The Washington Tourism Development Authority was recently presented a Destination Marketing Achievement Award for its U.S. Highway 17 billboard campaign.

The Best Marketing Initiative award was presented by the Destination Marketing Association of North Carolina, an organization comprised of destination marketing organizations, like WTDA, from across North Carolina.

The U.S. 17 billboard campaign, developed by Eye Integrated Communications of Greenville, was designed to attract potential visitors traveling on the route to make a stop in Washington.

“These billboards are a result of an excellent team-oriented relationship we’ve developed with the Washington Tourism Authority,” said Stanton Blakeslee, executive creative director at Eye Integrated. “The creative is really just a reflection of the Washington brand: fun, creative and a bit off the beaten path. Lynn Lewis (Washington’s tourism director) has always extended us an incredible amount of creative freedom and often challenges us to push things even further. With this kind of client engagement, it’s hard not to do great work. We couldn’t be more proud!”

Eye Integrated Communications is facilitating the community-branding project for Washington.

Destination Marketing Achievement awards were presented at the 2011 Tourism Leadership Conference. Twelve judges, including peers from South Carolina bureaus, meeting and event planners, ad-agency executives and other industry-related executives representing hotels and attractions, made award selections. The WTDA billboard campaign was judged in the small-bureau category. Bureaus in this category have budgets under $1 million.

“For a small destination with a small marketing budget, Washington has to creatively get the most ‘bang for the buck,’” said Lewis. “The fact that this is the sixth Destination Marketing Achievement Award in eight years says that we have been doing exactly that.”

Prior awards included the Historic Washington Walking Tour book, the www.visitwashingtonnc.com website and the Paint Your Weekend Purple & Gold ECU football ad campaign.