Celebrating Tourism Marketing at ESTO 2016
Destination marketers from all over the country shared ideas and celebrated a year of top-notch tourism marketing at the Educational Seminar for Tourism Organizations (ESTO) 2016.
Hot topics ranged from branding myths to virtual reality to cake pops, all of which were well documented on Twitter (especially the cake pops).
Cake pops? Well played, @TripAdvisor, well played. #ESTO16 @USTravelESTO pic.twitter.com/IYC7fEUjKO
— Angela Cruz (@angelacruztube) August 29, 2016
Our team had a blast spreading the word about the power of visual content for tourism marketing teams with a video that shows how your brand’s visual assets can inspire travelers to explore your destination. Need some storytelling inspiration? Check out three ways brands can get higher ROI with visual storytelling.
Speaking of brands winning with visual content, we want to congratulate everyone who won an award at ESTO 2016, especially our friends at Utah Office of Tourism Film & Global Branding and Rapid City Convention & Visitors Bureau! Both of these teams have incredible visual content, and both use Libris to store, organize and share their visual assets. Let’s take a closer look at why they were recognized by their peers for their outstanding work.
Utah Office of Tourism Film & Global Branding
When you look at Visit Utah’s photos, you immediately get a sense that this is a destination unlike any other. The team won two awards at ESTO 2016. Director Vicki Varela was recognized as 2016 State Tourism Director of the Year, and the team won a Mercury Award for the best Print Visitors Guide. Check out the stunning image on the guide’s front cover:
“It is quite an honor to be recognized for our work, particularly with so much excellent work being done by our peers,” says Sandra Salvas, the team’s photo editor.
This photo-first visitors guide mirrors the team’s overall commitment to visual communications.
“We’re continuing to evolve our visual content strategy by relying even more heavily on photography and video to tell the Utah story,” says Sandra. “Libris helps to streamline our workflow and coordination between our photo editor and our social media and international marketing teams.”
Congrats to the whole Visit Utah team!
Rapid City Convention & Visitors Bureau
Rapid City South Dakota boasts one of the most recognizable landmarks in the country – Mount Rushmore. The destination is known for its sweeping views, and the photos in the Rapid City CVB’s visual media library are fantastic. The team won a Destiny Award for the “Rush to Rushmore” campaign at ESTO 2016. The campaign is a partnership between Rapid City CVB and the Denver Broncos that aimed to drive tourism to Rapid City from Denver, CO, one of the destination’s key target markets. The hero piece of content for “Rush to Rushmore” was an image of Mount Rushmore enhanced with illustrations of Broncos jerseys and helmets, combining iconic symbols of both brands.
Plus, check out how the image comes to life in this creative video spot:
The team also created a photo op at the Broncos game, with Rapid City’s presidential mascots donning Broncos gear to take photos with fans.
When we asked about the driving force behind the creative campaign, Rapid City’s Executive Director Julie Schmitz Jensen credited the brand’s marketing team.
“The Rapid City CVB is so incredibly fortunate to have an amazing Marketing Department led by Stacie Granum,” said Julie. “Stacie came forward with this Bronco Campaign initiative, sold us on the reasons this promotion would drive results, then she and her team went to work to make it happen!! All the creative was done in-house! Winning a Destiny Award from the US Travel Association is just a huge honor.”
Julie added that the team is investing in visual communications across the board, which is in line with the brand’s tag line, “Doing big things.”
“Now, having Libris as a partner with all our photo and video storage needs, all of our future marketing efforts will be much easier and less time consuming,” says Julie. “We can’t wait to keep pushing out these BIG creative ideas!!!”
Congrats to Stacie, Julie and the whole Rapid City team on this touchdown of a campaign!
Thank you ESTO 2016!
Thank you to US Travel and everyone we met at ESTO 2016! We are proud sponsors, and we enjoyed seeing you all in Boca Raton. Too bad we couldn’t keep working in Florida forever…
We look forward to seeing you again at ESTO 2017. In the meantime, if your brand is producing top-notch visual content, be sure to submit your work for the Pioneer in Visual Storytelling Award presented by Libris and the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI).
Cover photo by Tom Till, courtesy of Visit Utah.
