Rising Star of Travel Marketing Finalists
Author: CIM TG
Sponsored by TTG Media, The Rising Star of Travel Marketing Award celebrates a travel marketing professional who is showing great potential to go to the top of their profession. There are three finalists shortlisted for this award:
Emanuele Rossi
Emanuele is the Programmatic Head of Social at lasminute.com who pushes the boundaries of social media to become as effective as possible for customers and the brand.
Career highlights:
• Increased advancement of social media campaigns. The team has moved from running straightforward campaigns towards automation of highly scalable social media platforms using Snapchat and TikTok.
• Created the 2019 strategy and media plan to deliver across Facebook and Instagram and scaled ad and targeting capabilities.
• Increased collaboration within teams at lastminute.com. For example, working with the inhouse developers and CRM teams to use more intelligent targeting to be more relevant to the customer base.
Emanuele says "To be shortlisted with such talented marketers for such a prestigious award as this year's Rising Star of Marketing is a hugely proud moment for me. Social media is one of the fastest moving areas in marketing and the one that's changed the most in the last five years. So I'm delighted to have been at the forefront of transforming our social media proposition at lastminute.com to reach as many of our customers as possible with the best possible deals at the best possible time. The strapline for our employee brand is "We live for the holidays" and I love my job as I get to help people go and experience the amazing world of travel and do whatever makes them happy - or as we say "pink".
Neringa Rackauskaite
With a degree in International Tourism Development at the University of Surrey, Neringa’s goal is to promote sustainable travel and make a difference in the travel industry. Neringa joined Intrepid Travel as Marketing Coordinator before being promoted to Marketing Executive UK and then Campaign Manager (EMEA),where she is responsible for managing some of the biggest campaigns and partnerships in the region
Career highlights:
• Climbed Mount Toubkal and raised money for one of The Intrepid Foundation's projects Education for All – an organisation that provides access to education for girls from rural areas of Morocco.
• Managed three large brand partnerships (Osprey, the Walt Disney Company and Original Source). Promoted Intrepid’s Africa tours by creating a video and through various channels, including through paid media, owned channels, Disney's social media and London Underground stations. It gave a new engaged audience to talk to and brought a significant amount of revenue.
• Managed three large tourism board partnerships that added an extra 75k AUD to the marketing budget. Jordan bookings were +72% YOY, Morocco was +47% YOY, Japan +23% YOY during campaign months.
Neringa says “I’m always extremely proud when I talk about Intrepid Travel. The company is full of like-minded people who are so passionate about responsible travel, which makes my day-to-day work very enjoyable. I love that purpose is at the forefront of everything we do and there are so many amazing initiatives that we run around the world, like supporting porter rights, raising money and awareness to help girls in Morocco’s rural areas to seek education or helping to set up a community based tourism project in Myanmar.
No matter how difficult some days can be, it’s always good to think about the impact we’re making and how many lives our trips will change, from leaders to local communities to travellers, and that’s probably the most rewarding part of working at Intrepid to me.”
Colette Sullivan
Colette started her marketing career in retail after graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with a First Class Honours degree. She travelled around Costa Rica and held several positions marketing positons before becoming Marketing and Communications Manager at Radisson RED.
Career achievements:
• Launched a brand in a new region, single handily managed a multichannel campaign across TV, radio, DOOH, developed a successful F&B brand, brought unprecedented opening results for Radisson and moved to Dubai.
• Oversaw a multichannel campaign to which not only highlighted Glasgow as a destination but as the RED destination.
• Led an initiative to donate a mural to Glasgow and tied this with the 150th celebrations of Charles Rennie Mackintosh to celebrate Glasgow’s best-known artist. Awareness of the hotel opening meant the hotel was full from day four.
• Colette will launch the first Radisson RED in the Middle East as Marketing and Communications Manager.
Colette says “I’m delighted to be shortlisted in this year’s Rising Star of Travel Marketing category. Since making the move from retail marketing to the hospitality industry nearly three years ago, I’ve opened two hotels and launched the Radisson RED brand in two regions. This is a pinnacle time for change within the industry and I’m excited to see what comes of that, and hopefully continue to be at the forefront with fresh ideas. The Travel Marketing Awards really showcase some of the best creative talent in the sector and it really is great to see so many fantastic brands represented.”
The winner will be announced on 9 March at a prestigious Awards Ceremony at the London Hilton on Park Lane. Tickets can be bought here.