Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?

Results: Which of your original goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign? Entrants should provide quantifiable results of their tactics or campaigns. (for example, click through rates or ad equivalency)

Budget: Please include total budget vs. total actual cost. How much revenue has the piece or campaign generated and how does this compare to your goal? What was the return on investment?

Project Analysis: Please provide a brief background on the project and your company efforts to demonstrate good corporate citizenship in the areas of community involvement, environmental, or socially responsible practices.

Objectives and Goals: What did organization set out to achieve in undertaking this project in CSR? What were the goals you set to measure your success?

Results: How did you measure the effectiveness of your efforts and what direct and tangible results did you achieve? Please be as specific as possible and share the full impact of your efforts in CSR.

Leadership: Please list the individual in a leadership role responsible for the project and how would you characterize their commitment to promoting corporate social responsibility in the travel and tourism industry?

Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals and audience. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?

Results: Which of your original goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign? Entrants should provide quantifiable results of their tactics or campaigns. (for example, click through rates or ad equivalency)

Budget: Please include total budget vs. total actual cost. How much revenue has the piece or campaign generated and how does this compare to your goal? What was the return on investment?

Situational Analysis: Please provide a brief background on the original initiative and how it evolved as conditions changed from pandemic to recovery.The pandemic ushered in rapid change. Faced with stalled bookings and a slew of cancellations, The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel had to quickly create a marketing campaign that was flexible and robust to adapt to fluctuating consumer confidence and travel sentiment. To do so, we implemented a three-phased approach to recovery: Wait when travel was not advised or extremely limited; Ready/Set when travel restrictions began easing and confidence increased; and Go when consumer sentiment/comfort levels further grew, as evidenced by increased searches and bookings. Deploying March through May 2020, the target audience for our Wait (Stay-At-Home campaign) efforts was persons who had booked travel or were showing intent by actively searching. Emphasis was placed on key feeder markets in the Midwest and Northeast that had peaking positive COVID-19 cases. When Florida eased travel restrictions and mandates ahead of other areas of the U.S., and research and data indicated that consumers would start traveling closer to home and via car, we moved to the next stage of recovery with our Ready/Set messaging with a newly developed creative campaign, Know the Feeling. Intent-based recovery tactics for this phase ran June-December 2020 and targeted top Florida drive markets, as well as Atlanta and our primary national markets. A resiliency overlay was added to addressable audiences, ensuring tactics reached consumers most likely to travel. January 2021 saw a return to a more typical travel landscape, which we defined as the Go phase. Our media strategy shifted to a near-normal mix of tactics and investment within all phases of the travel/purchase funnel. Understanding that not all people had the same confidence level about travel, we evolved our Know the Feeling campaign messaging to address varying comfort stages.

Goals: Clearly state your goals. What did you strive to achieve with this initiative and how did your goals change over time?During the Wait phase, goals were to keep the destination top-of-mind and foster engagement while reinforcing commitment to safety. Messaging advised that “Now is the time to stay home. Our beaches aren’t going anywhere, and neither should you.” As an alternative to physical travel, we offered virtual escapes via social, web and email, and reassured visitors that when the time was right, we’d gladly welcome them back. Our Ready/Set phase objectives included engagement rates, efficiency metrics, and search and booking volume. Targeting focused on travel intent, while retargeting was based on site and search intent and welcoming repeat visitors. Market strategy was reset with increasing weight on expanded drive markets to align with consumer willingness to travel further via car. The destination’s Know The Feeling campaign met audiences at their comfort level and positioned the area as an open-island getaway that offers hope and optimism during uncertain times. We successfully touted the outdoor spaces, secluded islands, and natural settings as an emotional reprieve. Booking windows have been closely monitored to understand return to YOY norms. As users began planning trips in earnest, integrated campaign goals in the Go phase included efficient cost-per-engagement (CPE), search and booking volume to generate production, and arrivals measured in the destination. As traveler sentiment became more optimistic, fly markets were reintroduced, and a more aggressive focus was given to increasing bed tax collections. Strategy subtly transitioned to featuring trip itineraries and reintroducing more cross-channel initiatives and integrated packages impacting top- and low-funnel prospects. Campaign messaging evolved to reflect more relaxed travel behaviors and traveler sentiment.

