The JCTA Marketing for 2021/2022 season started on Nov 21 and ended June 30^th. The marketing team want above and beyond this year, with some amazing result with the budget they had to work with this year. Due to unknowns with Covid still lingering around the budget was cut in half compared to pre covid 18/19. Due to the reduced budget, 90% of the ad budget was spent on Google and 10% was spent on Facebook promoting Tan Nation consumer page for giveaways and carousel ads.

Google ads this year gave the industry 15.8 million impressions and drove 115 thousand Canadians to view the JCTA consumer website . As I’ve said in the past, these ads are designed to make Canadians rethink what they know about sunbeds and tanning. I’ve always believed that all you need to do is give people 2 side to the story and they can make up they’re owe minds. The consumer website is full of information about responsible tanning, sunless tanning, and spa service that salon members offer. The biggest part of driving consumer to the website is they get to see the closest 3 salon members near them on every page.

Website Traffic to TanResponsibly.ca

FYI, the reason for the ups and downs on the chart, is our weekly budget was used up with the limited funding

We used Facebook as well to drive Canadians to TanResponsbily.ca with our carousel ad on Tan Nation. The Carousel ad is made up of four sections: 1. pretanning for vacation and how you need to start 30 days before you go on vacation. The reason we did this is because people sometime think they can go in for a couple of session and have a base tan. As we all know, this is not the case. It was time again to teach the public how to reduce their risk of sunburns by pretanning correctly. The exposure schedule on your equipment has a 4-week schedule for a reason. 2. Spray Tanning, whether you do it by booth or handheld. People still want to make sure they’re not going to turn orange. One day they’ll learn technology has changed, and you can get the perfect tan every time. 3. Promoting sunburn prevention by knowing your skin type. As we all know, this is so essential for building a base tan without sunburning. 4. Driving anyone that wants information about having fun in the sun to the home page. As we do every year, we run lotion giveaway every 2 weeks to keep our followers engaged. We continue to post articles and image to promote the benefits of sunlight, especially UVA and UVB.

Remember if we do not have your website linked to ours, we cannot help you with your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The more we are all connected, the higher your rating is on Google and other search engines.

The JCTA Membership has had it’s fastest growth in salon membership than any other year. This means the JCTA will be spending even more money this year to promote the industry. This growth has been due in part to the new pricing we got from our insurance provider, Brokerlink. The number of salons on the program has given us negotiating power we’ve never had in the past. We’re able to cover more types of locations and equipment: old and new equipment, any type of spray booth and cover it at replacement cost. I suggest to all salons in Canada, get a quote and see if they can give you better coverage and pricing.

Special thanks to all of our Industry Advocate Members (suppliers, manufacturers and insurer) that continued to support the Canadian Industry. It has been a tough few years for everyone.

Recovery is doing well this year, even given all the problems with traveling. Salons that have diversified seem to be doing much better. Salons with EFT programs have recovered faster and didn’t have to rely so heavily on the vacation season. The majority of the salons I hear from are just below, if not matching their 2019 numbers. That was a great year for most in the industry and even into 2020 before we all got closed. So long as COVID doesn’t come back hard in the fall, every indicator says we’ll have a great year. Yes, we are seeing inflation rise and people concerned about having enough money to pay the bills, but we are considered a recession proof business. I can’t tell you how many of these I’ve seen over the last 40 years being in the industry. Every time I’m surprised how well we do. We are part of the lipstick effect!! Investopedia: The lipstick effect is when consumers still spend money on small indulgences during recessions, economic downturns, or when they personally have little cash. They do not have enough to spend on big-ticket luxury items; however, many still find the cash for purchases of small luxury items, such as premium lipstick. For this reason, companies that benefit from the lipstick effect tend to be resilient even during economic downturns.

If you have a sunbed, come join the JCTA and help us grow the industry!! Hope all have seen increases over last year and may the lipstick effect stick again to out sunbed community. Please have all your clients tan responsibly!

Steve Gilroy, JCTA Executive Director and Smart Tan Canada Vice President