How VISIT FLORIDA Turned a Mountain of Boxes Into a Seamless, Thriving Awards Program
Staring at the mountain of FedEx, UPS and other boxes lining the walls, the team at Hayworth PR knew it was time for a change. Created in 1999, VISIT FLORIDA’s Flagler Awards program had become a victim of its own success. Over its 15-year history, Kevin and Maria Hayworth watched the state’s tourism marketing awards competition grow into a major annual event, complete with hundreds of entries, distinguished judges and a highly anticipated awards banquet. Running the program had become a ton of work – and a week spent opening boxes was just a part of it.
Established in the late 1996, VISIT FLORIDA is the public/private partnership charged with promoting tourism for the State of Florida. The Flagler Awards were specifically designed to recognize the marketing efforts of the countless hotels, theme parks and other public and private sector entities that together help Florida position itself as the No.1 travel destination in the world.
VISIT FLORIDA named their top award for Henry Flagler, widely acknowledged as the father of Florida tourism. Flagler had put Florida on the map as a vacation spot in the early 1900s, building hotels up and down the state and connecting them with a railroad that ran the length of Florida’s east coast down to Key West.
Everyone Wants to Win a “Henry”
Florida’s tourism industry is fiercely competitive – a natural inclination that extends to the Flagler Awards. There was immediate interest in the awards competition, with organizations from all across Florida enthusiastically vying for a coveted Henry Award each year. “The awards have helped shine a spotlight on Florida’s tourism marketing professionals and raised awareness throughout the state,” adds Susan Gale, Marketing Coordinator, who has been with VISIT FLORIDA since the inception of the awards program.
Winners proudly showcase Henry Flagler’s likeness, captured in bronze, front and center. Likewise, they’re quick to boast of the number of Bronze, Silver and Henry Awards they’ve captured, using them as a badge of honor. The awards ceremony has become a signature event during VISIT FLORIDA’s annual tourism conference, with entire staff and corporate boards in attendance, watching with excitement as their company takes home a hard-earned “Henry.”
Excitement Brings a Flood
As interest in the event built over the years, so did the complexity and quality of submissions. Marketing programs were now using many different elements: print, video, audio, websites and social media campaigns among them.
The growing number of entries and evolving marketing technologies posed new problems for the Flagler Awards. According to Kevin Hayworth, “there were a number of small changes made over the first few years, but the program had essentially remained the same from its beginning in 1999.” That included the increasingly time-consuming task of sorting and organizing hundreds of paper-based applications and accompanying submission bundles of marketing materials. “Once a year our office looked like a Pak N Post exploded.”
The sheer volume of physical submission packets also meant flying in a panel of neutral, out-of-state judges to participate in what Hayworth described as “a tortuous weekend of marathon judging.” The expert panel of judges volunteered their time for the task, but the associated travel and meeting costs were not insignificant.
Going Online was Better for Everyone
In keeping with a broader trend in award competition, Hayworth proposed VISIT FLORIDA take the entry and judging process online. After reviewing their options, they chose to put the program on the OpenWater platform in 2015. They saw the difference immediately: the mountain of boxes, the frantic last-minute calls from entrants, and weeks of administrative busy work opening, cataloging and organizing submissions all simply vanished.
Before going online, Hayworth had worried that the industry would have trouble navigating the online process. Fortunately, no one seemed to have any problems. “I got maybe three questions for every 100 submissions, and not about the system but the criteria. Everyone found it very simple to use. Plus, they were saving time and money not having to print everything and ship it all to us, usually last minute. Overall, they loved it.”
The new online system also let VISIT FLORIDA totally revamp the judging process. Judges no longer had to be flown in to one location and spend a weekend locked in a conference room. “Now we can recruit top judges from anywhere in the world and they can review everything at their own pace, on their own time and whenever and wherever they want to.” Needless to say, judges were delighted.
Time to Focus on the Bigger Picture
Year one was all about getting the awards program running online. As VISIT FLORIDA enters its second year on the OpenWater platform, their thoughts are turning to what’s next for the program. “We have yet to fully realize how much it has changed things up for us,” said Hayworth. That’s the beauty of any awards program: It’s a living, breathing culmination of months of work for everyone involved.
And for VISIT FLORIDA, it’s turned a precarious mountain of boxes into a very manageable “molehill” of online entries, ready to be judged by professionals as near and as far as possibly imaginable.
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