awards

On American Independence Day 2017, Captivate were crowned winners at the Visit USA Media Awards in London.

Captivate co-founder, Sarah Lee, and travel writer Ella Buchan accepted the Digital Influencer Award for the inspirational #DriveUS1 campaign.

Members of the national and regional US tourist boards, press and bloggers converged at the St Ermin’s Hotel, in London, to celebrate the industry’s very best travel media initiatives promoting the USA to UK travellers.

The team was praised by the judging panel for generating quality articles, video and social media content, as well as driving fantastic results.

“Fantastic results.”

Presenting the award, Visit USA’s Emma Forrest said: “The judging panel were really impressed by the quality, as well as the sheer volume of content produced, and the phenomenal amount of work that was put into organising the project.”

The ground-breaking Captivate campaign delivered 13 stories, 11 videos and more than 2,100 social media updates reaching an audience of over 3.5 million people.”

#DriveUS1 showcased US Route 1 – the road running the length of the eastern United States from Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida – and highlighted Maine, Massachusetts, Washington DC, Virginia, North Carolina, Daytona Beach, Orlando and the Florida Keys to a huge range of UK travellers.

During the six-week campaign, Ella shared tips and inspiration for readers to take on US Route 1 as a new road trip adventure for themselves.

“Innovation, quality and professionalism.”

 Captivate co-founder, Sarah Lee, said: “As thrilled as we are to win, it is just as wonderful that innovation, quality and professionalism in influencer marketing is being recognised. The online world is tomorrow’s world, and we are delighted to once again be at the forefront of excellence in the promotion of our clients.

“Our success was down to the combined efforts of Ella and the Captivate team. This teamwork was crucial to creating large-scale brand awareness from the exciting content Ella produced. We also thank the judges for acknowledging this achievement.”

Learn more #DriveUS1 and see all the content from the campaign here: http://livesharetravel.com/us-road-trip-travel-across-america/.

You can see more on the Visit USA Media Award winners here. 

Travel blogging has come a long way. This much was clear with the award at the recent Travel Media Awards.

No longer the preserve of the gap year traveller or digital nomad, professional travel bloggers are bringing such success to clients that they’re winning national awards. 

The Travel Media Award for Innovative Campaign and Content was hotly contested between national publications and large PR companies, as well as a blogger collective.

And the #LoveSabah iambassador campaign was crowned the winning project, marking a fantastic achievement for the world of online media.

The award was presented to the overjoyed team in front of an audience of more than 200 travel industry representatives. With five of the six bloggers in the campaign team also part of Captivate, the award marks a fantastic accolade for both organisations.

It was the first time the Travel Media Awards, descended from the British Travel Press Awards, had a campaign and content category – a recognition said awards director, Giles Harper, that: “this area of travel media and the impact it’s having is growing.”

The campaign was commended by the judges – a panel of more than 50 travel industry and media experts – for generating unique blog, video and social media content and driving fantastic results.

The campaign that brought new eyes to Borneo

#LoveSabah was held across ten days in November 2014. The objective being to highlight Sabah, in Borneo, as a wedding and honeymoon destination.

Five members of Captivate, including directors Sarah and Terry Lee and Abigail King, plus Becky Padmore and Niamh Shields were joined by leading wedding blogger, Elizabeth Muhmood Kane and videographers Lea Amiel and Nicolas Libersalle. They visited Sabah and Brunei with Royal Brunei Airlines, and generated social media, blog posts, cinematic quality video and an eBook. The campaign generated 52 million opportunities to view Borneo across social media channels in just two months.

Captivate founder and iambassador’s UK director, Sarah Lee, said, “I’m very proud to have organised and led such a dedicated team of professional bloggers and digital influencers. Once again we have driven huge bookings for our clients through compelling content and large scale brand awareness – the holy grail of marketing.”

The awards that kept on giving

At the same awards, another member of the Captivate team became the proud winner of the Blogger and Vlogger of the Year award.

Kash Bhattacharya, founder of Budget Traveller was commended for his inspirational work in helping transform the world of travel media. 

About the Travel Media Awards

The Travel Media Awards have been created in recognition of the hugely influential role today’s travel media play in the holiday and business travel decision-making process.

Entries are judged by some of the UK’s most influential travel industry figures alongside leading travel writers and editors. Click here to view the full list of awards and winners.