Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?As the world began to recover from the unprecedented economic disruption inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic, it was critical for us to support and uplift local tourism businesses. While a robust cooperative advertising program (designed to assist industry partners) had been a staple of The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel’s marketing efforts for years, the events of 2019 ushered in a period of change. We were forced to nimbly adjust media strategy and implement a more fluid program - which would prove invaluable to the success and impact of both brand and coop marketing efforts during recovery. Development began in early 2020 with the goal of creating a modernized, “one-stop-shop” (co-op portal) that improved the industry’s experience and centralized all co-op functions - from ordering to reporting. It was important to us to introduce processes that would reduce partner uncertainty and queries to allow them to submit readily available assets within seconds. The VCB requirements included the ability to quickly execute large-scale creative production, easily manage thousands of deliverables each year, launch on time, and deliver in full. Many local businesses often are not marketers, and they rely solely on the Fort Myers and Sanibel VCB for their advertising. As a result, the decision was taken to expand reach with a unified tourism message, reduce the level of effort partners needed to allocate to their advertising, and maximize impact, which would be measured via outbound partner referrals.

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)The co-op portal launched in November 2020 and significantly reduces the time commitment partners must devote to their advertising efforts, streamlines a high volume of creative development, centralizes all communications without the necessity of using multiple platforms, and promotes accountability and better material submissions for stronger performance. Partners are provided with all the resources needed to easily create and execute a successful marketing plan, such as a refined user structure, detailed program overviews, clearly defined specs, creative samples, real-time accounting statuses, and enhanced reporting. As the VCB defines the campaign creative, partner materials are simply downloaded and plugged into existing templates, significantly reducing production time while ensuring the brand identity is upheld and consistent. Incorporating leading-edge functionality resulted in a user-friendly, intuitive, and modern tool that streamlines all traffic, reporting, communication, and accounting processes. Since the launch of the new co-op portal, the amount of partner queries has been significantly reduced - from multiple per day to just a few per month. Also, whereas materials were often submitted late due to partner uncertainty, better-quality materials are now consistently submitted by deadline. Industry partners have expressed sincere appreciation for the VCB’s dedication and attention to their individual business needs (please see testimonials in support files). Media Performance: The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel’s efforts have resulted in partners submitting higher-quality materials on time, which has led to better performance: Outbound Partner Referrals: • FY18/19: 21,324 • FY19/20: 94,479 • FY20/21: 124,039 -Outbound partner referrals from co-op placements were up 31% from FY19/20 and up 482% from FY18/19

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?Co-op portal development costs totaled $175,000, which resulted in an ROI of 1.57 (157%) in co-op sales funds that were redistributed back into the brand’s marketing budget.

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.

Goals: Clearly state your goals. What did you strive to achieve with this initiative and how did your goals change over time?

Results: Which of your goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the initiative?

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 TitleCooperative Advertising Program Website Portal

DivisionDigital Marketing - Web Site

CategoryDigital Marketing