The Evolution of SEO and Web Traffic through Generative AI
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The landscape of search engine optimization (SEO) and web traffic management has been dramatically reshaped by the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI).
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As we explore the evolution of these technologies, it's clear that AI has not just been a tool of incremental change, but rather a revolutionary force, redefining how content is created, optimized, and delivered to users.
In the early days of the internet, SEO was relatively straightforward. It primarily involved optimizing website elements like meta tags, keywords, and backlinks to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
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However, as search engines' algorithms became more sophisticated, so did the techniques required to optimize web pages.
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The focus shifted towards creating quality content and enhancing user experience.
Enter generative AI, a technology poised to turn the world of SEO on its head once again.
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Planning This form of AI, which includes tools capable of producing human-like text, images, and even code, has started to play a pivotal role in content creation.
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With tools like OpenAIs GPT series, businesses can generate SEO-friendly content at an unprecedented scale. While this sounds promising, it also introduces new challenges and considerations.
One significant impact of generative AI is on content originality and quality.
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Initially, many were skeptical about whether AI could match the depth and nuance of human-written content. Essential AI SEO Strategies Every Designer Should Know . Over time, however, AI has improved considerably. Today, it can produce articles, blog posts, and even technical content that are not only coherent but also engaging and informative.
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Nevertheless, this capability raises concerns about the dilution of content uniqueness and the potential for a web cluttered with AI-generated materials that might lack the insightful human touch.
Moreover, the use of AI in generating content must be carefully managed to avoid issues like keyword stuffing-an old SEO tactic that search engines now penalize. AI-generated content must be overseen to ensure it aligns with the latest SEO practices which prioritize user intent and experience over mere keyword presence. This means that while AI can suggest and draft content, human oversight is crucial to tailor the output to meet specific audience needs and comply with ethical SEO strategies.
Another area where generative AI is making waves is in predictive analytics, which can forecast trends and user behaviors. This allows for more dynamic SEO strategies that can adapt to changing user interests and search engine algorithms more quickly than ever before.
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By analyzing large sets of data on how users interact with content, AI can help marketers and webmasters refine their strategies in real-time, a huge advantage in the fast-paced digital world!
However, as with any technology, the deployment of AI in SEO and web traffic management must be approached with caution. The potential for misuse is high, and theres an ongoing debate about the ethical implications of AI-generated content. For instance, the authenticity of content can come into question, and the blurring lines between human-generated and machine-generated communications could potentially undermine trust in online content.
As we move forward, the relationship between AI, SEO, and web traffic is only expected to deepen. The key to successful integration lies in balancing technological advancements with ethical considerations and maintaining a human oversight to ensure quality and reliability. Its an exciting time for digital marketers, SEO specialists, and content creators, as they navigate this new terrain-full of opportunities and challenges alike!
In conclusion, the evolution of SEO and web traffic through generative AI is a testament to the rapid pace of technological change impacting digital marketing landscapes. Relevance As we embrace these changes, its crucial to remember the importance of maintaining a human touch in the digital realm to ensure that the content remains genuine, engaging, and valuable to users. Ready or not, the future of SEO is here!
Digital marketing effectively began in 1990 when the Archie search engine was created as an index for FTP sites. In the 1980s, the storage capacity of computers was already large enough to store huge volumes of customer information. Companies started choosing online techniques, such as database marketing, rather than limited list brokers.[9]Databases allowed companies to track customers' information more effectively, transforming the relationship between buyer and seller.
In the 1990s, the term digital marketing was coined.[citation needed] The first clickable banner ad, the "You Will" campaign by AT&T, went live in 1994, and over the first four months, 44% of all people who saw it clicked on the ad.[10][11] Early digital marketing efforts focused on simple HTML websites and the burgeoning practice of email marketing, which allowed for direct communication with consumers.[12]
In the 2000s, with increasing numbers of Internet users and the birth of the iPhone, customers began searching for products and making decisions about their needs online first, instead of consulting a salesperson, which created a new problem for the marketing department of a company.[13] In addition, a survey in 2000 in the United Kingdom found that most retailers still needed to register their own domain address.[14] These problems encouraged marketers to find new ways to integrate digital technology into market development. At the same time, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, introduced by Google AdWords in 2000, allowed businesses to target specific keywords, making digital marketing more measurable and cost-effective.[15]
The mid-2000s saw the emergence of social media platforms like Facebook (2004), YouTube (2005), and Twitter (2006). These platforms revolutionized digital marketing by facilitating direct and interactive engagement with consumers. In 2007, marketing automation was developed as a response to the ever-evolving marketing climate. Marketing automation is the process by which software is used to automate conventional marketing processes.[16]Marketing automation helps companies segment customers, launch multichannel marketing campaigns, and provide personalized information for customers.,[16] based on their specific activities. In this way, users' activity (or lack thereof) triggers a personal message that is customized to the user in their preferred platform. However, despite the benefits of marketing automation many companies are struggling to adapt it to their everyday uses correctly.[17][page needed]
Digital marketing became more sophisticated in the 2000s and the 2010s, when[18][19] the proliferation of devices capable of accessing digital media led to sudden growth.[20] Statistics produced in 2012 and 2013 showed that digital marketing was still growing.[21][22] With the development of social media in the 2000s, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, consumers became highly dependent on digital electronics in their daily lives. Therefore, they expected a seamless user experience across different channels for searching product information. The change in customer behavior improved the diversification of marketing technology.[23]
Digital media growth was estimated at 4.5 trillion online ads served annually with digital media spending at 48% growth in 2010.[24] An increasing portion of advertising stems from businesses employing Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) to tailor advertising for internet users, but OBA raises concerns about consumer privacy and data protection.[20]
Nonlinear marketing, a type of interactive marketing, is a long-term marketing approach that builds on businesses collecting information about an Internet user's online activities and trying to be visible in multiple areas.[25]
Unlike traditional marketing techniques, which involve direct, one-way messaging to consumers (via print, television, and radio advertising), nonlinear digital marketing strategies are centered on reaching prospective customers across multiple online channels.[citation needed]
Combined with higher consumer knowledge and the demand for more sophisticated consumer offerings, this change has forced many businesses to rethink their outreach strategy and adopt or incorporate omnichannel, nonlinear marketing techniques to maintain sufficient brand exposure, engagement, and reach.[citation needed]
Nonlinear marketing strategies involve efforts to adapt the advertising to different platforms[26] and to tailor the advertising to different individual buyers rather than a large coherent audience.[27]
Some studies indicate that consumer responses to traditional marketing approaches are becoming less predictable for businesses.[28] According to a 2018 study, nearly 90% of online consumers in the United States researched products and brands online before visiting the store or making a purchase.[29] The Global Web Index estimated that in 2018, a little more than 50% of consumers researched products on social media.[30] Businesses often rely on individuals portraying their products in a positive light on social media, and may adapt their marketing strategy to target people with large social media followings in order to generate such comments.[31] In this manner, businesses can use consumers to advertise their products or services, decreasing the cost for the company.[32]
One of the key objectives of modern digital marketing is to raise brand awareness, the extent to which customers and the public are familiar with and recognize a particular brand.
Enhancing brand awareness is important in digital marketing, and marketing in general, because of its impact on brand perception and consumer decision-making. According to the 2015 essay, "Impact of Brand on Consumer Behavior":
"Brand awareness, as one of the fundamental dimensions of brand equity, is often considered to be a prerequisite of consumers' buying decision, as it represents the main factor for including a brand in the consideration set. Brand awareness can also influence consumers' perceived risk assessment and their confidence in the purchase decision, due to familiarity with the brand and its characteristics."[33]
Recent trends show that businesses and digital marketers are prioritizing brand awareness, focusing more on their digital marketing efforts on cultivating brand recognition and recall than in previous years. This is evidenced by a 2019 Content Marketing Institute study, which found that 81% of digital marketers have worked on enhancing brand recognition over the past year.[34]
Another Content Marketing Institute survey revealed that 89% of B2B marketers now believe improving brand awareness to be more important than efforts directed at increasing sales.[35]
Increasing brand awareness is a focus of digital marketing strategy for a number of reasons:
The growth of online shopping. A survey by Statista projects 230.5 million people in the United States will use the Internet to shop, compare, and buy products by 2021, up from 209.6 million in 2016.[36] Research from business software firm Salesforce found that 87% of people began searches for products and brands on digital channels in 2018.[37]
The role of digital interaction in customer behavior. It's estimated that 70% of all retail purchases made in the U.S. are influenced to some degree by an interaction with a brand online.[38]
The growing influence and role of brand awareness in online consumer decision-making: 82% of online shoppers searching for services give preference to brands they know of.[39]
The use, convenience, and influence of social media. A recent report by Hootsuite estimated there were more than 3.4 billion active users on social media platforms, a 9% increase from 2018.[40] A 2019 survey by The Manifest states that 74% of social media users follow brands on social sites, and 96% of people who follow businesses also engage with those brands on social platforms.[41] According to Deloitte, one in three U.S. consumers are influenced by social media when buying a product, while 47% of millennials factor their interaction with a brand on social when making a purchase.[42]
Digital marketing strategies may include the use of one or more online channels and techniques (omnichannel) to increase brand awareness among consumers.
Building brand awareness may involve such methods/tools as:
Search engine optimization techniques may be used to improve the visibility of business websites and brand-related content for common industry-related search queries.[43]
The importance of SEO to increase brand awareness is said to correlate with the growing influence of search results and search features like featured snippets, knowledge panels, and local SEO on customer behavior.[44]
SEM, also known as PPC advertising, involves the purchase of ad space in prominent, visible positions atop search results pages and websites. Search ads have been shown to have a positive impact on brand recognition, awareness and conversions.[45]
Social media marketing is characterized by its constant engagement with consumers, emphasizing content creation and interaction skills. It involves real-time monitoring, analysis, summarization, and management of the marketing process, performed via platforms like Hootsuite or Sprout Social, which support these activities and allow adjustments to marketing strategies based on real-time feedback from the market and consumers.[47][48] 70% of marketers list increasing brand awareness as their number one goal for marketing on social media platforms.[citation needed] As of 2021, LinkedIn has been added as one of the most-used social media platforms by business leaders for its professional networking capabilities.[49]
One of the major changes that occurred in traditional marketing was the "emergence of digital marketing", this led to the reinvention of marketing strategies in order to adapt to this major change in traditional marketing.
As digital marketing is dependent on technology which is ever-evolving and fast-changing, the same features should be expected from digital marketing developments and strategies. This section attempts to list the notable current highlights in use (at the time of writing).[when?]
Segmentation: More focus has been placed on segmentation within digital marketing, in order to target specific markets in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer sectors.
Influencer marketing: Important nodes are identified within related communities, known as influencers. This is becoming an important concept in digital targeting.[51] Influencers allow brands to take advantage of social media and the large audiences available on many of these platforms.[51] It is possible to reach influencers via paid advertising, such as Facebook Advertising or Google Ads campaigns, or through sophisticated sCRM (social customer relationship management) software, such as SAP C4C, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage CRM and Salesforce CRM. Many universities now focus, at Masters level, on engagement strategies for influencers.
To summarize, Pull digital marketing is characterized by consumers actively seeking marketing content while Push digital marketing occurs when marketers send messages without that content being actively sought by the recipients.
Online behavioral advertising is the practice of collecting information about a user's online activity over time, "on a particular device and across different, unrelated websites, in order to deliver advertisements tailored to that user's interests and preferences."[52][53] Such Advertisements are based on site retargeting are customized based on each user behavior and pattern.
Collaborative Environment: A collaborative environment can be set up between the organization, the technology service provider, and the digital agencies to optimize effort, resource sharing, reusability and communications.[54] Additionally, organizations are inviting their customers to help them better understand how to service them. This source of data is called user-generated content. Much of this is acquired via company websites where the organization invites people to share ideas that are then evaluated by other users of the site. The most popular ideas are evaluated and implemented in some form. Using this method of acquiring data and developing new products can foster the organization's relationship with its customer as well as spawn ideas that would otherwise be overlooked. UGC is low-cost advertising as it is directly from the consumers and can save advertising costs for the organization.
