Owatonna Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Wins Marketing Award

The Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism was presented with an award for their efforts to update their tourism marketing. 

Director of Conventions and Tourism Katie Godfrey and Tourism Associate Bridget Hayes accepted the McDaniel Award at a conference in Rapid City, S.D., on September 19. The award category is for Bureau Innovation for annual budgets of under $350,000.

The award recognizes the Owatonna Chamber's work to overhaul their tourism branding and marketing, including their visitor guide and the visitowatonna.org website. In a news release Godfrey said, "We are honored to win this award, which brings recognition to the work we have done to market Owatonna as a destination."

Upgrades included a change to the style and format of the visitor's guide with help from Kerri Lynch of Tri-M Graphics. Godfrey and Hayes then set out to improve the website with assistance from Josh Elwood of The Fox Company of Faribault. The new website has seen a 35 percent increase in users since it was launched in May.