Québec Original Turns a Hotel Room Into a Moving Journey Across Canada
Québec Original's 'A Room With Many Views' is a 2017 Canadian tourism campaign created by agency Lg2, in which a physical hotel room was transported by helicopter, train, and boat across the province, filmed as a short documentary featuring real American travelers Glennis LaRoe and Kip Geddes, and released to audiences in Canada, the United States, and France.
The campaign launched in March 2017 as a partnership between Lg2 and the Alliance de l'industrie touristique du Québec, the body that governs the Québec Original destination-marketing brand. Its central mechanic was disarmingly simple: rather than broadcasting scenic footage of Québec's landscapes, it placed two unsuspecting travelers — LaRoe and Geddes, both from New York — inside a single hotel room and moved that room, unannounced, to a succession of dramatically different locations across the province. Each morning, they opened the doors to a new panorama. The film captured their unscripted reactions, producing a travel narrative grounded in genuine surprise rather than promotional artifice.
The campaign extended beyond the short film into a 360-degree digital experience, allowing audiences in Canada and internationally to engage with Québec's geography in an immersive format. Media strategy was handled by Touché!, whose work on the campaign contributed to the agency winning Media Agency of the Year, as reported by thedrum.com, though that distinction belongs to the agency rather than the campaign itself. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 71 out of 100, reflecting strong creative craft and clear strategic intent within the travel and leisure category. As a destination-marketing effort operating outside the conventions of traditional hospitality advertising, 'A Room With Many Views' positioned Québec Original as a brand willing to let the province speak for itself through lived, unmediated experience.
Québec Original competed in 2017 as a destination-marketing brand rather than a conventional hospitality product. The strategic challenge was familiar to any national or provincial tourism body: convincing audiences in geographically and culturally distant markets — specifically the United States and France — that Québec offered something genuinely distinct, not merely a variation on existing Canadian or European travel experiences.
The market context was substantial. Total Canadian tourism expenditures reached $97.4 billion in 2017, up 6.3% year over year, according to Publications Gc Ca. Tourism GDP reached $41.2 billion that same year, also up 6.3%, per publications.gc.ca. International arrivals to Canada reached 20.85 million in 2017, a 4.4% increase from 2016, according to Www150 Statcan Gc Ca. Within this expanding market, Québec Original faced competitive pressure from well-resourced destination brands including Destination Canada, the federal tourism promotion body, and Tourism Ontario, which targets many of the same American and international audiences. Differentiating a provincial brand within that landscape required a creative strategy that felt categorically different from standard destination advertising.
Lg2's insight was rooted in the tension between expectation and discovery. As reported by johnnyjet.com, travelers Glennis LaRoe and Kip Geddes stated they had no idea what to expect when they opened the room's doors each morning — a reaction that the campaign treated not as a scripted testimonial but as documentary evidence. Sébastien Viau, Vice-President of the Alliance de l'industrie touristique du Québec, stated in a quote published by culturepub.fr on March 29, 2017, that the campaign reveals the vastness of what Québec has to offer, but from a very intimate point of view. That tension — intimacy at scale — shaped the campaign's targeting logic, reaching audiences in Canada, the United States, and France through a narrative format designed to feel personal rather than promotional.
Director Mélanie Charbonneau helmed the short film at the centre of 'A Room With Many Views,' working with production company Cinélande to capture the journey across Québec. The production's core discipline was restraint: the film's effectiveness depended entirely on the authenticity of LaRoe and Geddes's responses, which meant the creative team had to engineer genuine surprise while managing the considerable logistical challenge of moving a furnished room by helicopter, train, and boat without compromising the travelers' experience of discovery.
Agency producers Johanne Pelland, Mélanie Bazinet, and Nancy McDonald oversaw production on behalf of Lg2, as documented by thedrum.com. The film's visual language drew from observational documentary tradition — static wide shots of the room arriving at each new location, followed by intimate close coverage of the travelers' unguarded reactions. This approach deliberately avoided the polished, colour-graded aesthetic typical of destination advertising, favouring instead a texture that signalled authenticity to audiences in Canada, the United States, and France who have grown sophisticated in identifying produced enthusiasm.
