Beach’s tourism marketing to focus on new media Spring Break coming in 'blasts'
PANAMA CITY BEACH - The Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau will restructure its deal with MTV next year to develop a database that allows "blasts" of e-mails to Spring Break students.
The e-mails will allow marketing efforts to encourage return visitation and target certain visitors with local discounts from specific businesses, TDC Executive Director Dan Rowe told a combined board meeting of the Bay County Tourist Development Council and CVB on Tuesday.
Cell phones often are the best method to reach today's college students, Rowe said.
The effort will be similar to "American Idol's" use of the new media to collect votes from American viewers or Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's use of a massive "blast" of e-mails to announce his running mate, Rowe said.
Rowe met with the combined board Tuesday to brief members on the CVB's fiscal 2009 budget, estimated to be $3,891,605, or $152,098 less than fiscal 2008.
Most of the money comes from the 3-cent bed tax paid by tourists and is separate from the TDC budget, and money dedicated for beach renourishment, also funded through the bed tax.
Rowe told board members the CVB also is establishing a Family Spring Break Campaign that will target families with school-age children for the period March 28 to April 12, as well as the traditional marketing campaigns for summer and fall.
Rowe said another major focus in the coming year will be $110,000 budgeted for the redesign and relaunch of the CVB Web site, VisitPanamaCity.com. In addition, a new interactive marketing manager will be hired to help increase e-marketing efforts.
MTV to return
Rowe said MTV again will be in Panama City Beach during Spring Break 2009.
The popular television music video station will encourage college students to register online with the CVB to enable the e-mails, which only will go out during the season. A student at a California university, for example, would not receive text messages while sitting in a physics classroom, he said.
In addition, all e-mail promotions from local businesses will be screened carefully, Rowe said. No promotion of alcohol consumption will be allowed.
Although recent marketing efforts for Panama City Beach have broadened into areas other than Spring Break, the booming business during that time is worth the continued investment, especially during current uncertain economic times, Rowe said.
In other business, some board members expressed concern about the unsightly blue garbage cans along the beach. Rowe said there was not enough money in the current budget to replace them, but the CVB would look into whether a pilot program could be studied to replace the cans or make them more attractive.
"We take the cleanliness of the beach very seriously," he said.