AURORA, Illinois (February 26, 2008) – The Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (AACVB) walked away with two prestigious Illinois Governor’s Awards from the 2008 Illinois Governor’s Conference on Tourism, which honored work from the 2007 calendar year.

The AACVB won the 2008 Illinois Governor’s Conference on Tourism coveted awards in the following categories: best piece in Alternative Advertising for our Aurora Area Getaway pull-up shade; and best radio in the Audio Visual category—beating out the City of Chicago’s audio Blues tour!

Our radio entry comprised a 60-second radio ad that ran the week before and week of Thanksgiving covering both FM and AM (WLS and WLIT) channels to drive shoppers to the Aurora Area for the holidays. We created attention-getting, irreverent copy that poked fun at a North Pole dilemma and also emphasized Chicago Premium Outlets Midnight Madness sale on Thanksgiving night.

Was the radio spot effective? A huge Web traffic bump following the ads. Web hits reflected a 66% increase in Web hits and nearly 1,500 people clicked on the landing page created to link the information in the radio spot (and the audio of the spot itself) to our shopping and hotel package listings—the elements we covered in the radio spot. There was a boon in hotel packages sold—resulting in an 84% increase.

For Alternative Advertising, we submitted a colorful, vivid pull-up shade with a main strong photographic image fortified by smaller images conveying the versatility of the Aurora Area within a filmstrip “frame.” The objective was to relate our flavor as a destination at a glance as we promote the richness of the Aurora Area—comprised of the best of the urban coupled with quaint charm and wide open spaces.

“These wins are a testament to the AACVB’s hard-working employees, our quality, creative work, and our commitment to visitor service,” said Sue Vos, president/CEO of the AACVB. “This is a real tribute from our peers.”

“What an honor to win against such heavy hitters in the same category,” said AACVB Director of Public Relations Laurie DiBerardino. DiBerardino wrote the award-winning radio copy.

Celebrating its 21h year, this event is Illinois’ the largest tourism-related competition of its kind. This year drew over 100 entries in the awards categories and over 500 tourism executives from all over Illinois attended. The contest entries were not limited solely to convention and visitors bureaus, but also included entries from destinations, hotels, chambers, art councils and consortiums. The event was held on Feb. 13-15, 2008 at the Hilton Springfield in Springfield Illinois.

AACVB’s tourism marketing is consistently recognized for its practices and has earned more nearly 30 Governor’s Awards over the past few years.

ABOUT THE AACVB:

The Aurora Area Convention & Visitors Bureau serves as the tourism marketing and management organization for Aurora, Batavia, Hinckley, North Aurora, Montgomery, Plano, Sugar Grove and Yorkville. This not-for-profit organization provides numerous travel resources to visitors via the Web site at www.enjoyaurora.com and a toll-free number 1-800-477-4369