• by Karl Greenberg , September 14, 2013

Florida's official tourism marketing arm, Visit Florida, is launching a fall brand campaign focused on young and mature travelers. You know -- the ones with money, since they obviously don't have kids, and are going to spend premium, since they aren't on a Waffle House budget. 

The state tourism organization notes that fall isn't huge for Florida, as is the case with most tourism destinations. The state, however, estimates that these autumnal visitors spend $133 per day, and that if even 20% of the state’s visitors were to stay one more day, that would translate to a $2 billion spending increase statewide -- enough for a whole lot of waffles.

So the state's going national for the fall iteration of "This Must Be the Sunshine" campaign, with the more targeted message around the idea that, hey -- stick around and see things that don't involve Mickey Mouse and "It's a small small world."

The campaign, bringing in travel companies like Orbitz, Southwest and AAA, comprises national digital and print elements, plus regional TV in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia and Washington. The organization says it expects the campaign, which runs through mid-November, to garner 400 million impressions.     

As the state has done on a regular basis with each campaign, it is going social to get residents to Tweet about what they love about their area. This reporter is from Tallahassee, so he can attest to scuba diving in North Florida springs, the Tour of the Suwannee River Valley bike ride, the Redneck Riviera and Martha Ann's seafood, but that's another story. The state is making its Share a Little Sunshine the social central for this aspect of the campaign with a #LoveFL hashtag as well as the other social sites Floridians have been using to get the word out: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Vine, Tumblr and Pinterest. 

The company's partnership with Orbitz centers on a microsite, Orbitz.com/Florida, on the travel aggregator. The program is being supported by a digital and broadcast campaign through November runs on Orbitz.com along with search engine marketing (SEM) efforts, a TV commercial and offsite media banners to drive travel bookings to Florida.