Client Spotlight: Sooke’s Hidden Treasures

In early 2022, the Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce launched Sooke’s Hidden Treasures: a community campaign designed to highlight the under-the-radar places, people, and businesses that make this coastal town so special.

Almostronaut Creative was brought on to design the general look & feel, a promotional postcard and rack card for the campaign. It started small… and quickly turned into one of the most heartwarming projects we’ve ever been part of. Other local businesses were hired to create video content and a website, and the Chamber of Commerce ran an extensive survey as well.

Treasure maps and glue stick magic

The Chamber had a clear vision for the main postcard:

• One side filled with real photos of the region
• The other side styled like handwritten notes from a local, inviting recipients to explore and share their own hidden treasures

This brief was a dream come true – I have a not-so-secret love for old-school treasure maps, and this was the perfect excuse to get analog. Out came the glue sticks, scissors, and scraps of paper for a proper hands-on collage session, later digitized for print. How often do we get the chance to do graphic design with tools from the pre-digital era?

The rack card followed a more traditional tourism format, but with the same emphasis on warmth, whimsy, and community spirit. It was distributed far and wide across Vancouver Island, from ferry terminals to airport info stands.

From one postcard… to many

The initial designs were such a hit that we kept going, creating a full suite of collectible postcards. Local businesses were given stacks to hand out to visiting tourists, turning every trip into a little scavenger hunt of its own.

From postcards to online posts

Since the campaign already had so much heart, we offered to help extend it online. We set up a dedicated Instagram account and kicked things off with a grid-style mosaic of the treasure map (revealed square by square over the course of 9 days). Hidden within was a QR code linking to a community survey where residents could nominate their own “hidden treasures” and enter to win a cash prize.

As the nominations rolled in, Marleen personally called each featured business, artist, and community organization to gather stories and fun facts. These were then turned into bite-sized posts – little love letters from the people of Sooke to their favourite “hidden treasures”.

Small town, big impact

The Chamber’s final report called the campaign a huge success:

• It boosted visibility for local businesses
• Strengthened ties between community organizations
• Brought in foot traffic from curious visitors
• And, yes, genuinely helped put Sooke on the map

We loved every minute of it!