Visit The Woodlands recently won Gold Hermes Creative Awards for two innovative marketing projects: a Fashion Forward Advertising Campaign and the Ambassador Program. The Hermes Awards is an international competition that evaluates the creative industry's best publications, branding collateral, websites, videos, and advertising, marketing, and communications programs. Visit The Woodlands won a Gold award for each of the projects submitted into the competition.
FASHION FORWARD AD CAMPAIGN WINS GOLD AWARD
In 2022, Visit The Woodlands used a fashion-forward photographer to capture lifestyle images that were used to create intentional, captivating, and action-inspiring advertising. Brand words tied the campaign together with clear CTAs to drive engagement and conversions. The fashion-forward photo shoot showcased what visitors will find in The Woodlands: an urban oasis known for its luxury shopping and elevated experiences.
The advertisements used an omni-channel approach with paid search and social, print and digital, travel publications, Amazon CTV, and more. On mobile, Visit The Woodlands used high impact mobile ads to create high engagement and drive conversions. Visit The Woodlands also captured the luxury audience by with this ad campaign by creating highly targeted ads based on this lifestyle, with placements in Vogue, Golf Digest, Bon Appetit and others.
For meeting planners, Visit The Woodlands used fashion-forward photography that showcased what meetings in The Woodlands look like: enjoyable and effortless. The ads - featuring headlines like "Elevate your expectations", and "Give your event a fresh look" - were placed in meeting publications, print and digital, and paid search and social. Print advertisements for both leisure and meetings audiences included QR codes to easily transition potential visitors from print publications to predetermined landing pages on VisitTheWoodlands.com.
"As the official destination management organization of The Woodlands, it's Visit The Woodlands' responsibility to establish The Woodlands as a beautiful, lively, and welcoming destination for first-class business, convention and leisure travel," said Nick Wolda, President of Visit The Woodlands. "Having our efforts recognized and applauded by the Hermes Creative Awards is truly an honor."
INFLUENCER AMBASSADOR PROGRAM WINS GOLD AWARD
The Ambassador Program taps into the power of influencer marketing on Instagram, increases Visit The Woodlands' social media presence, and drives travel to The Woodlands. The marketing team started this initiative in 2022 and saw great success collaborating with Houston-based influencer, Sincerely Karin (@SincerelyKarin), during the first year of the Ambassador Program. From November 2021 to December 2022, Visit The Woodlands hosted Karin in The Woodlands five times, and collaborated with her on over 11 posts. During each visit, Karin would capture high-quality content for Instagram Stories and Reels that she would then post each month to keep The Woodlands top-of-mind with her 150K followers. These posts reached nearly 400K individuals throughout the year.
After a successful year with Sincerely Karin, Visit The Woodlands began collaborating with Becky's Travel List (@beckystravellist), a bilingual Texas travel influencer based in Houston, as the Visit The Woodlands Ambassador for 2023. Following the same format, Visit The Woodlands will collaborate with Becky's Travel List throughout the year to create monthly Instagram Reels and Stories about The Woodlands. One of her first Reels, focused on Ice Skating at The Woodlands Ice Rink, was played 19K times and contributed to +95 new followers for Visit The Woodlands within 24 hours. Another more recent Reel, focused on Texas TreeVentures, has been watched over 1 million times, expanding Visit The Woodlands' reach exponentially.
