Grey County received an award at the 2026 Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence in Ottawa on Oct. 23.
The Gather in Grey campaign won the Tourism Marketing Campaign Award (over $50,000 category), which recognizes outstanding tourism marketing that inspires travel, builds destination awareness, and helps grow Ontario’s visitor economy.
“To be able to be recognized in a sense of such a small team who is producing this kind of work and resonating with visitors and viewers was really outstanding,” says Strategic Marketing Manager – Grey County, Economic Development, Tourism & Culture Department Kaleena Sanford.
Gather in Grey was selected over Explore Waterloo Region’s Brand Launch campaign and Tourism Hamilton’s Let Me Show You the Hamilton I Love campaign. Gather in Grey was also a finalist in the Tourism Digital Marketing Award category alongside Tourism Hamilton, with Ottawa Tourism receiving the award for its Magic on Set campaign.
The campaign has generated 1.78 million impressions, more than 137,000 YouTube views, more than 315,000 website sessions, more than 50,000 trip idea views, and 54,000 event page views.
“The metrics are something that just helps to support the vision,” says Sanford. “We were really ambitious with what our digital deployment was going to be of this.”
The campaign features internationally recognized chef and artist Roger Mooking as Grey County’s first creative director and culinary ambassador. In a series of videos, Mooking travelled throughout Grey County meeting farmers, producers, restaurateurs, artisans, makers, and tourism operators, showcasing the region’s creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and sense of community.
Sanford says the original plan for Gather in Grey was to begin in 2020 but was paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic before being revisited in 2024, which started the process to launch the campaign.
Gather in Grey has since grown from a campaign into Grey County’s tourism brand. Grey County now uses Gather in Grey to guide destination marketing, including the transition from Visit Grey to Gather in Grey and the development of a new destination website.