200 years on the Erie Canal.

That’s right, the Erie Canal is turning 200! In honor of this momentous occasion, our friends at the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation, Buffalo Waterfront, and the Buffalo History Museum are throwing a summer-long commemoration. And we climbed aboard to help spread the word from Albany to Buffalo (and beyond!).

If you grew up in the Upstate New York area, you may already have started humming the Erie Canal song, but through this work we learned there is so much more history to this iconic waterway than what we were taught in elementary school. Our goal with this truly unique tourism campaign was not only to attract families and canal enthusiasts to the events and exhibits at Canalside in downtown Buffalo this summer, but also to invite visitors on a journey through the robust and complex history of the Erie Canal.

To do so, we created and developed content for the bicentennial’s Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok channels, launched a series of out-of-home boards, created a television spot, wrapped a van and the exhibit site, and even rewrote the classic “Low Bridge” Erie Canal song for radio – all leading to this shiny new website.

From digital and creative to production and PR, this multimedia campaign was truly an all-hands-on-deck effort here at Crowley Webb. And we couldn’t be prouder to be a part of it. So be sure to swing by Canalside now through Labor Day weekend to see all that the Erie Canal Bicentennial has in store!