Data-driven advertising: Users generate a lot of data in every step they take on the path of customer journey and brands can now use that data to activate their known audience with data-driven programmatic media buying. Without exposing customers' privacy, users' data can be collected from digital channels (e.g.: when the customer visits a website, reads an e-mail, or launches and interact with a brand's mobile app), brands can also collect data from real-world customer interactions, such as brick and mortar stores visits and from CRM and sales engines datasets. Also known as people-based marketing or addressable media, data-driven advertising is empowering brands to find their loyal customers in their audience and deliver in real time a much more personal communication, highly relevant to each customers' moment and actions.[55]
An important consideration today while deciding on a strategy is that the digital tools have democratized the promotional landscape.
Remarketing: Remarketing plays a major role in digital marketing. This tactic allows marketers to publish targeted ads in front of an interest category or a defined audience, generally called searchers in web speak, they have either searched for particular products or services or visited a website for some purpose.
Game advertising: Game ads are advertisements that exist within computer or video games. One of the most common examples of in-game advertising is billboards appearing in sports games. In-game ads also might appear as brand-name products like guns, cars, or clothing that exist as gaming status symbols.
Six principles for building online brand content:[56]
Do not consider individuals as consumers;
Have an editorial position;
Define an identity for the brand;
Maintain a continuity of contents;
Ensure a regular interaction with audience;
Have a channel for events.
Tourism marketing: Advanced tourism, responsible and sustainable tourism, social media and online tourism marketing, and geographic information systems. As a broader research field matures and attracts more diverse and in-depth academic research.[57]
The new digital era has enabled brands to selectively target their customers that may potentially be interested in their brand or based on previous browsing interests. Businesses can use social media to select the age range, location, gender, and interests of whom they would like their targeted post to be seen. Furthermore, based on a customer's recent search history they can be 'followed' on the internet so they see advertisements from similar brands, products, and services,[58] that allows businesses to target the specific customers that they know and feel will most benefit from their product or service, something that had limited capabilities up until the digital era.
Digital marketing activity is still growing across the world according to the headline global marketing index. A study published in September 2018, found that global outlays on digital marketing tactics are approaching $100 billion.[59] Digital media continues to rapidly grow. While the marketing budgets are expanding, traditional media is declining.[60] Digital media helps brands reach consumers to engage with their product or service in a personalized way. Five areas, which are outlined as current industry practices that are often ineffective are prioritizing clicks, balancing search and display, understanding mobiles, targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic, and cross-platform measurement.[61] Why these practices are ineffective and some ways around making these aspects effective are discussed surrounding the following points.
Prioritizing clicks refers to display click ads, although advantageous by being 'simple, fast and inexpensive' rates for display ads in 2016 is only 0.10 percent in the United States. This means one in a thousand click ads is relevant therefore having little effect. This displays that marketing companies should not just use click ads to evaluate the effectiveness of display advertisements.[61]
Balancing search and display for digital display ads is important. marketers tend to look at the last search and attribute all of the effectiveness of this. This, in turn, disregards other marketing efforts, which establish brand value within the consumer's mind. ComScore determined through drawing on data online, produced by over one hundred multichannel retailers that digital display marketing poses strengths when compared with or positioned alongside, paid search.[61] This is why it is advised that when someone clicks on a display ad the company opens a landing page, not its home page. A landing page typically has something to draw the customer in to search beyond this page. Commonly marketers see increased sales among people exposed to a search ad. But the fact of how many people you can reach with a display campaign compared to a search campaign should be considered. Multichannel retailers have an increased reach if the display is considered in synergy with search campaigns. Overall, both search and display aspects are valued as display campaigns build awareness for the brand so that more people are likely to click on these digital ads when running a search campaign.[61]
Understanding mobile devices is a significant aspect of digital marketing because smartphones and tablets are now responsible for 64% of the time US consumers are online.[61] Apps provide a big opportunity as well as challenge for the marketers because firstly the app needs to be downloaded and secondly the person needs to actually use it. This may be difficult as 'half the time spent on smartphone apps occurs on the individuals single most used app, and almost 85% of their time on the top four rated apps'.[61] Mobile advertising can assist in achieving a variety of commercial objectives and it is effective due to taking over the entire screen, and voice or status is likely to be considered highly. However, the message must not be seen or thought of as intrusive.[61] Disadvantages of digital media used on mobile devices also include limited creative capabilities, and reach. Although there are many positive aspects including the user's entitlement to select product information, digital media creating a flexible message platform and there is potential for direct selling.[62]
The number of marketing channels continues to expand, as measurement practices are growing in complexity. A cross-platform view must be used to unify audience measurement and media planning. Market researchers need to understand how the Omni-channel affects consumer's behavior, although when advertisements are on a consumer's device this does not get measured. Significant aspects to cross-platform measurement involve deduplication and understanding that you have reached an incremental level with another platform, rather than delivering more impressions against people that have previously been reached.[61] An example is 'ESPN and comScore partnered on Project Blueprint discovering the sports broadcaster achieved a 21% increase in unduplicated daily reach thanks to digital advertising'.[61] Television and radio industries are the electronic media, which competes with digital and other technological advertising. Yet television advertising is not directly competing with online digital advertising due to being able to cross platform with digital technology. Radio also gains power through cross platforms, in online streaming content. Television and radio continue to persuade and affect the audience, across multiple platforms.[63]
Targeting, viewability, brand safety, and invalid traffic
Targeting, viewability, brand safety, and invalid traffic all are aspects used by marketers to help advocate digital advertising. Cookies are a form of digital advertising, which are tracking tools within desktop devices, causing difficulty, with shortcomings including deletion by web browsers, the inability to sort between multiple users of a device, inaccurate estimates for unique visitors, overstating reach, understanding frequency, problems with ad servers, which cannot distinguish between when cookies have been deleted and when consumers have not previously been exposed to an ad. Due to the inaccuracies influenced by cookies, demographics in the target market are low and vary.[61] Another element, which is affected by digital marketing, is 'viewability' or whether the ad was actually seen by the consumer. Many ads are not seen by a consumer and may never reach the right demographic segment. Brand safety is another issue of whether or not the ad was produced in the context of being unethical or having offensive content. Recognizing fraud when an ad is exposed is another challenge marketers face. This relates to invalid traffic as premium sites are more effective at detecting fraudulent traffic, although non-premium sites are more so the problem.[61]
Digital Marketing Channels are systems based on the Internet that can create, accelerate, and transmit product value from producer to a consumer terminal, through digital networks.[64][65] Digital marketing is facilitated by multiple Digital Marketing channels, as an advertiser one's core objective is to find channels which result in maximum two-way communication and a better overall ROI for the brand. There are multiple digital marketing channels available namely:[66]
Affiliate marketing - Affiliate marketing is perceived to not be considered a safe, reliable, and easy means of marketing through online platforms. This is due to a lack of reliability in terms of affiliates that can produce the demanded number of new customers. As a result of this risk and bad affiliates, it leaves the brand prone to exploitation in terms of claiming commission that isn't honestly acquired. Legal means may offer some protection against this, yet there are limitations in recovering any losses or investment. Despite this, affiliate marketing allows the brand to market towards smaller publishers and websites with smaller traffic. Brands that choose to use this marketing often should beware of such risks involved and look to associate with affiliates in which rules are laid down between the parties involved to assure and minimize the risk involved.[67]
Digital advertising technologies support the real-time bidding infrastructure used in digital display advertising[68]
Display advertising – As the term implies, online display advertising deals with showcasing promotional messages or ideas to the consumer on the internet. This includes a wide range of advertisements like advertising blogs, networks, interstitial ads, contextual data, ads on search engines, classified or dynamic advertisements, etc. The method can target specific audience tuning in from different types of locals to view a particular advertisement, the variations can be found as the most productive element of this method.
Email marketing - Email marketing in comparison to other forms of digital marketing is considered cheap. It is also a way to rapidly communicate a message such as their value proposition to existing or potential customers. Yet this channel of communication may be perceived by recipients to be bothersome and irritating especially to new or potential customers, therefore the success of email marketing is reliant on the language and visual appeal applied. In terms of visual appeal, there are indications that using graphics/visuals that are relevant to the message which is attempting to be sent, yet less visual graphics to be applied with initial emails are more effective in-turn creating a relatively personal feel to the email. In terms of language, the style is the main factor in determining how captivating the email is. Using a casual tone invokes a warmer, gentler and more inviting feel to the email, compared to a more formal tone.
Search engine marketing – Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate Search engine optimization, which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages to enhance pay per click (PPC) listings.
Social Media Marketing – The term 'Digital Marketing' has a number of marketing facets as it supports different channels used in and among these, comes the Social Media. When we use social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, etc.) to market a product or service, the strategy is called Social Media Marketing. It is a procedure wherein strategies are made and executed to draw in traffic for a website or to gain the attention of buyers over the web using different social media platforms.
Social networking service – A social networking service is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relations with other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections
In-game advertising – In-Game advertising is defined as the "inclusion of products or brands within a digital game."[69] The game allows brands or products to place ads within their game, either in a subtle manner or in the form of an advertisement banner. There are many factors that exist in whether brands are successful in the advertising of their brand/product, these being: Type of game, technical platform, 3-D and 4-D technology, game genre, congruity of brand and game, prominence of advertising within the game. Individual factors consist of attitudes towards placement advertisements, game involvement, product involvement, flow, or entertainment. The attitude towards the advertising also takes into account not only the message shown but also the attitude towards the game. Dependent on how enjoyable the game is will determine how the brand is perceived, meaning if the game isn't very enjoyable the consumer may subconsciously have a negative attitude towards the brand/product being advertised. In terms of Integrated Marketing Communication "integration of advertising in digital games into the general advertising, communication, and marketing strategy of the firm"[69] is important as it results in a more clarity about the brand/product and creates a larger overall effect.
Online public relations – The use of the internet to communicate with both potential and current customers in the public realm.
Video advertising – This type of advertising in terms of digital/online means are advertisements that play on online videos e.g., YouTube videos. This type of marketing has seen an increase in popularity over time.[70] Online Video Advertising usually consists of three types: Pre-Roll advertisements which play before the video is watched, Mid-Roll advertisements which play during the video, or Post-Roll advertisements which play after the video is watched.[71] Post-roll advertisements were shown to have better brand recognition in relation to the other types, where-as "ad-context congruity/incongruity plays an important role in reinforcing ad memorability".[70] Due to selective attention from viewers, there is the likelihood that the message may not be received.[72] The main advantage of video advertising is that it disrupts the viewing experience of the video and therefore there is a difficulty in attempting to avoid them. How a consumer interacts with online video advertising can come down to three stages: Pre attention, attention, and behavioral decision.[73] These online advertisements give the brand/business options and choices. These consist of length, position, adjacent video content which all directly affect the effectiveness of the produced advertisement time,[70] therefore manipulating these variables will yield different results. The length of the advertisement has shown to affect memorability where-as a longer duration resulted in increased brand recognition.[70] This type of advertising, due to its nature of interruption of the viewer, it is likely that the consumer may feel as if their experience is being interrupted or invaded, creating negative perception of the brand.[70] These advertisements are also available to be shared by the viewers, adding to the attractiveness of this platform. Sharing these videos can be equated to the online version of word by mouth marketing, extending number of people reached.[74] Sharing videos creates six different outcomes: these being "pleasure, affection, inclusion, escape, relaxation, and control".[70] As well, videos that have entertainment value are more likely to be shared, yet pleasure is the strongest motivator to pass videos on. Creating a 'viral' trend from a mass amount of a brand advertisement can maximize the outcome of an online video advert whether it be positive or a negative outcome.
