About us

Aventur Marketing is a Vancouver-based marketing and communications agency focused on driving amazing results for premium travel and outdoor tourism businesses, destinations and gear brands. Powerful storytelling that engages customers at every stage of the customer journey is what we do at Aventur.

Darryl Leniuk, founder and chief strategist

With a background spanning well over a decade working as an adventure travel journalist, outdoor photographer, field guide and PR consultant, Darryl brings a powerful skill set to the table for adventure tourism businesses seeking exceptional growth. As a recognized expert in adventure travel, he has worked with tour operators and DMOs in more than a dozen countries, produced hundreds of media articles, won awards from Destination Canada and The Travel Media Association of Canada, and authored an adventure travel column for The Globe & Mail. His media clients have included Canadian Geographic Travel, Men’s Journal, Ogilvy & Mather, Destination BC, and Hong Kong Airlines. 

Storytelling is in his DNA, and he excels at getting to the essence of a tourism experience, finding what separates an outfitter or destination from the myriad of competitors out there, and translating that into a strategic marketing plan for growth. Using the Duct Tape ‘Strategy-Before-Tactics’ methodology, his team at Aventur delivers cutting edge online marketing services to premium tourism providers. 

When he’s not busy working he can be found pursuing his passions: adventure travel, scuba diving, mountain biking, backcountry skiing, rock climbing and sea kayaking, often lugging along large amounts of camera gear ‘just in case.’ Darryl lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife Claudia, and young children Vincent and Valerie, who share his love for adventure.

John Jantsch, Founder, Duct Tape Marketing

John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker and best selling author of Duct Tape Marketing, Duct Tape Selling, The Commitment Engine, The Referral Engine, and SEO for Growth. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System and Duct Tape Marketing Consulting Network that trains and licenses small business marketing consultants around the world.​

Huffington Post calls John one of the Top 100 “Must Follow” on Twitter and Forbes named Duct Tape Marketing one of the 100 Best Websites for Entrepreneurs.

He has been featured in The New York Times, CNNMoney, Fast Company, Inc and Bloomberg Businessweek amongst other publications.

Marketing as a System: The Duct Tape Marketing Model

John Jantsch literally wrote the book on small business marketing more than 20 years ago. Using these powerful principles he developed an agency-certification program that now comprises over 100 marketing agencies and consultants around the world. Aventur Marketing is a fully-certified Duct Tape Marketing agency, having undergone rigorous training, ongoing support to stay abreast of the latest developments in the field and regular seminars throughout the year.

The big idea here is that marketing is a system that can be put in place to deliver expected results, not a mysterious practice akin to crystal balls and voodoo dolls, and strategy always comes before tactics. It sounds obvious, yet most marketing agencies and tourism businesses go straight to tactics, without any semblance of system or strategy.

The Marketing Hourglass

Traditional marketing teaches the ‘marketing funnel’ whereby a large number of prospects are siphoned off to a small number of buyers. Duct Tape Marketing threw the funnel back into the kiln to create the Hourglass ™. The funnel’s ‘Awareness, Consideration, Buy’ has been expanded to 7 stages: ‘Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat, and Refer’. We go deep, and audit every part of the customer journey/Hourglass BEFORE deciding on which tactics to employ.

The Advantages of Working with a Duct Tape Marketing Consultant

• Using a proven system that has delivered outstanding results to thousands of small-medium sized businesses.
• Strategy first engagement using DTM’s in-depth research process to identify your ideal client(s) and the best tactics to reach them.
• Access to DTM’s best-in-class, hand-picked software tools and supplier network to implement those tactics (PPC, SEO, Facebook marketing, email marketing, website design…you get the picture).
• Single point of contact so every aspect of your marketing plan is fully aligned and driving your business forward.
• Let’s you focus on running your business while we get your phone to ring.

What others are saying:

“CAREFUL! Duct tape is a serious tool… it sticks where you put it.” – Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing and Purple Cow.

“John Jantsch has provided small businesses with the perfect perspective for maximizing all marketing activities – offline and on. Jantsch has the plan to help you thrive in the world of business today.” – John Battelle, cofounding editor of Wired