• by Karl Greenberg , June 1, 2010

As of this writing, Florida's coasts have been spared the wash from the immense crude oil amoeba from BP's horror show in the Gulf of Mexico.

Scientists fear the growing slick will get picked up with the loop current, head south, make a sharp left turn, potentially sideswipe the Keys and maybe head up the coast. Florida has reason to be nervous. Tourism accounted for some $65 billion in economic activity last year, and a significant portion of visits -- from domestic travelers -- are to the state's northwest region, or the panhandle, closest to the spill.

To convince people that the beaches are fine, Florida's official tourism and visitor bureau -- Visit Florida -- has tapped into a $2 million emergency marketing fund on top of a $500,000 fund earmarked for so-called summer "drive-feeder" markets on the panhandle. And there's the $25 million that BP has promised Florida, which as of May 26 had not arrived. The state tourism Web site, www.visitflorida. com, has been posting updates on the spill.

And the region has just opened the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, the first international airport to open in the U.S. since 9/11, whose initial carriers will be Delta and Southwest.

Kathy Torian, who handles corporate communications for Visit Florida, tells Marketing Daily that northwest Florida is a critical tourism destination for the drive-feeder markets in the summer -- people who drive down to the turquoise waters of the coast from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and elsewhere. "A lot of those folks come back year after year to the panhandle beaches; 94% of our visitors are repeat visitors," says Torian.

Torian says Visit Florida is using its budget to advertise in both the panhandle and the state to drive-feeder markets. "We pulled the money we had planned to use for our summer ads for use right away in those markets for Memorial Day weekend, and reallocated the messages from previous ads to new ones," she says. "We also tapped into our $2 million emergency risk fund, working with OTED [Office of Tourism Trade and Economic Development] to free up the money, so we knew we would have that right away to begin production."

In addition to online banner ads on target-market newspaper Web sites, there are TV spots. The campaign, with a "Real People, Real Time, Real Florida" message, drives people to VisitFlorida.com, which is the strategic center of the campaign, to convince people that Florida is still unsullied.

"That's been the focus of our advertising for quite a few years now," says Torian, "so it was the right place to create a special page called "Florida Live" that would allow consumers to see images of what's going on in Florida right now posted by real people."

The page features an interactive map that launches -- as a user's cursor hovers over Florida's various regions -- live webcam feeds, Twitter postings and other content from individuals, Florida regional destination marketing organizations, and chambers of commerce.

"The idea is that consumers wondering whether what they are hearing in the media is true, or who are looking for vacation packages, can look at a web cam from that area or read Twitter postings." Torian says since May 1, the site has been getting 16,000 visits per day, averaging about 13 minutes on the Florida Live page, way over the one- to two-minute stays the site's pages have gotten historically.

The bureau is also creating 20-second versions with a 10-second tag for region-specific marketing. "That allows us to spotlight the whole state for 20 seconds, then spotlight north Florida, for instance -- letting them add their personalized messaging to drive folks to their Web sites," says Torian.

But the $2.5 million is running out very quickly, "so we are very hopeful that BP will provide the $25 million it has promised," Torian says, adding that Visit Florida would use the money to take the "Real Florida" message into markets around the U.S. and overseas.