Sunshine Matters

VISIT FLORIDA’s Vision – to establish Florida as the #1 Travel Destination in the World – is ambitious, but even with a faltering economy, intense domestic and international competition, and reduced funding the Vision is achievable.

Together, we can establish Florida as the #1 Travel Destination in the World.  To succeed, VISIT FLORIDA must build a strategic marketing platform that aligns the collective interests of the Florida tourism industry and provides integrated marketing opportunities for the industry to leverage.

In order to assure that VISIT FLORIDA is maximizing the impact of our marketing resources (money, time, and relationships), we have adopted a set of Marketing Principles that drive all of our strategic thinking:

With Scarcity Comes Clarity – Given a choice, every marketer would prefer to have more resources to implement marketing programs.  When faced with a severe reduction in funding and staffing, VISIT FLORIDA took the opportunity to Focus and Prioritize our time, energy, and budget.  This re-invention and optimization will make the organization more relevant to the Florida tourism industry in the near- and long-term.  Prioritization of limited resources continues to focus VISIT FLORIDA efforts on those programs that maximize impact, leverage our budget, and create value for our Industry Partners.

Create Value & Add Value – Every VISIT FLORIDA program or initiative must create value and add value to one or more of our stakeholder groups.

Something for Everyone, But Not Everything for Everyone – There is a tendency in membership organizations to stick to the “Fairness Doctrine,” build programs to the lowest common denominator and provide the same benefits to all members in all cases.  The result is often a marketing structure that tends toward mediocrity.  VISIT FLORIDA represents an industry that is remarkable in its breadth and diversity and a “one size fits all” approach simply will not work.  VISIT FLORIDA has made a strategic decision to strive to provide valuable programs for all Partners, while recognizing and communicating that not all programs will be a good fit for every Partner.

Quality vs. Quantity – Size matters, but impact matters more.  It is not necessarily how many people a promotion reaches that is important – it is the impact of the promotion on consumer behavior.  For instance, how many incremental visitors to Florida were influenced in their decision making by the press release, promotion, advertisement, or sales effort?  

If It’s Worth Doing, It’s Worth Doing Right – While wise financial stewardship is critical in all that we do, VISIT FLORIDA will not sacrifice quality to save money, nor will we initiate a new program or continue with an existing program without dedicating the resources necessary to make the program a success.  Further, if a program makes sense for the organization, all appropriate marketing disciplines will contribute to the effort to ensure an integrated campaign.  VISIT FLORIDA will protect our brand promise and will commit to do it right or not do it at all.

Everything Is Connected – And everything is connected to the most visited state destination website in the country. VISITFLORIDA.com is the “Sunshine State’s Official Source for Travel Planning” and it is also the call to action on all consumer-facing marketing efforts.  As such, online content supporting each individual marketing message is critical to VISIT FLORIDA’s ability to facilitate the consumer’s travel planning process.

Everything Is Co-opable – Since 1996, Industry Partners have invested over $775 million in VISIT FLORIDA co-op marketing programs.  There are hundreds of opportunities every year for Industry Partners to leverage their budgets through VISIT FLORIDA marketing programs.  Partners can participate in all dedicated and sanctioned advertising, sales, promotions, public relations, and welcome center programs at a discounted rate.  In order to facilitate Partner investment in marketing programs, VISIT FLORIDA created a Co-op Marketing Planner which has hosted to date over 170 opportunities to participate in 2009/2010, with new opportunities being uploaded on a regular basis throughout the year.

Best in Class Partnerships – Just as the Florida tourism industry expects VISIT FLORIDA to create and add value to their independent marketing efforts, VISIT FLORIDA expects our Partners to create and add value to our internal efforts.  As a result, VISIT FLORIDA has assembled a first-class team of Marketing Partners to help us do our job better.  These very important advertising, public relations, internet development, and publishing Partners provide the marketing team with substantial resources and expertise to execute strategic marketing plans.  VISIT FLORIDA also works with a select group of Strategic Partners and Marketing Partners with complimentary brands and shared consumers.  Working with these Partners, we are able to implement strategic co-op marketing programs that significantly leverage our budget and provide Partners with access to promotions on a scale not otherwise possible.

Each of these principles has tremendous value independently.  However, the real power of the VISIT FLORIDA Marketing Principles is realized when they are considered collectively and acted upon consistently.

With these Marketing Principles as a foundation, the VISIT FLORIDA staff is currently finalizing the 2010/2011 Strategic Marketing Plan which will be presented to industry advisory committees and our Board of Directors over the next two months.