The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) celebrated excellence in travel advertising, digital marketing and public relations at the virtual Adrian Awards Celebration on March 23. For this year’s competition, HSMAI created four new award categories, as well as the Hospitality Heroes program to recognize resilience in response to the unprecedented challenges brought on by the pandemic.
“This year’s Adrian Awards honor best practices, innovation, community and the hospitality leaders who have shown that through crisis, innovation emerges,” said Robert A. Gilbert, president/CEO of HSMAI. “While the past year isn’t one that any of us anticipated, you’ll see from the award recipients and honorees that this crisis has only underscored the resilience, creativity and commitment to service that define our industry.”
For 63 years, the Adrian Awards have spotlighted excellence in hospitality advertising, digital marketing and public relations. This year’s Adrian honorees were selected from more than 600 entries by senior industry and media experts. HSMAI’s four new focus categories include corporate social responsibility, crisis communications/management, recovery strategies and talent and leadership development (an HSMAI Foundation honor).
The 2020 focus categories Best Practice Gold awardees are:
Corporate Social Responsibility:
Company, Agency
Karisma Hotels & Resorts, Premier Worldwide Marketing
Marriott International
MGM Resorts International
Nourish Lexington
Pinehurst Resort
Visit Irving and the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas
Crisis Communications/Management:
Company, Agency
Accor
Discover Puerto Rico, Ketchum
Grupo Tauá Resorts, Pmweb
Jamaica Tourist Board, Finn Partners
Omni Hotels & Resorts
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (2)
Recovery Strategies:
Company, Agency
Accor
Baha Mar, Parasol
British Virgin Islands Tourist Board & Film Commission, MMGY Global
Choice Hotels International, McKinney
Costa Rica Tourism Board, MMGY Global
Explore Georgia, Georgia Department of Economic Development, Miles Partnership
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Visitor and Convention Bureau, VERB Interactive
Kentucky Department of Tourism, Miles Partnership
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Allison+Partners
Marriott International in the Caribbean & Latin America, M1M/Publicis
MMGY Global and HSMAI on behalf of the Hospitality Industry, MMGY NJF
Omni Hotels & Resorts
Talent and Leadership Development, an HSMAI Foundation Honor:
Company, Agency
Atrium Hospitality
Omni Hotels & Resorts
HSMAI also recognized incredible campaigns in the traditional categories of digital marketing, public relations and advertising. To view the full list of winners, visit the Adrian Awards Winners Gallery.
HSMAI also recognized 15 Hospitality Heroes who have taken a leadership position, championed a cause or created a program that directly benefited industry workers, medical personnel, first responders or communities impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Additionally, a panel of senior industry executives selected the HSMAI Top 25: Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality Sales, Marketing and Revenue Optimization for 2020. Each Top 25 recipient was honored by HSMAI in a virtual celebration on March 16.
HSMAI also honored two industry leaders with HSMAI Lifetime Achievement Awards. Dorothy Dowling, SVP/chief marketing officer for Best Western Hotels & Resorts, was recognized with the 2020 Albert E. Koehl Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hospitality Marketing.
“It is an honor to receive this recognition from HSMAI, an organization that has truly been formative to my career,” said Dowling. “At every turn, HSMAI has opened doors to opportunities, learnings and treasured friendships. In this year of COVID, where we have learned that relationships fuel our souls, empower our capabilities and make us better human beings, it is truly an honor to be recognized.”
Mary Gostelow, publisher of The Gostelow Report, was honored with the 2020 Winthrop W. Grice Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hospitality Public Relations. “I am completely humbled,” said Gostelow. “I always regard my purpose in life as taking that world of hospitality, travel, tourism and understanding people and sustainability and the products that go along with it and making it a better world for us all. That is the brand that I always followed and the brand I will continue to follow.”
