SURF PUBLIC RELATIONS SCOOPS FIRST SOCIAL NETWORK MARKETING AWARD

The UK travel industry’s first award recognising the use of social networks as an essential marketing tool has been awarded to Surf Public Relations.

Launched only 10 months ago, Surf PR this week collected the prize for the Best Use of Social Media in the newly-expanded annual awards organised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing Travel Industry Group (CIMTIG). The awards previously only covered travel advertising.

The accolade recognised the ongoing campaign that Surf PR has been handling for its client The Adventure Company in building a customer community across a range of social networks, including Twitter, Blogger and Facebook, where more than 1,110 fans have already been generated.

The key objectives of this activity have been to ensure that The Adventure Company is first choice for the target audience when choosing a holiday and enabling existing and potential travellers to share their experiences when overseas with the company.

Surf PR is the UK’s first and only online public relations company specialising in travel and tourism and was launched to help the industry capitalise on the growing importance of web-based marketing.

The Adventure Company’s marketing manager James Ingham commented: ‘We are delighted that Surf’s outstanding work for us has been given wider recognition. Surf has very quickly given a major boost to our presence on social networks, which has significantly enhanced our search engine optimisation and clearly contributed to additional bookings.’

Surf PR’s online marketing executive Laura Crickmore collected the agency’s prize, together with managing director Geoff Saltmarsh, at the awards ceremony at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, on Monday.

Note to Editors:

The Adventure Company (www.adventurecompany.co.uk) offers more than 230 trips worldwide for adult travellers and families. Trips include walking and trekking adventures; cultural journeys; wildlife encounters; multi-activity holidays and expedition cruises. New for 2009 are Hands on Adventures, where travellers spend two to three days of their trip at a conservation or community-based tourism project.
For further press information, please contact: Geoff Saltmarsh
Tel: 020 7928 2999 Fax: 020 7928 1700
E-mail: geoff.saltmarsh@surfpr.co.uk
Surf Public Relations Limited, PO Box 61070, London SE1 5BU