People make the best stories.

Anyone can take a pretty picture, but telling a good story is different. It’s harder. 
For that, you need people. And not just ordinary, average people… You need extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, living extraordinary lives.

Meet Keith Cooper:

“When we set out to tell the story of the 700 islands (16 major destinations) of the Bahamas, we set out to do it through the eyes of its people,” said Laura Galindo, Associate Creative Director at Tambourine. “Finding these stories and—more importantly—finding these incredible people has been one of the great privileges of my career.”

Laura works with her island counterparts searching for stories and people like Keith Cooper, the owner and operator of West End Ecological Tours in Freeport, Grand Bahama. For over a decade, he has studied, protected, and shed light on the beautiful yet misunderstood creatures of the sea—the stingray! This dedication has earned him the nickname, “Grandfather Stingray.”

For this project, we paired Keith Cooper’s incredible personal story with an amazing eco-tour experience that’s perfect for family travelers. The video, just under two minutes long, is just one piece of the campaign. Laura and team also created a beautiful microsite experience where Keith’s story can live on within the larger story of the Bahamas.

“In travel and hospitality marketing, we need to keep an eye out for the people and personalities that make interesting stories and we need to be brave enough to tell them,” says Galindo. “When we strive to tell better stories, we elevate marketing to another, more personal level. Stories help us form deeper connections with people and places, and isn’t that our job as hospitality marketers?”