NORTH BAY – Manitoulin Island will be included in promotional videos showcasing Northern Ontario as a healthy place to live and work.
“Our third video (featuring the Moonbeam, Ontario-based business Northern Truss) has just been released on YouTube and we will be doing one in each of the districts in Northern Ontario,” said Danny Whalen, president of the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM), last week. He pointed out FONOM, in co-operation with FedNor, is producing eight promotional videos showcasing Northern Ontario.
“We have three of the videos out now on Northern Ontario,” Mr. Whalen told the Recorder. “We have a local (North Bay) based company, Good Golly Productions, who are creating the videos.”
“We (FONOM) select the businesses to be featured in the videos and Good Golly Productions does the filming,” said Mr. Whalen. “There have been 200,000 interactions on our Go North promotional video site for the first two videos. It has been very successful.”
Mr. Whalen said thus far, “we have not featured a business on Manitoulin Island, but we will be. We have a director in each district and we are asking for their input on businesses that we could look at featuring.”
NEMI Mayor Al MacNevin, a director on the FONOM board told the Recorder last week, “I suggested a few businesses on the Island that could be featured, such as Manitoulin Transport and the new Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory personal protective equipment facility.”
In addition to the videos which run about a total of five minutes in length, “they are planning on making more videos and clips of 25-30 seconds to entice people to go online and see the full version of the video. They are getting attention from media in southern Ontario, which is one of markets we are trying to hit.
Mr. Whalen said one of the benefits of the videos, “is that municipalities and economic development officers can use the videos to encourage and promote people and businesses from other areas to visit and maybe set up new businesses in their municipalities.”
“We have problems in Northern Ontario as is the case in other areas. But there are a lot of benefits to the North, and these videos will put forward the positive aspect of living, working and having businesses operating in the North,” added Mr. Whalen.
