BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA: WESTCHESTER COUNTY TOURISM & FILM

New York’s Westchester County Tourism & Film’s organic Instagram work – designed to position the destination as a place “beyond the everyday” and support tourism recovery during the pandemic won the “Best Use of Social Media” in the Bronze Anvil Awards, as presented by the Public Relations Society of America.

The award program recognizes the best of the best in public relations tactics that contribute to the success of overall programs or campaigns.

The DMO beat out other finalists in the category, including Tropicana, TABASCO® Brand, Providence and Jackson State University Communications.

Westchester County Tourism & Film’s Instagram work (@westchestercountytourismny) also earned gold this spring in the 2021 Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International’s (HSMAI) Adrian Awards in the Digital Marketing-Social Media Campaign category. It was also a finalist in PR Daily’s 2021 Digital Marketing & Social Media Awards.

The Details. Building on Westchester County Tourism & Film’s “Beyond” brand platform, first launched in January 2020, different County municipalities were engaged for the curation of 17 hyper-local itineraries for visitwestchesterny.com.

Those recommendations were then transformed into a series of complementing Instagram reels that offered a snapshot of the County’s unique communities, helping travelers map how to make the most of their time in Westchester.

Quotable. “It’s important for us to connect with prospective travelers where they are, and 40% of the U.S. population is on Instagram. We knew this rapidly evolving online channel, which offers many visually captivating opportunities to express the Westchester travel experience, was important to get right, and we worked to pull every lever Instagram offered to tell Westchester’s travel story. The response was incredible.”