Walton TDC Presents New Branding

[Bob Hudson]

The following is a link to an interesting presentation on the issue of why people rarely get involved (especially early on) in community-affecting issues like the one being discussed here.

Dave Meslin: The antidote to apathy | Video on TED.com

I like the demonstration of what would happen to a Nike ad if it were done in a typical government notice format.


Excellent - well worth the watch.

 

[NotDeadYet]

The TDC should use this photo and "SoWal, I do" for the tagline.

Very nice, Buz!
I looked at the power point, and I thought it was boiler plate, marketing 101. The BCC and the TDC have been well aware of the "branding" concept for years. Nothing new there. What would be new would be in the execution of what I believe is an already established identity,
Beaches of South Walton. What I would do, instead of hiring an over-priced out of town firm that uses a lot of buzz words would be to stick with the existing identity and go for first class creative execution. I might start with a design competition at Florida colleges, bring on board coastal artists from here and other tourist destinations to choose designs, and encourage locals and tourists to get involved. What Buz has posted here is one really impressive and simple ad. I have no doubt there are lots of creative people out there who would love to participate. Instead of spending all that money out of state, the TDC could use some it for prize renumeration, to buy the rights to something like what Buz suggested, etc. Keep the money in Florida and spread it around to students, artists, aspiring photographers, graphic artists, and so forth. It could be the basis for a really innovative ad campaign. An ad agency, and I am sure there are many locally, could place the ads and deal with the actual production. Would be lots cheaper. And next I would hire someone, or several someones, again maybe in a competition format, to produce youtube videos, set up twitter feeds and all that techy stuff.

 

[Bob Hudson]

I have obtained a copy of the Market Research done on this project. 82 pages in length. This reaearch was done by Majority Opinion Research. The TDC's new research company is Kerr and Downs.

• New Ad Agency
• New Research Firm

Sheds some light on the "where I stayed issue"

Doesn't seem to help with the "to each, your beach" question.

View attachment Market Perception Study Report.pdf

 

[Teresa]

Very nice, Buz!
I looked at the power point, and I thought it was boiler plate, marketing 101. The BCC and the TDC have been well aware of the "branding" concept for years. Nothing new there. What would be new would be in the execution of what I believe is an already established identity,
Beaches of South Walton. What I would do, instead of hiring an over-priced out of town firm that uses a lot of buzz words would be to stick with the existing identity and go for first class creative execution. I might start with a design competition at Florida colleges, bring on board coastal artists from here and other tourist destinations to choose designs, and encourage locals and tourists to get involved. What Buz has posted here is one really impressive and simple ad. I have no doubt there are lots of creative people out there who would love to participate. Instead of spending all that money out of state, the TDC could use some it for prize renumeration, to buy the rights to something like what Buz suggested, etc. Keep the money in Florida and spread it around to students, artists, aspiring photographers, graphic artists, and so forth. It could be the basis for a really innovative ad campaign. An ad agency, and I am sure there are many locally, could place the ads and deal with the actual production. Would be lots cheaper. And next I would hire someone, or several someones, again maybe in a competition format, to produce youtube videos, set up twitter feeds and all that techy stuff.

this is beyond good, such forward thinking ideas... thank you very much for your thoughtful, positive comments and suggestions. I find your post to be very constructive and I wholeheartedly agree with every point.

I really like Buzz's example too - simple and absolutely beautiful.

Beaches of South Walton, or South Walton Beach, or South Walton Beaches - it is our brand. now we need ongoing, consistently outstanding messages and advertising about our area. just think of the artists, marketing and media professionals in our own community who could contribute in so many incredible ways. we just need someone with the skills to coordinate... and a great deal of imagination and energy on behalf of our TDC.

 

[scooterbug44]

I love it - people like to come here for our "well marinated beaches".

Name recognition is not the problem, name recognition of their latest "brand name" is - Beaches of South Walton gets 49%, Beaches of Sowal combined with any town/development name (Rosemary, Seaside, etc.) catapults it to 92% - almost 10% higher than Destin or PC!

I also find it a little worrisome that no visitors outside of the Southeast were part of the poll. I know that is a significant portion of the market, but it isn't 100% of it - just look at license plates.

 

[Matt J]

Gotta love anyone who puts conclusions before the research. :roll:

However, when factoring in both Beaches of South Walton by name, as well as recognition of the 15 individual beach communities, awareness of the destination rises to 92%, which is higher than the competition.

This is from the report. I'm not sure how this marketing firm overlooked this, but perhaps they should reread the report.

 

[beachFool]

Thanks, y'all. That is our daughter even the photographer knew she caught lightning in a bottle.

Blair and the photographer are high school friends who has a studio in...Florida and her parents have a home here.

An ad agency could never replicate that shot. I bet Kurt and other LOCAL photographers have gazillions that can't be staged.

Plus I like our umbrellas

 

[idlewind]

Thanks, y'all. That is our daughter even the photographer knew she caught lightning in a bottle.

Blair and the photographer are high school friends who has a studio in...Florida and her parents have a home here.

An ad agency could never replicate that shot. I bet Kurt and other LOCAL photographers have gazillions that can't be staged.

Plus I like our umbrellas

I like the umbrellas too.

 

[GoodWitch58]

this article is about the "love for cities", but I bet the concept would apply for our area too...there are so many opportunities for creative people who love this area to contribute; too bad there seems to be a "disconnect" between the people who love the area and the people who are promoting it.

Recruiting business is fine, but put a little more love in your city, too - St. Petersburg TimesLove, Kageyama says, is a community resource. Cities that can build up "emotional capital" from citizens who love their communities can tap that reserve, almost like a bank account, to get people to step up and do creative things, especially in these leaner fiscal times

 

[Rita]

this article is about the "love for cities", but I bet the concept would apply for our area too...there are so many opportunities for creative people who love this area to contribute; too bad there seems to be a "disconnect" between the people who love the area and the people who are promoting it.

Recruiting business is fine, but put a little more love in your city, too - St. Petersburg TimesLove, Kageyama says, is a community resource. Cities that can build up "emotional capital" from citizens who love their communities can tap that reserve, almost like a bank account, to get people to step up and do creative things, especially in these leaner fiscal times

Good article!

Way back from the early posts on this thread, I keep being reminded of the first time I heard about this area. We lived in Gainesville, FL in mid to late 1980s and I recall reading an article about artists relocating to Seaside and Grayton (first time I had heard of either place - having grown up in IL). I remember it as a very interesting article that left a positive mental picture of the area, as well as a curiosity as to what was happening there.

The creative artistic talent, as well as so many other realms of knowledge and experience that can be recognized daily on this message board, makes me wonder why it wasn't tapped. This is not unique to Walton County as other places I've lived have looked to outside sources of expertise for surveys/answers when local talent could more than handle the challenge. ............... I can think of a couple places that this would not have been the case though. ha!

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