TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL

Workshop Meeting

Monday, June 15, 2020

4:00 P.M.

 

 

Present:               Carolyn Ford, Vice-Chair   

Jeff Dubree, Bed Tax Collector

                                Brenda Holt, Commissioner Dist. 4

                                Cathy Johnson, Havana Council Member

                                Keith Dowdell, Quincy City Commissioner                           

                                Linda Dixon, Tax Collector   

                                John Garcia, Bed Tax Collector

 

Absent:                Peter Patel, Bed Tax Collector   

 

Staff Present:    Beth Bruner, Deputy Clerk

                                Clayton Knowles, County Attorney

                                Leslie Steele, Public Information Officer

                                Jeff Price, Sr. Management Budget Analyst

 

 

THIS WORKSHOP WAS HAD VIA ZOOM DURING THE COVID-19 SHUTDOWN.

 

1.       Roll Call

  At 4:05p.m. a quorum was had and Roll call was taken by Deputy Clerk Bruner.

 

2.       Presentations

  Brenna Dacks, Regional Partnership Manager of Visit Florida, gave her presentation to the TDC. She stated she was going to share some of what Visit Florida was doing is response to the COVID-19 Update, and she shared her screen with the rest of the Council. She stated on the consumer side, COVID was going to have a lasting impact on the travel industry and the state’s economy. Visit Florida was going to do hard work to make sure they were meeting that recovery initiative. She further stated this would be one of the most significant economic recovery efforts they had undertaken. Between Blue Algae, Red Tide and the major Hurricanes that had hit Florida, they were no stranger to crisis response and were taking it on and taking it very seriously, and had a strong strategy moving forward. She stated the rebound strategy for consumers consisted of four phases. The first phase was going to be like during the crisis. (which was being phased out) That strategy was serving as an informational resource to consumers. She said they paused all paid media and focused on promoting to keep Florida on the top of minds so people think of Florida as their first option. She put up on the screen a screenshot of Visitflorida.com, and stated at the top there was a COVID 19 informational ribbon where people can click to get information and be taken to a travel safety information page. It was updated consistently by the communications team with different resources and updates as it pertained to traveling to Florida. There was also County by County information as well. She further stated there were also links to the Department of Health and the CDC and it was a main source of information for visitors and locals. From a social media perspective, she said they utilize social media to be top of mind and keep the top of mind awareness. Rather than a come visit now approach, it was more about keeping the top of mind awareness, sharing their partners content. (she showed examples) She said Visit Florida had a Florida Made initiative on Instagram, which ran the month of May, to promote local makers such as performers, or artists, and giving them the opportunity to get in front of an audience through Instagram and share their expertise, knowledge and their sounds. She said they sent an email to all of their DMO Partners (Destination Marketing Organization) like the TDC to ask for content. There was an opportunity to respond and get the information to them so they could have considered them for one of the opportunities in the Florida Made Series. She stated there was a promotion in April to show appreciation for First Responders. They were trying to keep in market, in a positive and responsible way during that time of the crisis. She said they were now in Phase 2 and stated it was important to understand their phases did not align with the Governors phases for reopening. When she said Phase 2, she was talking about Phase 2 of their marketing and rebound strategy for consumers. It would launch sometime in July, after the stay at home order was lifted. She stated people were still uncertain and a lot were not risking planning a Florida vacation, so they were focused on in state visitors for now. That Message was “Uniquely Florida”, and there would be two tiers. First tier would be the Florida Brand Message with a soft call to action. It would not be “Come to Florida”, it would be more of a “Support Florida, consider traveling, positive vibes, stay in your home state and explore.” There were places people who live in Florida had not discovered yet. Tier 2 would leverage that to a different level, and focus on experience-based messaging and have a clearer call to action saying “Come Visit Florida”.  Phase 3 would be once people were feeling a little less uncertain and were feeling better about traveling. She stated they would move more into the domestic and international markets, focused more on domestic. They would not dive into international in a huge way, but still wanted a presence there and to put dollars into those markets. That in-state campaign would run through Labor Day and then it would be layered and moved into the domestic drive markets and as Phase 4 was moved into, it would focus on the fly markets and international travel. The message for the domestic campaign would be “The Power of a Florida Vacation.” It would encourage people to come and Explore Florida and get that emotional connection between family, friends. She showed a snapshot of the phases she talked about.  

She stated there was a Webinar on visitflorida.org/library , that went deeper into the details of the campaign.

Encourage local retailers, restaurants, hotels, campgrounds, and outfitters to sign up for a free web listing. 13 Million visitors to their site last year. 10-minute application was the only investment they would have had to make. Visitflorida.org/join.

