BOZEMAN – MercuryCSC and its ”Montana: There’s Nothing Here” campaign returned home with a Silver Effie after the 43rd Annual North America Effie Awards in New York City.

The annual Effie Awards recognize significant achievement in marketing communications. Known by advertisers and agencies globally as the pre-eminent award in the industry, the Effie Awards consider thousands of campaigns each year. This year’s best in show, the Grand Effie Award, went to Old Spice for its "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign created by agency powerhouse Wieden+Kennedy.

MercuryCSC, a marketing communications agency based in Bozeman, created the ”There’s Nothing Here” campaign for the Montana Office of Tourism to increase visitation to the state, teaming up with Spark Communications and Spot Inquiry.

”The whole reason people visit Montana is to get away from an over-commercialized world. So how do you create advertising—something inherently commercial—for an inherently non-commercial product? That’s the challenge we face for a lot of our clients and this award validates our approach,” said Jeff Welch, chief executive officer of MercuryCSC.

Montana is the first destination to be awarded a Silver or Gold Effie in the Travel, Tourism and Destination category since Jamaica won Silver in 2000. Although this year’s three Effie recipients in the category weren’t competing against one another, MercuryCSC’s campaign for Montana received higher merits than Travelocity and its Roaming Gnome campaign. Only one Travel, Tourism and Destination campaign in all of North America was rated more effective: HomeAway.com and its campaign featuring Chevy Chase reprising his role as Clark Griswold.

”This is a significant milestone for us and Montana. It all began with a rebranding process that involved people from across the state. The result was a poignant and relevant creative strategy that stayed true to what this state is and what it is not,” said Welch.

The inspiration for the ”There’s Nothing Here” campaign came from consumer research which indicated that some folks felt that Montana offered nothing as a travel destination. MercuryCSC turned that perception into an emotionally powerful reason to visit and capitalized on Montana’s mystique, big skies and wide-open spaces. Although initially considered risky, the approach worked. In 2010, Montana had the highest and second highest U.S. hotel occupancy rates in July and August and grew tourism by $424 million over the previous year.

In addition to the Silver Effie, the ”There’s Nothing Here” campaign has been recognized by the travel industry’s top national and international awards programs, including the National Council of State Tourism Directors (NCSTD) Awards and the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Awards.