Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) continues to make its presence felt in the global tourism and hospitality space. Most recently, the organization was honored for marketing excellence by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) at its prestigious Adrian Awards held February 13, at the New York Marriott Marquis. Now in its 67th year, the HSMAI Adrian Awards recognize hospitality brands and agencies “for creativity and innovation in advertising, digital marketing, and public relations”. Entrants hail from every area of the hospitality sector including hotels, airlines, cruise lines, car rental companies, destinations and more. This year, under the theme of ‘WanderLOVE’, the Adrian Awards saw over 800 entrants.
BTMI was awarded in the category ‘Integrated Campaign: New Opening/Launch’ for its innovative consumer integrated campaign to announce the launch of JetBlue’s twice-daily, non-stop flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport as well as the airline’s twice-weekly flights from Boston’s Logan Airport.
The campaign involved a first-of-its-kind, pop-up experience featuring popular Barbadian-based (and Rihanna’s favorite) fast food restaurant Chefette, with activations at New York’s Bryant Park and Boston’s Copley Square in June of last year.
The pop-up generated lines stretching across several blocks in both New York and Boston, garnering major buzz and presenting BTMI the opportunity to promote destination Barbados, along with the new JetBlue airlift service, to onlookers and passersby. The collaboration saw remarkable success on social media platforms, accumulating over 5 million media and social impressions, and even drawing commentary from Rihanna herself via Instagram.
The activations saw over 3000 attendees, with the Visit Barbados landing page seeing an increase in visits by 17% on activation days, while bookings to Barbados throughout the activation increased by a major 40%.
BTMI’s US Director, Peter Mayers, and Senior Business Development officer, Tenisha Holder were present to accept the award on behalf of the organization.
“I am incredibly proud of our US team and sincerely thank them for their vision, creativity and passion.”
Mayers added, “We are always looking for opportunities to strengthen our relationship with our airline partners, of which JetBlue is an incredibly important one, while simultaneously showcasing the best of Barbados.”
“This collaboration was a major win for destination Barbados, JetBlue, and of course our local partners, Chefette and Export Barbados,” he went on. “We hope this is the first of many successful collaborations.”
Interested persons can view BTMI’s entry in the winners’ gallery at https://adrianawards.hsmai.org/. For more on destination Barbados, visit www.visitbarbados.org.
SOURCE: BTMI Wins Big at Prestigious Adrian Awards for JetBlue Partnership BY: eTurboNews | eTN