Above, the State of Florida's classic 1970's national TV tourism ad that I've posted on the blog many times before. This spot ad was hugely-popular and successful, especially in the Midwest and East Coast, and was by far THE best tourism TV ad the state has ever produced. To this day, it still makes people smile when they see it or hear that catchy jingle, "When You Need It Bad We've Got It Good."
But in a much-more competitive travel marketplace than existed over thirty years ago, with so many disparate consumer markets, and different ways of reaching out to prospective travelers, it seems to me that we need to see the state come up with something new that's just as compelling as this was. http://www.youtube.com/embed/OxB0kjqO6SI
Today I wanted to follow-up with some specificity on my blog post of this past Saturday, April 20th, which had some great news that some of you readers of the blog might want to take full-advantage of in the near-future -just like me- regarding a game-changing marketing move
A move that will simultaneously make travel to a dynamic part of the world more convenient and cheaper, while also offering local Broward County-area hotels, restaurants and hospitality-related businesses an entrée to an affluent English-speaking tourism market -esp. families- that they have barely even begun to scratch: Scandinavia:
Scandinavian Delight! Starting November 30th, fly nonstop between Ft Lauderdale and Oslo on Norwegian.com for as low as $238, or fly from FLL to Stockholm Arlanda for only $269, plus taxes and luggage charges; @Oslo, @norway, @stockholm, @sweden
A comparable round-trip flight on SAS to Oslo or Stockholm, even in Economy and made weeks in advance, is well over $1,000, as I know from experience in January.
Compare that to what Norwegian.com will offer starting in late November, with a direct flight to Oslo from FLL.
And coming back this way, with these flights, Broward is now much-cheaper airfare-wise, than flying from Stockholm or Oslo to The Maldives, a very popular vacation spot for Swedish families that's heavily-promoted, along with, of course, Thailand.
The latter is a holiday travel location that many Swedish families have been to so many times before that at least some of their kids are actually blah towards going there again. (Really.)
And since I neglected to mention it in Saturday's post, or so far today, you should know that Norwegian.com is the fastest-growing airline in Europe and has already placed orders for 200 new airplanes.
More at:
Norwegian airline prepares for global expansion
By Jorn Madslien, Business reporter, BBC News
1 April 2013 Last updated at 20:24 ET
Here are two photos from my blog of some travel-related advertising I snapped while I in Stockholm in January, and trust me, these display ads are everywhere you look.
You literally can not escape them.
And that's in part because they work so well.
Especially when it's 17 degrees Fahrenheit and sundown is at 3:45 p.m.
"SOLREA - SVERIGES BÄSTA RESESÖK"
The colder and snowier it got in Stockholm, the more this simple ad seemed like genius. Sometimes, you don't have to reinvent the advertising wheel. When you're a travel agency and it's cold and snowing, make your target audience think of summers and traveling to an inviting warm beach. Above, one of the many Sistaminuten.se display ads I saw on the side of pay phones throughout Stockholm. This one was located on Ringvägen, across the street from the Åhléns Dept. store (with the Hemköp grocery store in the basement that I visited frequently) west of busy Götgatan and the Skanstull T-bana, the southern commercial heart of trendy and fun Södermalm. January 11, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
*There was recently a controversy with this ad campaign that I will be blogging about quite soon.
Pictured: A Mom and her two kids sitting on the beach staring out at the waves. Only two blocks from the B&B I stayed at in the Södermalm area of Stockholm on my recent trip, the #1 B&B in the city, also located on Ringvägen were two other display ads promoting travel. The one in the distance is for SAS, which I flew on to Stockholm, and the one in the foreground, on a public telephone booth, is the "Holiday is where the Heart is" ad campaign for VING which started the week before Christmas. January 12, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
Here's VING's very-popular "Holiday is where the heart is" TV spot: http://www.dagensmedia.se/webbtv/reklamfilm/ article3607242.ece
Not surprisingly, this ad was in heavy rotation during morning TV news shows, so much so that I started hearing this jingle in my head by my 3rd day in Stockholm.
Here's more of VING's smart and attractive display ads: http://www.dagensmedia.se/taggar/?tag=Ving
As a friend who's a travel professional in Sweden explained to me, since I didn't know myself, flights from Oslo or Stockholm to The Maldives or to FLL are roughly the same time-wise.
But if you compare the costs of airfare using Norwegian.com, NOW flying to FLL from Scandinavia is a ridiculous bargain, by hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and is a bargain that is multiplied by each person who flies here.
After being over there and getting a small sense of how things are done, my own opinion is that the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) needs to really increase their advertising and marketing dollars in Scandinavia and start working on some compelling co-op advertising with Norwegian.com that they can start running this Fall, before the twice-weekly flights start. http://www.sunny.org/
It seems to me that we need to do this to make sure that the airline's strategy (gamble) works to everyone's satisfaction, and then at some point, they can increase the number of flights or days they fly between FLL and Oslo, whose still-new-looking airport is, in a word, sweet.
Since HB's beach is so woefully unattractive and poorly-maintained, the local postcards that I gave to some business people I met -and the new friends that I made- in Stockholm were entirely of Hollywood Beach and The Broadwalk.
Trust me, people I spoke to there in all sort sof places around Stockholm were very intrigued by what I told them about the area, esp. after hearing them relate some of the daily hassles they deal with when they go to Thailand and other tropical places.
They're looking for new places to visit, so why not our part of the world?
Contact me today for more details at hallandalebeachblog@gmail.com
