Mercury

2001 ESTO Mercury Award Winner
for International Marketing

The 2001 Mercury Award for International Marketing was presented in Vail, CO by Jim Jensen, Sr. Vice President & Chief Operating Office for Vail Ski Resorts to Kathleen Marks, Oklahoma Tourism Director, Jane Jayroe, Tourism Secretary for the State of Oklahoma, former Miss America and Rene Welti, President, America Live, Inc.

The Mercury Awards, established by the National Council of State Tourism Directors (NCSTD) to recognize its members for excellence and creative accomplishment in travel marketing and promotion and to foster the development of imaginative and exciting destination promotion programs and activities.

The 2001 ESTO Mercury Award for International Marketing was won by Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department with an innovative promotional partnership with the KaDeWe, an upscale department store in Berlin, Germany. For ten days last March, The Oklahoma Tourism department turned the International Foods floor at Europe's largest department store into a showcase for the Sooner State. The nine-day promotion perfectly captured the flavor of the American West, tapping into Germany's vast market potential and German travels interest in native American heritage, Route 66, and wide open spaces. The promotion was coordinated by America Live, Inc. an Atlanta based tourism marketing company, under the leadership of its' Berlin based Project Manager, Karin Roggenbuck.

ESTO is the premier learning and information exchange for tourism destination marketing professionals in the U.S. Marking its 18th year in 2001, this nationally recognized four-day event regularly draws key marketing and advertising decision-makers from state, regional and urban destination marketing organizations from around the country. Nearly all 50 states, one or two U.S. territories, and approximately 100 urban and regional communities are represented at ESTO. Collectively, these organizations represent over $160 million in advertising expenditures.

The National Council of State Tourism Directors (NCSTD) created a national awards program in 1985 with two purposes in mind: 1) to recognize its members for excellence and creative accomplishment in state tourism marketing and promotion, and 2) to inspire, by showcasing outstanding work, the continued development of truly imaginative and exciting destination marketing and promotion programs. Currently there are 12 general categories, some with subcategories, for a total of 16 opportunities to enter.

Odyssey

2001 TIA Odyssey International
Marketing Award Winner

TIA Odyssey Award Winners
Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department-Travel Marketing-International: Rene Welti, President, America Live, Inc., Sandy Price, Director of Tourism Sales, Oklahoma City CVB, Adam Goldstein, National Chair TIA, Kathleen Marks, Director Travel & Tourism Division, Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department.

Odyssey: a long wandering or voyage marked by many changes of fortune.

Travel Marketing, International: Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department An innovative promotional partnership with the KaDeWe, an upscale department store in Berlin, Germany, won this award for the state tourism office. For ten days last March, the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department turned the International Foods Floor at Europe's largest department store into a showcase for the Sooner state. The nine-day promotion perfectly captured the flavor of the American West, tapping into Germany's vast market potential and German travelers' interest in native American heritage, Route 66, and wide open spaces. The promotion positioned Oklahoma as the place to discover the real America and included the sale of Oklahoma-made products. This promotion was conceived and coordinated by America Live, Inc..

There is only one national awards program for the U.S. travel industry that is prestigious enough to be called the TIA Odyssey Awards. TIA's Odyssey Awards annually recognize the outstanding achievements of its members who have successfully journeyed to a higher level of excellence and accomplishment. Through extraordinary efforts displayed in any of the seven specialty areas, the honor is bestowed to those select few that have demonstrated originality, creativity and effectiveness combined with notable results for the previous year.

The Odyssey Award in each area aims to recognize the program that may have been deliberate in scope and design, but far exceeded planned expectations, or which may have begun as an unconventional idea that resulted in a highly successful program. Past winners are as diverse as the membership: Stowe Area Association's Weekend of Hope for families dealing with Cancer, AMFAC's organizational environment recommitment project, and Louisiana Tourism's Music Train fam-trip that exposed journalists to Louisiana's variety of music traditions.