New marketing plan dubs this area "The Beach"

[DuneLaker]

Great post SJ. Too bad that wasn't an advertisement in the new "Walton 'Area' Chamber of Commerce" journal touting Coastal Vision 3000. Since we don't have a "Walton County Chamber" anymore, wonder if a new one can be started. Or, perhaps we need some other business group that will have our interests as a priority.

 

[GoodWitch58]

Great Idea, Dunelaker...and while we are at it, perhaps we can have a Walton County Tourist Development Council; not just a Beaches of South Walton as it says on the Visitor Info Center in Santa Rosa Beach! (After all, according to the Interim Director of the TDC, "Beaches of South Walton is not a place..."

We need leaders and organizations that work for the people of the entirecounty!

 

[DuneLaker]

Good idea on expanding TDC. Its original charge may need to be revised. Think it will be quite complicated, have to go to the legislature, and such. But, the time may have come to go ahead and include the entire county.

 

[DuneLaker]

Yes. I heard that comment, too, about "South Walton not being a place." Even wrote it down on my little 3 x 5 card that had been passed out to keep us occupied. Wonder what the kids at South Walton High School would think about that?

 

[Matt J]

No, Buster, YOU don't seem to get it. How could I, or anyone for that matter, have an opinion on The Beach campaign before collecting all the facts - the who, what, where, when and why? I would think that is EXACTLY why someone would attend a presentation on something they felt passionate about. I am not a reactionary - basing one's decision on something as empty as aesthetics - like logo design or a chosen color palette, both of which can always be changed - has absolutely no merit nor should it ever.

So in a marketing campaign based on visual advertising one shouldn't base ones decision on aesthetics. I believe I know who isn't getting this.

This is what I don't understand - why would you have wanted to "protest" against the campaign at a luncheon designed to inform the public on what the campaign is all about, from someone who was there from day one? Why couldn't you have paid the $20 bucks to show up to hear the founding members perspective? And what exactly are you "protesting"? The name? The color choices? The logo design? Just curious.

Most of us are protesting all of the above. The reasons have been listed in this thread already.

 

[yippie]

In today's Destin Log. Sat March 29th

I don't "get" it. If we are ,as the article points out the number 2 destination in Florida..... again... broken record, why fix something that isn't broke????? ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!


Can Panhandle beaches beat Mickey Mouse?
TDC chips in $15,000 to join ?THE Beach? movement
March 28, 2008 - 1:11PM
Fraser Sherman
Branding is what gives Orlando the edge in attracting tourists over the Emerald Coast, ResortQuest?s Lino Maldonado says.
?We?re Florida?s number two destination next to Orlando, but we have more empty rooms,? Maldonado, a member of Okaloosa County?s Tourist Development Council, said at this week?s TDC meeting. The reason, he said, is that Orlando is identified with Disney and even non-Disney attractions benefit from that.


Wednesday, the TDC voted to spend $15,000 to become a member of Coastal Vision 3000, a Panhandle tourism group hoping to establish a similar brand for Northwest Florida, under the name ?THE Beach.?


?This is the same concept,? Maldonado said. ?We all come together under one halo-type brand that can attract business to this region ... If we all work together, we can all grab a piece of everything new that?s created.?


Some residents and elected officials have dismissed ?THE Beach? as a generic name that would work less well than ?Emerald Coast.? Maldonado said Coastal Vision 3000 doesn?t want to rename Emerald Coast or Beaches of South Walton; it wants to use THE Beach as an added marketing tool for Destin, South Walton and the rest of the Panhandle.


Maldonado said a regional brand is needed because airlines and other businesses considering expanding into Northwest Florida have no single tourism representative they can talk to.


?They aren?t interested in talking to 19 different groups of people,? Maldonado said. ?They want a regional approach.?


The TDC?s Ken Paine said that VisitFlorida, the state?s tourism organization, operates on the same principle, but a group focused on Northwest Florida could produce added benefits.


