And, to the “Breaking Bad” of this year’s award show … These were the words used by CBC anchor, and event host, Heather Hiscox to introduce Agency Nextdoor for the fifth time at the 2014 Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence on November 13th.

Agency Nextdoor was named as a finalist for an unprecedented five awards. These included two from the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance (OCTA) that celebrated the work done to create and market the Kawarthas Northumberland Butter Tart Tour to potential visitors from the Greater Toronto Area and beyond: Best Culinary Leadership by the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance (OCTA); and Best Culinary Experience by the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance (OCTA). The Agency and its butter tart brain child was also a finalist for an award presented by the Travel Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO) that celebrated Innovator of the Year. This award is way to honour the important achievement of building up Ontario’s base of tourism assets.

On the advertising side, a series of webisodes created by the Agency for Kawarthas Northumberland was also deemed a finalist in the category of Best Interactive Marketing Campaign of the Year by the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation (OTMPC). These three to four minute videos introduced viewers to a couple that travelled the region and engaged in a string of wild and wacky adventures. One of these had Jason & Joanne dancing around Bobcaygeon singing their own version of the song made famous by the Tragically Hip, while another had the pair setting out on a mission to enjoy the Holy Grail of great tasting beer at the Church Key Brewery near Campbellford. In total, 14 @PerfectWknd Travel Reports were produced and formed the key elements to a social media campaign that ran through the summer of 2012.

In the end, Agency Nextdoor was honoured and thrilled to win the award for Best Tourism Marketing Initiative under $25,000 by OTMPC. This win is particularly significant as it demonstrates the ability of the Agency to develop outstanding marketing even without the luxury of a large budget.

Our significant excitement during the evening was further enhanced when the President & CEO of Ontario Tourism, Ronald Holgerson and Lisa LaVecchia, VP Marketing for the same organization, came up to our table separately and both congratulated us on our achievement, while expressing their desire for us to: “Keep up the excellent work.”

On that note, stay tuned for more in 2015. Because in the words of Walter White: “(We’ve) still got things left to do.“