Paused the Partnership Program and Welcome Center Program through the end of June. The Partnership was extended out through the end of June. Renewals were sent out for July as well as August and September renewals, however they were giving all partners the ability to defer their payment through September 30th in case they were still in a position where it was not feasible to pay.

Visitflorida.com was to access information for visitors, and Visitflorida.org was to access information as an industry member.  It was where all the benefits and resources were that were available to the TDC. It gave Industry resources, business re-opening tips. All research had been unlocked and was available to partners for free, however, if you were not a partner, you were not able to access the research. There was a COVID data dashboard. She stated that Jacob, the Research Director, expected hotel performance creep up week by week and it would get better. Destination Analysts, a research company, had been doing weekly surveys on travel and COVID-19 and they referenced non-team outdoor recreation was considered one of the safest activities, which was great for Gadsden County with the great outdoor activity space. The survey stated that peoples first leisure trip would be small town and rural destinations came in 3rd place.  1-Beach 2-City in metro areas 3- Small town and rural destinations, 5- State, local and regional parks. Gadsden County has great parks in the area and it would be good to incorporate that in the messaging. Visitflorida.org had Webinars for free to all until the end of June. There was a new benefit unlocked for partners which was the Small Business tool kit. It would be available through the end of June and had a lot of different topics and research available. One she wanted to highlight was Google my business essentials during COVID, it was in PDF form and she said it would give some basics on Google my business listing, and there was also some Grant information. The Online Marketing Planner was a great way to see everything Visit Florida was doing and offering. There were some great instate programs and domestic co-op programs launching in response to the rebound that had a 1 to 1 match, Visit Florida was co-investing with the industries, you put in $2,500, Visit Florida puts in $2,500 and make the campaign last that much longer.

 

Commissioner Holt asked if Ms. Dacks thought Visit Florida would be able to market Gadsden County to tourists if the County came up with a great plan.

Ms. Dacks said yes, the TDC was a partner with Visit Florida and paid $395 per year to be involved. That money allowed a website listing, be in the vacation guide and Visit Florida would help leverage any type of marketing campaign.

 

Mr. Brown asked Ms. Dacks if she would speak more about dry traffic at stops on I-10.

Ms. Dacks said there were Welcome Centers on I-10 coming into the NW Florida Corridor, Capital Building in Tallahassee, I-95 and I-75 and they provided lobby display for free for partners. If the County Reserved a lobby area for Brochure distribution, it was free for 7 a month. There was also a brochure Distribution Program where the County could put their Brochure or Visitors Guide, there was usually a charge, but as a Rural County, there was no charge for Gadsden County and could have a  Complementary brochure space at each of the 4 welcome centers, a savings of $400 per year.  

Mr. Brown asked if there was a minimum number of brochures needed.

Ms. Dacks stated each welcome center varied, 1000 to start at each location would make sense. She further stated the Welcome Center team would tell the TDC if they ran low.

 

Mr. Brown, referencing Co-op dollars, asked if there was an application for those dollars or was it automatic.

 

Ms. Dacks showed a screenshot of the online marketing planner at Visitflorida.org and stated the Rebound Programs offered had a 1 to 1 match available for any partner to participate, with no application, they were just matching funds. Everything from connected TV to instate digital billboards, Expedia, and many more. She stated Visit Florida also had Social Programs on Snapchat, Pinterest and Facebook and stated they were available to any partner to participate. She further stated they were a shared brand landscape, meaning it was Visit Florida’s Brand that you would be plugging into. Other programs are the County’s Brand, and the County just needed to put the Visit Florida logo at the bottom of the County’s own advertising and in turn, the County could leverage some discounted rates. She stated she would be happy to be a resource if anyone wanted to talk about any of these, offline, she would be happy to be a resource. 

 

Mr. Garcia asked if it was $1000 to put the brochure at a single Welcome Center.

Ms. Dacks answered no, $127 plus tax for the year, per location, but Gadsden County TDC would get it free.

Mr. Brown told Mr. Garcia they were referring to brochures with the number 1000. He stated it was a very reasonable amount.

 

Ms. Dacks said I-75 & I-10 Welcome Centers were re-opened, however, the Capital Building and the I-95 Welcome Centers were still closed. She was hopeful that in the next couple of weeks the Governor would permit to open the other two. 

Over 2.7 million went through Welcome Centers last year, research showed 34% of visitors modified or changed their travel plans based on information they picked up from the Welcome Center. Gadsden County, right off I-10, was a prime location to benefit from the visitor’s using I-10.  

