Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?In Spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a 10-week shut down in Florida resulting in plummeting visitation and Tourist Development Tax (TDT) collections, both of which are critical to Orange County’s economy, as tourism supports 40% of the local workforce and accounts for 50% of all sales tax revenue. While Florida opened for business after those ten weeks, the nation, and countries around the world, did not move as swiftly or even have access to visit Orlando – some for nearly two years. The world changed during the pandemic and the way we position, and market Orlando needed to be reevaluated in order to keep Orlando as a top destination for travel post pandemic. Following perception and ad tracking studies, it was determined that there were several links between the business brand of Orlando and the tourism brand, and that a refresh would be beneficial to boost brand perception of both. As a vibrant region full of imagination and innovation, Orlando needed a meaningful story that brings together our diverse community of residents, visitors, meeting planners and attendees, trade partners and business decision makers and influencers. The new “Unbelievably Real” brand was the result of that research and development to tell that new story of Orlando as a region by both Visit Orlando and Orlando Economic Partnership. The purpose of the launch was to rally the Orlando community around one comprehensive brand for our region that can be utilized and adopted by stakeholders, businesses, and residents. The goals were to: 1. Achieve one national story on the new brand 2. Garner 20 local positive media stories about the effort and new brand 3. Secure support from local government and community leaders to help inform additional local stakeholders on the brand to embrace and utilize as a community moving forward

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)All goals of the new brand local launch were achieved: Goal #1 - To launch Visit Orlando and Orlando Economic Partnership’s new global brand, Unbelievably Real, the team pitched an exclusive story with Associated Press that included an embargoed joint interview with both organization’s CEOs, resulting in the syndicated story, “Tourism and economic agencies join forces to market Orlando,” running in more than 100 media outlets on the day of the launch. Goal #2 – The team secured 26 media attendees at the press conference with more than a dozen interviews conducted on site immediately following. In total, the campaign announcement garnered 200 positive stories including 69 local stories in key outlets including Orlando Sentinel, Orlando Business Journal, WKMG, WOFL, WFTV and News 13. Goal #3 – To drive both media interest and community awareness, as part of the press conference presentation, we secured our City of Orlando Mayor and Orange County Mayor to jointly share why a collaboration of this nature is important for our community and how we promote our region to key stakeholders. Prior to the launch Visit Orlando and Orlando Economic Partnership (OEP) set up individual meetings with the mayors for the organizations’ leadership to walk through the new brand and answer questions, followed with the request to join in the launch event. Both Mayors agreed and presented at the press conference together on stage, showing a united front with our local government, Visit Orlando and OEP in support of the new brand. In addition, both Visit Orlando and OEP invited key local stakeholders to attend the press conference in addition to media. Attendees represented major hotel brands, two regional airports, neighboring government entities and organizations such as Central Florida Hotel and Lodging, Greater Orlando Sports Commission and Come out With Pride.

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?Total budget was $29,800 and actual cost came to $26,186.45. Expenses included venue, production, décor and food and beverage. The return on investment was extensive local media coverage (200+ stories) from AP and attendees at the event and video and photo assets that local stakeholders could utilize moving forward to share the new brand beyond attendees.

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 technology move the department or business forward 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?

Entry TitleLaunching Orlando’s New “Unbelievably Real” Brand

DivisionPublic Relations/Communications - NEW OPENING/LAUNCH

CategoryPublic Relations/Communications