Bradenton Area Convention and Visitor's Bureau wins three Visit Florida Henry Flagler Awards

MANATEE -- The Bradenton Area Convention and Visitor's Bureau and its marketing agency Aqua Marketing and Communications Inc. designed a tourism package around its sports marketing efforts, bringing home top honors from the Governor's Conference on Tourism.

The pair took one of Visit Florida's most-coveted awards -- Best in Show -- for the "Sports Playbook." The playbook, which also won first in the Resource / Promotional Material-Trade category, showcases area venues, golf courses and sports academies. It highlights the area's many sports venues including, IMG Academy, the Premier Sports Campus at Lakewood Ranch and the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex.

The team took three of Visit Florida's Henry Flagler Awards, including a Bronze Award for Creativity in Public Relations and a Bronze Award in Resource/Promotional Material-Consumer. The bureau's "Guy's Gulf Coast Getaway" promotion package and Agritourism Guide won the bronze awards, respectively.

Winners are selected from a statewide pool.

President of Aqua Dave DiMaggio said sports tourism is vital for several reasons.

"Sports marketing in Bradenton and Manatee County is very broad," DiMaggio said. "In some areas they're big into specifically aquatics or soccer but in Manatee County it's one of the broadest and deepest sports marketing destinations, especially with the availability of sports performance and therapy."

It took about three months of research before launching into designing the playbook, DiMaggio said.

"One of the things we want to avoid in sports marketing especial

ly if you want to cover everything in one piece is you want to be able to direct people to what they want," he said. "We made sure it was very accessible by sport." Aqua used the playbook design to appeal to what coaches know.

The Henry Flagler Best in Show award has three categories; one for marketing campaigns with a $0 to $500,000 budget, a $500,000 to $2 million budget and a $2 million and up budget.

They divide it into three categories "because if they just had one, Fort Lauderdale would win every year," DiMaggio said.

"Guy's Gulf Coast Getaway" helped the bureau stand out among other entries for the statewide awards because, according to the Aqua release, it's one of the first Florida tourism marketing campaigns aimed solely at men.

Kelly Clark, the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitor's Bureau director of communications, said the campaign toward men was designed to add diversity to their marketing mix.

"I think in the tourism industry we spend a lot of time gearing to women because they make decisions," Clark said. "We wanted to do something outside the box."

Social media metrics and other analytics collected by the bureau showed the campaign succeeded with the targeted market.

Aqua Communications and Marketing Inc. has partnered with the bureau for the last four years. The marketing agency helped the bureau with its "Bradenton Area" rebranding effort, which has drawn some criticism from some officials including Jonathan L. Davis, Palmetto city commissioner.

Recipients of Henry Flagler Awards are recognized on an annual basis. The awards are named for Henry Flagler (1830 -- 1913).

Flagler was a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida, founder of the Florida East Coast Railway and a pioneer in Florida tourism.

"Winning four Flagler awards confirms that our staff and Aqua Marketing and Communications continue to produce materials and promotions that set the bar in our industry," said Elliott Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We are humbled to have expert judges acknowledge our hard work and dedicated staff."

DiMaggio hopes his agency will enjoy a long relationship with the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

"Like Manatee and the Bradenton Area itself, they're getting better all of the time."

Janelle O'Dea, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7095. Follow her on Twitter@jayohday.

This story was originally published September 12, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Bradenton Area Convention and Visitor's Bureau wins three Visit Florida Henry Flagler Awards ."