Radisson Blu scoops four out of six honours at HMA Annual Marketing Awards
Radisson Blu has swept the board at this year's Hotel Marketing Association (HMA) Annual Marketing Awards, taking top honours in four of the six categories at today's presentation lunch at London's Savoy hotel.
The Radisson Blu Edwardian Manchester won the Best Partnership Marketing Campaign and Best Media and Public Relations Activity for teaming up with the Halle Orchestra to celebrate the hotel's 10th anniversary. The hotel also topped the Best Use of Social Media in Marketing category for their Pride Campaign, for various social media activities around the sponsorship of the Manchester Pride Weekend.
Located in the former Manchester Free Trade Hall, Radisson Blu Edwardian Manchester partnered with the Halle Orchestra, its famous former occupants, commissioning a specially written piece of music and video to celebrate the hotel's first ten years. As well as achieving good media coverage across multi platforms, the judges singled out the campaign as "a great example of how to partner with another local organisation with truly aligned brand values".
Radisson Blu, corporately, also won the Marketing Innovation (Wild Card) award for The Experience Meetings Roadshow. The judges decided to make this award award to an outstanding campaign, which did not fit any of the criteria for the other awards. The Radisson Blu Experience Meetings Roadshow saw the company kit out a truck as a meetings venue and take it around the country for key clients to sample its meetings product. The initiative was described by the judges as a "bold and innovative approach from a challenger brand in the market. They knew they had to be different and delivered their brand to the time poor B2B customer.
Other award winners included Dormy House Hotel in the Cotswolds for Best Website & SEO Marketing. The judges praised the htotel for producing a website that demonstrated "a refreshing tone of voice and compelling imagery to deliver a young audience". Also Highly Commended in this category was Yotel, whose website the judges described as "a great example of addressing a business issue and designing a site for a specific audience."
Meanwhile, Sookie Shuen of the Hotel Collection was named Young Marketer of the Year 2014, aimed at the under 30s. Shuen is responsible for all aspects of digital marketing at the company including the development of the company's website when it was rebranded.
The judges said that Shuen had demonstrated "a very mature attitude to change… a combination of skill, passion for her art, resilience and a can do approach that you wished you could bottle… a great young marketing talent". As well as collecting her award, she will also receive a one-day course at the Chartered Institute of Marketing at Moor Hall in Cookham, Berkshire.
Ed Purnell, chairman of the Hotel Marketing Association, said that that the breadth of this year's entries demonstrated just how technical marketing has become. "The best campaigns and products were those that were thought out smartly and that worked collaboratively with other departments to achieve greater brand connection with their targeted audiences," he explained.
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