CLEVELAND, OH — The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) just announced Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) won a 2021 Content Marketing Award for Best Content Marketing Program in Travel/Tourism/Hospitality for the Virginia is for Lovers WanderLove campaign. The Content Marketing Awards, produced by the Content Marketing Institute, is the largest and longest-running international content marketing awards program in the world for content creation, distribution, and innovation.
The WanderLove campaign was one of Virginia Tourism Corporation’s latest marketing campaigns to attract tourists to explore all that Virginia has to offer in a manner that is safe and comfortable for those seeking adventure with friends and family. The goal of the campaign was to shine a spotlight on low-risk travel experiences in Virginia, including road trips, scenic drives, LOVEworks, outdoors, small towns and hidden gems to further increase tourism and help stimulate Virginia’s economic recovery.
WanderLove leaned into Virginia’s strengths as a destination by following an itinerary of diverse experiences reflective of travelers’ interests, like outdoor adventure, waterfront escapes and culinary-inspired trips. This was accomplished through leveraging thematic road trip videos and content to encourage the return of safe travel and tourism throughout Virginia, which were promoted through social media to grab attention and inspire travelers to learn more. The Virginia is for Lovers blog and website were equipped with detailed itineraries so travelers can easily plan their Virginia getaway.
Further, the campaign encouraged local community stakeholders to join the WanderLove campaign by positioning their community as a road trip destination by sharing WanderLove blogs, leveraging VTC’s WanderLove images in their own marketing, and submitting videos for the WanderLove Playlist.
The Content Marketing Awards recognize and award the best content marketing projects, agencies, and marketers in the industry each year. This year’s panel of all-star judges reviewed nearly 1000 entries to determine the best of the best in content marketing excellence. The 80+ categories recognize all aspects of content marketing, including the best in strategy, automation, research, social media, video, editorial, illustration, design and much more, across many different industries from healthcare to manufacturing, from B2B to B2C.
“I am absolutely overjoyed by the wonderful news that our team has been recognized with a Content Marketing Award this year,” said Rita McClenny, President and CEO of Virginia Tourism Corporation. “The Virginia is for Lovers WanderLove campaign was essential to bringing back tourists who have pulled back their travel plans due to the health crisis. I truly believe that this campaign helped drive immediate economic impact in our Virginia communities by inspiring travel across the Commonwealth.”
The category winners now have the chance of being nominated for one of the top seven Content Marketing Award prizes including Project of the Year, Agencies of the Year, Content Marketers of the Year, and Branded Content Campaigns of the Year. The finalists for those awards will be revealed on August 11, 2021. Then the winners of those top seven awards will be revealed in September leading up to Content Marketing World 2021.
For a full list of the 2021 Content Marketing Award category winners, visit cmi.media/winners2021
About Virginia Tourism Corporation
Virginia Tourism Corporation is the state agency charged with marketing the Commonwealth as a premier travel and film destination. In 2019, visitors to Virginia spent $27 billion, which supported 237,000 work opportunities and contributed $1.8 billion in state and local taxes. To learn more, visit virginia.org.
About Content Marketing Institute
Content Marketing Institute is the leading global content marketing education and training organization, teaching enterprise brands how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multichannel storytelling. CMI’s Content Marketing World event, the largest content marketing-focused event, is held every fall in Cleveland, Ohio, and ContentTECH Summit event is held every spring. CMI publishes Chief Content Officer for executives and provides strategic consulting and content marketing research for some of the best-known brands in the world. Content Marketing Institute is organized by Informa Connect. Learn more at contentmarketinginstitute.com.