Panama City Beach TDC: Y Partnership is O-U-T

On Thursday morning the TDC Marketing Committee met to decide on three potential agencies to run Panama City Beach future campaigns. While there were nearly two dozen requests for qualifications, only the top three would be chosen. Among those top chosen, there was one glaring omission: Y Partnership. The agency that has handled all of Panama City Beach’s Creative/Media Campaigns as well as Public Relations is, unofficially, out.

The top three agencies, broken into two disciplines, were chosen by the committee to give a presentation to the board for a final decision. The agencies broke down as follows:

Creative/Media

1. Fahlgren

2. Beber Silverstein

3. LKM

Public Relations

1. Hayworth

2. Lou Hammond

3. Fahlgren

Although the committee initially thought to have separate agencies for each discipline, Fahlgren proved itself to be capable of doing both after being the chosen Agency at VisitFlorida for 10 years. No contracts talks have started but the length of contracts could be 2-3 years with an extension clause. The chosen agencies will give presentations to the board the week of September 7th, where the board will rank the three and try to ink a deal with the top agency.

Panama City Beach TDC will continue to use Y Partnership through September 30th.

Does Spring Break Make PCB a Less Attractive Destination?

The answer to the title question is a categorical YES, demonstrated in almost “Duh!” fashion by a Y Partnership study. The study, presented at Tuesday’s TDC meeting by Y Partnership representative Peter Yesawich, showed that 3 times as many respondents, in a study that included 1,025 adults, believed Spring Break makes Panama City Beach a less attractive destination. While this conclusion, and other conclusions in the study, did not come as a surprise to me or those in the meeting attendance, what became apparent was that the debates were more than just Spring Break banter, but a commentary on Panama City Beach’s identity.

Dan Rowe during the meeting made a poignant statement, “We’re at a critical juncture approaching Spring Break 2010. Exactly 60 days from the opening of the new airport.” The question no doubt on everyone’s mind was how we present ourselves to this new markets. Do we condemn our relationship with College Spring Break and bid for a new clientele or do we hit the new markets hard with Spring Break advertising to maximize the season? Obviously, the question does not inspire a simple answer, but at the core of it we have to really ask ourselves who we are and what is the identity we are trying to assume? Are we the party town of old, are we Destin 2.0 or are we something different entirely?

In some way, and maybe I’m the only one, I’ve always likened Destin and Panama City Beach to siblings; Destin being the older, more civilized sister and Panama City Beach the crazy, fun-loving little brother. For years, this analogy fit quite well. But with recent developments Panama City Beach has changed; it grew up, as little brothers must eventually do, and is turning out to be quite a winner.

The reality is although Panama City Beach has indeed “grown up” enough to even make its older sister jealous, PCB differs from every other destination because at its heart it’s still the fun-loving life of the party. This is a sentiment even acknowledged by Andy Phillips, who said “We have a party reputation, folks, that’s just who we are. People come here because we are fun. They can come here and put lawn chairs in the back of Cadillac Escalades and cruise the strip.”

Any conversation about Spring Break, concurrently, is a conversation about Panama City Beach’s identity. To ask, “do we market to the College Students or the Family Spring Breakers during Spring Season” is merely the small scope of a much broader issue: who and what are we?

Take Orlando for example. They are an amusement destination and have completely embraced it: even guest service agents are trained to smile big, laugh and be able to tell you at least one Mickey Mouse story. Now, if Orlando suddenly wanted to become a stodgier business-traveler destination, they’d be in trouble. Which may be the very reason why destinations like Panama City Beach have such a hard time shaking the party-town stigma. Maybe, on some level, that’s just what they are.

All that being said, the solution to Panama City Beach’s Spring Break/Identity conundrum does not have an easy answer. Panama City Beach, frankly, is somewhere in between party and civility; like a frat boy, turned charming businessman. At some point a balance can be found and I believe Mr. Marty McDaniel, TDC chairman, hit on the key idea. “We are going to have to learn to evolve.”

Evolution is the key word. How do we evolve and what are we evolving into? The evolution of Panama City Beach may not yet be visible, but by defining and accepting our current identity, I think, we have the opportunity to gingerly guide it in the direction we want.

The truth is, after all the talk, what will probably happen is no more funds will be allocated to Spring Break and instead moved into beach conservation efforts and perhaps a little into Family Spring Break marketing. And, frankly, that’s where the money should go. We need to keep our best asset as clean as possible and Family Spring Break may be the next big thing. Spring Breakers of the college type will always come to Panama City Beach whether you market to them or not. You may hate them or love them, but at least at the moment, they seem to know us a little better than we know ourselves.

The mixture of Family and College Spring Break will work. I’ve seen it and you’ve seen it. Every year in February and early March there is a mixture of Spring Breakers and Snowbirds. The Snowbirds take just enough rooms to keep the beach from being overrun by students, which in turn lessens the amount of incidents and overall beach filth. Somehow, both groups are able to seamlessly coexist. The college breakers are at the clubs with no worries, the Snowbirds are entertained by the crazy antics and perhaps even a little nostalgia and everyone’s happy; a little bit of responsibility and a little bit of fun. I suppose that is the inevitable destination of our evolution, question is how to get there unscathed.

