The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) honored the Utah Office of Tourism (UOT) with one silver and two bronze Adrian Awards for marketing excellence for its winning entries in the 64th annual Adrian Awards, the largest and most prestigious global travel marketing competition. For 2020, HSMAI redesigned the Adrian Awards to reflect the current travel landscape, with Focus Categories of Corporate Social Responsibility, Crisis Communications/Management, Recovery Strategies, and Talent & Leadership Development, in addition to traditional Adrian Award categories.
Vicki Varela, Managing Director, Utah Office of Tourism, said, “Our goal is to support Utah’s great small businesses — guides and outfitters, hoteliers, restaurants, retailers and more — by telling the Utah story effectively. Our marketing aims to encourage responsible visitation, engage with our local communities and to help travelers understand how accessible a Utah adventure can be. Adrian honors affirm that we have created messages that resonate.”
Utah Office of Tourism travel marketing entries:
Between the Mighty 5 — Silver. The integrated marketing campaign for consumers. Launched 2019 Utah’s five national parks, “The Mighty 5,” have been the subject of successful advertising campaigns in the past. Now the national parks experience a variety of constraints in the peak season due to the high visitation numbers. The question/opportunity facing the UOT and key partners including Struck and Love Communications was how to focus the emphasis on targeting travelers who would increase their length of stay, spend more, explore further and travel better.
Small but Mighty — Bronze. Recovery strategy. Launched 2020 Along with most other travel and tourism boards around the world, the Utah Office of Tourism’s planned campaigns were put on hold in early March 2020 while the world seeked solutions to the coronavirus pandemic. Rather than have our marketing efforts go completely dark with the onset of COVID, the UOT, alongside key partners including Struck and Love Communications, quickly developed a strategic plan defined and guided by key measured indicators that outlined the path for all communications for the UOT across their paid media, social, public relations, community management, and website content platforms. In addition to promoting safe, well-prepared visitation, Small but Mighty worked to mitigate the economic loss for the tourism industry in Utah and set up the destination for a strong recovery when the time was right.
Guided By — Bronze. Multimedia or video series. Reporting in recent years found that the Utah Office of Tourism’s powerful storytelling “coincided with a steep increase in park visitation that has continued unabated ever since.” It was time for a new narrative, a story told straight from the subject matter experts closest to the land who could responsibly lead visitors down a different road. UOT’s “Guided By” series is anchored by long-form video content unified by an effort to encourage high-quality, well-informed travel to places less known. The series was designed to be inclusive, representing both a range of demographics across our target audiences.
Varela said, “Just like the red emerald, mined only in Utah, we strive to make our storytelling unique and transformational. Thanks to the innovative work from our internal team at the Utah Office of Tourism and key creative partners for making this possible.”
