Alongside our extraordinary partners, TURNER has been recognized in the 2023 Hotel Sales & Marketing Association International’s (HSMAI) Adrian Awards, the world’s largest and most prestigious travel marketing competition. This year’s theme, WanderLOVE, highlights the stories of remarkable ads, campaigns, and experiences that sparked a love for travel, igniting a desire for exploration among travelers worldwide.
Winning campaigns included:
Tourism Australia
Best of Show / Gold Presidents Award / Platinum Award: Come and Say G’Day Campaign Launch (PR/Comms - PR Campaign Consumer Category)
TURNER created a high-impact earned media campaign in the U.S. and Canada to launch Tourism Australia’s new global Come and Say G’day campaign. Centered around the hero short film, “G’Day,” introducing the new tourism ambassador, plush toy kangaroo Ruby, voiced by Aussie actress Rose Byrne. Beyond targeted media relations to consumer, travel trade and marketing trade media, a stellar film premiere was hosted in Brooklyn, NY paired with leveraging associated celebrities to the film to drive incremental media coverage. This earned media initiative not only won an HSMAI President’s Gold Award and Platinum Trophy, but was awarded top honors with the Public Relations “Best of Show” category at the Gala celebration event on February 13, 2024.
Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa
Gold Presidents Award: Launching the Caribbean’s First Literary-Inspired Bar (PR/Comms - New Opening Launch Category)
TURNER was tasked with elevating the media engagement strategy tied to the opening of Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa’s new bar — Library By The Sea. As part of this initiative, the agency ideated on and executed a spectacular media FAM and developed various creative ideas to maximize media and consumer attention in key target markets. TURNER’s grand opening media strategies resulted in over a dozen feature placements with a combined reach of over 484 million impressions.
Visit Bardstown
Gold Presidents Award: Garden & Gun Feature (PR/Comms Feature Placement Category)
TURNER and Visit Bardstown worked closely with writer Tom Wilmes to help him develop a wide-ranging feature for Garden & Gun magazine. The piece showcased the many bourbon distilleries in the destination, in addition to Bardstown’s historic charm and southern hospitality.
Gold Award: Bardstown Collection (PR/Comms - PR Campaign Consumer Category)
In 2023, six Bardstown distilleries joined together to release a one-of-a-kind bourbon series, the Bardstown Collection. Each distillery offered a hand-selected, premium bourbon available only on-site as part of the Collection. TURNER and Visit Bardstown brought an array of journalists, influencers and content creators to the destination, with the goal of showcasing the Bardstown Collection and Bardstown as a whole.
Travel Wisconsin
Gold Award: Tasty Makers Campaign (PR/Comms - PR Campaign Consumer Category)
Travel Wisconsin and TURNER wanted to delve deeper into the state’s diverse culinary and agritourism scene. Throughout 2022 and 2023, we’ve worked to showcase Wisconsin’s “Tasty Makers” by focusing on the state’s unique artisans, chefs, farmers, cheese makers and more, with a focus on BIPOC innovators.
Gold Award: Conde Nast Traveler Feature (PR/Comms Feature Placement Category)
TURNER worked frequently with freelance writer Ashlea Halpern by hosting her on a trip that showcased Native foodways and only in Wisconsin culinary experiences. As a result, Ashlea secured an online feature in Condé Nast Traveler highlighting Rebecca and Steve Webster, a married couple and citizens of the Oneida Nation, who live on a 10-acre homestead near Green Bay.
Silver Award: Wisconsin In Color Campaign (Digital - Social Media Campaign Category)
In 2023, TURNER launched the Wisconsin In Color content creator program with Travel Wisconsin, aiming to highlight the destination as a 365-days-a-year playground for travelers, working to showcase extraordinary experiences from spring, summer, fall and winter.
Discover South Carolina
Silver Presidents Award: South Carolina’s Blockbuster Bucket List (Advertising-Influencer Marketing Category)
To celebrate the incredible South Carolina locations that have graced the silver screen over the years, TURNER and Discover South Carolina joined forces to bring us the exhilarating Blockbuster Bucket List, featuring the world-renowned cinephile influencer, Thomas Duke, hailing all the way from London.
Bronze Award: Fodor’s Travel: You’re Going to the Wrong City in the Carolinas (PR/Comms - Feature Placement Category)
TURNER and Discover South Carolina worked closely with writer Iona Brannon to develop this feature highlighting the city of Greenville. “When in the Carolinas, visitors usually gravitate toward the more touristy cities like Charleston or Asheville,” she wrote. “But a new Southern belle is rapidly catching travelers’ attention. In the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Greenville, South Carolina, thrives.”
Visit Estes Park
Silver Award: Estes Park, Standing Up For Workforce Housing & Childcare (Trending - Environmental, Social Governance Category)
Following the March 2022 passage of CO Governor Polis' House Bill 22-1117, which allows for the expanded use of local lodging tax revenue to address gaps in the need for workforce housing and childcare, Visit Estes Park and TURNER developed a clear strategy to communicate the beneficial impacts of a lodging tax extension that would address essential needs within the community.
Bronze Award: Bringing Frozen Dead Guy Days Back to Life in Estes Park (PR/Comms - Special Event Category)
When the quirky Colorado celebration known as Frozen Dead Guy Days outgrew its small mountain town, Visit Estes Park and The Stanley Hotel stepped in to keep this delightfully weird — and wildly popular — annual event alive (pun intended). The only catch was that Visit Estes Park had only 100 days to put it all together, handling the logistics of the event, marketing, promotion and asset creation in-house, producing high-quality content that rivaled agency work.
Kimpton Surfcomber
Bronze Award: Kimpton Surfcomber Hotel Becomes Your Home Away From Office (PR/Comms - Feature Placement Category)
For boutique hotels like Miami’s Kimpton Surfcomber, the pandemic created new realities that required quick and creative thinking. TURNER was challenged with ideating unique concepts to effectively promote the property — including spotlighting the remote work offerings of the property via a “Work From Hotel” guest package, which resulted in 11 media placements and led to $30,000 in direct package booking sales to date.
Want to make award-winning work with us? Get in touch.
Christine Turner
