Visitors office to launch new tourism campaign

Sarasota tourism officials have responded to a pair of setbacks suffered over the past year with a new, and aggressive, attack plan.

The strategy centers on a $500,000 advertising campaign and partnership between Visit Sarasota County and JetBlue Airlines. The slogan is “Sarasota in Shorts.” It’s a play on the idea that when the weather is cold up North, people can do anything, from Christmas shopping to golf to sitting on the beach, in shorts while in Sarasota. JetBlue flies three direct flights into Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, two from New York and one, Saturdays, from Boston.

“We’re really excited about this,” said Visit Sarasota County Communications Director Erin Duggan. “We hope it will be really cold up there in November and December.”

The campaign is the first time Visit Sarasota County has partnered with a major national airline. It’s also the first time the office, the former Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau, has spent a chunk of its annual ad budget, usually in the low-seven figures, on one campaign.

The most recent setback Visit Sarasota County addresses with the “Sarasota in Shorts” campaign is the loss of AirTran Airways. A subsidiary of Southwest, AirTran terminated service from Sarasota Bradenton International Airport Aug. 11. The airline represented about 33% of the airport’s annual passenger traffic.

“Given the loss of flights with AirTran,” said airport President and CEO Rick Piccolo, “JetBlue is really important.”

But an even more painful punch hit Visit Sarasota County in October. That’s when John Deere announced it planned to move its dealer conference from Sarasota-Bradenton to suburban Orlando. The forest equipment and agriculture tractor firm’s conference was a three-week procession of product displays, seminars and live demonstrations that brought at least 3,000 people to town.

At the time, Visit Sarasota County President Virginia Haley said the loss would have a huge impact — it was the largest single piece of business to come back every year. Local hotel managers and restaurant owners worried about the loss, too.

The “Sarasota in Shorts” campaign, said Duggan, was launched out of conversations Visit Sarasota County officials held with local business owners worried about the impact of the John Deere defection.
JetBlue will match whatever Visit Sarasota County spends on the campaign, said Duggan, which will likely be between $200,000 and $300,000. The campaign will include TV, radio, print and Web ads, plus a component in New York City-area buses and subways. JetBlue also plans to run commercials for the campaign on its in-flight TVs.