Meet three Travel Marketing Awards winners

Colette Sullivan, marketing and communications manager at Radisson Red bagged the new Rising Star of Travel Marketing award, judged by TTG

What inspired you to choose a marketing career?

I have adaptable skills and a lot of interests and passions. For me that’s more valuable in a world that’s changing every day. I’ve found a career where I have to understand people, I can be creative and problem-solve. I can tell stories and I can also incorporate my passion for travel.

What was your involvement in the Radisson RED campaign?

I’ve now launched Radisson RED in two cities – Glasgow and Dubai. In Glasgow, we had already built a massive brand awareness in the city but the next step was to tell them what RED was and try to help grow a community around the hotel’s OUIBar + KTCHN.

I worked on the brief, development and rollout of both a local and regional campaign across multiple channels, which highlighted Glasgow as a destination and built out an extensive events calendar to coincide with a campaign to give an identity for OUIBar. The campaign focussed on OUIBar as the next best music venue in the city and used a play on the Glaswegian “wee” to give it a distinct personality.

What’s your career highlight?

We donated a mural to Glasgow city and it was my idea to tie this with the 150-year anniversary celebrations of the birth of Glasgow’s best-known artist, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Aside from the successful results, seeing the project come to life was a great feeling.

Intrepid Travel won the Travel Brand of the Year award.

How have you gone about creating brand awareness this year?

Intrepid has continued to open up new countries and regions to tourism and develop new tours, in line with consumer needs, and that have a purpose beyond profit. We’ve communicated this by really drawing out the experiences that people can have while on these trips, from learning about the challenges facing women around the world on our women’s expeditions to developing five new community-based tourism projects for a truly immersive experience into the destination’s culture.

What part have responsible travel and charitable activities played in your win?

We’re committed to ensuring that travel is a force for good and are continuing to lead the way on a range of issues, including climate action, empowerment of women and animal welfare. Intrepid’s not-for-profit, The Intrepid Foundation, has raised over £5.2 million for more than 125 charities around the world by matching traveller donations.

How can travel brands distinguish themselves?

In a very competitive market travel brands need to have a clear business goal and understand what resonates with customers. In June 2019 the company achieved one of its goals six months early, with 314 female leaders now leading trips. In addition, we’ve been a carbon-neutral business since 2010. This year, we will become the first “climate positive” travel company in the world, offsetting our operations at 125% by removing additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through a range of renewable energy projects across the globe.