Native Advertising – This involves the placement of paid content that replicates the look, feel, and oftentimes, the voice of a platform's existing content. It is most effective when used on digital platforms like websites, newsletters, and social media. Can be somewhat controversial as some critics feel it intentionally deceives consumers.[75]
Content Marketing – This is an approach to marketing that focuses on gaining and retaining customers by offering helpful content to customers that improves the buying experience and creates brand awareness. A brand may use this approach to hold a customer's attention with the goal of influencing potential purchase decisions.[76]
Sponsored Content – This utilises content created and paid for by a brand to promote a specific product or service.[77]
Inbound Marketing – a market strategy that involves using content as a means to attract customers to a brand or product. Requires extensive research into the behaviors, interests, and habits of the brand's target market.[78]
SMS Marketing: Although the popularity is decreasing day by day, still SMS marketing plays huge role to bring new user, provide direct updates, provide new offers etc.
Push Notification: In this digital era, Push Notification responsible for bringing new and abandoned customer through smart segmentation. Many online brands are using this to provide personalised appeals depending on the scenario of customer acquisition.
It is important for a firm to reach out to consumers and create a two-way communication model, as digital marketing allows consumers to give back feedback to the firm on a community-based site or straight directly to the firm via email.[79] Firms should seek this long-term communication relationship by using multiple forms of channels and using promotional strategies related to their target consumer as well as word-of-mouth marketing.[79]
any information that is needed is accessible at any time and/or place[80]
surpasses internet marketing and also possesses alternatives choices without the internet needed[81]
top in presenting beneficial ways and features that reach, inform, engage, offer, and sell services and products to consumers[80]
businesses can attain data that present target audiences based on their age, location, interests, and education[citation needed]
low investment, the cost per lead is 61% less expensive than traditional marketing[82]
able to reach every mobile user, there are over 14 billion worldwide mobile devices and with a projection to grow to almost 18 billion by the year 2024[82]
Digital marketing used to rely primarily on self-regulation included in the ICC Code,[83] which included rules that apply to marketing communications using digital interactive media. However, self-regulation has proved largely ineffective,[84][85] leading to the consolidation of market power in a few firms, including Google, which has been determined to hold monopolies in search marketing and digital advertising.[86][87] While self-regulation codes still exist, government regulation is increasing in multiple jurisdictions, including California's legislation on targeting advertising online.[88] In Europe, digital marketing is regulated through multiple codes, of which the most important is the Digital Services Act,[89] which entered into force on 17 February, 2024. Other regulations focus on user privacy and data management such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).[90]
Digital marketing planning is a term used in marketing management. It describes the first stage of forming a digital marketing strategy for the wider digital marketing system. The difference between digital and traditional marketing planning is that it uses digitally based communication tools and technology such as Social, Web, Mobile, Scannable Surface.[91][92] Nevertheless, both are aligned with the vision, the mission of the company and the overarching business strategy.[93]
Dr. Dave Chaffey, an author on marketing topics, has suggested that successful digital marketing strategies have do digital marketing planning (DMP), which is a three-stage approach: Opportunity, Strategy, and Action. This generic strategic approach often has phases of situation review, goal setting, strategy formulation, resource allocation and monitoring.[93]
To create an effective DMP, a business first needs to review the marketplace and set "SMART" (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) objectives.[94] They can set SMART objectives by reviewing the current benchmarks and key performance indicators (KPIs) of the company and competitors. It is pertinent that the analytics used for the KPIs be customized to the type, objectives, mission, and vision of the company.[95][96]
Companies can scan for marketing and sales opportunities by reviewing their own outreach as well as influencer outreach. This means they have competitive advantage because they are able to analyse their co-marketers influence and brand associations.[97]
To seize the opportunity, the firm should summarize its current customers' personas and purchase journey from this they are able to deduce their digital marketing capability.[98]
A planned digital strategy is where a company expresses clearly what they are offering customers online e.g., brand positioning. The marketing mix is a framework which can be used to facilitate this.[99][100]
The third and final stage requires the firm to set a budget and management systems. These must be measurable touchpoints, such as the audience reached across all digital platforms. Furthermore, marketers must ensure the budget and management systems are integrating the paid, owned, and earned media of the company.[101] The Action and final stage of planning also requires the company to set in place measurable content creation e.g. oral, visual or written online media.[102]
One way marketers can reach out to consumers and understand their thought process is through what is called an empathy map. An empathy map is a four-step process. The first step is through asking questions that the consumer would be thinking in their demographic. The second step is to describe the feelings that the consumer may be having. The third step is to think about what the consumer would say in their situation. The final step is to imagine what the consumer will try to do based on the other three steps. This map is so marketing teams can put themselves in their target demographics shoes.[103] Web Analytics are also a very important way to understand consumers. They show the habits that people have online for each website.[104] One particular form of these analytics is predictive analytics which helps marketers figure out what route consumers are on. This uses the information gathered from other analytics and then creates different predictions of what people will do so that companies can strategize on what to do next, according to the people's trends.[105]
Consumer behavior: the habits or attitudes of a consumer that influences the buying process of a product or service.[106] Consumer behavior impacts virtually every stage of the buying process specifically in relation to digital environments and devices.[106]
Predictive analytics: a form of data mining that involves using existing data to predict potential future trends or behaviors.[107] Can assist companies in predicting future behavior of customers.
Buyer persona: employing research of consumer behavior regarding habits like brand awareness and buying behavior to profile prospective customers.[107] Establishing a buyer persona helps a company better understand their audience and their specific wants/needs.
Marketing Strategy: strategic planning employed by a brand to determine potential positioning within a market as well as the prospective target audience. It involves two key elements: segmentation and positioning.[107] By developing a marketing strategy, a company is able to better anticipate and plan for each step in the marketing and buying process.
The "sharing economy" refers to an economic pattern that aims to obtain a resource that is not fully used.[108] Nowadays, the sharing economy has had an unimagined effect on many traditional elements including labor, industry, and distribution system.[108] This effect is not negligible that some industries are obviously under threat.[108][109] The sharing economy is influencing the traditional marketing channels by changing the nature of some specific concept including ownership, assets, and recruitment.[109]
Digital marketing channels and traditional marketing channels are similar in function that the value of the product or service is passed from the original producer to the end user by a kind of supply chain.[110] Digital Marketing channels, however, consist of internet systems that create, promote, and deliver products or services from producer to consumer through digital networks.[111] Increasing changes to marketing channels has been a significant contributor to the expansion and growth of the sharing economy.[111] Such changes to marketing channels has prompted unprecedented and historic growth.[111] In addition to this typical approach, the built-in control, efficiency and low cost of digital marketing channels is an essential features in the application of sharing economy.[110]
Digital marketing channels within the sharing economy are typically divided into three domains including, e-mail, social media, and search engine marketing or SEM.[111]
E-mail – A form of direct marketing characterized as being informative, promotional, and often a means of customer relationship management.[111] Organization can update the activity or promotion information to the user by subscribing the newsletter mail that happened in consuming. Success is reliant upon a company's ability to access contact information from its past, present, and future clientele.[111]
Social Media – Social media has the capability to reach a larger audience in a shorter time frame than traditional marketing channels.[111] This makes social media a powerful tool for consumer engagement and the dissemination of information.[111]
Search Engine Marketing or SEM – Requires more specialized knowledge of the technology embedded in online platforms.[111] This marketing strategy requires long-term commitment and dedication to the ongoing improvement of a company's digital presence.[111]
Other emerging digital marketing channels, particularly branded mobile apps, have excelled in the sharing economy.[111] Branded mobile apps are created specifically to initiate engagement between customers and the company. This engagement is typically facilitated through entertainment, information, or market transaction.[111]
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Calgary's economy includes activity in many sectors: energy; financial services; film and television; transportation and logistics; technology; manufacturing; aerospace; health and wellness; retail; and tourism.[14]Greater Calgary is home to Canada's second-largest number of corporate head offices among the country's 800 largest corporations, and Downtown Calgary has more skyscrapers than any other municipality in Western Canada.[15] In 2015, Calgary had the largest number of millionaires per capita of any major Canadian city.[16] In 2022, Calgary was ranked alongside Zürich as the third most livable city in the world, ranking first in Canada and in North America.[17] In 1988, it became the first Canadian city to host the Olympic Winter Games, at the Scotiabank Saddledome, Olympic Oval, McMahon Stadium, and others.[18]
The Treaty 7 or southern Alberta First Nations peoples, refer to the Calgary area as "elbow", in reference to the sharp bend made by the Bow River and the Elbow River. In some cases, the area was named after the reeds that grew along the riverbanks, reeds that had been used to fashion bows. In the Blackfoot language (Siksiká), the area is known as Mohkínstsis akápiyoyis, meaning "elbow many houses", reflecting its strong settler presence. The shorter form of the Blackfoot name, Mohkínstsis, simply meaning "elbow",[20][21][22] is the popular Indigenous term for the Calgary area.[23][24][25][26][27] In the Nakoda or Stoney language, the area is known as Wîchîspa Oyade or Wenchi Ispase, both meaning "elbow".[20][22] In the Cree language, the area is known as otôskwanihk (ᐅᑑᐢᑿᓂᕽ) meaning "at the elbow"[28] or otôskwunee meaning "elbow". In the Tsuutʼina language (Sarcee), the area is known as Guts’ists’i (older orthography, Kootsisáw) meaning "elbow".[20][22] In Kutenai language, the city is referred to as ʔaknuqtapȼik’.[29] In the Slavey language, the area is known as Klincho-tinay-indihay, meaning "many horse town", referring to the Calgary Stampede[20] and the city's settler heritage.[22]
The Calgary area was inhabited by pre-Clovis people whose presence traces back at least 11,000 years.[35] The area has been inhabited by multiple First Nations, the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy; Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), îyârhe Nakoda, Tsuutʼina peoples and Métis Nation, Region 3.
