Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program? Following a $30 million investment into golf enhancements and programming, The Lodge at Sea Island unveiled state-of-the-art facilities including a brand new Golf Performance Center in early 2019. Featuring cutting edge equipment and access to renowned golf pros and experts, Sea Island sought to spark a resurgence in their golf bookings, an area in which bookings were declining steadily for several years prior. Sea Island also wanted to elevate their reputation as one of the finest golf resorts in the world. Sea Island tasked the agency with jumpstarting media and public awareness of the recent golf investments among an affluent audience, in order to drive consumer bookings to the Golf Performance Center and increase traffic to the Sea Island website. To achieve that goal, we set out to secure a top journalist to visit the property to experience the new golf facilities and write a tone-setting exclusive. The piece was to position Sea Island as a premier golf destination, highlighting the new and unique golf offerings to boost awareness and ultimately bookings. In addition, the story needed to increase Sea Island’s social media presence on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn specifically. After thorough vetting and research, the team identified golf freelance writer John Paul Newport (previously the Golf Editor at The Wall Street Journal) as the prime candidate to experience and cover Sea Island’s $30 million enhancements. The team pitched John with a carefully crafted invitation to visit the property, which he promptly accepted on behalf of Bloomberg Businessweek. After facilitating his on-site property visit, which included arranging several interviews with Sea Island’s golf pros, expert trainers and hotel executives, the team worked closely with John to ensure proper messaging throughout.

Results: Which of your original goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign? Entrants should provide quantifiable results of their tactics or campaigns. (for example, click through rates or ad equivalency)Following John’s visit to Sea Island, the resulting feature story was included in the July 15, 2019 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek as a two-page spread including photos; the print issue boasts a weekly circulation of 611,683, yielding 1,529,208 in media impressions with a correlating ad-value of $210,320. The story also ran on Bloomberg Businessweek’s website on July 10, 2019, the day the print issue was on newsstands; the online platform garners 13,002,574 unique visitors per month, with a correlating ad-value of $260,051. Also as an immediate result of the story: Traffic, Bookings and Revenue - July 10 – August 30, 2019: Transactions at the Golf Performance Center increased 109% and revenue increased 114% versus the same time the previous year. - July 10 – August 30, 2019: Golf Performance Center reservations for fittings and lessons increased 132% and revenue increased 134% versus the same time the previous year. - Website sessions to SeaIsland.com increased 103% YOY on July 18, 2019 to 11k sessions, versus 5k sessions on the same date in 2018. Social Media: - Increased Instagram following by 486 - Posting the story on Instagram stories resulted in 70 link “swipe ups” and 44 shares - Increased Facebook following by 148 - Increased LinkedIn following by 47

Project Analysis: Please provide a brief background on the project and your company efforts to demonstrate good corporate citizenship in the areas of community involvement, environmental, or socially responsible practices.

Objectives and Goals: What did organization set out to achieve in undertaking this project in CSR? What were the goals you set to measure your success?

Results: How did you measure the effectiveness of your efforts and what direct and tangible results did you achieve? Please be as specific as possible and share the full impact of your efforts in CSR.

Leadership: Please list the individual in a leadership role responsible for the project and how would you characterize their commitment to promoting corporate social responsibility in the travel and tourism industry?

Situational Analysis: Please provide a brief background on the initiative and the problem, challenge or issue you were seeking to address in the areas of developing emerging talent and engaging existing talent to meet the demands of your business.

Goals: What did your organization set out to achieve in undertaking this initiative? What obstacles did you encounter?

Results and Impact: What results had the greatest impact on your target audience? Please comment on the process and the outcomes. What measures were used to determine success?

Situational Analysis: Please provide a brief background on the initiative and the nature of the issue you were trying to impact.

Goals: Clearly state your goals. What did you strive to achieve with this initiative?

Results: Which of your original goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the initiative?

Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals and audience. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?

Results: Which of your original goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign? Entrants should provide quantifiable results of their tactics or campaigns. (for example, click through rates or ad equivalency)

Entry TitleThe Strongest Yard: Sea Island Swings Big for Golf

DivisionPublic Relations - FEATURE PLACEMENT PRINT - Consumer Magazine or Newspaper

CategoryPublic Relations