Keen Social wins four Davey Awards, including Best in Show

Keen Social, a Long Beach multicultural marketing and PR agency, won four honors at the 22nd Annual Davey Awards for a Harbor Breeze Cruises campaign built around a viral whale-watching moment. The recognition lands as the LGBTQ+- and Latino-owned firm marks its 10th anniversary and highlights its growing travel marketing profile.

Why it matters: - Keen Social’s Best in Show win puts the Long Beach agency among the top recognized smaller creative shops at an international competition. - The Harbor Breeze Cruises campaign shows how a single viral moment can be turned into sustained audience growth, bookings interest, and cross-platform reach. - The awards arrive as Keen Social marks 10 years in business, adding momentum to the agency’s travel and tourism portfolio.

What happened: - Keen Social won four honors at the 22nd Annual Davey Awards for work with Southern California whale-watching operator Harbor Breeze Cruises. - The campaign, “When the Ocean Answered: Turning Real-Life Whale Encounters Into Viral Storytelling,” earned Best in Show, Gold in Social, Content & Marketing: Travel & Leisure, Gold in Social Video: Travel & Leisure, and Silver in Social Features: Best Branded Social Post. - The Davey Awards are judged by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts and recognize creative work from smaller agencies and independent teams. - The agency is LGBTQ+- and Latino-owned and is headquartered in Long Beach, California.

The details: - The campaign grew out of a Harbor Breeze excursion where musician and content creator Max Andre performed while whales appeared nearby. - Keen Social built a broader social strategy around that moment using storytelling, influencer partnerships, audience targeting, community management, and ongoing content production. - Creator collaborations across travel, lifestyle, and entertainment helped introduce Harbor Breeze to new audiences while promoting Southern California marine experiences. - The strategy produced a 137% increase in Instagram followers and a 135% increase in website link clicks after the agency handoff. - Instagram views and content interactions each rose 100%. - Facebook followers increased 19.3%, and the brand generated more than 8,400 website link clicks on Facebook. - Keen Social launched Harbor Breeze’s TikTok, Threads, and YouTube channels, which now total more than 1,100 followers and subscribers combined. - The agency said it kept refining the content mix through performance analysis, adding wildlife footage, influencer storytelling, community partnerships, and culturally relevant experiences. - The integrated effort also included public relations, brand development, and paid social advertising. - An initial Meta campaign generated attributed purchases and beat benchmarks for purchase volume and cost efficiency.

Between the lines: - The win suggests agencies do not need massive scale to earn global recognition if they can turn distinctive local content into repeatable performance. - The campaign also reflects a shift in travel marketing toward social-first storytelling that mixes authenticity, creator reach, and measurable conversion. - Keen Social’s recognition for a tourism campaign fits its broader positioning as a multicultural agency focused on content that connects with diverse audiences.

What’s next: - Keen Social is likely to lean on the award win and the Harbor Breeze case study as it pitches future tourism, hospitality, and destination marketing work. - The agency also noted that the recognition builds on earlier honors for its Queen Mary reopening campaign, including Gold and Silver Davey Awards in 2024 and a Bronze Telly Award in 2025. - The Harbor Breeze campaign was developed with client leadership and marketing teams, including Kevin Lorton, formerly chief operating officer of Harbor Breeze Cruises and now with Land & Sea, and Kim Spucces, strategic sales and partnerships at Harbor Breeze Cruises.

The bottom line: - Keen Social turned a viral whale encounter into an award-winning travel campaign, and the result is both creative validation and proof of performance.