EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine November 2018 | Page 15

is always on the lookout for less conventional — and more cost
effective — ways to promote West Volusia.
“Our strategy is to bring in influencers, bloggers, travel
writers and people that can give us third-party endorsements,”
she said. “It is really easy for us to say how great we are, but
when a journalist says how great we are, or you are included in a
story, you just can’t beat that.”
AN ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
With the wings, since dubbed the DeLand Wings, Turner had
an idea. Her agency asked Erica Group to be West Volusia’s artist
in residence and contracted her to do five more sets of wings.
The 29-year-old recently unveiled her latest installment, a pair of
freestanding fairy wings at the end of Fairy Trail in Cassadaga, a
community near DeLand.
Turner’s agency also hired her to host and narrate a video
series on what to do and see in the area, as well as where to stay
and eat.
In the series,“What’s Up in West Volusia,” Group kayaks
down the St. Johns River, where she sees manatees in Blue Spring
State Park. She meets locals, who tell her about the history of
century-old homes and how they prepare meals from scratch
with local, organic and seasonal food. Another says the fireflies
on a spring night in the
state park are a
must-see.
Old homes in woods
are visited, and the art,
brewery and culinary
scene are checked out
in DeLand, where the
main street recently was
named the best
in America.
The series has had thousands of views on channels like
YouTube, Turner said.
THE OLD FLORIDA
Another angle in their marketing is to promote West Volusia
as rather kitsch, Turner added.
At De Leon Springs State Park, for example, the Old Spanish
Sugar Mill Grill and Griddle House hasn’t changed much since
the 1960s, and diners can still cook their own pancakes on a
griddle in the middle of their table.
“It is what Florida used to be, what it might have looked like
in the 1960s,” Turner said.
The strategy appears to be working. Occupancy rates at
lodging in West Volusia shot up to 83% in July from 79% a year
earlier — and 64% in 2016, the fastest growth in the county,
according to data from Mid-Florida Marketing & Research, a
research firm.
The rest of the county has seen stable occupancy, at 73% in the
first seven months of 2018, in line with the previous year — and
up from 70% in 2016, the data shows.
WIDE. OPEN. FUN.
The challenge is different for the advertising authority in
Daytona Beach.
The beach is already a popular destination for tourists from
around the U.S. as well as Canada and Europe.
To bring more people, the key is to listen to what visitors
are saying, said Lori Campbell Baker, executive director of the
Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“Through methodical research and surveying, we determine
what our visitors love about the area, and we use this information
to carefully craft our messaging,” she said.
This led to the creation of “Wide. Open. Fun.,” the latest
campaign theme launched in November 2017.
Photo Credit: Daytona Beach Area Convention
& Visitors Bureau
NOVEMBER 2018 | 15 |