Letter from Executive Director Tamara Pigott
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
- Muriel Strode

The Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau (VCB) is known for blazing new paths, and our current national advertising campaign is no exception. We are the first destination to use what’s known as “FreshTV” – or commercials shot, edited, and aired in one day – in the face of a crisis.

Tamara Pigott, VCB executive director

In late June, we filmed, edited and aired nine, 30-second television ads – each in the same day – to address consumer misperceptions and reassure visitors that the Gulf oil spill is not affecting our coastline and islands. It normally takes up to three weeks to produce a television ad, but we did it in just six hours each day!

We accomplished this Herculean and innovative feat in order to help sustain visitation and protect our area’s economy, of which tourism is the lifeblood. We welcome nearly five million visitors each year who contribute $2.6 billion to the local economy, or $82 per second, and account for one in four area jobs. To protect this critical asset, we needed to rise above the noise and reach consumers nationally; so we took a radical, no-holds-barred approach to achieve the highest possible impact, given our resources.

The approach paid off in a highly positive response to the campaign. Our website traffic during the first week of the campaign increased 16 percent over traffic the prior week and 32 percent over traffic for the same timeframe in the prior month. The “Oil Spill Update” page, which communicates that our beaches have been unaffected, currently is the second most viewed page on the site. “The Beaches Now” page, which shares live videos and images, is currently ranking in the top 10 most viewed pages on the site.

Plus, the first week’s campaign videos posted on YouTube generated more than 4,000 views; and discussions on our Facebook and Twitter pages were full of positive accolades for the work. Not to mention the 18,277,563 impressions the campaign generated for our destination on national and in-state television as well as online outlets. And a vast majority of consumer feedback via all of these channels has been complimentary of the campaign. We even had one visitor from Los Angeles advise our volunteers at an airport welcome booth that he arrived here for vacation within days after seeing the ads on national television.

TV personality Willard Scott and actor Dan Aho appear in VCB commercial.

If you haven’t seen the spots, be sure to visit our consumer website at www.FortMyers-Sanibel.com  and click on Dan’s face on the right side of the screen, then scroll down. You can check out the longer play versions posted on YouTube to help generate buzz about the campaign. They feature a gregarious traveler named Dan on a nine-day vacation to check out our beaches and report on their conditions. Each of his adventures showcases the pristine beaches and natural environment of our unspoiled island sanctuary in a fun, fresh and totally unique way that demonstrates the one-of-a-kind experience our destination offers visitors.

Given our success to date, we plan to extend the campaign using $500,000 that the Florida Governor’s office recently committed to us for media purchases. These funds, which are part of the $25 million provided to the state by BP, are in addition to the $750,000 in emergency reserve funds that the Lee County Board of County Commissioners approved to support this campaign, as well as consumer research and beach conditions reporting.

Our same-day television advertising campaign is just one component of the VCB’s Still Pristine integrated marketing program to combat misperceptions about the oil spill’s impact on our area. The overall program, which we launched the week of the spill, includes: ongoing consumer research regarding the spill’s impact on vacation planning; revised messaging and call-to-action in existing media placements; proactive national publicity outreach; solicitation and distribution of real time photos and videos of local beaches and waterways; and the mobilization of brand ambassadors, visitors and local tourism industry partners.

So you can see where we are leaving a trail for others to follow in our footsteps. Doing so is a long-standing legacy with the VCB and one that we intend to continue well into the future.

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