Destination Branding Earns Creativity Award

Travel marketing and destination branding agency Wanderlust announced today that its recent work for Windham Mountain received a Gold Award in the 39th Creativity Annual. The Troy-based agency created a transit campaign for the ski resort that targeted Metro New York City and surrounding suburban markets. The Creativity Award panel judged the campaign to be “an example of outstanding creativity and design.”

“Windham Mountain is one of the closest major ski resorts to the New York Metro population center,” stated Mark Shipley, President and Chief Strategic Officer at Wanderlust. “This transit campaign was an opportunity to reinforce the proximity message with skiers and boarders in the New York City region – to drive season pass sales, website traffic and lodging occupancy. The success of Windham’s 2008/2009 season attests to the effectiveness of our strategy. Winning the Creativity Award is a tribute to the campaign’s emotional appeal, and a client that allows us to do great destination branding.”

The resort’s new management hired Wanderlust in 2006 to create a brand identity that would make Windham Mountain a destination ski resort rivaling Beaver Creek or Deer Valley. “We helped the resort define a clear brand position, created a powerful visual identity and developed messaging to differentiate the mountain from it’s competition,” Shipley said. “One of the resort's biggest challenges was that skiers and riders in their market thought of Vermont ski resorts first, Hunter Mountain (a close Catskill competitor) second, and Windham Mountain third.

“The transit campaign reflects the brand’s position as a sophisticated, playful alpine experience,” Shipley explains, “but also emphasizes the added benefit of the resort’s proximity to the Northeast’s major metropolitan population centers. With drive times almost 50% shorter than travel to Vermont resorts, Windham visitors enjoy more time on the slopes, at the Adventure Park, or just hanging out after a great day on the mountain. We couldn’t be happier that the Creativity judges recognized the resort’s marketing with the Gold Award,” Shipley concluded.

About The Creativity Annual Awards

 Established in 1970, The Creativity Annual Awards is one of the longest running independent international advertising and graphic design competitions in the world. The 39th Annual received thousands of entries from 37 countries and 37 U.S. states. The competition showcases work from around the globe in the 400-page Creativity Awards Annual Book, published after each year’s competition and sold in bookstores around the world.

About Wanderlust

Wanderlust provides marketing, branding and management consulting to destinations, resorts and tourism attractions. We are experts at uncovering what drives people to choose where they go and building integrated marketing programs to attract them — using the internet, social networks, direct marketing and mass media.

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