In 1787, David Thompson, a 17-year-old cartographer with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), spent the winter with a band of Piikani Nation encamped along the Bow River. He was also a fur trader and surveyor and the first recorded European to visit the area. John Glenn was the first documented European settler in the Calgary area, in 1873.[36] In spring 1875, three priests – Lacombe, Remus, and Scollen – built a small log cabin on the banks of the Elbow River.[37]
In the fall of 1875, the site became a post of the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP). The NWMP detachment was assigned to protect the western plains from US whisky traders, and to protect the fur trade, and Inspector Éphrem-A. Brisebois led fifty Mounties as part of F Troop north from Fort Macleod to establish the site.[37] The I. G. Baker Company of Fort Benton, Montana, was contracted to construct a suitable fort, and after its completion, the Baker company built a log store next to the fort.[38] The NWMP fort remained officially nameless until construction was complete, although it had been referred to as "The Mouth" by people at Fort Macleod.[39] At Christmas dinner NWMP Inspector Éphrem-A. Brisebois christened the unnamed Fort "Fort Brisebois", a decision which caught the ire of his superiors Colonel James Macleod and Major Acheson Irvine.[39] Major Irvine cancelled the order by Brisebois and wrote Hewitt Bernard, the then Deputy Minister of Justice in Ottawa, describing the situation and suggesting the name "Calgary" put forward by Colonel Macleod. Edward Blake, at the time Minister of Justice, agreed with the name and in the spring of 1876, Fort Calgary was officially established.[40]
In 1877, the First Nations ceded title to the Fort Calgary region through Treaty 7.[41]
In 1881 the federal government began to offer leases for cattle ranching in Alberta (up to 400 km2 (100,000 acres) for one cent per acre per year) under the Dominion Lands Act, which became a catalyst for immigration to the settlement. The I. G. Baker Company drove the first herd of cattle to the region in the same year for the Cochrane area by order of Major James Walker.[42]
The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) reached the area in August 1883 and constructed a railway station on the CPR-owned Section 15, neighbouring the townsite across the Elbow River to the east on Section 14. The difficulty in crossing the river and the CPR's efforts to persuade residents resulted in the core of the Calgary townsite moving onto Section 15, with the fate of the old townsite sealed when the post office was anonymously moved across the icy Elbow River during the night.[43] The CPR subdivided Section 15 and began selling lots surrounding the station, $450 for corner lots and $350 for all others; and pioneer Felix McHugh constructed the first private building on the site.[43] Earlier in the decade it was not expected that the railway would pass near Calgary; instead, the preferred route put forward by people concerned with the young nation's defence was passing near Edmonton and through the Yellowhead Pass. However, in 1881 CPR changed the plans preferring the direct route through the prairies by way of Kicking Horse Pass.[44] Along with the CPR, August 1883 brought Calgary the first edition of the Calgary Herald published on the 31st under the title The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser by teacher Andrew M. Armour and printer Thomas B. Braden, a weekly newspaper with a subscription price of $1 per year.[45]
Over a century later, the CPR headquarters moved to Calgary from Montreal, Quebec, in 1996.[46]
Residents of the now-eight-year-old settlement sought to form a local government of their own. In the first weeks of 1884, James Reilly who was building the Royal Hotel east of the Elbow River circulated 200 handbills announcing a public meeting on January 7, 1884, at the Methodist Church.[47][48] At the full meeting Reilly advocated for a bridge across the Elbow River and a civic committee to watch over the interests of the public until Calgary could be incorporated. The attendees were enthusiastic about the committee and on the next evening a vote was held to elect the seven members. A total of 24 candidates were nominated, which equalled 10 per cent of Calgary's male population. Major James Walker received 88 votes, the most amongst the candidates, the other six members were Dr. Andrew Henderson, George Clift King, Thomas Swan, George Murdoch, J. D. Moulton, and Captain John Stewart.[47] The civic committee met with Edgar Dewdney, Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories, who happened to be in Calgary at the time,[48] to discuss an allowance for a school, an increase from $300 to $1,000 grant for a bridge over the Elbow River, incorporation as a town, and representation for Calgary in the Legislative Council of the North-West Territories.[49] The committee was successful in getting an additional $200 for the bridge,[49] In May, Major Walker, acting on instructions from the NWT Lieutenant-governor, organized a public meeting in the NWMP barracks room on the issue of getting a representative in the NWT Council. Walker wrote the clerk of the Council that he was prepared to produce evidence that Calgary and environs (an area of 1000 square miles) held 1000 residents, the requirement for having a Council member.[50] A by-election was held on June 28, 1884, where James Davidson Geddes defeated James Kidd Oswald to become the Calgary electoral district representative on the 1st Council of the North-West Territories.[51][52]
As for education, Calgary moved quickly: the Citizen's Committee raised $125 on February 6, 1884, and the first school opened for twelve children days later on February 18, led by teacher John William Costello.[53] The private school was not enough for the needs of the town and following a petition by James Walker the Calgary Protestant Public School District No. 19 was formed by the Legislature on March 2, 1885.[54]
On November 27, 1884, Lieutenant Governor Dewdney proclaimed the incorporation of The Town of Calgary.[55] Shortly after on December 3, Calgarians went to the polls to elect their first mayor and four councillors. The North-West Municipal Ordinance of 1884 provided voting rights to any male British subject over 21 years of age who owned at minimum $300 of property. Each elector was able to cast one vote for the mayor and up to four votes for the councillors (plurality block voting).[56]George Murdoch won the mayoral race in a landslide victory with 202 votes over E. Redpath's 16, while Simon Jackson Hogg, Neville James Lindsay, Joseph Henry Millward, and Simon John Clarke were elected councillors.[57] The next morning the Council met for the first time at Beaudoin and Clarke's Saloon.[58]
Law and order remained top of mind in the frontier town, in early 1884 Jack Campbell was appointed as a constable for the community, and in early 1885 the Town Council passed By-law Eleven creating the position of Chief Constable and assigning relevant duties, a precursor to the Calgary Police Service. The first chief constable, John (Jack) S. Ingram, who had previously served as the first police chief in Winnipeg, was empowered to arrest drunken and disorderly people, stop all fast riding in town, attend all fires and council meetings.[59][60] Calgary Town Council was eager to employ constables versus contracting the NWMP for town duty as the police force was seen as a money-making proposition. Constables received half of the fines from liquor cases, meaning Chief Constable Ingram could easily pay his $60 per month salary and the expense of a town jail.[60]
For the Town of Calgary, 1884 turned out to be a success. However, two dark years lay ahead for the fledgling community. The turmoil started in late 1885, when Councillor Clarke was arrested for threatening a plain-clothes Mountie who entered his saloon to conduct a late-night search. When the officer failed to produce a search warrant, Clarke chased him off the premises; however, the Mountie returned with reinforcements and arrested Clarke.[61] Clarke found himself before Stipendiary MagistrateJeremiah Travis, a proponent of the temperance movement who was appalled by the open traffic of liquor, gambling and prostitution in Calgary despite prohibition in the North-West Territories.[62] Travis' view was accurate as the Royal Commission of Liquor Traffic of 1892 found liquor was sold openly, both day and night during prohibition.[60] Travis associated Clarke with the troubles he saw in Calgary and found him guilty, and sentenced Clarke to six months with hard labour.[62] Murdoch and the other members of Council were shocked, and a public meeting was held at Boynton's Hall in which a decision was made to send a delegation to Ottawa to seek an overruling of Travis' judgement by the Department of Justice. The community quickly raised $500, and Murdoch and a group of residents headed east.[62] The punishment of Clarke did not escape Hugh Cayley the editor of the Calgary Herald and Clerk of the District Court. Cayley published articles critical of Travis and his judgment, in which Travis responded by calling Cayley to court, dismissing him from his position as Clerk, ordering Cayley to apologize and pay a $100 fine.[63] Cayley refused to pay the fine, which Travis increased to $500, and on January 5, the day after the January 1886 Calgary town election, Cayley was imprisoned by Travis.[63]
Murdoch returned to Calgary on December 27, 1885, only a week before the election to find the town in disarray.[63] Shortly before the 1886 election, G. E. Marsh brought a charge of corruption against Murdoch and council over irregularities in the voters' list. Travis found Murdoch and the councillors guilty, disqualifying them from running in the 1886 election, barring them from municipal office for two years, and fining Murdoch $100, and the councillors $20. This was despite the fact Murdoch was visiting Eastern Canada while the alleged tampering was occurring.[64] Travis' disqualification did not dissuade Calgary voters, and Murdoch defeated his opponent James Reilly by a significant margin in early January to be re-elected as mayor.[65] Travis accepted a petition from Reilly to unseat Murdoch and two of the elected councillors, and declare Reilly the mayor of Calgary.[66] Both Murdoch and Reilly claimed to be the lawful mayor of the growingly disorganized Town of Calgary, both holding council meetings and attempting to govern.[66] Word of the issues in Calgary reached the Minister of Justice John Sparrow David Thompson in Ottawa who ordered Justice Thomas Wardlaw Taylor of Winnipeg to conduct an inquiry into the "Case of Jeremiah Travis". The federal government acted before receiving Taylor's report, Jeremiah Travis was suspended, and the government waited for his official tenure to expire, after which he was pensioned off.[67] Justice Taylor's report, which was released in June 1887, found Travis had exceeded his authority and erred in his judgements.[64][68]
The Territorial Council called for a new municipal election to be held in Calgary on November 3, 1886. George Clift King defeated his opponent John Lineham for the office of Mayor of Calgary.[69][70]
Calgary had only a couple days' peace following the November election before the Calgary Fire of 1886 destroyed much of the community's downtown. Part of the slow response to the fire can be attributed to the absence of functioning local government during 1886. As neither George Murdoch or James Reilly was capable of effectively governing the town, the newly ordered chemical engine for the recently organized Calgary Fire Department (Calgary Hook, Ladder and Bucket Corps) was held in the CPR's storage yard due to lack of payment. Members of the Calgary Fire Department broke into the CPR storage yard on the day of the fire to retrieve the engine.[71] In total, fourteen buildings were destroyed with losses estimated at $103,200, although no one was killed or injured.[72]
The new Town Council sprung into action, drafting a bylaw requiring all large downtown buildings to be built with sandstone, which was readily available nearby in the form of Paskapoo sandstone.[73] Following the fire several quarries were opened around the city by prominent local businessmen including Thomas Edworthy, Wesley Fletcher Orr, J. G. McCallum, and William Oliver. Prominent buildings built with sandstone following the fire include Knox Presbyterian Church (1887), Imperial Bank Building (1887), Calgary City Hall (1911), and Calgary Courthouse No. 2 (1914).[74][75]
In February 1887, Donald Watson Davis, who was running the I.G. Baker store in Calgary, was elected MP for Alberta (Provisional District). A former whisky trader in southern Alberta, he had turned his hand to building Fort Macleod and Fort Calgary. The main other contender for the job, Frank Oliver, was a prominent Edmontonian, so Davis's success was a sign that Calgary was surpassing Edmonton, previously the main centre on the western Prairies.[76]
Calgary continued to expand when real estate speculation took hold of Calgary in 1889. Speculators began buying and building west of Centre Street, and Calgary quickly began to sprawl west to the ire of property owners on the east side of town.[77] Property owners on both sides of Centre Street sought to bring development to their side of Calgary, lost successfully[clarification needed] by eastsider James Walker who convinced the Town Council to purchase land on the east side to build a stockyard, guaranteeing meat packing and processing plants would be constructed on the east side.[78] By 1892 Calgary had reached present-day Seventeenth Avenue, east to the Elbow River and west to Eighth Street,[79] and the first federal census listed the boom town at 3,876 inhabitants.[80] The economic conditions in Calgary began to deteriorate in 1892,[81] as development in the downtown slowed, the streetcar system started in 1889 was put on hold[82] and smaller property owners began to sell.[83]
The first step in connecting the District of Alberta happened in Calgary on July 21, 1890, as Minister of the Interior Edgar Dewdney turned the first sod for the Calgary and Edmonton Railway in front of two thousand residents.[84][85] The railway was completed in August 1891. Although its end-of-steel was on the south side of the river opposite Edmonton, it immensely shortened travel time between the two communities. Previously stagecoach passengers and mail could arrive in five days and animal pulled freight anywhere between two and three weeks,[86] the train was able to make the trip in only a few hours.[87]
Smallpox arrived in Calgary in June 1892 when a Chinese resident was found with the disease, and by August nine people had contracted the disease with three deaths. Calgarians placed the blame for the disease on the local Chinese population, resulting in a riot on August 2, 1892.[88] Residents descended on the Town's Chinese-owned laundries, smashing windows and attempting to burn the structures to the ground. The local police did not attempt to intervene. Mayor Alexander Lucas had inexplicably left town during the riot,[89] and when he returned home he called the NWMP in to patrol Calgary for three weeks to prevent further riots.[90][91]
Finally on January 1, 1894, Calgary was granted a charter by the 2nd North-West Legislative Assembly, officially titled Ordinance 33 of 1894, and the City of Calgary Charter elevated the frontier town to the status of a full-fledged city.[92] Calgary became the first city in the North-West Territories, receiving its charter a decade before Edmonton and Regina. The Calgary charter remained in force until it was repealed with the Cities Act in 1950. The charter came into effect in such a way as to prevent the regularly scheduled municipal election in December 1893, and recognizing the importance of the moment, the entire Town Council resigned to ensure the new city could choose the first Calgary City Council.[93]Calgary's first municipal election as a city saw Wesley Fletcher Orr garner 244 votes, narrowly defeating his opponent William Henry Cushing's 220 votes, and Orr was named the first mayor of the City of Calgary.[94]
By late 19th century, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) expanded into the interior and established posts along rivers that later developed into the modern cities of Winnipeg, Calgary, and Edmonton. In 1884, the HBC established a sales shop in Calgary. HBC also built the first of the grand "original six" department stores in Calgary in 1913; others that followed were Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg.[95][96]
In October 1899, the Village of Rouleauville was incorporated by French Catholic residents south of Calgary's city limits in what is now known as Mission.[97] The town did not remain independent for long, and became the first incorporated municipality to be amalgamated into Calgary eight years later in 1907.
