Warm Winter Message to Canada
Category
National State Tourism Directors Mercury Awards > International Marketing
Description
National State Tourism Directors Mercury Awards > International Marketing
Warm Winter Message to Canada
About This Entry:
To attract more Canadian visitors to Florida, VISIT FLORIDA, the state's official tourism marketing corporation, executed a multi-channel integrated campaign. Canada has consistently been Florida’s number one source of international visitors, however, from 2013-2016, Florida saw a decline in Canadian visitation for 12 straight quarters. To regain market share, VISIT FLORIDA launched a Canada Takeover while most of Canadian winter travelers plan winter vacations.
Objectives for the campaign are to activate a campaign that would increase desirability for Florida vacations and drive travel conversions during winter.
Our goals are to drive awareness of the new Canada Power Play Program (Parity Program) and position Florida as the top winter destination. We also want to shift/maintain competitive rank – regain Florida’s market share of Canadian Winter Sun Seekers, with hopes of increasing Canadian volume (November-March) by two percent. We also hope to drive up travel conversions during November-March, which may specifically increase YoY Florida bookings on Expedia platforms. We also want to sell out partner co-op packages and link Florida partner brands with a shared brand landscape to cut through competitive clutter. We hope to have four Florida Day partners, four Weather Network partners, 12 million media reception partners and parity program partners (Secure airline, tour operator and transportation partners in addition to attractions, accommodations and restaurants).
Targeting Winter Sun Seekers of Ontario and Quebec, specifically residents of Toronto and Montreal, ages 25-65 and over, VISIT FLORIDA executed a multi-channel, integrated campaign that included a robust selection of elements to effectively reach audiences. The campaign included out of home and digital advertising, social media, public relations, trade/consumer shows, experiential marketing, promotions and co-op advertising
The campaign centered on “Moments of Sunshine,” and incorporated a shared brand landscape to link participating partners. To continue upward movement of Florida as a desired, diverse destination, the shared brand allowed partners to promote their identities while reinforcing the overall Florida brand. In the shared brand, VISIT FLORIDA strengthened the relationship between Canadians and Florida with messaging that personified Florida and implied relation and reciprocity. Like, “Enjoy a moment of sunshine in the Treasure Coast. Love, Florida.”
Campaign Strategy:
We used the following tactics to achieve our goals
Florida Parity Program: To eliminate the currency exchange disparity, VISIT FLORIDA created LoveFlorida.ca and aggregated partner deals of at least 20 percent off, exclusive to Canadians.
On November 1, in Canada’s busiest commuter station, VISIT FLORIDA, partners and Florida Governor Rick Scott hosted “Florida Day.” It included a Parity Program announcement during a press conference and media reception, and Florida partner activations:
Visit Pensacola: Stationary bikes wrapped in Blue Angels colors were placed in front of beach backdrop to give the illusion of riding bikes on Pensacola beach.
Beaches of Ft. Myers and Sanibel: Seashell mosaics, made of authentic shells from the destination, created the perfect backdrop for a photo “shellfie.”
Ocala: To showcase the destination’s crystal-clear springs, a glass bottom kayak outfitted with real underwater video footage gave consumers an authentic Florida experience.
Indian River/St. Lucie/Martin County (Treasure Coast): Consumers received regionally-sourced Natalie’s Orange Juice and snapped photos in front of a beach backdrop and surfboards wrapped in a treasure map.
Dollar Rental Car/VISIT FLORIDA: A grab and go postcard wall containing 10,000 Florida postcards with user-generated images served as an engagement center for consumers and press conference backdrop. On the back of the cards were descriptions of Florida destinations and a discount for Florida Dollar car rentals.
To compliment the Takeover, VISIT FLORIDA targeted English and French speaking Sun Seekers with warm-weather content on the Canadian Weather Network. Branded social posts were used to target Ontario/Quebec and to get Toronto to drive to “Florida Day”. Digital billboards were used to attract travelers using the Toronto/Montreal underground transit and Yonge-Dundas Square.
We also used Expedia digital media buy, the digital TV Florida Channel, Union Station wall murals/digital columns, the Zoomer Consumer Show – targeted boomers and Air Canada Vacations Co-op.
A key creative step was implementing the newly-developed shared brand landscape throughout all elements.
To evaluate, VISIT FLORIDA used partner participation and performance metrics from Media partners to measure paid advertising, social agency Brand Networks to measure social, website analytics to measure Parity Program page.
Results:
With our first goal, drive awareness of the new Parity Program and position Florida as the top winter vacation destination, we had the following results. The awareness of Parity Program earned media from the announcement of the Program which resulted in more than 23.4 million impressions. During the campaign, the Parity Program attracted more than 60,663 unique visitors to LoveFlorida.ca generating 73,175 visits and 83,913-page views. When working to have Florida as the top winter destination, excluding earned media, the campaign resulted in more than 173.5 million impressions across all platforms. The buzz from “Florida Day” led to #LoveFL trending on Twitter in Toronto on the first day of the campaign. Due the campaign’s success, Facebook conducted a case study: ‘The Takeover’ resulted in a six-point lift in action intent, which is 2X higher than North America benchmark and a 22-point lift in ad recall on Facebook. It was 91 percent above the norm across all brands.
With our second goal, to shift and maintain competitive rank –Increase Canadian volume from November to March by 2 percent, there was a 2.4 percent increase in Canadian visitation to Florida during the fourth quarter of 2017 and first quarter of 2018; which was 0.4 percent over goal.
With our third goal, drive travel conversions during November-March and increase YoY Florida bookings on Expedia platforms, from November 2017 – March 2018, YoY Florida bookings on Expedia platforms increased by 13.1 percent.
With our fourth goal, to increase partner participation in packaged campaign co-ops and link Florida partner brands to cut through the competitive clutter, 13 partners showcased Florida’s destination diversity during the campaign. Florida Day partners reached partners 7 with a goal of 4. Together, three partners purchased one package. Weather Network partners reach 13 with a goal of 12. Media Reception partners resulted in 13 with a goal of 12. Parity Program partners resulted in securing 58 total partner deals which included; Air Canada, Air Canada Vacations, and Dollar Rental Car, in addition to attraction, accommodation and restaurant partners.
Our total spend for the campaign was$747,000.
Why This Is A Finalist:
Thoroughly integrated brand messaging & visuals, backed with great strategy. Results were impressive, particularly the Facebook case study which included compelling metrics. The slide decks gave a full picture of the methodology and campaign. The judges liked how they focused on Canada alone as well the Parity program and involvement of government in committing to the campaign goals. They thought the billboards and environmental branding in commuter stations were great additions. They appreciated that the campaign included very clear details of the goals and desired outcomes. It also exceeded their goal and included impressive metric gains.
Winner Status
- Finalist
- People's Choice