and we had such great success with 2 of last year’s ads that we ran them again this year. If you remember, ads were about not using a professional salon, and what could happen, like the ad “Orange Girl.”

The JCTA Consumer Facebook page – Tan Nation continue to promote the benefits and misrepresentation of UV light. We reached 23,000 followers this year by continuing our lotion giveaways. We ran a total of 24 giveaways for 2018/2019 and will continue, thanks to Uvalux Tanning and Support, Tanning Depot, New Sunshine, Devoted Creations, SunEvolutions, Sunless Inc, MR International and Everyday Shorts. Each of the lotion manufacturers donated $250 in lotions for every giveaway. Also, Cosmedico donated cases of lamps this year for the First Canadian Tanner Survey as a contest for the most surveys done by one salon and an open draw.

Behind the scenes, the JCTA continues to market to both federal and provincial governments via newsletters. With all the new Canadian research that has come out over the last couple of years due in part by the ComPARe Study funded by the Canadian Cancer Society, the JCTA continues to educate governments on why these papers misrepresent today’s professional salon. As Canadian papers come out, a full review is done on every one of research papers. It continues to amaze me that researchers still use research from the ’70s and ’80s, before regulation on the manufacture of equipment existed in Canada. I remember being able to buy a sunbed with a 60-minute timer on it, for example. That doesn’t exist anymore and shouldn’t. Researchers continue to use research that include skin type 1 (always burn, never tan) people and equipment outside commercial use – home and medical. We continue to push for a self-serve ban and all equipment to be controlled by an industry certified operator.

I hope everyone has had as good of a season as my wife’s salon. Please support the JCTA and become a member and help us get your message out on the positive effects of UV light and that this industry has turned in to a professional industry since the ’80s, teaching our clients to Tan Responsibly indoors or outdoors.