The turn of the century brought questions of provincehood the top of mind in Calgary. On September 1, 1905, Alberta was proclaimed a province with its provincial capital, Edmonton, and it would be left up to the Legislature to choose the permanent location.[98] One of the first decisions of the new Alberta Legislature was the capital, and although William Henry Cushing advocated strongly for Calgary, the resulting vote saw Edmonton win the capital 16–8.[99] Calgarians were disappointed on the city not being named the capital, and focused their attention on the formation of the provincial university. However, the efforts by the community could not sway the government, and the University of Alberta was founded in the City of Strathcona, Premier Rutherford's home, which was subsequently amalgamated into the City of Edmonton in 1912.[100] Calgary was not to be left without higher education facilities as the provincial Normal School opened in the McDougall School building in 1905. In 1910, R. B. Bennett introduced a bill in the Alberta Legislature to incorporate the "Calgary University", however there was significant opposition to two degree-granting institutions in such a small province. A commission was appointed to evaluate the Calgary proposal which found the second university to be unnecessary, however, the commission did recommend the formation of the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art in Calgary (SAIT), which was formed later in 1915.[101]
Postcard of 1st Street West, Calgary, postmarked May 8, 1913
Built-up areas of Calgary between 1905 and 1912 were serviced by power and water, the city continued a program of paving and sidewalk laying and with the CPR constructed a series of subways under the tracks to connect the town with streetcars. The first three motor buses hit Calgary streets in 1907, and two years later the municipally owned street railway system, fit with seven miles of track opened in Calgary. The immediately popular street railway system reached 250,000 passengers per month by 1910.[102] The privately owned MacArthur Bridge (precursor to the Centre Street Bridge over the Bow River) opened in 1907 which provided for residential expansion north of the Bow River.[103] The early-1910s saw real estate speculation hit Calgary once again, with property prices rising significantly with growing municipal investment, CPR's decision to construct a car shop at Ogden set to employ over 5,000 people, the projected arrival of the Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian Northern Railways in the city and Calgary's growing reputation as a growing economic hub.[104] The period between 1906 and 1911 was the largest population growth period in the city's history, expanding from 11,967 to 43,704 inhabitants in the five-year period.[80][105][106] Several ambitious projects were started during this period including a new City Hall, the Hudson's Bay Department Store, the Grain Exchange Building, and the Palliser Hotel, this period also corresponded to the end of the "Sandstone City" era as steel frames and terracotta facades such as the Burns Building (1913) which were prevalent in other North American cities overtook the unique sandstone character of Calgary.[107]
Rounding up cattle for the first Calgary Stampede in 1912. The Stampede is one of the world's largest rodeos.
The growing City and enthusiastic residents were rewarded in 1908 with the federally funded Dominion Exhibition. Seeking to take advantage of the opportunity to promote itself, the city spent CA$145,000 to build six new pavilions and a racetrack.[108] It held a lavish parade as well as rodeo, horse racing, and trick roping competitions as part of the event.[109] The exhibition was a success, drawing 100,000 people to the fairgrounds over seven days despite an economic recession that afflicted the city of 25,000.[108] Calgary had previously held a number of Agricultural exhibitions dating back to 1886, and recognizing the city's enthusiasm, Guy Weadick, an American trick roper who participated in the Dominion Exhibition as part of the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Real Wild West Show, returned to Calgary in 1912 to host the first Calgary Stampede in the hopes of establishing an event that more accurately represented the "wild west" than the shows he was a part of.[110] He initially failed to sell civic leaders and the Calgary Industrial Exhibition on his plans,[111] but with the assistance of local livestock agent H. C. McMullen, Weadick convinced businessmen Pat Burns, George Lane, A. J. McLean, and A. E. Cross to put up $100,000 to guarantee funding for the event.[109]
Program for the 1912 Calgary Stampede, featuring the Big Four: Burns, Lane, Cross, and McLean
The Big Four, as they came to be known, viewed the project as a final celebration of their life as cattlemen.[112] The city constructed a rodeo arena on the fairgrounds and over 100,000 people attended the six-day event in September 1912 to watch hundreds of cowboys from Western Canada, the United States, and Mexico compete for $20,000 in prizes.[113] The event generated $120,000 in revenue and was hailed as a success.[109] The Calgary Stampede has continued as a civic tradition for over 100 years, marketing itself as the "greatest outdoor show on earth", with Calgarians sporting western wear for 10 days while attending the annual parade, daily pancake breakfasts.
While agriculture and railway activities were the dominant aspects of Calgary's early economy, the Turner ValleyDiscovery Well blew South-West of Calgary on May 14, 1914, marked the beginning of the oil and gas age in Calgary. Archibald Wayne Dingman and Calgary Petroleum Product's discovery was heralded as the "biggest oil field in the British Empire" at around 19 million cubic metres, and in a three-week period an estimated 500 oil companies sprang into existence.[114] Calgarians were enthusiastic to invest in new oil companies, with many losing life savings during the short 1914 boom in hastily formed companies.[115] Outbreak of the First World War further dampened the oil craze as more men and resources left for Europe and agricultural prices for wheat and cattle increased.[115] Turner Valley's oil fields would boom again in 1924 and 1936, and by the Second World War the Turner Valley oilfield was producing more than 95 per cent of the oil in Canada.[116] however the city would wait until 1947 for Leduc No. 1 to definitively shift Calgary to an oil and gas city. While Edmonton would see significant population and economic growth with the Leduc discovery, many corporate offices established in Calgary after Turner Valley refused to relocate north.[117] Consequently, by 1967, Calgary had more millionaires than any other city in Canada, and per capita, more cars than any city in the world.[118]
Early-20th-century Calgary served as a hotbed for political activity. Historically Calgarians supported the provincial and federal conservative parties, the opposite of the Liberal-friendly City of Edmonton. However, Calgarians were sympathetic to the cause of workers and supported the development of labour organizations. In 1909, the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) formed in Edmonton through the merger of two earlier farm organizations as a non-partisan lobbying organization to represent the interests of farmers. The UFA eventually dropped its non-partisan stance when it contested the 1921 provincial election. It was elected to form the province's first non-Liberal government.[119] By that time Calgary was using single transferable vote (STV), a form of proportional representation, to elect its city councillors. Calgary was the first city in Canada to adopt PR for its city elections. Councillors were elected in one at-large district. Each voter cast just a single vote using a ranked transferable ballot. The UFA government elected in 1921 changed the provincial election law so that Calgary could elect its MLAs through PR as well. Calgary elected its MLAs through PR until 1956 and its councillors through PR until 1971 (although mostly using instant-runoff voting, not STV, in the 1960s).[120][121]
Calgary endured a six-year recession following the First World War. The high unemployment rate from reduced manufacturing demand, compounded with servicemen returning from Europe needing work, created economic and social unrest.[122] By 1921, over 2,000 men (representing 11 percent of the male workforce) were officially unemployed.[123] Labour organizations began endorsing candidates for Calgary City Council in the late 1910s and were quickly successful in electing sympathetic candidates to office, including Mayor Samuel Hunter Adams in 1920. As well the Industrial Workers of the World and its sequel, the One Big Union, found much support among Calgary workers.
The city's support of labour and agricultural groups made it a natural location for the founding meeting of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (precursor to the New Democratic Party). The organizational meeting was held in Calgary on July 31, 1932, with attendance exceeding 1,300 people.[124] Pat Lenihan was elected to the Calgary City Council in 1939, in part due to the use of Proportional Representation in city elections. He is the only Communist Party member elected to Calgary council. (He is the subject of the book Patrick Lenihan from Irish Rebel to Founder of Canadian Public Sector Unionism, edited by Gilbert Levine (Athabasca University Press).)
In 1922, Civic Government Association formed in opposition to the power of labour groups, endorsing its own competing slate of candidates.[125] Labour's influence was short-lived on the City Council, with Labour as a whole failing to receive substantial support after 1924.[126]
Richard Bedford Bennett, the eleventh prime minister of Canada, and first prime minister from Calgary.
Calgary gained further political prominence when R. B. Bennett's Conservative Party won the 1930 federal election and formed government and became Canada's 11th prime minister.[127] Bennett arrived in Calgary from New Brunswick in 1897, was previously the leader of the provincial Conservative Party, advocated for Calgary as the capital of Alberta, and championed the growing city.[128] Calgary had to wait another decade to have a sitting premier represent the city, when sitting Social Credit Premier William Aberhart moved from his Okotoks-High River to Calgary for the 1940 provincial election after his Okotoks-High River constituents began a recall campaign against him as their local MLA.
From the 1970s onward, the population of Calgary grew significantly, with many high-rises constructed to accommodate the growth.
Only a little over a decade after shuttering the municipal tram lines, Calgary City Council began investigating rapid transit. In 1966 a heavy rail transit proposal was developed, however the estimated costs continued to grow rapidly, and the plan was re-evaluated in 1975. In May 1977, Calgary City Council directed that a detailed design and construction start on the south leg of a light rail transit system,[129] which opened on May 25, 1981, and dubbed the CTrain.
The 1970s energy crisis resulted in significant investment and growth in Calgary. By 1981, 45 percent of the Calgary labour force was made up of management, administrative or clerical staff, above the national average of 35 percent.[130] Calgary's population grew with the opportunity the oil boom brought. The 20-year period from 1966 to 1986 saw the population increase from 330,575 to 636,107.[131][132] Population growth became a source of pride, the June 1980 Calgary Magazine exclaimed "Welcome to Calgary! Calgary almost specializes in newcomers...".[133]
High-rise buildings were erected during the economic boom, and more office space opened in Calgary in 1979 than in New York City and Chicago combined.[134][135] The end of the oil boom is associated with the National Energy Program implemented by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's government and the drop in world oil prices, and the end of the construction boom in Calgary is associated with the completion of the Petro-Canada Centre in 1984. The two-tower granite Petro-Canada Centre, which some locals called "Red Square" alluding to the city's hostile view of the state-owned petroleum company, saw the larger 53-storey west tower rise to 215 m (705 ft) and become the largest building in Calgary for 26 years, and a smaller 32-storey east tower rise 130 m (430 ft).[134] The city further expanded the CTrain system, planning began in 1981, and the northeast leg of the system was to be operational in time for the 1988 Olympics.[136]
The 1980s oil glut caused by falling demand and the National Energy Program marked the end of Calgary's boom. In 1983 Calgary City Council announced service cuts to ease the $16 million deficit, 421 city employees were laid off,[137] unemployment increased from 5 to 11 percent between November 1981 and November 1982, eventually peaking at 14.9 percent in March 1983. The decline was so swift that the city's population decreased for the first time in history from April 1982 to April 1983, and 3,331 homes were foreclosed by financial institutions in 1983.[138] Low oil prices in the 1980s prevented a full economic recovery until the 1990s.[139]
Public concern existed regarding the potential long-term debt implications that had plagued Montreal following the 1976 Olympics.[142] The Calgary Olympic Development Association led the bid for Calgary and spent two years building local support for the project, selling memberships to 80,000 of the city's 600,000 residents.[143] It secured CA$270 million in funding from the federal and provincial governments while civic leaders, including Mayor Ralph Klein, crisscrossed the world attempting to woo International Olympic Committee (IOC) delegates.[144] Calgary was one of three finalists, opposed by the Swedish community of Falun and Italian community of Cortina d'Ampezzo.[144] On September 30, 1981, the International Olympic Committee voted to give Calgary the right to host the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, becoming the first Canadian host for the winter games.[145]
The Games' five primary venues were all purpose-built, however, at significant cost.[146] The Olympic Saddledome was the primary venue for ice hockey and figure skating. Located at Stampede Park, the facility was expected to cost $83 million, but cost overruns pushed the facility to nearly $100 million.[147] The Olympic Oval was built on the campus of the University of Calgary. It was the first fully enclosed 400-metre speed skating venue in the world as it was necessary to protect against the possibility of either bitter cold temperatures or ice-melting chinook winds.[148] Seven world and three Olympic records were broken during the Games, resulting in the facility earning praise as "the fastest ice on Earth".[147]Canada Olympic Park was built on the western outskirts of Calgary and hosted bobsled, luge, ski jumping and freestyle skiing. It was the most expensive facility built for the games, costing $200 million.[147]
Despite Canada failing to earn a gold medal in the Games, the events proved to be a major economic boom for the city, which had fallen into its worst recession in 40 years following the collapse of both oil and grain prices in the mid-1980s.[149][150] A report prepared for the city in January 1985 estimated the games would create 11,100 man-years of employment and generate CA$450-million in salaries and wages.[151] In its post-Games report, OCO'88 estimated the Olympics created CA$1.4 billion in economic benefits across Canada during the 1980s, 70 percent within Alberta, as a result of capital spending, increased tourism and new sporting opportunities created by the facilities.[152]
Thanks in part to escalating oil prices, the economy in Calgary and Alberta was booming until the end of 2009, and the region of nearly 1.1 million people was home to the fastest-growing economy in the country.[153] While the oil and gas industry comprise an important part of the economy, the city has invested a great deal into other areas such as tourism and high-tech manufacturing. Over 3.1 million people visited the city in 2006[154] for its many festivals and attractions, especially the Calgary Stampede. The nearby mountain resort towns of Banff, Lake Louise, and Canmore are also becoming increasingly popular with tourists. Other modern industries include light manufacturing, high-tech, film, e-commerce, transportation, and services.
