Bringing Marketing Excellence Awards Home to the Capital Region
We’re thrilled to share the good news: our team will be celebrating two wins during the NYSTIA 2024 Meeting & New York State Tourism Marketing Excellence Awards this September!
Our work with Saratoga Arms Hotel will receive an Excellence in Overall Tourism Marketing award, and the Washington County Tourism “Experience Trails” will receive an award for Excellence in Tourism Marketing Campaigns, Projects & Programs: Trails & Itineraries! But BLKDOG can’t take all the credit – these campaigns relied heavily on collaboration with small businesses and the surrounding community alike to showcase some of our region’s most unique experiences, from agritourism and dining options to outdoor recreation and shopping excursions.
“The New York State Tourism Excellence Awards recognize the very best in destination marketing, management, and stewardship that is so critical in supporting the Empire State’s economy for the betterment of visitors and residents alike.” - Corey Fram, Board Chair of the New York State Tourism Industry Association.
The Saratoga Arms Hotel: Reaching New Generations of Travelers
As a boutique hotel in the heart of Saratoga Springs, the Saratoga Arms combines historic decor with a concierge approach, helping visitors fully immerse themselves in the special city. To secure their next 25 years of success, our team helped the Arms refresh their brand to target a new audience: Gen X and Millennial travelers seeking a hands-on, luxury alternative to traditional hotel stays.
Building on their existing brand, we embraced multi-channel marketing, including email, paid video, organic social and more. Hand-in-hand with the Arms team, a PR expert and local businesses, BLKDOG helped promote the hotel’s new luxury weekend experiences, farm-to-table breakfasts, thoughtful vacation packages and local-focused holiday events.
One such offering developed to boost off-season and mid-week bookings (as well as tap into a new market) was a deep sleep package, called the REM Reboot. This sleep-cation deal includes a range of luxury amenities to help business travelers relax and unwind. In fact, through our collective efforts, this package secured features in both Travel Market Report and AARP Magazine, and has become increasingly-popular ever since!
Washington County Tourism: Connecting Visitors To Unique Local Experiences
To cater to the many ways visitors of varying interests prefer to interact with any given destination, BLKDOG teamed up with Washington County NY Tourism to built a multi-platform Trails campaign! This project allows visitors to explore local attractions in a variety of categories (which include antiques, craft beverages, kid-friendly activities, ice cream and more), giving businesses in a range of industries the chance to shine. These Trails help guide visitors through planning their perfect trip to the area, well-suited to their unique interests and abilities. Additionally, an extensive collection of blogs and itineraries anchors the site’s trails and business directory, offering insight to those who haven’t yet visited the area.
Finally, through our new trip-planning software on the Washington County Tourism site, it’s never been easier to create and save a custom itinerary, built from the best the county has to offer! A natural fit for the Marketing Excellence award, our Trails Campaign led the way in both embracing and elevating this area as a deeply agricultural, historic and creative destination with many unique aspects of agritourism to enjoy.
Want to learn more about the Experience Trails? Read our other article focused on Washington County Tourism’s other recent award from the New York State Economic Development Council.
BLKDOG Team at the NYSTIA Annual Meeting in Saratoga Springs, NY
Let’s not forget to shout out our team members for all their hard work bringing these projects to life! To help these larger-scale campaigns come together, we drew on the expertise of nearly every department at BLKDOG, including our project managers, graphic designers, web developers and copywriters. Together, our combined efforts resulted in not one but two award-winning projects for our local clients.
We’re really looking forward to celebrating these achievements together as a time, all while enjoying the company of other award winners from across New York during the annual meeting in September. Held right in our own backyard in Saratoga Springs!
Going to be there? Reach out and let’s connect!
