Coming in second place isn't always desirable (in a fight to the death, for instance). But Greg Klassen, SVP, marketing strategy and communications for the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), couldn't be happier about Canada's runner-up status, especially considering how far it's come.

At the World Travel Market in London, U.K. in November, global branding firm FutureBrand announced the rankings of its Country Brand Index. Canada took the number two spot behind Australia, jumping 10 spots in just two years (it ranked number 12 in 2006 and number six in 2007). And for the first time, Canada has made Lonely Planet's list of top 10 countries for 2009, alongside exotic locales such as Algeria, Peru and Greenland - the kinds of places Canada had been losing customers to. "We are [also] unique, exotic and off the beaten track," Klassen says, "and we offer the kinds of experiences people want to have, we just needed to add context to them." And context they gave, in the form of a complete brand overhaul and an exploration into new, cutting-edge marketing initiatives.

The CTC, a crown corporation, is responsible for marketing Canada at home and overseas in the markets with the highest potential for ROI - namely the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Mexico, Japan, China, South Korea and Australia. It has a marketing team of 35 with local teams in the nine countries covered. The CTC also develops programs that provincial and city tourism partners in Canada buy into or develop in conjunction with its strategy. Tourism represents 2% of Canada's overall GDP, which is no small potatoes when you consider that contribution is greater than agriculture, fishing, forestry and hunting combined. But despite its importance, the industry has travelled a rocky road in the past decade.

Klassen joined the CTC the week after 9/11 (in fact, he couldn't fly to Ottawa for his interview because planes were grounded). Two years later, the SARS epidemic hit. These events forced the CTC to re-examine their strategy and take a long hard look at their brand image. They came to realize it was eroding in the minds of consumers. "The kinds of travellers that we had traditionally attracted to Canada were looking for and finding experiences in all corners of the globe," Klassen says.

The problem, according to Klassen, was that Canada was resting on its laurels. Advertising it did five or six years ago looked exactly like ads from 50 or 60 years ago - talking about ease of access into Canada from the U.S. and showing images of vast and barren landscapes. So the CTC decided to relaunch the brand just as Klassen was brought onboard as VP marketing.

Canada's size and diversity was a major obstacle to the rebranding, as images of mountains didn't represent Montreal, just as cityscapes didn't represent the Rockies. "It quickly dawned on us that if we were going to try to develop a brand in a very traditional way, we weren't going to get very far because we couldn't sum up into one brand essence what Canada was all about," says Klassen. Through extensive research, they determined that the key was to focus on their customers. They determined that visitors to Canada were travellers instead of tourists - meaning they were travelling towards something instead of trying to get away from something. From this insight, a new brand and a new tagline was born: "Canada: Keep Exploring."