Pure Michigan Campaign Wins Top Awards

LANSING, Mich., Aug. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) honored Travel Michigan with a Mercury Award for the Best State Tourism Advertising Campaign for its Pure Michigan campaign. In addition to receiving the highest award from TIA, the Pure Michigan campaign also won a Mercury Award for the Best State Tourism Television Commercials.

"From miles of world-class beaches to top-notch golf courses, our Pure Michigan campaign is showcasing our state to people across the country," said Governor Jennifer M. Granholm. "This campaign is helping people choose Michigan when they make their travel plans - and that means more jobs for our workers and more revenue for local businesses."

A Pure Michigan television commercial showcasing the state's world-class golf courses debuted in select national markets in April, while the remainder of the campaign launched in Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Ontario, Canada, plus in Michigan, in May. Pure Michigan commercials can be viewed online at http://www.michigan.org/travelads.

"Having the Pure Michigan campaign recognized as the best in the country is quite gratifying," said George Zimmermann, Vice President of Travel Michigan, a business unit of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. "This award-winning campaign has driven the dramatic increase in volume at the http://www.michigan.org/ web site. Since the launch of the Pure Michigan campaign in April, http://www.michigan.org/ has led the nation with the most traffic to any state tourism web site," Zimmermann added.

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. Michigan has won Mercury Awards for radio and television commercials in the past, but this is the first time Michigan has won the award for Best State Tourism Advertising Campaign.

The Birmingham, Michigan office of McCann Erickson developed the strategy and creative for the Pure Michigan campaign. McCann's Chief Strategy Officer Mark Lantz explains their approach: "The campaign is intended to entice out- of-state travelers from neighboring states about one place that still feels magic, mythic, authentic, untamed, unspoiled, uncompromised, timeless and true. It's pure Michigan. We wanted to communicate to consumers what makes Michigan special, and identify experiences you get here that you can't get anywhere else."

McCann Erickson's Birmingham, Michigan office creates advertising and integrated marketing communications programs for Travel Michigan; Buick Motor Division; General Motors Corporation (Corporate Advertising); Delphi; Honeywell Consumer Product Group's Prestone, FRAM and Autolite units; and a variety of other clients. McCann Worldgroup is the world's largest multinational advertising agency system, with operations in 131 countries. It is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. . To find out more about McCann Erickson, visit its Web site at http://www.mccann.com/.

Travel Michigan, a division of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, is the state of Michigan's official agency for the promotion of tourism. Travel Michigan markets the state's tourism industry and provides valuable visitor information services. For more information on traveling in the state of Michigan, visit http://www.michigan.org/.

Contact: Kirsten Borgstrom, 517-335-1871

Jenny Schilp, 248-225-6744