Growing Beyond Banff: Helping Radventures Build Its Next Chapter

Success brings its own challenges

One of the interesting things about working with growing businesses is that the challenges change as the business becomes more successful.

In the early days, much of the focus is on getting customers through the door, generating bookings, building a reputation and, frankly, making enough money to keep everything moving. But once a business establishes itself, a different set of questions starts to emerge.

Where do we go next? How do we grow without losing what makes us different? Do we have the right people, systems and marketing strategy to support that growth?

These were some of the questions behind my work with Radventures, an award-winning adventure tour operator based in Banff, Canada.

Founded by Dale Schober, Radventures had already built a strong reputation for delivering exceptional small-group experiences throughout Banff and the Canadian Rockies. They had fantastic reviews, a passionate team and a product that customers genuinely loved.

In many ways, they had already achieved what other tour operators spend years trying to accomplish.

But Dale had bigger ambitions for the business.

Radventures wasn’t going to remain simply a Banff day tour company. The vision was to expand into multi-day adventures, reach new audiences and build a brand capable of taking customers well beyond the Canadian Rockies.

And that’s where I came in as their fractional CMO.

The challenge wasn’t starting again. It was building on what already worked.

When a business decides to expand, it’s tempting to immediately jump into new websites, advertising campaigns, social media content and all the other things we traditionally associate with marketing. But I’ve learned over the years that doing more marketing isn’t necessarily the answer. Sometimes the most valuable thing you can do is work out what the business is actually trying to become.

Radventures already had a successful brand in Banff. People trusted them, loved the experiences and recommended them to others. That reputation was an enormous asset, and the last thing we wanted was to lose it in the pursuit of something bigger.

The challenge was working out how to take everything that made Radventures successful locally and translate it into a brand that could operate across different destinations, products and customer groups. After all, someone booking a half-day tour in Banff is potentially making a very different purchasing decision from someone considering a multi-day adventure costing several thousand dollars.

The customer journey is longer. The questions are different. The level of reassurance needed is greater. And the marketing has to reflect that.

This meant looking beyond individual campaigns and considering the entire business from the customer’s perspective.

Bringing clarity to the brand and its direction

A significant part of my role was working with Dale and the team to bring greater clarity to the brand, its positioning and how it would communicate with different audiences.

We explored what Radventures genuinely stood for, why customers chose them and which elements of the existing experience could carry through into the next stage of growth.

One of the things I always look for is what customers are really buying.

Yes, Radventures sells tours and adventures. But people aren’t simply buying transport to a destination or a list of activities. They’re buying the confidence that someone knowledgeable has created an experience worth travelling for. They’re buying the opportunity to discover somewhere new, meet like-minded people and enjoy an adventure without having to organise every detail themselves.

That distinction becomes even more important when you move into multi-day travel.

We worked on brand positioning, messaging and the wider go-to-market strategy, looking at how Radventures could communicate its value while maintaining the personality and character that had made the business successful.

The aim wasn’t to make the brand sound bigger or more corporate. It was to make sure the business could grow while still feeling like Radventures.

Marketing needed to support the business, not the other way around

Another important part of the engagement was looking at the marketing operation itself.

As businesses grow, marketing can become fragmented. Different people manage different activities, new ideas are introduced, campaigns are launched and systems are added. Everyone is busy, but that doesn’t always mean everything is moving in the same direction.

I’ve seen this countless times over my career, including when running my own agency.

My role as fractional CMO was to provide senior-level direction while working closely with the existing team. That meant reviewing priorities, challenging ideas where necessary and helping connect marketing activity to the wider commercial objectives of the business.

We looked at the customer journey, website strategy, content, CRM, automation and the processes needed to support a more complex product offering.

Just as importantly, I worked with the team to share knowledge and strengthen their understanding of the marketing fundamentals behind the decisions we were making.

I don’t believe a fractional CMO should simply arrive, produce a strategy document and disappear. The real value comes from becoming part of the business, understanding the people involved and helping the team make better decisions long after you’ve finished working together.

Sometimes that means developing strategy. Sometimes it means reviewing a website, questioning a campaign or helping someone understand why a particular approach isn’t working.

And sometimes it means telling the business owner something they might not necessarily want to hear.

That’s part of the job.

Building the foundations for the next stage

The work with Radventures was about much more than improving individual marketing activities. It was about helping the business prepare for its next chapter.

That involved bringing greater clarity to the brand, developing a more structured approach to marketing, aligning activity with commercial priorities and helping the team think differently about the customers they wanted to attract.

Radventures now presents a much broader range of experiences, including multi-day journeys across Canada and beyond, alongside the Banff adventures that established its reputation.

I wouldn’t suggest that this expansion was solely the result of my involvement. Dale and his team are the people building the business and bringing that vision to life.

My contribution was to provide experienced marketing leadership, an outside perspective and the strategic thinking needed to help support that direction.

And that, for me, is what fractional leadership should be about.

Not taking ownership of someone else’s success, but helping good businesses become better equipped to achieve their ambitions.

What this project reinforced

One of the biggest lessons from working with Radventures is that growth doesn’t always require a business to reinvent itself.

Quite often, the things that made the business successful in the first place are exactly the things it needs to protect. The challenge is recognising what those things are and building the right strategy, systems and team around them.

Radventures already had an excellent product, strong customer relationships and an ambitious founder. My role was to help bring clarity, direction and marketing leadership to the next stage of its development.

And that’s the type of work I enjoy most. Helping ambitious business owners take what they’ve already built and turn it into something even stronger.

Looking for experienced marketing leadership without hiring a full-time CMO?

I work with founders and leadership teams to bring clarity to their marketing, identify growth opportunities and build strategies that support their commercial ambitions.

Whether you’re expanding into new markets, launching new products or simply trying to make your marketing work harder, I can help you work out what needs to happen next.