Buying a $15,000 membership for the next year gives the TDC a board seat and a vote in the organization; a priority listing on the Coastal Vision Web site; and a listing in Coastal Vision?s direct-mail campaign, along with other benefits.


?Our TDC would get one vote out of 30,? Okaloosa Island resident Dave Sherry objected. He said the $15,000 could be better spent on beach restoration.


TDC member Mike Minich said the Coastal Vision membership would be bought with some of the TDC?s advertising money, so it wouldn?t have gone to beach restoration anyway.


Paine said the $15,000 is only one year?s membership, so the TDC can evaluate the benefits over the next 12 months and decide whether it?s worth renewing.


Maldonado said that boosting tourism would generate more of the bed tax revenue that pays for TDC operations, including beach restoration ? a good thing when Florida is proposing heavy cuts in beach-restoration funding.
?If (restoration) takes two or three years, why not act now to get more people in?? Maldonado said. ?If we can?t get more sand on the beach, we need more people through the gates.?

 

[Geo]

You would have learned a lot if you had attended, in particular that they are restructuring membership options and are contemplating offering a free membership level as well.

But I respect your opinion and appreciate you sharing it.

Hi Jill,

I think the fundamental issue people have with Coastal 3000 is the tagline they picked. We don't like it.

If they chose "Pretty Sand and Water Place" as the moniker we wouldn't like that either. And we wouldn't care to go learn about the history or good intentions of that campaign or the current/existing membership structure for the group behind it...

I still haven't heard anyone answer why we couldn't just broaden The Emerald Coast.

I can see the Southwest billboards right now-
"Ding: New Low Fares to the Emerald Coast"

That should be the halo brand. It is unique, descriptive of the area's biggest asset/draw, and it has an upscale feel to it, IMHO...

I'm sure a lot of smart folks did a lot of smart things for making this campaign a success. But I do not think their tagline is one of them...

The media in other places has already published stories making fun of the campaign based solely on the tagline. Have you ever heard of The Onion or News of the Weird? It was one of those kind of stories about us!

 

[seagrovegirl]

Hi Jill,

I think the fundamental issue people have with Coastal 3000 is the tagline they picked. We don't like it.

If they chose "Pretty Sand and Water Place" as the moniker we wouldn't like that either. And we wouldn't care to go learn about the history or good intentions of that campaign or the current/existing membership structure for the group behind it...

I still haven't heard anyone answer why we couldn't just broaden The Emerald Coast.

I can see the Southwest billboards right now-
"Ding: New Low Fares to the Emerald Coast"

That should be the halo brand. It is unique, descriptive of the area's biggest asset/draw, and it has an upscale feel to it, IMHO...

I'm sure a lot of smart folks did a lot of smart things for making this campaign a success. But I do not think their tagline is one of them...

The media in other places has already published stories making fun of the campaign based solely on the tagline. Have you ever heard of The Onion or News of the Weird? It was one of those kind of stories about us!

Well said. The people involved in THE BEach campaign got so involved they don't want to back down and reevaluate. With the heat they are getting, you would think they would tack...but instead, if feels like we are getting bulldozed.

 

[GoodWitch58]

It's more Group Think--there is an epidemic!

 

[DuneLaker]

For Walton County. You're right Yippie. We don't need to fix what is not broken. Okaloosa County has a problem. Walton County does not need to be dragged in. Their bed taxes are sagging and they are having problems with occupancy, probably because of poor beaches, etc. Our friends in Bay County are doing better especially after they had their big TDC blowup last year and booted a problem player. Updated bedtax information would be helpful, but I have this handy. In a 2003 quarterly publication of the Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development at the University of West Florida "Northwest Florida Tourism" it showed how Walton County was leading other Northwest Florida counties, even with the bedtax only collected in South Walton. The bedtax comparison in the third quarter of 2002 was Escambia County collected $648,509; Santa Rosa County collected $222,413; Okaloosa County collected $1,348,783; Walton County collected $1,414,059; and Bay County collected $1,179,774. Last report I heard was another outstanding current year for Walton County.