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Trigaux: Amid arctic blasts up north, Florida goes all out in pitch for tourists

 
Published Feb. 18, 2015

Talk about striking while the winter is frigid.

The volume, variety and sheer creativity of current advertising by various regions of Florida to woo visitors here is at max volume amid wretched weather conditions up North. Kudos go to Pinellas County's millennial-focused guerilla marketing strike last week when actual snowmen appeared on the corners of downtown streets in New York and Chicago urging chilled locals to head south.

Newly named Pinellas tourism chief David Downing has set a high bar even higher with the county's edgy, digital Winterblows.com campaign aimed at young adults.

"We are building more visitors, starting conversations with a demographic we are not very conversant with," Downing says. When Tampa Bay/Pinellas competes for tourists near globally recognized places like Orlando and Miami, the message must stand out.

Gov. Rick Scott crowed Monday that Florida nailed another record year in 2014 with 97.3 million visitors, while Pinellas hit its own record high of 5.9 million tourists spending the night.

Dazzling numbers. But nobody wants to be the tourism sucker left standing when those numbers eventually slip.

"The pressure is on to keep up the engagement," Downing says of the latest Pinellas campaign. "It is not a 'one and done' thing."

Across the state, Florida seems to be positively howling for more visitors.

Fort Lauderdale tourism officials this month hooked up monitors in five Chicago bus shelters to hold a live video chat with a sun-garbed "Sunny" character on a South Florida beach as cold-tolerant, bikini-clad models handed out sunglasses and ice scrapers to Northern viewers.

Promoters of the Florida Keys recently built an 8-foot, 1,000-pound key lime pie at Boston's South Station rail terminal.

And tourism agency Visit Florida is pushing Black History month events in the state.

In a clever twist, even the New York town of Ithaca briefly waved the white flag at winter.

"That's it. We surrender. Winter, you win. Key West, anyone?" The message, with an inviting shot of the Florida Keys, appeared on the town's VisitIthaca.com website in recent days.

"Due to this ridiculously stupid winter, Ithaca invites you to visit the Florida Keys this week," said its visitor page — at least until the message was removed after upstate New York ski operators complained.

Pinellas tourism chief Downing suggests Ithaca's unorthodox ploy sparked plenty of attention.

When was the last time, he says, that Ithaca tourism prompted any national attention?

"We feel the need to always be looking for new and inventive ways to promote a destination," Downing says.

There are times, he says, when you have to "let your brand go to let it live."

The Pinellas brand looks pretty lively these days.

Contact Robert Trigaux at rtrigaux@tampabay.com. Follow @venturetampabay.