Sunshine Matters

For the past two years, VISIT FLORIDA has been partnering with American Express and Florida Travel + Life magazine on a television series featured on the Discovery Channel called Florida Travel + Life’s Affordable Luxury.  The series is all about getting acquainted with affordable luxury in Florida and features a different destination in the Sunshine State each show.  Eight episodes have aired to date, with recent episodes spotlighting the Space Coast, Fort Lauderdale, the Florida Keys and Orlando.

The latest episode features Hollywood and premieres this Saturday, March 24 at 7:30 a.m. on the Discovery Channel.  The national broadcast debut will highlight places to play, stay, dine and be entertained while visiting this hidden jewel off the Southeast Coast.  During the show’s broadcast premiere, vacation getaways to three Hollywood hotels (Hollywood Beach Marriott, The Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa and Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beach) will be offered in a national sweepstakes. To see a preview of the episode, click here.

The show reaches more than 150 million cable household subscribers through its airings on the Discovery Channel, the Velocity Channel and Sun Sports.  In addition, Florida Travel + Life has created a microsite that features webisodes from the series, as well as sweepstakes offers, travel deals, weekend getaway packages and various blog topics including “small town appeal” and “local waters.”  To date, the series has received an average of 125 video plays daily and nearly 24,000 sweepstakes entries.

The cross promotional opportunities with this partnership extend to other travel sites within the Bonnier family, including DestinationWeddingMag.com and SpaMagazine.com, which enjoy 250,000 monthly impressions, as well as print ads that run in Florida Travel + Life, Cruising World, Baby Talk and other magazine titles delivering an audience of almost 7 million per issue and in online ads that reach another 14 million people.  There are also individual e-newsletters prepared for each episode that go to over 26,000 subscribers.  Additionally, the series is promoted to nearly 4,200 Florida Travel + Life Facebook fans, more than 3,600 Twitter followers and thousands of attendees at various travel events, such as the Caribbean Tourism Conference and Florida Travel + Life’s Reader’s Choice Awards.

In support of each episode, VISIT FLORIDA’s social media pages are utilized to tell followers about the upcoming episodes. VISIT FLORIDA’s posts are shared with our 230,000 Facebook fans and 20,000 Twitter followers.

I would like to thank the Bonnier team and all the local destination marketing organizations who have worked closely with VISIT FLORIDA on content for the episodes.  I encourage everyone to tune in or set your DVRs to watch the show this Saturday.  Be sure to check your local listings for the exact air time or visit Florida Travel + Life for more information.