The campaign's creative scope extended beyond the film itself. As reported by clapboard.com, the production included a 360-degree digital experience that allowed online audiences to inhabit the same spatial relationship with Québec's landscapes that LaRoe and Geddes experienced in person. This immersive layer served a different audience segment — those early in the travel consideration process — while the documentary film targeted viewers already engaged enough to sustain a longer narrative. Together, the two formats constituted a coherent creative system rather than a single asset with supplementary content. The Drum covered the campaign as a distinctive short documentary that emphasised Québec's diversity from the St. Lawrence River to its northern wilderness, underscoring the geographic breadth that the production team was required to capture within a single cohesive narrative arc.
No verified performance data for 'A Room With Many Views' in terms of reach, conversion, or booking uplift is publicly available. What the public record does document is the campaign's recognition within the Canadian media industry. The campaign won Best Media Campaign of the Year at the 2018 Canadian media-industry awards, as reported by thedrum.com — a result that reflects the industry's assessment of the media strategy developed by Touché! alongside Lg2's creative work.
Structurally, the campaign's effectiveness rests on several compounding factors. Its documentary format reduced the perceived distance between advertisement and content, increasing the likelihood of voluntary sharing and sustained viewing. The 360-degree digital component extended dwell time beyond what a standard pre-roll or broadcast spot could achieve. By targeting audiences in Canada, the United States, and France simultaneously through a format that required no localisation — surprise and discovery are culturally portable emotions — the campaign maximised geographic reach without fragmenting its creative identity.
The broader market context supports the campaign's timing. International tourism exports from Canada reached $21.3 billion in 2017, up 6.4%, according to publications.gc.ca. Launching 'A Room With Many Views' into an expanding inbound travel market meant the campaign was working with economic momentum rather than against it. The Clapboard Score of 71 out of 100 reflects this balance: the campaign demonstrates genuine creative ambition and clear strategic coherence, with room to grow in measurable audience conversion — a limitation common to documentary-format tourism campaigns where attribution across long consideration cycles remains technically difficult.
'A Room With Many Views' is a 2017 tourism campaign created by Lg2 for Québec Original. A physical hotel room was transported by helicopter, train, and boat across the province, with American travelers Glennis LaRoe and Kip Geddes filming their unscripted reactions to each new location. The campaign also included a 360-degree digital experience.
Mélanie Charbonneau directed the short documentary film at the heart of the campaign. Production was handled by Cinélande, with agency producers Johanne Pelland, Mélanie Bazinet, and Nancy McDonald overseeing the project on behalf of Lg2. The film captured the unscripted reactions of travelers LaRoe and Geddes as documented by thedrum.com.
The campaign targeted audiences in Canada, the United States, and France. As reported by thedrum.com, the campaign was specifically designed for viewers outside Québec, with American travelers serving as audience surrogates to make the province's geographic diversity feel personally discoverable rather than abstractly promotional.
The campaign won Best Media Campaign of the Year at the 2018 Canadian media-industry awards, as reported by thedrum.com. Media agency Touché!, which handled the campaign's media strategy alongside Lg2's creative work, was separately recognised as Media Agency of the Year, though that honour belongs to the agency rather than the campaign itself.
Lg2's concept placed two real American travelers inside a hotel room and moved that room, unannounced, to dramatically different locations across Québec. Each morning the travelers opened the doors to a new landscape. As noted by culturepub.fr, the campaign revealed Québec's vastness from an intimate, unscripted point of view rather than through conventional destination advertising.
'A Room With Many Views' holds a Clapboard Score of 71 out of 100. The score reflects strong creative craft and clear strategic coherence in the travel and leisure category, with the campaign's documentary format and 360-degree digital component demonstrating genuine ambition, while measurable audience conversion data remains publicly unavailable for independent verification.
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