It’s Manitoba Time! Yeah!

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/01/2011 (5758 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After the Spirited Energy debacle of a few years back, when the province launched, to much fanfare, a really terrible new "branding exercise," you’d think they’d learn.

Not that slogans are best designed by committee, but couldn’t they float a few trial balloons, ask for public input, see what works and is liked?

No, no, no — at least, not for Tourism Manitoba, which is about to release a new slogan of its own.

When it was circulated to industry insiders, it wasn’t quite universally panned, but you could hear a pin drop between the distinct lack of  enthusiasm.

The new slogan hasn’t been coupled to the whole poster and full design stuff, so Tourism Manitoba folks say that you can’t fully judge it yet, but I think you can. Here are the words:

"It’s Manitoba Time."

Yes, you can be forgiven if that slogan doesn’t exactly inspire you with its stunning originality and the fact that it doesn’t really say anything about Manitoba at all.

I’m not the only person who would point out immediate predecessors in "It’s Hammertime" and "It’s Miller Time."

But Winnipeg designer and social media marketing guru (gurette?) Erica Glasier takes it one step further with this poster:

On her website, you can download desktop backgrounds in various sizes, even.

The thing is — I like it. The execution of this poster is clever, playing off the obvious associations in a fun way. It’s about the only thing that I could think of that would get me to love the slogan. And I didn’t even think of it!

This poster represents the Manitoba that I know — a Manitoba where people love their beer.

Now all we need is for the province to get its collective head out of its collective 19th-century Puritan fanny and update the liquor laws to take advantage of this.

Think about it — the tourism industry in California’s Napa Valley, the B.C. Okanagan and Ontario’s Niagara region is heavily reliant on the vineyards and wineries that are there. Thousands of people tramp through the hillsides, stopping in for wine tastings, and picking up bottles to take home with them. It’s a gigantic profit centre for those areas.

In some U.S. states, there is a similar tourist industry around microbreweries. Even in Atlantic Canada, stopping off at the Alexander Keith’s or Moosehead breweries for a tour is a tourist staple.

But nothing of that sort exists in Manitoba, and a big part of the problem is our regressive Liquor Control Act.

(Let’s be clear: I’m not talking about private liquor stores — frankly, I like having well-educated people tell me about the wines and spirits that I’m buying.)

In some provinces, small microbreweries get a break on the excise taxes. Because they can’t compete with mass-market brews like Labatt and Molson on economies of scale, they’re given some leeway while they grow. Not in Manitoba.

In some provinces, you can brew beer in the back and sell it in front, making a quaint brewpub where the proprietors can roll out kegs from the back room when they need it. Not in Manitoba.

In some provinces, you can open a bar without having a restaurant or a hotel or a games room attached, or without making it a private club. Not in Manitoba.

During the last election, both mayoral candidates said they would support a microbrewery or brewpub in the now-vacant old fire hall downtown, an idea I have privately pitched off and on for a decade now. Too bad it would be illegal in Manitoba — unless they were separate businesses and the brewery in the back sold its kegs to the government, and then the business in the front bought them back and sold their own beer as part of a full-service restaurant, with a small portion set aside as a lounge area. Or they could add hotel rooms upstairs.

So-called "alco-tourism" — where microbreweries and even microdistilleries are not just successful small businesses in their own right, but also destinations for discerning drinkers — is a valid tourism strategy that has been studied at the University of Leeds and written up in the New York Times.

And I think alcotourism is a strategy that this province should harness. We’ve got massive fields of grain that grow as far as the eye can see — it’s just basic economics to add value to those raw materials before we export them. Brewing beer or distilling spirits is a great way to add value.

Next door in Saskatchewan, places like Bushwakker draw huge crowds for their seasonal beer releases and plaudits from national publications like the Globe and Mail. It’s a tourist magnet.

Winnipeg’s Half Pints is doing great things, too — but that’s despite the province’s liquor laws. We need more of them, and we need government support to incubate those efforts.

There’s an election coming up in October. Shall we add this to the agenda?