Orlando CVB Endless Summer Campaign

The Orlando - Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau has a new marketing campaign that was recently announced by President Gary Sain. Sain made the announcement at an industry-wide luncheon, which had over six hundred and fifty guests. This marketing campaign focuses on keeping summer in bloom all year round with the tag line “Endless Summer – It’s not a season. It’s a state of mind.”

The luncheon was one event in a day-long program that the bureau hosted for those in the industry to let them know the status of the first year’s marketing tactics and to let them know what the next year will bring.

The bureau’s vice president of public relations, Danielle Courtenay, explained that this campaign was perfect for Florida as people don’t often visualize the state as a place that has changing colors and falling leaves at this time of year. This slogan will set itself apart from other areas in the eyes of consumers as a prime destination.

This new ad campaign, which is set run until November 15, is aimed mostly at couples, who make up for thirty-one percent of the market, says Sain. Promotions for this campaign include buy two, get one free hotel rooms, theme park tickets that can be bought for a year and the consumer will be given a year free of theme park tickets, and dinners offered at the fixed prices of twenty and thirty dollars, offered by fifty of Central Florida’s restaurants. This is the perfect time for this campaign as September is the slowest time of year.

And 2008 brings about new campaigns as well. Those campaigns will be mostly aimed at moms, meeting planners, and international visitors. Within the United States, this campaign will use the same television campaign ad as has been used this year, targeting women aged twenty-five to fifty-four. The reason for using the same ad as the year before is due to the fact that that campaign proved very effective, with the intent to visit Orlando increasing by six points, or one million households that were surveyed. Sain also says that the proof of this ad working is that there was a two percent increase in traffic to Orlando International Airport, hotel occupancy has been on the rise, and monthly totals in resort tax collections have also increased.

Meeting planners are being targeted with a ninety minute presentation that will be highly entertaining, showing why Orlando is a great place to have a meeting. This presentation will be shown in New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C. This campaign will be in addition to print and Internet campaigns.

The campaign set to begin in 2008 will start earlier and run for a longer period of time. Peter Cranis, the bureau’s vice president of consumer marketing, states that eight percent of the thirty million budget for the ad campaign has already been spent and they expect to spend one to two million more over the rest of the year. Any money left unused will be carried over to next year’s campaign.