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Pure Michigan Campaign Wins Top Awards

And the winner is ... Pure Michigan, the state of Michigan's official travel and tourism campaign.

The Pure Michigan campaign brought home a record four Mercury Awards from the U.S. Travel Association's Educational Seminar for Tourism Organizations, held Aug. 8-10 in Savannah, Ga.

Pure Michigan won for Best State Tourism Television Commercials, Best State Tourism Radio Commercials, Best State Tourism Co-op (Partnership) Program, and Best State Tourism Welcome Center Program.

These four awards join the other Mercury Awards the campaign has already received including Best State Tourism Advertising Campaign (2007), Best State Tourism Television Commercials (2007), and Best State Tourism Radio Campaign (2008), Best State Tourism Radio Advertising (2009) and Best State Tourism Niche Marketing (2009).

The Pure Michigan tourism campaign ran national for the second year on cable channels including: Golf Channel, Travel Channel, A&E, Bravo, Style, Fine Living, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, E!, DIY Network, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and Fox News. Due to reduced funds adjustments were made to the regional and in-state campaigns.

"There are millions of Americans who know little or nothing about the vibrancy, heritage, culture, arts and entertainment in our great cities, our sandy beaches and stunning overlooks along America's longest fresh-water coastline, or the majesty and recreation in our 19 million acres of magnificent forests," said George Zimmermann vice president of Travel Michigan, the state's official tourism agency and a unit of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. "The Pure Michigan campaign is designed to introduce to the nation the attributes that make Michigan such a popular and unique destination."

The inaugural Pure Michigan national advertising campaign in 2009 motivated 680,000 new trips to Michigan from outside the Great Lakes region and resulted in more than $250 million being spent at Michigan businesses. For every dollar spent on the Pure Michigan national campaign, new visits to Michigan stimulated by that advertising generated $ 2.23 in new state tax collections.

The Mercury Awards is a program created by the National Council of State Tourism Directors to recognize its members for excellence and creative accomplishment in state tourism marketing and promotion, and to inspire the continued development of truly imaginative and exciting destination marketing and promotion programs.

The Birmingham office of McCann Erickson developed the strategy and creative for the Pure Michigan campaign. The campaign can be viewed and listened to at www.michigan.org/travelads.

(c) 2010, WWJ Newsradio 950. All rights reserved.

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