It’s been a platinum year for Fleming & Roskelly Inc. of Newport. The six-year-old advertising and marketing firm was awarded the Platinum Adrian Award at the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association Inter-national’s 10th Annual Adrian and Golden Bell Awards Competition held last month in New York. ”We were pretty surprised,” said Paul Fleming, president and CEO of the company. “We usually get some awards whether it’s gold, sliver or bronze; but the platinum is the crème de le crème in the tourism and travel industry, so we are really excited.”
The winning design – The Wayfarers catalog, which Fleming said, is a compilation of walking tours in a variety of European countries.
”The project is somewhat complex,” he said. “But the company that promotes the tours in the states is based in Newport. Because they knew of us by reputation they asked us to submit a proposal.”
Other award recipients included Las Vegas, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and Universal Studios Escape.
”The tourism and travel industry is pretty creative in scope,” Fleming said. “And this was international competition so the chance of winning was kind of a long shot.”
The company also won a silver Adrian Award in the Group Sales/Meetings for Convention &Visitors Bureaus category for its Group Tour Guide catalog for the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce. The silver was the highest award given in this category.
”Because of our expertise in this industry we are tapped into by people outside of the state,” Fleming said. “It’s nice to be recognized like this.”
The HSMAI’s Adrian and Golden Bell Awards competition is one of the largest of its kind in the travel industry. The organization, which was founded in 1927 as a hotel industry association to help polish building and selling skills, has grown to be the largest international association of travel sales and marketing professionals with more than 5,000 members representing 35 countries.
Fleming, who has been a part of the Rhode Island advertising scene since the mid- 1980s, said dealing with the tourism industry is both difficult and rewarding.
”The challenges are to find your objectives from a marketing stand point so you aren’t all over the place for your target audience and the medium you use,” he said. “You have to get into the head of the consumer to figure out what will motivate them. And for the past five years, we have been recognized for our work in this particular show.”
Fleming & Roskelly is a full-service integrated communications firm providing clients with advertising, public relations, interactive media, and direct marketing. Clients include Red Jacket Inns; Eastern Resorts; Heritage Plantation; Newport Grand Jai Alai; and the Newport County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
