Latest News

Once again, Promotur Turismo de Canarias has been singled out for its productions. This time the prizes have gone to #StopBlueMonday and La sonrisa del sol (The Smile of the Sun) with a respective gold and bronze in the Commercial Communication Awards organised by the Spanish Advertisers’ Association. Competing against around a hundred other brand campaigns across all economic sectors, the Canary Islands’ two new awards will join the numerous advertising awards that the brand has received since 2015, making the Spanish tourism brand one of the most recognised with more than 30 national and international awards.

#StopBlueMonday, prepared by DEC BBDO, had Cliff Arnall, the British psychologist who created the concept of Blue Monday (the most depressing day of the year), as its figurehead, inviting people to join the movement led by the Canary Islands to bid farewell to the saddest day of the year and deconstruct the myth that the third Monday of January is the greyest and most depressing day. This promotional action has allowed Turismo de Canarias to send out a positive and uplifting message from the islands to prove that the Blue Monday formula is wrong.

‘La sonrisa del sol’, created by the PHD Media Spain agency, is a 25-minute documentary covering the lives of eleven Inuits from Kulusuk, a small settlement to the east of Greenland, in their journey to the Canary Islands in May 2015.

Both initiatives come under the communication platform ‘The best climate in world‘, which aims to promote the uniqueness of the Canarian climate and its benefits as the main attraction for tourists.

Awards

As well as the latest awards for Turismo de Canarias’ promotional work, the campaign #StopBlueMonday has been deserving of other prizes such as Gold for the best advert in the 9th Oporto Art&Tur International Festival of Tourism Films and another for the best advert across all categories at the same festival. It was also a finalist in the Ibero-American Advertising Festival FIAP 2016, held in Mexico D.F. in May.

Guillermo Cascante’s documentary, ‘La sonrisa del sol’ has racked up seven awards over the year, including this last accolade. Shot on the Canary Islands, the production was doubly awarded at Smile Festival, in addition to receiving a Silver award at the Internationalist Awards for Innovation in Media in New York, another Silver from the Spanish Advertising Media Association (AMPE), third prize for the Best Documentary at the Finisterra Arrábida Film Festival of Art and Tourism in Sesimbra (Portugal) and a Bronze Sun at the El Sol Ibero-American Festival of Advertising Communication in Bilbao.

The prize-giving ceremony for these prestigious awards for advertising effectiveness, held on Thursday 27 October in Madrid before more than 1,500 advertising professionals, was attended by the Canary Islands’ Regional Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sports María Teresa Lorenzo, and the managing director of Promotur Turismo de Canarias, María Méndez. The panel was made up of over 170 professionals who have also participated in previous editions.