Maine tourism campaign receives gold, silver marketing awards

AUGUSTA – Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International honored the Maine Office of Tourism and Swardlick Marketing Group of Portland with both a Gold and Silver Adrian Advertising Award at the 45th annual HSMAI International Travel Competition.

HSMAI recognized the Maine Tourism team with a gold award for its 2001 spring-summer integrated marketing campaign, which included television, print, collateral and Web support. The silver award was presented specifically for work on the 2001 spring-summer free-standing insert in The New York Times. The Maine Office of Tourism and Swardlick Marketing Group were selected for the honors from among more than 1,500 entries from 45 countries.

“This is the most successful campaign we’ve had to date, and we’re optimistic that our continued efforts will lead to even greater results,” said Dann H. Lewis, director of the Maine Office of Tourism. “The economic benefits generated by strategic marketing initiatives such as this one have been proven again and again through increased revenues and job creation for our state.”

According to David B. Swardlick, president of Swardlick Marketing Group, the “Maine Attraction” campaign, first launched in 1999, has brought significant results to the state. In 2000, more than 1.1 million visitors were motivated by advertising to visit Maine, generating $219 million in consumer spending and enabling Maine to reap a 21-to-1 return on taxpayer investment. The 2001 spring-summer campaign generated 74 percent more leads, including telephone and Internet inquiries, for the same dollars spent in the previous year.