Visit Laguna Beach Honored for Best Overall Brand Identity in the State

Laguna Beach, Calif. (Feb. 12, 2020) – Visit California honored tourism destinations and attractions across California for excellence in tourism marketing at the organization’s biennial Poppy Awards, held Feb. 11 in San Diego.

Visit Laguna Beach is proud to announce that it was selected as the winner for ‘Best Overall Brand Identity’ in the $1 million to $8 million budget category.

“We are thrilled to have been recognized by Visit California with the Poppy Award for Best Overall Brand. Crafting the visual voice of our destination was a community effort. A team made up of our stakeholders, board of directors, local business leaders, city officials and residents, all came together to offer their unique Laguna Beach experiences to create one cohesive voice for Laguna Beach. We are incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to successfully showcase the California spirit and originality of Laguna Beach into the Visit Laguna Beach brand,” said Ashley Johnson, president & CEO of Visit Laguna Beach. 

“The Poppy Awards celebrate the best and brightest in California tourism promotion and inspire the industry to continue on a path of innovation and creativity,” said Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California. “This year’s finalists inspired travelers from around the world to live their biggest dreams in California.”   

Beteta, alongside Visit California’s board officers, presented the 2020 Poppy Awards during the 12th annual Visit California Outlook Forum, held Feb. 10-11 at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina and attended by nearly 800 tourism industry leaders. 

A panel of travel marketing experts selected the winners of the Poppy Awards in 11 categories. 

Winners included:
Best Overall Brand Identity – less than $1 million: Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau 
Best Overall Brand Identity - $1 million to $8 million: Visit Laguna Beach
Best Overall Brand Identity - $8 million and up: Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau
Best Content Marketing Initiative (tie): North Lake Tahoe Visitor Bureaus & San Francisco Travel Association
Best Cooperative Marketing (tie): San Diego Tourism Authority and San Francisco Travel Association, Mono County Tourism, Mammoth Lakes Tourism, Explore Inyo County and Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau
Best Digital Campaign: North Lake Tahoe Visitor Bureaus
Best Social Media Campaign: Los Angeles Zoo
Best Influencer Campaign: San Francisco Travel Association
Best Public Relations Campaign – Destination: Humboldt County Visitors Bureau
Best Public Relations Campaign – Business: Alisal Guest Ranch & Resort

To round out the evening, Beteta awarded the California Dreamer Award, which recognizes an individual who embodies California’s pioneering spirit, to skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.

More about the Poppy Awards:
Made by California artisan Nicholson Blown Glass in Auburn, Poppy Awards are given every two years to acknowledge the best of California’s tourism promotion. The eligibility period for programs submitted for the 2020 Poppy Awards was Jan 1, 2018 – Oct 1, 2019. Submissions were reviewed by Visit California staff, and blind judged by industry committee leadership. The hosts for the 2020 Poppy Awards were Olympic Gold Medalist Jonny Moseley, star of the Visit California series “Jonny Moseley’s Wildest Dreams,” and Chase Ramsey, the face of the organization’s “California Dream Eater” series, both found on YouTube and at VisitCalfornia.com/Dream365.   

More about Outlook Forum:
Outlook Forum is the premier travel industry conference for California, the No. 1 tourism destination in the United States. Outlook Forum brings together nearly 800 C-suite executives and industry decision-makers from California’s hotels, rental cars, attractions, restaurants, retailers and other travel businesses, as well as representatives from Visit California’s global network of offices. Outlook Forum 2020 was the first major event following the California tourism industry’s renewal of Visit California’s marketing program. 

ABOUT VISIT LAGUNA BEACH:
Visit Laguna Beach is a nonprofit organization with a mission to develop and market Laguna Beach as a leading travel destination. Visitor spending totaled more than $557 million in 2019 in Laguna Beach, generating more than 6,000 tourism-related jobs and an additional $17.8 million in local tax revenues. For more information, visit www.visitlagunabeach.com. Get social with @VisitLaguna on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  

ABOUT VISIT CALIFORNIA:
Visit California is a nonprofit organization with a mission to develop and maintain marketing programs – in partnership with the state’s travel industry – that keep California top-of-mind as a premier travel destination. According to Visit California, spending by travelers totaled $140.6 billion in 2018 in California, generating nearly 1.2 million jobs in the state and $11.8 billion in state and local tax revenues. For more information about Visit California and for a free California Official State Visitor's Guide, go to www.visitcalifornia.com. For story ideas, media information, downloadable images, video and more, go to media.visitcalifornia.com.