AUGUSTA, Maine - The Maine Office of Tourism (MOT) was recognized for
excellence in travel marketing by Hospitality Sales & Marketing
Association International (HMSAI) at the annual HMSAI Adrian Awards
ceremony on February 20. Maine received two Adrian Awards, a platinum
award for advertising, and a silver award for public relations. The
winning campaigns were chosen out of a field of over 1,300 entries
submitted for 2017.
The Office of Tourism's "L.L.Bean Strategic Brand Partnership" entry
received the highest honor, a platinum award for Advertising - Full
Campaign. The MOT's collaboration with the Met Breuer Museum to support
and leverage a "Marsden Hartley's Maine" exhibit won a silver award in
the Public Relations category.
"We are delighted with the recognition," said Steve Lyons, director of
the Maine Office of Tourism. "Maine delivers a world-class visitor
experience. The Office of Tourism works diligently to showcase our state
in ways that align with our brand value of Originality,' and to keep
Maine top-of-mind with travelers."
For the "L.L.Bean Strategic Brand Partnership," MOT partnered with
national outdoor retail brand L.L.Bean on a co-op marketing program.
Through this partnership, MOT produced a feature edition for their
editorial website entitled "Chasing the Sun." MOT worked with BVK, the
state's tourism marketing agency, to bring a group of six millennial
friends to Maine who had never before visited the state, to document
their visit as they experienced a series of outdoor adventures. As a
strategic partner in the campaign, L.L.Bean fully outfitted the group,
provided Outdoor Discovery School experiences, and helped share the
story through their own distribution channels. The partnership results
included a 30 percent increase in weekly views of the "Chasing the Sun"
website feature compared to earlier non-partner editions, 3 million
social impressions with 900,000 unique to L.L.Bean channels, and 16.5
million email sends to L.L.Bean customers in addition to MOT's consumer
emails. The "Chasing the Sun" edition of the Maine Thing Quarterly can
be viewed at www.visitmaine.com/quarterly/chasingthesun.
For the "Marsden Hartley's Maine" campaign, the Maine Office of Tourism
worked with Nancy Marshall Communications, the state's tourism public
relations agency, to leverage a major exhibition of the work of 20th
century Post-Impressionist painter Marsden Hartley at the Met Breuer
Museum in New York City. Hartley was born in Lewiston and after building
an international reputation returned to his native state where he
painted the compelling scenes of Katahdin and rugged coastal Maine
featured in the exhibit. MOT sponsored the opening event, inviting key
travel media, and executed a subsequent public relations and social
media campaign that underscored how the landscapes and culture of Maine
that inspired Marsden Hartley and other artists equally inspire today's
visitors to experience Maine. The campaign resulted in 132 pieces of
press coverage, 288+ impressions, and nearly 50 thousand social shares.
An Associated Press article alone, which focused on related "trip
ideas," had an advertising value of $1.7 million.
"The theme of this year's Adrian Awards was Be a Travel Marketing Super
Hero.' It's fitting because the winners have all taken bold and dynamic
approaches that inspire and advance the hospitality industry as a
whole," said Robert A. Gilbert, president and CEO of HMSAI.
Visit www.AdrianAwards.com for more information on the event and competition.
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