When Go to Florida unveiled its ‘Dwell Extra Floridays’ marketing campaign earlier this 12 months, it marked the fruits of an 18-month rethink of one of many world’s best-known tourism locations. For CMO Brett Laiken, the intention was easy however bold: to show Florida from a spot you go to into a life-style you yearn for.
“Our aim was to maneuver past being only a journey model,” Laiken says. “We needed to grow to be a part of the on a regular basis dialog. To be related even once you’re not planning your subsequent journey.”
When Go to Florida unveiled its ‘Dwell Extra Floridays’ marketing campaign earlier this 12 months, it marked the fruits of an 18-month rethink of one of many world’s best-known tourism locations. For CMO Brett Laiken, the intention was easy however bold: to show Florida from a spot you go to into a life-style you yearn for.
“Our aim was to maneuver past being only a journey model,” Laiken says. “We needed to grow to be a part of the on a regular basis dialog. To be related even once you’re not planning your subsequent journey.”
Analysis carried out throughout key markets, together with the UK, uncovered a central perception that turned the artistic basis, “the brand new within the recognized”, as Laiken places it.
Florida’s seashores and theme parks are world-famous, however he needed to encourage travellers to discover past the plain.
“Individuals know us for the fortress and the shoreline, and we love that,” he says. “However there’s a lot extra to see. The concept was to go to your consolation zone after which department out slightly – to find one thing new with out leaving what you like behind.”
That philosophy led to a distinct sort of storytelling. A customer spending two weeks in Orlando may now be prompted to spend a day swimming with manatees in Crystal River or zip-lining over alligators in Kissimmee. For others, it’d imply making an attempt paddle-boarding, golf or a brief street journey to a hidden stretch of coast.
The purpose, Laiken says, is to make discovery really feel accessible slightly than intimidating. “It’s all anchored in familiarity,” he factors out. “You’ll be able to dip into journey and nonetheless return to the seashore or the theme park afterwards.”
Reframing Florida on this means meant wanting past the normal cues of vacation spot advertising and learning the manufacturers which have succeeded in embedding themselves in individuals’s each day lives.
“We checked out what makes life-style manufacturers work,” says Laiken. “You may purchase Nike for sporting pedigree, for instance, however another person will purchase it for style. You may love Apple for the digicam or as a result of it feels fashionable. We needed Florida to be the identical – it ought to be no matter you want it to be.”
‘Like a startup’: Contained in the rise of journey media networksThat considering led Go to Florida to collaborate with Margaritaville, the US hospitality empire constructed across the late Jimmy Buffett’s laid-back musical model. Buffett’s band, the Coral Reefers, rerecorded his music ‘Floridays’ for the marketing campaign soundtrack. “Margaritaville is the right associate,” says Laiken. “It captures that spirit of up to date however approachable escapism we’re making an attempt to precise.”
The marketing campaign additionally responds to how journey is now skilled and shared. “Journey has grow to be such a visible, social factor,” Laiken says. “Persons are all the time searching for one thing new to publish, one thing their mates haven’t already carried out. Even for me, after 20 years dwelling in Florida, there are components of the state I’ve by no means been to.”
That strategy has a sensible goal too. Florida attracted 143 million guests final 12 months, together with 72 million to Orlando alone. Laiken isn’t involved about over-tourism, however he does need to encourage dispersion – spreading travellers throughout the state’s 67 counties and exhibiting them that there’s way more to expertise than they could suppose.
“We’re not fearful about too many guests in a single place,” Laiken says. “We see it as a chance for dispersion. Orlando has unbelievable golf, however so does Cabot Citrus, north of Tampa. Palm Seashore is known for luxurious, however half-hour away, you may be within the Everglades. That’s the story we need to inform.”
He describes Florida as “an unapologetic repeat vacation spot” slightly than a bucket-list location to be ticked off as soon as. “If I am going again to New Jersey the place I grew up, it’s the identical expertise each go to,” he says. “In Florida, you’ll be able to come again and it’s all the time new.”
Working in concord
Demonstrating the effectiveness of such a broad repositioning requires subtle measurement. Go to Florida is working with Tourism Economics, a part of Oxford Economics, on what Laiken calls a “media impression calculator” that tracks the monetary impression of promoting throughout markets in granular element.
“It lets us see how the marketing campaign performs in London versus Manchester, or Edinburgh versus Dublin, and hyperlink that on to spending patterns,” he explains. “When somebody from London who noticed this advert travels to Orlando, we are able to see how a lot they spent. When somebody from Manchester goes to Tampa, we are able to evaluate that. It’s the primary time a state has tried to get this detailed.”
These insights are shared with regional tourism boards to allow them to refine their very own advertising. “We nearly act as servant leaders,” says Laiken. “We do analysis that smaller locations can’t all the time afford, and we feed that again. If we see individuals from Boston staying longer in Dunedin after seeing a sure message, we inform them that. It’s about giving everybody the information they want.”
Collaboration with native tourism businesses is central to the mannequin. Laiken describes Go to Florida’s function as creating the halo whereas regional companions ship the close-up. “We promote Florida at 30,000 toes – what the state means emotionally. They promote the element of their locations. It’s like a model household in CPG. I need you to purchase into Adidas, however every coach line nonetheless has its personal supervisor and story.”
Airbnb shifts advert focus ‘from TV to social’ as advertising funding grows 19percentAlthough the majority of tourists stay home, worldwide markets such because the UK, Canada and Brazil are strategically essential. “Worldwide guests keep longer and spend extra,” Laiken notes. However tourism inevitably exists in opposition to a political backdrop – and one which has grow to be more and more contested in Donald Trump’s presidency – however Laiken is obvious that Go to Florida’s focus stays apolitical.
“It will be naïve to faux politics doesn’t have an effect on sentiment, however our function isn’t political,” he says. “Individuals will all the time search for happiness and connection. We promote sunshine – that’s what we do.”
Most journey locations suffered throughout the pandemic however Florida weathered it higher than most. Whereas others paused promotion, the state stayed seen, helped by the state lifting restrictions sooner than many others.
“We had been the primary to begin promoting once more,” Laiken remembers. “Individuals consider Florida as theme parks and seashores, however now we have 15,000 miles of trails and over 100 state parks. It allowed us to point out a aspect of Florida that even common guests hadn’t seen.”
The state’s customer numbers have since rebounded strongly: total visitation has held regular whereas Florida’s share of the journey market has grown. “That’s success for us,” he says. “We’ve stayed in individuals’s minds.”
When requested what success may seem like 5 years from now, Laiken has a aim in thoughts. “If individuals begin saying, ‘I would like a Floriday,’ we’ll know we’ve made it,” he says. “If somebody’s in Chicago and it’s snowing or in London on a gray afternoon, they usually say they want a Floriday to elevate their temper – that’s the dream. If we are able to make Floriday a part of on a regular basis language — like Netflix and chill — that’s success.”