Widespread flooding throughout southern Alberta, including on the Bow and Elbow rivers, forced the evacuation of over 75,000 city residents on June 21, 2013, and left large areas of the city, including downtown, without power.[155][156]
Following the flood, Calgary experienced a decade of slow economic growth, punctuated by the 2014–2016 global downturn in oil prices. The resulting recession,[157] compounded with ongoing trends in oil production consolidation, and normalization of remote work following COVID-19, resulted in downtown office vacancy rates fluctuating between 20% and 30%,[158] among the worst in North America. Declining value assessment of downtown office properties pressured the municipal government to reduce funding for services through the late 2010s to relieve other non-residential taxpayers, without shifting the tax burden onto residential properties. This pressure culminated in a $60 million budget cut affecting all city departments in 2019, a decision Naheed Nenshi later described as one of his biggest regrets in his time as mayor.[159]
City Council adopted the Greater Downtown Plan in 2021, which committed funding for office-to-residential conversion programs,[160] since responsible for over 2,600 market and non-market housing units.[161] However, struggles to secure adequate funding for infrastructure and amenity maintenance continued, underscored in 2024, when Calgary's largest water feeder main, the Bearspaw South feeder main, ruptured. The catastrophic pipe failure prompted a state of emergency and advanced water use restrictions over the summer.[162] The Bearspaw South feeder main catastrophically ruptured again in December 2025, resulting in a state of emergency and voluntary water conservation recommended, with mandatory water restrictions for outdoor use.[163]
Despite economic turbulence, Calgary remained one of Canada's fastest-growing municipalities, ranking first among only three cities to grow by over 100,000 people between 2011 and 2016. During this time, Calgary grew by 142,387 people, followed by Edmonton at 120,345 people and Toronto at 116,511 people.[164] While metro Calgary's 6.4% growth between 2016 and 2021 outpaced Canada's growth, this period of growth represented nearly half the five-year growth rate typical since 1990.
Since 2021, Calgary has experienced two individual years nearing 6% growth each,[165] growing the metro population approximately 300,000 people in under four years, to an estimated 1.8 million in 2025.[166] This population boom was attributed to nationwide trends compounded with the city's relatively affordable home and rental prices, which attracted inter-provincial migration primarily from British Columbia and Ontario,[167] whose major urban centres struggle with persistent, worsening housing affordability. Calgary experienced corresponding sharp increases in housing costs, inducing the creation of a municipal Housing Strategy in 2023.[168] As of 2025, Calgary led Canadian municipalities in number of housing starts,[169] after four consecutive years of record-breaking development growth, driven primarily by apartment dwellings.[170]
Satellite view of Calgary. The city is located at the transition zone between the foothills and the prairies, south of Edmonton.
Calgary is in southwestern Alberta and also next to the Rocky Mountains, lying in the transition zone between the Canadian Rockies Foothills and the Canadian Prairies. The city lies within the foothills of the Parkland Natural Region and the Grasslands Natural Region.[171] Calgary is about 80 km (50 mi) east of the Canadian Rockies themselves, roughly 299 km (186 mi) south of the provincial capital, Edmonton, approximately 240 km (150 mi) north of the border with the United States, 295 km (183 mi) northwest of Medicine Hat, and 279 miles (449 km) northeast of Spokane, the second-largest city in the U.S. state of Washington. The city is at the southern end of the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor, a Statistics Canada-defined urban region. Downtown Calgary is about 1,042.4 metres (3,420 feet) above sea level,[5] and the airport is 1,076 m (3,531 ft).[172] In 2016, the city covered a land area of 825.56 square kilometres (318.75 sq mi).[173]
Two rivers and two creeks run through the city. The Bow River is the larger, and it flows from the west to the south. The Elbow River flows northwards from the south until it converges with the Bow River at the historic site of Fort Calgary near downtown. Nose Creek flows into Calgary from the northwest, then south to join the Bow River several kilometres east of the Elbow-Bow confluence. Fish Creek flows into Calgary from the southwest and converges with the Bow River near McKenzie Lake.
Over the years, the city has made many land annexations to facilitate growth. In the most recent annexation of lands from the surrounding Rocky View County, completed in July 2007, the city annexed Shepard, a former hamlet, and placed its boundaries adjacent to the Hamlet of Balzac and City of Chestermere, and very close to the City of Airdrie.[179]
The downtown region of the city consists of five neighbourhoods: Eau Claire (including the Festival District), the Downtown West End, the Downtown Commercial Core, Chinatown, and the Downtown East Village (also part of the Rivers District). The commercial core is itself divided into a number of districts, including the Stephen Avenue Retail Core, the Entertainment District, the Arts District, and the Government District. Distinct from downtown and south of 9th Avenue is Calgary's densest neighbourhood, the Beltline. The area includes a number of communities, such as Connaught, Victoria Crossing, and a portion of the Rivers District. The Beltline is the focus of major planning and rejuvenation initiatives on the part of the municipal government to increase the density and liveliness of Calgary's centre.[184]
Several of Calgary's neighbourhoods were initially separate municipalities that were annexed by the city as it grew. These include Bowness, Montgomery, Midnapore, Shepard, and Forest Lawn.
Calgary experiences a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Köppen climate classificationDwb, Trewartha climate classificationDclo) within the city, which is unusual due to semi-monsoonal and monsoonal climates not being typical of the area. The city is also closely bordering a cold semi-arid climate (Koppen climate classification BSk, Trewartha climate classification BSlo), due to its location within the Palliser's Triangle steppe region.[186][187] The city has warm, wet summers and cold, dry, but highly variable winters.[188] According to Environment Canada, average daily temperatures in Calgary range from 16.9 °C (62.4 °F) in July to −7.6 °C (18.3 °F) in January.[189] Winters in Calgary are lengthy and cold, with wild and unpredictable temperature swings due to the chinook winds.
Ice skating on the frozen stream in Bowness Park. Winters in Calgary are cold and dry, with temperatures dropping below −20 °C (−4 °F).
The highest temperature ever recorded in Calgary was 36.7 °C (98.1 °F) on August 10, 2018.[190] The lowest temperature ever recorded was −45.0 °C (−49.0 °F) on February 4, 1893.[189] The wettest month is June with an average precipitation of 112.7 millimetres (4.44 in), while the driest month is January with an average precipitation of 10.0 millimetres (0.39 in).[191] Calgary falls into the NRCPlant Hardiness Zone 4a[192] and USDAzone 4a.[193][194] Chinooks make some plant species more difficult to grow in Calgary, as compared with those parts of the Prairie Provinces where the winters are consistently colder, because they can cause wind damage, dehydration and untimely emergence from dormancy.[195]
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the City of Calgary had a population of 1,306,784 living in 502,301 of its 531,062 total private dwellings, a change of 5.5% from its 2016 population of 1,239,220. With a land area of 820.62 km2 (316.84 sq mi), it had a population density of 1,592.4/km2 (4,124.4/sq mi) in 2021.[6]
At the census metropolitan area (CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Calgary CMA had a population of 1,481,806 living in 563,440 of its 594,513 total private dwellings, a change of 6.4% from its 2016 population of 1,392,609. With a land area of 5,098.68 km2 (1,968.61 sq mi), it had a population density of 290.6/km2 (752.7/sq mi) in 2021.[8]
In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the City of Calgary had a population of 1,239,220 living in 466,725 of its 489,650 total private dwellings, a change of 13% from its 2011 population of 1,096,833. With a land area of 825.56 km2 (318.75 sq mi), it had a population density of 1,501.1/km2 (3,887.7/sq mi) in 2016.[204]
In 2015, the population within an hour commuting distance of the city was 1,511,755.[205]
As a consequence of the large number of corporations, as well as the presence of the energy sector in Alberta, Calgary has a median family income of $104,530.[206]
The 2021 census reported that immigrants (individuals born outside Canada) comprise 430,640 persons or 33.3% of the total population of Calgary. Of the total immigrant population, the top countries of origin were Philippines (65,430 persons or 15.2%), India (56,515 persons or 13.1%), China (36,240 persons or 8.4%), United Kingdom (20,415 persons or 4.7%), Pakistan (18,375 persons or 4.3%), Vietnam (15,395 persons or 3.6%), Nigeria (12,450 persons or 2.9%), United States of America (10,890 persons or 2.5%), Hong Kong (10,775 persons or 2.5%), and South Korea (8,210 persons or 1.9%).[207]
According to the 2016 Census, 60% of Calgary's population was white or European, 4% were Indigenous, and 36.2% belonged to a visible minority group (non-white and non-Indigenous). Among those of European origin, the most frequently reported ethnic backgrounds were British, French, German, Irish, Hungarian[208] and Ukrainian.
Among visible minorities, South Asians (ethnic backgrounds mainly from India and Pakistan) make up the largest group (9.5%), followed by Chinese (6.8%) and Filipinos (5.5%). 5.4% were of African or Caribbean origin, 3.5% was of West Asian or Middle Eastern origin, while 2.6% of the population was of Latin American origin. Of the largest Canadian cities, Calgary ranked fourth in the proportion of visible minorities, behind Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg. 20.7% of the population identified as "Canadian" in ethnic origin.[209]
Panethnic groups in the City of Calgary (2001−2021)
Calgary is recognized as a leader in the Canadian oil and gas industry, and its economy expanded at a significantly higher rate than the overall Canadian economy (43% and 25%, respectively) over the ten-year period from 1999 to 2009.[213] Its high personal and family incomes,[15][214] low unemployment and high GDP per capita[215] have all benefited from increased sales and prices due to a resource boom,[213] and increasing economic diversification.
Calgary benefits from a relatively strong job market in Alberta and is part of the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor, one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. It is the head office for many major oil and gas-related companies, and many financial service businesses have grown up around them. Small business and self-employment levels also rank amongst the highest in Canada.[214] Calgary is a distribution and transportation hub[216] with high retail sales.[214]
As of November 2016, the city had a labour force of 901,700 (a 74.6% participation rate) and 10.3% unemployment rate.[219][220][221]
In 2013, Calgary's four largest industries by employee count were "Trade" (with 112,800 employees), "Professional, Scientific and Technical Services" (100,800 employees), "Health Care and Social Assistance" (89,200 employees), and "Construction" (81,500 employees).[222]
In 2006, the top three private sector employers in Calgary were Shaw Communications (7,500 employees), Nova Chemicals (4,945) and Telus (4,517).[223] Companies rounding out the top ten were Mark's Work Wearhouse, the Calgary Co-op, Nexen, Canadian Pacific Railway, CNRL, Shell Canada and Dow Chemical Canada.[223] The top public sector employers in 2006 were the Calgary Zone of the Alberta Health Services (22,000), the City of Calgary (12,296) and the Calgary Board of Education (8,000).[223] Public sector employers rounding out the top five were the University of Calgary and the Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School Division.[223]
In Canada, Calgary has the second-highest concentration of head offices in Canada (behind Toronto), the most head offices per capita, and the highest head office revenue per capita.[15][214] Some large employers with Calgary head offices include Canada Safeway Limited, Westfair Foods Ltd., Suncor Energy, Agrium, Flint Energy Services Ltd., Shaw Communications, and Canadian Pacific Kansas City.[224] CPR moved its head office from Montreal in 1996 and Imperial Oil moved from Toronto in 2005. Encana's new 58-floor corporate headquarters, the Bow, became the tallest building in Canada outside of Toronto.[225] In 2001, the city became the corporate headquarters of the TSX Venture Exchange.
