How Canadian advertisers are cashing in on Trump and Brexit

When the U.K. voted to leave the European Union, there was a huge spike in Google searches for "moving to Canada". This followed a similar trend in the U.S. when Donald Trump's candidacy started to gain momentum.

All the new attention has marketers eager to cash in on all this newfound interest in Canada.

The recent trend began with a website created by a Cape Breton radio host. It suggested that Americans unhappy with the idea of a Trump presidency might want to consider that particular corner of Nova Scotia.

The site quickly went viral, and the attention resulted in visits to the official Destination Cape Breton page jumping from 9,000 during the same period last year to 451,000 this year.

Recognizing the potential, other marketers piled on — including Air Canada.

Waterloo, Ont.-based sortable.com used the opportunity to try to attract software developer graduates back from the U.S. Their online ad featured a picture of Donald Trump with the headline, "Feeling homesick?". 

Another company sought to attract people looking to marry their way into Canada. The slogan for Maple Match is "Make dating great again." The dating site claims it "makes it easy for Americans to find the ideal Canadian partner to save them from the unfathomable horror of a Trump presidency."

Other companies were quick to use Canada as a way to advertise their product in general, as in an ad for Esurance.

Streaming service Spotify used the idea of packing up and moving to Canada to promote its music streaming service. After all, it'd be a long car ride across the border. Their ad says, "If you choose Canada this November, let 'My House' be your soundtrack."

And those are just the ads from real marketers. The spoof ads are also pouring in, like a particularly edgy one from americabutbetter.com. This one features someone who introduces himself as "Canada's black guy."

The Ellen Show also jumped in. The daytime talk show wondered if Canada would actually want all the Americans claiming they were moving across the border.

Whether the intentions to move to Canada are serious or in jest, all this attention gives Canadian marketers a unique opportunity to introduce their products to a much wider audience. Why, it's almost un-Canadian.