our accolades
AWARDS & TESTIMONIALS
2024
APEX Award — publication excellence
The 2024 Visit Ventura Inspiration Guide received an Award of Excellence from the 36th annual Awards for Publication Excellence (APEX Awards), which recognizes excellence in publishing by professional communicators.
2023
US Travel Association ESTO Award Finalist — printed collateral materials
US Travel’s Destiny Awards recognize excellence and creative accomplishment in destination marketing and promotion at the local and regional level; and foster the development of imaginative and innovative destination marketing promotion programs and activities.
2022
HSMAI Adrian Award — print advertising
Now in its 66th year, the HSMAI Adrian Awards recognize hospitality brands and agencies for creativity and innovation in advertising, digital marketing, and public relations. Winners are selected from a field of nearly 1,200 entries by senior industry and media experts and honored at the Adrian Awards Celebration.
2021
The Content Council Pearl Award — most effective travel and leisure
Celebrating best-in-class content marketers from the US, Austria, Finland, Germany, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, and the UK. The Content Council has been celebrating excellence in content marketing since 2004, making The Pearl Awards one of the longest running and most prestigious content marketing awards programs.
what they said!
Don’t take our word for it. Hear from some of our long-running clients on their experience working with us.
Working with Martha-Page and Nicole was an absolute joy.
Martha-Page kept the project moving and on schedule, and Nicole met face to face with nearly our entire community (and increased sales -- in a pandemic -- by nearly 13%). Not only was the magazine an enhancement from the year before, but MP + Nicole also provided new, useful content for our owned channels that was derived from the magazine. They helped facilitate social media contests (with record engagement), and they also provided content for our video wall, digital kiosks, and social media channels. We are thrilled with our publication, the digital activations, and the process of working with WCS.
- Monique Rangel | Chief Marketing Officer, Visit Big Bear
Wanderlust Content Studio has impressed us with their fantastic job of producing our official 2024 visitors guide.
They exceeded all our expectations in bringing our destination to life through their masterful storytelling, talented creative design, and attention to detail. They took the time to explore and understand our destination, which shows in the final product. Their team was highly professional, incredibly responsive, and an absolute joy to work with. From start to finish, the entire process was well-organized and seamless. We are very proud of this new piece! I highly recommend Wanderlust Content Studio to anyone seeking a high-quality, creative, and reliable content creation partner.
- Kirsten Bell | Strategic Marketing Director, Galena Country Tourism
Both Nicole Bordges and Martha-Page Althaus, who lead the team at WCS, are excellent partners in the tourism category.
The team at Visit Napa Valley is excited to launch its 2024 visitor guide. This issue, just like our last three, was produced in collaboration with Wanderlust Content Studio. From concept to editorial content to cover shoot to final print production and deployment, both Nicole and MP were engaged and involved with the Visit Napa Valley team every step of the way. It is important for our DMO to accurately reflect the diverse voices, hospitality businesses, and experiences available in our destination – that’s what makes Napa Valley such a unique place for both visitors and residents. We know that our visitor guide serves as one of the hardest working pieces of marketing collateral for our organization. In concert with Nicole, Martha-Page, and their team, we developed all the details of this book - cover to cover. It was a labor of love indeed and we look forward to sharing this publication with audiences far and wide.
- Linsey Gallagher | CEO, Visit Napa Valley
The Wanderlust print-to-digital format has been great for Visit Petaluma’s Content needs, giving us a beautiful visitors guide while also having that content live on digitally.
The WCS team immerses themselves in our destination so they’re able to create a magazine that showcases our best experiences and communicates our personality. Visit Petaluma has entrusted WCS to art direct and produce our cover shoots and add to our photo library several times over the years. We’ve truly enjoyed working with the team, collaborating and seeing the creative ways they reinvent our destination year after year.
- Marie McClusker | CEO, Visit Petaluma
The Wanderlust team is easy to work with, has a brilliantly creative team, are thorough and prompt and set realistic goals and expectations for everyone to rally behind.
They are extremely transparent in their communication and pricing. Visit Oxnard and our community are so proud of our magazine. We love the way it looks and feels, the coffee-table-quality of the publication and the many ways that it has delivered digital content for us to use in other formats – contests, social media, blog content and more. We trust the WCS team to come up with creative content for our community, and to deliver an excellent value for our stakeholders and our organization. Visit Oxnard sees the WCS team as an extension of our own team. We so appreciate the partnership we have formed and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with the WCS team. We’re looking forward to our next magazine already!
- Julie Mino-Buffo | CEO, Visit Oxnard
Visit Camarillo has wanted a quality Visitors Magazine that represents our community for years, and WCS came highly recommended.
After a detailed RFP we were happy to award the business to Martha-Page and Nicole. Since it was the first-of-its-kind, we were not sure what the appetite would be from possible businesses, but we’re happy to say that advertising participation far exceeded our expectations – and so did the quality of the final piece. As a small-but-mighty team of two, we were given not only a beautiful, on-brand visitors magazine we could share far and wide, but a whole library of content and images that augment our existing digital efforts. From the creative brainstorming meeting, to the sales process (integrating advertisers into a print + digital model), to our exciting and well-attended unveiling event, we couldn’t be more thrilled with the process of working with WCS and highly suggest them to other destinations.
- Yuliana Gonzalez | CEO, Visit Camarillo
We couldn’t be more thrilled with our Guide and working with the WCS team.
Our 2023 Inspiration Guide was named US Travel Association’s ESTO award finalist for Best Printed Collateral for the excellent work WCS did on our Guide. They increased visitor guide ad sales participation by 86% and increased revenue by 161% in 2023.
- Peter Gamez | CEO, Visit Oakland
Martha-Page and Nicole are trusted collaborators and delivered a product that we are proud to share with our industry stakeholders.
Film Lauderdale hired WCS as our creative agency for our newly formed film commission for Broward County, Florida that launched in 2022. WCS was integral, along with a sister agency, in creating our new, logo, website design, and social media templates. They gave us the necessary tools and resources to manage future web and social implementation, and did so on-budget.
- Sandy Lighterman | Film Commissioner, Film Lauderdale
Wanderlust was a true partner in designing our 2025 Gulf County Visitor Guide.
Their expertise, professionalism, and creative approach perfectly captured the heart of our destination. From concept to completion, Martha-Page and her team made the process seamless and enjoyable. We’re incredibly proud of the finished product!
- Silvia Williams | Executive Director, Gulf County Tourist Development Council
Our experience working with the Wanderlust team exceeded all expectations.
They delivered a wonderful magazine showcasing our region beautifully while aligning with our brand voice and style. They worked directly with the local businesses in our region and were so warm and professional that I never once worried about letting them do their thing. They exceeded all targets and got people excited about taking out space in our magazine and having the opportunity to tell their stories. We plan on working with them for many years to come.
- Matt Halvorson | Director of Marketing, Visit SLO CAL
Working with Wanderlust Content Studio was a seamless experience.
Their creativity and attention to detail brought our vision to life with minimal work on our end. They took care of everything, delivering a final product we’re proud of and even better, our partners are proud of, too. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner!
- ALYSSA ULLO | director of marketing, meet chicago northwest
WCS helped us craft our message and incorporate our partners in the community in their native advertising format.
Until this premier issue, Visit Santa Rosa didn’t have a visitor-facing, storytelling piece. What they created in the magazine and for our partners gave us a wealth of content that lives on as social media, blog, giveaways and newsletter content, which is great for us and most of all, great for our partners! With distribution of this magazine in airports in five states, hotel rooms, direct-to-home, and at our visitors center, we are so excited to be sharing our story with the world!