______________________________________________________________________________

 Barbara Karasek, CEO & Co-Owner of Paradise Advertising & Marketing, gave her presentation to the TDC. She stated the Marketing Agency was working on COVID recovery campaigns. Paradise believed in the Power of Plus. TEAM.  States and visitors are different with travel. Stay active and in front of consumer base. New normal will evolve and change – must understand the consumer. Soft messaging is important during COVID. Crafted all new messaging to be calm and reassuring yet informative. what can be done now??, 8 of 9 clients paid advertisements launched today. Maintain consumer loyalty, Provided a tool kit to all DMO’s back in April. Owned channels, website messaging for what is happening in the county real time. Chat bot created and is successful and would be maintained. Organic social media, proactive outbound messaging good for Realtime messaging. Virtual Events; In the county or parks, wildlife expert, chef. Virtual travel, wish list of content for day trips, live sunsets. Engage the audience. Inspirational stories. Reassure when it is safe to travel and have outdoor activities. Email marketing kept on through COVID with proper messaging. Everyone in the county was getting the same message. Updated brand assets. Fun at home. Parks, Hotels, Restaurants. Pulling consumer back to destination. Website community connections, Develop social programs. Overamplify the positive.  Paid Media- Attracting people to the website. People still want to travel. Inspirational Videos with paid social campaign behind it. Email marketing. Compassionate Outdoor like billboards. Earned Media, Very busy, Press releases. Insights, make people feel safe, 1 in 5 are ready to travel. Will be the year of the road trip.  Beaches, important but it is hard to even rent anything. More outdoor activities play into Gadsden County’s favor. Mostly digital promotion. Brand Campaign. Crisis Recovery plans. Potential to rebound after crisis. Create assets (downloadable color books for kids) Parks and other attractions have opportunities to create a platform for Gadsden County. Key tourism Drivers to stay true to; Outdoor Adventure, Eco-tourism, Sports and Entertainment Events, Food and Dining, Arts and Culture. Great crisis recovery system. Ready to get Gadsden County back on the road to recovery.

  Brown- figure out where GC wanted to go next. When ready to engage a partner, will know what TDC would ask of our partner. Understand Gadsden County

 

Garcia- The examples shown of different clients were nice, any similar to Gadsden County? No beaches here.

 

 Karasek Clients stands on own legs, do work with inland destinations. Ocala-Marion County, Seminole County, Little Rock, Eureka Springs in the middle of nowhere. Can get to the soul of the destination regardless of where they are.

 

Dixon- What can you do to help get people to Gadsden County.

Karasek Looking for safe place, outdoors. Daytrips were okay too. Any economic impact was good.

 

Ford- Send the power point again. Council will pull together and give the history of GC. Can you pull together a brand? Gadsden County wants a different image brand to be uplifting. Need help shaping. Beautiful lake on both sides of the County. Close to Tallahassee. Put together research and will you help lay it out.

Karasek- Build the plane while you fly it. Turn positives into bigger positives. Fishing and golf most popular during COVID.

 

Garcia- can he see the Eureka marketing plan??

Karasek- She will ask them and get the info to Mr. Brown.

Garcia- Concerned about picking someone who really understands the County is different than the beach locations.  

Karasek- She will see what she can send. Before and after. TDC will be pleasantly surprised how they got there.

Garcia- Metrics, not Facebook likes. Going to talk more than how many website hits- tie processes to results and tell them how.

Karasek- Care about engagement and the downstream attribution.  Paradise Dashboard shows what was working and not working. Points of Interest Attribution. Did the restaurants and attractions see value. =Joint lenses.

 

Brown- make sure KPI’s (Key performance indicators) work for the plan.

 

Dubree- drive market coming out of COVID? What is a drive market in terms of distance?  

Karasek- 2-3-hour drive, Atlanta at the most. Consumers are afraid to travel too far if they had not been there before. Larger destinations like Miami has a drive market all the way up to the state of Indiana.

Dubree- What are the expectations through 5 years in rebranding a County. Need a new image here.  

Karasek 10-year contract with Ocala- refreshed in year 1, new brand delayed because of COVID. Eureka Springs was 90 days.

 

Johnson- What do the customers think about the performance of Paradise.

Karasek- Overwhelmed with gratitude. Love proactive ideas. Appreciate Paradise was on call 24/7

Johnson- Possible to get feedback from customers.

Karasek- will send testimonials.

Johnson- liked the presentation.

 

Ford- asked about the power point and Mr. Brown said he would get it to the council.

 

5:35 P.M. The Workshop ended and a Regular Meeting started.

 

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