Results: Which of your goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the initiative?WAIT: March 2020 - May 2020 • Media Spend: $1,517,512 • Impressions: 142,545,591 • Engagements: 3,893,276 • CPE: $0.13 • Added Value: $2,295,164 (151% of paid investment) • ADARA & Expedia Revenue: $1,929,078 • ADARA & Expedia ROAS: $1.27:1 • Arrivalist Panel Arrivals: 3,731 • Panel APM (Arrivals Per Thousand): 0.25 READY/SET: June 2020 - Dec 2020 • Media Spend: $2,171,828 • Impressions: 204,422,049 • Engagements: 23,426,404 • CPE: $0.09 (exceeding goal by 44%) • Added Value $1,143,463 (53% of paid investment) • ADARA & Expedia Revenue: $8,559,612 • ADARA & Expedia ROAS: $3.94:1 • Arrivalist Panel Arrivals: 18,492 • Panel APM: 0.54 GO: Jan 2021 - Sept 2021 • Media Spend: $5,276,403 • Impressions: 369,006,621 • Engagements: 45,486,965 • CPE $0.09 (exceeding goal by 31%) • Added Value $2,228,099 (42% of paid investment) • ADARA & Expedia Revenue: $34,859,628 • ADARA & Expedia ROAS: $6.61:1 • Arrivalist Panel Arrivals: 36,328 • Panel APM: 0.72 Cost per engagement remained efficient at $0.09. Engagements increased 94% from the Ready/Set phase, while panel arrivals doubled in the Go phase. Overall, ADARA and Expedia revenue increased 307% between periods, and ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) ended with a $6.61:1, indicating over $6 in revenue for every $1 spent in advertising. The strongest indicator of Recovery Strategy success was bed tax collections for fiscal year 2020-2021 totaling a record-high $53,332,883, 39.4% higher than the FY19/20, and 24.9% higher than pre-pandemic FY18/19.

Objective(s): What problems did the sales, marketing & guest satisfaction, or revenue optimization technology aim to solve?

Innovative use of technology: The extent to which new directions are charted or old challenges are resolved by using the technology in a new way.

Implementation & creativity: How was the technology implemented so that it was easy to use, solved a manpower problem, streamlined a function, or fueled recovery?

Results & Evaluation: How did the technologiy move the department or business foward to achieve goals, revenue or otherwise?

Goal: How did you demonstrate that you are committed to advancing diversity in your organization through your marketing?

Initiatives: Describe the promotion. What was your organization's message and how does it foster diversity? How was the target audience channel developed/pursued?

Results: Please describe how your organization was purposeful in advancing diversity through this initiative. Please describe the metrics you used to judge success. What were the forecasted and actual outcomes described in your Key Performance Indicators (KPI)? What impact did the initiative have on your organization and for your customers?

Goal: How did you demonstrate that you are committed to advancing diversity in your organization through your campaigns?

Initiatives: What was your approach to this campaign and how was the organization purposeful in advancing diversity through it? What types of data did you use to support your plan? How many locations were involved in the campaign? How did you effectively reach diverse audiences? What was the message?

Results: What metrics are you using to evaluate diversity (soft and/or hard metrics)? Were you successful at meeting forecasted goals? Was it limited to a specific promotion or across multiple creatives? What impact did the campaign have on your organization? How did this campaign change your brand’s perception amongst travelers?

Entry TitleFort Myers and Sanibel Recovery Evolution

DivisionRecovery Campaign Evolution - Recovery Campaign Evolution

CategoryRecovery Campaign Evolution