Cornett Wins 2 Travel Weekly Magellan Awards for VisitLEX Work

Independent, female-owned, full-service agency Cornett won two Gold awards in Travel Weekly’s 2024 Magellan Awards. This year the publication received a record number of entries from across the US and around the world. 

Magellan Awards represent the best in the travel industry and salute the outstanding travel professionals behind them. They honor outstanding design, marketing and services in a broad range of industry segments including Hospitality, Travel Destinations, Cruise Lines, Online Travel Services, Airlines and Airports, Travel Agents and Agencies, Tour Operators, and Ground Transportation.

Cornett won in the categories of Destination Marketing/Advertising/Marketing Campaign and United States – Overall Destinations/Cultural/Arts. This is also Cornett’s second year in a row bringing home top recognition. Cornett won Gold and Silver in 2023.

“To be recognised by Travel Weekly two years in a row in competitive categories for the creativity, media expertise, and passion we bring to projects is incredibly validating,” said Chris Finnegan, Cornett’s SVP Media. “These wins drive home VisitLEX’s adventurous spirit and trust in our approach of combining earned-media stunts with paid-media campaigns to achieve measurable business results.” 

“Look at Lexington” encouraged travellers and meeting planners in search of a convenient, affordable, and authentic destination to look past Louisville and other overcrowded, overhyped cities and consider the spot with the state’s most iconic attractions: bourbon, horses, and bluegrass.

Cornett created the ambitious 360 campaign For VisitLEX, the Lexington convention and visitors bureau. The star of the campaign was a quirky 30-second TV spot that featured a welcoming host showcasing just a few of the reasons why Lexington is the 'bluegrassy-est,' 'bourbon-est,' 'artsy-est,' and hands down 'horsey-est' place around. 

The campaign leaned into a digital media strategy that featured VisitLEX’s first ever CTV buy in their history combined with performance media and travel site channels that worked together to drive a 30% incremental lift in leisure travel visitors and a 5% hotel occupancy and 13% hotel revenue increase from core target markets during the period of March thru May, 2023 when compared year-over-year.

“Hey, Aliens! Look at Lexington” was the world’s first interstellar tourism campaign. The campaign capitalised on the public’s fascination with space and extra-terrestrial intelligence (65% of Americans believe in life beyond Earth, Pew, 2021) and invited ETs to visit Lexington to take in its famous features and friendly folks. (It was named one of the friendliest places in the US by Condé Nast and Southern Living). The objective was to get humans talking about Lexington as a friendly, creative, and progressive destination.