Sunshine Matters

VISIT FLORIDA recently brought together our international directors, who represent us in China, Germany, India, the U.K. and Latin America, and the creative director from our lead agency of record SapientNitro for the first ever VISIT FLORIDA Brand Camp.  The idea behind Brand Camp was simple: create an opportunity for open dialogue between our in-country experts and the creative mind behind the new VISIT FLORIDA campaign, launching next year, to discuss where and how this campaign translates in targeted overseas markets.

As overseas arrivals continue to rise and play an important role in Florida’s economic welfare, it’s important for VISIT FLORIDA to consider appealing to consumers via direct consumer advertising not only domestically, but internationally as well.  Our in-house Brand team developed a workshop where each story line from the new campaign was presented and reviewed with our international team to determine in-market relevancy.  The International team learned about the process for developing the campaign, the campaign purpose and the human interest stories behind photo shoots used in the campaign.

This proved to be a very interesting and at times amusing exercise in understanding cultural differences.  These cultural aspects are particularly important in international advertising since the effectiveness of messages transmitted via mass media is determined by the appropriateness of the words and symbols or images they evoke.  Using the insights provided by our in-country experts, our Creative Services team will begin to translate or alter the campaign story lines to work in each of our key overseas markets.  The outcome will result in the development of a tool box of advertising assets that our international directors will be able to tap into as we continue to develop our marketing plans for 2013-2014.

The visit to Tallahassee was a first for our newest international directors, so they also had the opportunity to connect with key staff and explore a little of the city with a trip to the State Capitol building.  Pictured above, from left to right , are Dru Bryan – U.K., Anita Goldman – Germany, Denise Arencibia – Latin America, Ralf Lieb – Germany, Joseph Fernandes – India, Sue Marshall – U.K. and Kevin Zhou – China.

To learn more about VISIT FLORIDA’s international marketing efforts, please view our online interactive Marketing Planner,  Annual Report and Strategic Marketing Plan.