Two Gold Travel Weekly Awards for Sparkloft Media’s Social Media Campaigns

Sparkloft Media, a Portland, Oregon based social media agency, was recognized with two Travel Weekly gold Magellan Awards within the Travel Destinations category for its work on social campaigns with South African Tourism, The Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC) and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM).

“These awards are reinforcing how lucky we are to work with clients who allow us to consistently innovate how we approach social storytelling,” said Martin Stoll, CEO of Sparkloft Media.

The #VisitSouthAfrica Influencer Program, recognized for best use of social media within the Destinations: Overall (global) category, leveraged the media networks of influential travel bloggers to strengthen the brand’s social media presence, build favorable buzz and promote South Africa as a safe, entertaining and inspiring destination.

"#VisitSouthAfrica has redefined how we host bloggers and online influencers and to date has generated hundreds of blog posts, thousands of pieces of content and over 47MM total impressions" wrote Sthu Zungu, President of South African Tourism, North America, in an October 2013 President's Update.

This is the third year Travel Weekly awarded Sparkloft Media and South African Tourism’s work tougher; their 2012 JEOPARDY! and 2011 Love Is In The Air campaigns were also both recognized with Gold Magellan Awards.

Sparkloft Media’s work with the NBTC and KLM also earned a gold Magellan for the best use of Web Marketing / Advertising in the Destination Marketing category for 10 Seconds to Holland.

This Facebook campaign highlighted the partnership between the two brands by educating fans about Holland’s key destination themes, while inspiring them to look into KLM flight options and amenities. After viewing inspirational Pinterest boards within a Facebook app, 10 Seconds to Holland participants brought their own dream Dutch vacations to life by sharing their itineraries in 10-second videos, recorded via the app or directly uploaded to Facebook.

Sparkloft Media provides a wide range of services, including social media strategy development, social media campaign management and implementation services as well as social software development. The agency’s clients include some of the most innovative organizations in travel and tourism around the world in addition to consumer/lifestyle brands, government, non-profit and economic development organizations. In 2009, Sparkloft Media made headlines when it created the world’s first “Twisitor Center,” a Twitter-based visitor information center that crowd-sources travel tips for destinations.