WestJet is headquartered close to the Calgary International Airport.[226] Prior to their dissolution, Canadian Airlines[227], low cost carrier and previous charter airline Lynx Air[228], and Air Canada's subsidiary Zip were also headquartered near the city's airport.[229] Although its main office is now based in Yellowknife, Canadian North, purchased from Canadian Airlines in September 1998, still maintains operations and charter offices in Calgary.[230][231]
According to a report by Alexi Olcheski of Avison Young published in August 2015, vacancy rates rose to 11.5 percent in the second quarter of 2015 from 8.3 percent in 2014. Oil and gas company office spaces in downtown Calgary are subleasing 40 percent of their overall vacancies.[233]H&R Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns the 58-storey, 158,000-square-metre Bow Tower, claims the building was fully leased. Tenants such as Suncor "have been letting staff and contractors go in response to the downturn".[233]
Calgary was designated as one of Canada's cultural capitals in 2012.[234] While many Calgarians continue to live in the city's suburbs, more central neighbourhoods such as Kensington, Inglewood, Forest Lawn, Bridgeland, Marda Loop, the Mission District, and especially the Beltline, have become more popular and density in those areas has increased.[235]
Calgary is the site of the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium performing arts, culture and community facility. The auditorium is one of two "twin" facilities in the province, the other is the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton, each being locally known as the "Jube." The 2,538-seat auditorium was opened in 1957[236] and has been host to hundreds of musical theatre, theatrical, stage and local productions. The Calgary Jube is the resident home of the Alberta Ballet Company, the Calgary Opera, and the annual civic Remembrance Day ceremonies. Both auditoriums operate 365 days a year and are run by the provincial government. Both received major renovations as part of the province's centennial in 2005.[236]
The city is also home to a number of performing arts spaces, such as Arts Commons, which is a 400,000 square foot performing arts complex housing the Jack Singer Concert Hall, Martha Cohen Theatre, Max Bell Theatre, Big Secret Theatre, and Motel Theatre, the Pumphouse Theatre, which houses the Victor Mitchell and Joyce Doolittle theatres, The GRAND, the Bella Concert Hall, the Wright Theatre, Vertigo Theatre, Stage West Theatre, Lunchbox Theatre, and several other smaller venues.
Some large theatre companies share Calgary's Arts Commons building, including One Yellow Rabbit, Theatre Calgary, and Alberta Theatre Projects. The Grand is a culture house dedicated to the contemporary live arts. Other companies, groups, and collectives operate in niche theatres, such as Storybook Theatre (children's theatre), Sundog Storytellers (immersive theatre), and The Shakespeare Company.
Every three years, Calgary hosts the Honens International Piano Competition (formerly known as the Esther Honens International Piano Competition). The finalists of the competition perform piano concerti with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra; the laureate is awarded a cash prize ($100,000 as of 2013[update], the largest cash award of any international piano competition), and a three-year career development program. Honens is an integral component of the classical music scene in Calgary.
A number of marching bands are based in Calgary. They include the Calgary Round-Up Band, the Calgary Stetson Show Band, the Our Lady of the Rockies Marching Ghosts, and the six-time World Association for Marching Show Bands champions, the Calgary Stampede Showband, as well as military bands including the Band of HMCS Tecumseh, the King's Own Calgary Regiment Band, and the Regimental Pipes and Drums of The Calgary Highlanders (10th Canadians). There are many other civilian pipe bands in the city, notably the Calgary Police Service Pipe Band.[238]
Calgary is also home to a choral music community, including a variety of amateur, community, and semi-professional groups. Some of the mainstays include the Mount Royal Choirs from the Mount Royal University Conservatory, the Calgary Boys' Choir, the Calgary Girls Choir, the Youth Singers of Calgary, the Cantaré Children's Choir, Luminous Voices Music Society, Spiritus Chamber Choir, and pop-choral group Revv52.[239][240][241]
The Alberta Ballet is Canada's third-largest dance company. Under Jean Grand-Maître's artistic direction, the Alberta Ballet is at the forefront both at home and internationally. Jean Grand-Maître is well known for his successful portrait series collaborations with pop artists like Joni Mitchell, Elton John, and Sarah McLachlan. The Alberta Ballet resides in the Nat Christie Centre.[242][243][244]
Other dance companies include Springboard Performance, which hosts the annual Fluid Movement Arts Festival,[245] Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, which opened its new $25-million facility in 2016 in collaboration with the Kahanoff Foundation,[246] as well as a host of others, including European folk dance ensembles, Afro-based dance companies, and diasporic dance companies.
Visual and conceptual artists like the art collective United Congress are active in the city. There are a number of art galleries in the downtown along Stephen Avenue; the SoDo (South of Downtown) Design District; the 17 Avenue corridor; the neighbourhood of Inglewood, including the Esker Foundation.[254][255] There are also various art installations in the +15 system in downtown Calgary.[256]
Calgary's Central Library has won numerous international architectural and urban design awards.[257]
The Calgary Public Library is the city's public library network, with 21 branches loaning books, e-books, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, audiobooks, and more. Based on borrowing, the library is Canada's second-largest and North America's sixth-largest municipal library. The new flagship branch, the 22,000 m2 (240,000 sq ft) Calgary Central Library in Downtown East Village, opened on November 1, 2018.[258]
Calgary's best-known event is the Calgary Stampede, which has occurred each July, with the exception of the year 2020, since 1912. It is one of the largest festivals in Canada, with a 2005 attendance of 1,242,928 at the 10-day rodeo and exhibition.[261]
Calgary is also home to several post-secondary institutions that provide credit and non-credit instruction in the arts, including the Alberta University of the Arts (formerly Alberta College of Art and Design),[266] the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary,[267] the Mount Royal University Conservatory,[268] and Ambrose University. The city is also the home of the National accessArts Centre, Canada's largest arts training institute for artists with disabilities.
Featuring a mix of boutiques, high-end retailers and restaurants, Stephen Avenue is a major pedestrian mall and tourist attraction in Calgary.Despite no longer being the tallest structure in the city, the Calgary Tower remains a prominent attraction and symbol of Calgary's culture.
Downtown Calgary features an eclectic mix of restaurants and bars, cultural venues, public squares and shopping. Downtown attractions include the Calgary Tower, Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo, National Music Centre, Calgary Telus Convention Centre, Chinatown district, Arts Commons, Central Library, St. Patrick's Island, Glenbow Museum, the Art Gallery of Calgary (AGC), Olympic Plaza, the Calgary Stampede grounds and military museums, and various other high rises. Notable shopping areas include the Core Centre, Stephen Avenue and the Eau Claire Market. The Peace Bridge spans the Bow River in the downtown region. The region is also home to Prince's Island Park, an urban park located just north of the Eau Claire district. At 1.0 ha (2.5 acres), the Devonian Gardens is one of the largest urban indoor gardens in the world,[269] on the top floor of the Core Centre. Directly south of the city's downtown is the Beltline, an urban community known for its bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and shopping venues. At the Beltline's core is 17 Avenue SW, the community's primary entertainment and nightlife strip, lined with a high concentration of bars and entertainment. During the Calgary Flames' Stanley Cup run in 2004, 17 Avenue SW was frequented by over 50,000 fans and supporters per game night. The concentration of red jersey-wearing fans led to the street's playoff moniker, the "Red Mile". Downtown Calgary is easily accessed using the CTrain transit system with 9 train stations in the city's downtown core. The train is also fare-free while downtown.
Attractions in other areas of the city include the Heritage Park Historical Village, depicting life in pre-1914 Alberta and featuring working historic vehicles such as a steam train, paddle steamer and electric streetcar. The village itself comprises a mixture of replica buildings and historic structures relocated from southern Alberta. Just west of the city limits is Calaway Park, Western Canada's largest outdoor family amusement park, and just north of the park across the Trans Canada Highway is the YBV Springbank Airport, where the Wings over Springbank Airshow is held every July. Other major city attractions include Canada Olympic Park (which features Canada's Sports Hall of Fame) and Spruce Meadows. On top of the many shopping areas in the city centre, there are a number of large suburban shopping complexes in the city. Among the largest are Chinook Centre and Southcentre Mall in the south, Westhills and Signal Hill in the southwest, South Trail Crossing and Deerfoot Meadows in the southeast, Market Mall in the northwest, Sunridge Mall in the northeast, and the newly built CrossIron Mills and New Horizon Mall just north of the Calgary city limits, and south of the City of Airdrie.
Within Calgary, there are approximately 8,000 ha (20,000 acres) of parkland available for public usage and recreation.[270] These parks include Fish Creek Provincial Park, Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Bowness Park, Edworthy Park, Confederation Park, Prince's Island Park, Nose Hill Park, and Central Memorial Park. Nose Hill Park is one of the largest municipal parks in Canada at 1,129 ha (2,790 acres). The park has been subject to a revitalization plan that began in 2006. Its trail system is currently undergoing rehabilitation in accordance with this plan.[271][272] The oldest park in Calgary, Central Memorial Park, dates back to 1911. Similar to Nose Hill Park, revitalization also took place in Central Memorial Park in 2008–2009 and reopened to the public in 2010 while still maintaining its Victorian style.[273] An 800 km (500 mi) pathway system connects these parks and various neighbourhoods.[270][274] Calgary also has multiple private sporting clubs including the Glencoe Club and the Calgary Winter Club.
In large part due to its proximity to the Rocky Mountains, Calgary has traditionally been a popular destination for winter sports. Since hosting the 1988 Winter Olympics, the city has also been home to a number of major winter sporting facilities such as Canada Olympic Park (bobsleigh, luge, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, downhill skiing, snowboarding, and some summer sports) and the Olympic Oval (speed skating and hockey). These facilities serve as the primary training venues for a number of competitive athletes. Also, Canada Olympic Park serves as a mountain biking trail in the summer months. Calgary unsuccessfully bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics, losing to Milan/Cortina Italy.
In the summer, the Bow River is frequented by river rafters[275] and fly-fishermen. Golfing is also an extremely popular activity for Calgarians, and the region has a large number of courses.[276] The Century Downs Racetrack and Casino is a
5+1⁄2-furlong (1.1 km) horse track located just north of the city.[277]
The city is a corporate power centre with a high percentage of the workforce is employed in white-collar jobs. The high concentration of oil and gas corporations led to the rise of Peter Lougheed's Progressive Conservative Party in 1971.[282] However, as Calgary's population has increased, so has the diversity of its politics.
The City of Calgary is a municipal corporation with a council–manager government structure consisting of the fifteen-member Calgary City Council elected every four years. The council itself consists of an at-large mayor and fourteen councillors who represent geographic regions of the city. The legal authority to govern as a "creature of the province" is derived from various regulations and legislation of the Alberta Legislature, of which the Municipal Government Act and the City of Calgary Charter, 2018 Regulation provide many of the powers and responsibilities for the city. Since 2025, the city has municipal political parties.[283][284][285] The current mayor, Jeromy Farkas, was first elected in the 2025 municipal election.
Three school boards operate independently of each other in Calgary, the public, the separate (Catholic) and francophone systems. Both the public and separate boards have 7 elected trustees each representing 2 of 14 wards. The school boards are considered part of municipal politics in Calgary, as they are elected at the same time as City Council.[286]
Historically, all or most of Calgary's federal seats have been held by the major centre-right party of the day, presently the Conservative Party of Canada. Before 2015, the Liberals had only elected three MPs from Calgary ridings in their entire history-- Manley Edwards (1940–1945),[290]Harry Hays (1963–1965)[291] and Pat Mahoney (1968–1972).[292]
On October 19, 2015, Calgary elected its first two Liberal MPs since 1968, Darshan Kang for Calgary Skyview and Kent Hehr for Calgary Centre.[293] The Tories held the other eight. The Tories won back Calgary Skyview and Calgary Centre in 2019, but the Liberals took back Calgary Skyview in 2021. No Liberal has ever held a Calgary-based riding for more than one term.
