The Spend the Day in Silver Bay tourism marketing campaign was a finalist for the One Minnesota Award, recognizing collaborative efforts of three or more organizations or entities. The award is presented to an outstanding tourism project, initiative or campaign designed to advance tourism for a community, area or business district. Nominees detailed how they worked together to address a challenge or opportunity and how the collaboration benefitted each of the partners.
With a budget of only $6,000, the Spend the Day in Silver Bay campaign was lucky to be considered among these larger organizations, said Alice Tibbetts, President of the North Shore Adventure Park. The campaign included a series of short-form videos that promoted how to spend the day in Silver Bay. The videos featured itineraries of things to do as well as features about the partnering businesses.
North Shore Explorer, based in Grand Marais, produced and published the videos on social media. The project was supported by Best of the North Shore. The partnering businesses included North Shore Adventure Park, Black Beach Mini Golf, Timber coffee, and the Gitchi-Gami Trail Association.
Award winners were announced at Explore Minnesota Tourism’s annual conference on February 19. T he other finalists were Discover Stillwater, with the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota taking home the award. Five North Shore campaigns were finalists in other categories, including Visit Duluth, Lovin’ Lake County, Visit Cook County, North Shore Camping Company, and Lutsen Mountains. Visit Cook County won for their Dark Skies campaign and Lovin’ Lake County won for their Nature’s Rhythm Center Stage featuring singer GB Leighton.
The campaign was funded by Best of the North Shore, which promotes tourism in Silver Bay with a 3 percent sales tax on lodging and campgrounds in the city. The group is continuing funding for the campaign throughout 2025. For details, contact Do North Marketing at explorer@donorthmarketing.com