On Aug. 19 the TDC will gather again to hold a community forum for PCB residents to express their opinion on the matter before any final decisions are made.

Could This Be Love? TDC: Fall Marketing Preview

During Tuesday’s TDC Marketing Committee meeting concerning Fall/Winter marketing efforts, one of the most memorable, albeit most chuckle-inducing, comments came from Jack Bishop, who said, “selling Panama City Beach in the Fall is like selling swimsuits to Eskimos.” Well, while that statement has been true in the past, if the marketing committee and Y-partnership have their way, Eskimos everywhere might want to start shopping for sandals.

The phrase that stole the short meeting was a simple and catchy, “”Fall in Love Again with Panama City Beach,” a phrase unveiled by Peter Yesawich of Y Partnership which could provide a solid character for Panama City Beach’s spotty Fall Season. The romantic phrase may seem a bit transparent initially, but the idea behind it, as explained by Yesawich, is to target adult couples aged 45-64 who, once the kids have gone back to school, are looking for a reason to vacation. Based on Y Partnership’s research, 58% of leisure travelers took a trip with their spouses (no children) and did so most frequently during fall. He believes it’s possible to encourage that market by showcasing the many things to “love” about getting away to Panama City Beach.

This phrase’s lure hides within its applicability: create lots of small, festive events and tie in private sector business into one theme; i.e “Fall In Love with Shopping at Pier Park or Fall In Love with the Seafood Wine and Music Festival,” and all of a sudden you have mettle, a framework for which ideas can be attached. Yesawich’s plan is to apply the love theme as a seasonal draw similar to South Walton’s Autumn Tides promotion where a season’s worth of events are empowered by uniting them all under the same theme. Judging by South Walton’s success, it’s pretty a good idea.

The idea instantly became popular among the marketing committee and the meeting attendees. Even Mr. Buddy Wilkes found the love theme intriguing saying, “ ‘Fall in Love again’ may be the way to invite people to come see the new [Panama City] Beach and fall in love with it all over again. It’s easily applicable to other events.” Easy application to events, package deals and the hugely under-appreciated wedding market is what gives the theme life; the question remains as to what will make it work? The answer may not be as easily accepted.

Mr. Yesawich’s theme is merely a spring board idea. For the idea to take off, businesses locally have to buy into it collectively. Within the theme, condos, hotels and attractions are encouraged to promote couples and feature promotional rates and incentives to potential tourists. If everyone gets on that spring board and actually get out and promote it, the theme has a real chance of lifting off. This idea isn’t necessarily something that will boost fall business over one season, but could, over time, create a bit of a buzz for future seasons. If you can imagine a season filled with street festivals, outdoor concerts, wine tastings, music and art shows coupled with the seasonally low rates tied in to packages for couples, it all seems, from the onset, like a can’t-miss deal. But, its a long way from done.

The marketing committee plans to reconvene in 2 weeks to talk media, costs and coordination of what could be a truly successful attempt at generating fall business.

As Dan Rowe put it, “We must provide [potential tourists] a compelling invitation.” Is there a better invitation than good ol’ fashioned romance? You be the judge.

4/18/08 CVB/TDC Marketing Committee Meeting – Smr 2008 Mrktng, Indian Summer Festival

9 of the 11 committee members were present. Absent were Debi Knight and Russ Smith.

President Dan Rowe and Peter Yesawich announced that Y Partnership has removed Barry Lott from the Summer Marketing Campaign assignment. Mr. Yesawich also apologize on behalf of the agency for the inappropriate derogatory name directed at audience member Charles Mason by Mr. Lott at last week’s Board meeting. It was not made clear whether Mr. Lott has been removed from all CVB business or just the current campaign.

Summer Marketing Campaign Changes

Mr. Yesawich presented the committee with the options available for the changes to the Summer Marketing Campaign approved by the Board at their last meeting. The program targets our traditional drive markets of Georgia, Alabama, and Nashville/Chattanooga for a 12 week period beginning May 4^th and has three elements. The first is newspaper ads in 12 newspapers throughout Georgia (but not the AJC due to high-costs), the Nashville Tennessean, and 4 papers in Alabama.

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Notes and Comments from the TDC/CVB Board Meeting 4/8/08

Only 5 of the 9 board members were present. Absent were Mike Nelson, Mayor Oberst, Yonnie Patronis, and Rick Russell.

College Spring Break Marketing

Although President Dan Rowe previously advised the Board that he would be asking them to consider their plans for 2009 at this meeting, he is now suggesting that the subject be postponed until the May meeting. Rowe explained that he would like to wait until the research and bed tax data is available for March.

While I understand Rowe’s reasoning, there is now a problem. Some Board and Marketing Committee members have previously suggested that the TDC/CVB should, at a minimum, discontinue direct funding of a College Spring Break marketing program. If implemented, this would still allow a co-op to request special event advertising support from the Board. However, the CVB’s Special Events Advertising Policy and Procedure requires that an application be filed by June 1, 2008. It would be difficult for an application to be prepared between the May 13th Board meeting and the June 1st deadline. I had hoped that the Board would have officially voted to give notice that 2009 College Spring Break funding might be discontinued at this meeting. As it stands now, the College Spring Break interests could claim that they had insufficient time to prepare a potential Special Event funding request.

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