The Calgary census metropolitan area (CMA) had a crime severity index of 60.4 in 2013, which is lower than the national average of 68.7.[295] A slight majority of the other CMAs in Canada had crime severity indexes greater than Calgary's 60.4.[295] Calgary had the sixth-most homicides in 2013 at 24.[295] However, Calgary set a record high 40 homicides in 2015, a 66.6% increase from 2013, giving the city a homicide rate of 3.6 per 100,000 people, a homicide rate relatively similar to that of New York for the same year (4.1 per 100,000). 2020 saw another close peak in murders with 38 being reported, with Calgary having a slightly lower homicide rate of 3.06 per 100,00, along with a record total of 112 shootings.[296][297]
In 2022, Calgary had a crime severity index of 75.2 which is an increase of 4% from the previous year, but still is lower than the national average of 78.1[298]
The CTrain is Calgary's light rail transit system, boasting the second-highest ridership in North America.
Calgary Transit provides public transportation services throughout the city with regular bus service, bus rapid transit (BRT), and light rail transit (LRT). Calgary's light rail system, known as the CTrain, was the second light rail system in North America (behind the Edmonton LRT). It currently consists of two lines (Red Line and Blue Line), with 44 stations and 58.2 km (36.2 mi) of track. Most of the CTrain runs on both dedicated tracks with partial grade separation across suburban areas, and a street-level section across downtown. The CTrain is North America's second busiest LRT system, carrying 270,000 passengers per weekday and approximately half of Calgary downtown workers take the transit to work. The CTrain is also North America's first and only rapid transit system to run on 100% renewable, wind-generated energy.[301] In early 2020, city council approved construction of the Green Line, the third light rail line in the city's rapid transit network. It will be the first rail line in Calgary to operate low-floor trains and is the largest public works project in the history of Calgary, about three-and-a-half times bigger than the second-largest project.[302]
Calgary has the largest paved pathway network in North America.[306]
Spanning over 1,000 km (620 mi), Calgary has the most extensive walking and cycling pathway network in North America.[307] There are also 290 km (180 mi) of on-street bikeways and 96 km (60 mi) of publicly maintained trails.[274] As of 2017, 140,000 Calgarians cycle at least once a week and about 400,000 cycle occasionally.[308] 40% of cyclists in Calgary ride no matter how cold it gets and 96% ride when temperatures are above 0 °C.[309] The Peace Bridge provides pedestrians and cyclists access to the downtown core from the north side of the Bow River. The bridge ranked among the top 10 architectural projects in 2012 and among the top 10 public spaces of 2012.[310]
Calgary's +15skyway network is the world's most extensive elevated pedestrian skywalk system.
In the 1960s, Calgary started to develop a series of pedestrian bridges connecting many downtown buildings.[311]
Today, these bridges connect between most of the city's downtown office towers and make up the world's most extensive skyway network (elevated indoor pedestrian bridges), officially called the +15. The system shields pedestrians from the city's extremely cold winter temperatures. The name derives from the fact that the bridges are usually 4.6 m (15 ft) above ground.[312]
Calgary lies at the crossroads of Highway 2 and the Trans-Canada Highway, making it an important hub for the transit of goods across Canada and along the CANAMEX Corridor. Stoney Trail encircles the city, completing a full ring road. The last segment in west Calgary was completed in December 2023, and is now open to the public.[313] Freeways and expressways are mostly called "trails". Highway 2, named Deerfoot Trail, is the main north–south route through Calgary and one of the busiest highways in Canada.[314] Much of Calgary's street network is on a grid where roads are numbered with avenues running east–west and streets running north–south. Until 1904 the streets were named; after that date, all streets were given numbers radiating outwards from the city centre.[315] Roads in predominantly residential areas, as well as freeways and expressways, do not generally conform to the grid and are usually not numbered. However, it is a developer and city convention in Calgary that non-numbered streets within a new community have the same name prefix as the community itself.[316]
Calgary's presence along the Canadian Pacific Kansas City mainline (which includes the CPKC Alyth Yard) makes the city an important hub of freight rail throughout the province. There is no inter-city or regional passenger train serving the city. In June 2020, the Canada Infrastructure Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Alberta to build a 130-kilometre (81 mi) inter-city rail line from downtown Calgary to Banff, and an express line from Calgary International Airport to downtown Calgary.[317] A 350–400-kilometre-per-hour (220–250 mph) high-speed rail line running from Downtown Calgary to Downtown Edmonton is planned as well. In July 2021, EllisDon signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Alberta to build the line, and it is expected to open sometime between 2030 and 2032.[318]
Between 1955 and 1978, CPR operated a transcontinental passenger rail service called the Canadian, running between Toronto and Vancouver via CPR's right-of-way through Calgary. In 1978, Via Rail assumed responsibility over CPR's passenger services. In the aftermath of another round of deep budget cuts made to Via Rail on January 15, 1990, Via permanently discontinued the Super Continental and rerouted the Canadian along the Super Continental'sCN route, bypassing Regina and Calgary in favour of Saskatoon and Edmonton. Since then, there has been no intercity passenger rail service to or from Calgary. But two new rail-tour lines have opened along the CPR right-of-way: Rocky Mountaineer and Royal Canadian Pacific. The latter still operates rail-tour services to Calgary, while the former has terminated its westbound services at Banff, 130 km to the west.
Calgary is also home to what was Western Canada's largest public high school, Lord Beaverbrook High School, with 2,241 students enrolled in the 2005–2006 school year.[324] Currently the student population of Lord Beaverbrook is 1,812 students (September 2012) and several other schools are equally as large; Western Canada High School with 2,035 students (2009) and Sir Winston Churchill High School with 1,983 students (2009).
Calgary is one of nine Canadian cities, out of the total of 98 cities internationally, that is in the New York City Global Partners, Inc. organization,[337] which was formed in 2006 from the former Sister City program of the City of New York, Inc.[338]
^"Calgary 1988". Team Canada - Official Olympic Team Website. February 2, 2024. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
^Donovan, Larry; Monto, Tom (2006). Alberta Place Names: The Fascinating People & Stories Behind the Naming of Alberta. Dragon Hill Publishing Ltd. p. 34.
^Nenshi, Naheed (October 6, 2017). "FINA: Standing Committee on Finance ● Number 114 ● 1st Session ● 42nd Parliament. Evidence"(PDF). Standing Committee on Finance. 114: 8. Archived(PDF) from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 21, 2017 – via ourcommons.ca. We all know that until the Fort McMurray wildfires last year, the flooding in southern Alberta in 2013 was the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history. While we have done great work in the four years since, within the city of Calgary we continue to need assistance in upstream flood mitigation. Calgary is a city that is built at the confluence of two rivers in a place the Blackfoot called Moh-Kins-Tsis, the elbow. We can't move the city. We can't make room for the river. This is where the rivers are. As a result, it is incredibly important that we do the engineering work on the upstream mitigation.
^ abWilkes, Rima; Duong, Aaron; Kesler, Linc; Ramos, Howard (February 21, 2017). "Canadian University Acknowledgment of Indigenous Lands, Treaties, and Peoples". Canadian Review of Sociology. 54 (1): 89–102. doi:10.1111/cars.12140. ISSN1755-6171. PMID28220681.
^"Visit Esker Foundation". Esker Foundation. November 20, 2017. Archived from the original on November 22, 2017. Retrieved November 21, 2017. It is important to acknowledge and reflect upon the fact that Esker Foundation is located on the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Siksika, the Piikuni, the Kainai, the Tsuut'ina, and the Stoney Nakoda First Nations. We are also situated on land adjacent to where the Bow River meets the Elbow River; the traditional Blackfoot name of this place is Mohkinstsis, which we now call the City of Calgary. The City of Calgary is also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III.
^Wolvegrey, Arok (2001). Cree: Words. Regina, Saskatchewan: University of Regina Press. ISBN978-0889771277.
^"University of Calgary Recommended Acknowledgements of Traditional Indigenous Territories"(PDF). University of Calgary. November 19, 2017. Welcome to the University of Calgary. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the traditional territories of the Blackfoot and the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Siksika, the Piikuni, the Kainai, the Tsuut'ina, and the Stoney Nakoda First Nations, including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nation. I would also like to note that the University of Calgary is situated on land adjacent to where the Bow River meets the Elbow River, and that the traditional Blackfoot name of this place is "Mohkinstsis" which we now call the City of Calgary. The City of Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III.[permanent dead link]
^"Treaty 7 Territory Acknowledgement". Bow Valley College. November 19, 2017. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. We are located in the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy) and the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut'ina and the Iyarhe Nakoda. We are situated on land where the Bow River meets the Elbow River, and the traditional Blackfoot name of this place is 'Mohkinstsis' which we now call the City of Calgary. The City of Calgary is also home to Metis Nation of Alberta, Region 3.
^"Oki (Welcome) to the Iniskim Centre". Mount Royal University. November 19, 2017. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017. Mount Royal University is located in the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of the Treaty 7 region in southern Alberta, which includes the Siksika, the Piikuni, the Kainai, the Tsuut'ina and the Iyarhe Nakoda. We are situated on land where the Bow River meets the Elbow River. The traditional Blackfoot name of this place is 'Mohkinstsis', which we now call the city of Calgary. The city of Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation.
^Mittelstadt, David (August 2005). Foundations of Justice: Alberta's Historic Courthouses. Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press. pp. 17–19. ISBN978-1-55238-345-2.
^"Fire! Come at Last". The Calgary Weekly Herald. No. 44. November 13, 1886. p. 3. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
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^"Table I: Area and Population of Canada by Provinces, Districts and Subdistricts in 1911 and Population in 1901". Census of Canada, 1911. Vol. I. Ottawa: Government of Canada. 1912. pp. 2–39.
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^"Table 2: Census Divisions and Subdivisions – Population and Occupied Private Dwellings, 1981 and 1986". Census Canada 1986. Vol. Population and Dwelling Counts – Provinces and Territories (Alberta). Ottawa: Statistics Canada. 1987. p. 2.1–2.10. ISBN978-0-660-53463-3.
^Guimond, Pierre S.; Sinclair, Brian R. (1984). Calgary Architecture: The Boom Years, 1972-1982. Calgary, Alberta: Detselig Enterprises. ISBN9780920490396.
^Szeto, Kit K. (2008). "Variability of Cold-Season Temperatures in the Mackenzie Basin". In Woo, M. (ed.). Cold Region Atmospheric and Hydrologic Studies. The Mackenzie GEWEX Experience. Berlin, Heidelberg.: Springer. pp. 61–82. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-73936-4_4. ISBN978-3-540-73935-7.
^"Calgary Community Profile"Archived January 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Statistics Canada. 2002. 2001 Community Profiles. Released June 27, 2002. Last modified: November 30, 2005. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 93F0053XIE
^ abcBoyce, Jillian; Cotter, Adam; Perreault, Samuel (July 23, 2014). "Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2013"(PDF). Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics. pp. 13 & 30. Archived(PDF) from the original on November 23, 2015. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
^"Calgary's +15 Skywalk". City of Calgary. 2013. Archived from the original on December 25, 2014. Retrieved November 28, 2013. The first +15 bridge was installed on January 21, 1970, connecting Calgary Place to the Calgary Inn (now the Westin Hotel). By 1984, Calgary's +15 Skywalk consisted of 38 bridges, 8 km (5.0 mi) of walkways and numerous public spaces. Today there are more than 62 bridges and 18 km (11 mi) of walkways.
^The City of Calgary (February 2007). "Plus 15". Archived from the original on August 21, 2007. Retrieved September 25, 2007.
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