Just over a year after its founding, the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community (TCTI) achieved more recogntion at the Polaris Awards 2021 in London, a gala event which was held virtually this year.
TCTI was a project by leading Croatian PR company, Manjgura, Mediacor and Total Croatia News, to create a Viber community to provide much-needed travel information in real time in multiple languages to tourists wanting to come on holiday. With almost no official information available in May, 2020, TCTI became the main source of reliable information for tourists wanting to visit. A large part of the success of the community was thanks to outstanding cooperation with the Croatian Border Police, in particular Marina Mandic, head of PR for the Ministry of the Interior.
In addition to helping tourists and helping to facilitiate two weddings, TCTI was also responsible for assisting ABC News on a week-long trip of Dubrovnik. The ensuing coverage to the important US market comprised 6 feature stories, including the one above on Good Morning America which was watched by 12.5 million people.
The awards were in the following categories:
Silver medal in the category of Creative Use of Data.
Silver Medal in the Social Media Campaign category.
Bronze medal in the Pubic Affairs Campaigns category.
Manjgura founder, Kresimir Macan, had this to say:
“They usually ask me why we did it at all with no budget, and what kept us going. We became the virtual welcome desk of Croatia. The main rule of hospitalty is to never turn away a potential guest. And the questions just kept coming. One very important thing everybody forgets – pos- Covid travels were very complex and usually the main challenges were at the first steps of the journey while still at home, or attempting to board the plane. I’m so proud to say that all of our community members and many others successfully boarded their planes in spite of all the challenges, and they landed and entereed Croatia without problems.”
And it was nice to see some other familiar faces among the winners…
PR agency Vajt from Split, owned by Jerko Trogrlic, and Dutch entrepreneur, came home with a bronze medal in the category of Social Media Campaign for their sterling work on the introdcution of the digital nomad permit to Croatia.
About Polaris:
Polaris Awards is a global competition rewarding exceptional work in political management, election campaigning and public affairs.Now in its 4th year, the competition seeks to identify and celebrate the best political communication programs undertaken for political organizations and candidates, as well as the most innovative use of communication techniques and technologies by campaigns, political consulting and technology firms, and marketing, media and public relations agencies around the world.
Entries are judged by an international panel of 26 political management experts from all over the globe, including campaign managers, political consultants, communications professionals and academics. Awards are handed out in 18 categories based on the techniques and the media used.
You can see more of the winners on the Polaris Awards Facebook page, as well as Manjgura and Mediacor.
The TCTI Viber community is still very active, and you can join here (you will need to download the Viber app)
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