Columbus, OH — Hunter Marketing and the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) took home the bronze in the Travel & Tourism Marketing category at the prestigious Association of National Advertisers (ANA) REGGIE Awards for COTA’s social media series On the Line. Elspeth (Elle) Paige-Sack, CEO and founder of Hunter Marketing, and Michael Coursey, Director of Marketing at COTA, attended the awards gala in Bonita Springs, Florida. For a woman-owned startup agency and a public transit company from Columbus, Ohio to share the stage with national agencies Gray (IHG Hotels, “Guest How You Guest”) and Barkley (Motel 6, “Ski for All”) was extraordinary, to say the least.
“Attending the ANA conference was incredible. To have the opportunity to sit in a room with some of the best marketers in the nation today was inspiring, and to receive this recognition confirms that the work we do has serious impact,” says Paige-Sack.
Since 1983, the REGGIE Awards have been the premier industry awards program recognizing the best brand activation marketing campaigns from brands and agencies. The Travel & Tourism Marketing category, new in 2023, was a REGGIE Spotlight category this year, highlighting a discipline, segment or industry within marketing that is trending and is of great interest to marketers because of the challenges they faced. As one of the industries most impacted by COVID-19, this category looked to honor brands who created innovative travel and tourism-based campaigns.
“It has been a slow recovery for public transportation and for COTA. Our work has been challenging, but our community is resilient. As the community thrives, we want to help tell those stories and show up as a partner and as a transportation solution," says Coursey.
The team at Hunter Marketing was eager to help COTA and the greater Columbus community tell those stories with the On the Line video series. Engaging over 20 community partners in 2022, the series raised local awareness for COTA’s available services to everything from food pantries to small businesses, like local favorite, Bake Me Happy. Coursey says, “The idea for On the Line came from the amazing team at Hunter, who understands that our community has stories to tell and that movement and mobility has a positive impact on all of our lives. We worked together to hone the series to align with our mission and a refreshed strategy to further center the impact of movement and amplify the amazing stories of our community.”
Paige-Sack started Hunter Marketing in 2019 with just one employee. Since then, Hunter has gracefully grown to a multi-million dollar business. Located in Columbus, Ohio, this women-owned and -led, full-service marketing and communications agency now has more than 30 clients, many of which are public service agencies.
Paige-Sack says, “It brings me immense joy to support our community with dynamic marketing and adventurous creative for public service agencies like COTA.”
According to Coursey, “Hunter is an equal partner in all of our work. They are passionate and creative collaborators ready to bring forward a new idea or run with ideas already on the table to make them better. I’ve never worked with an agency with this much heart and energy. It has made my job more fulfilling and helped COTA progress toward our vision of moving every life forward.”
In Coursey’s time as Director of Marketing for COTA, the brand has won four AdWheel Awards from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) for various campaigns and a Content Marketing Award (CMA) from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) for COTA’s 2021 Annual Report. Looking ahead, “As COTA continues to progress on our mission of moving every life forward, I am excited to work with COTA and with Hunter to find new ways to impact our community," says Coursey.