Fort Lauderdale CVB Launches 2012 Multimedia Marketing Plan

Fort Lauderdale CVB Launches 2012 Multimedia Marketing Plan
By Kerry Medina

As the Broward County Convention Center celebrates its 20th anniversary, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau unveiled its plans for the future in print, online, TV and outdoor, to create more demand for visitors and groups. The 2012 Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB marketing plan positions a higher digital profile with new mobi sunny.org sites for all smartphone formats and tablets.

The new 2012 Vacation Playbook and Meeting Guide will be available digitally as well as for iPads. Greater Fort Lauderdale will grow its brand presence through enhanced social media platforms and engagement with new mobi web design in the coming year. Hotel bookings on Facebook will be available before 2012 for Greater Fort Lauderdale properties.

The plan also targets gay travel, pre- and post-cruise, destination weddings, multicultural, family and reunion groups, and cultural tourism with specialty programs in the works. The film and entertainment industry, a market segment that has enjoyed considerable growth since the bureau’s takeover of the Broward County Film Commission last year, will add a new emphasis on fashion and music in 2012.

Returning are such well-received programs as Lauderdale Spa Chic, Vacation Like A VIP, Super Summer Savings and the Dine Out Lauderdale culinary program, which drive consumer travel in the summer and shoulder season.

Newer programs including LauderLove, the CVB’s official destination weddings and honeymoon program, complete with an Ambassador of Bliss; Fit Lauderdale, a program designed for active vacations; and LauderdKids, promoting family travel, will direct visitors to a wide-range of events and activities based on personal interests.

Gay travel marketing endeavors including the Mild to Wild mobi site and partnership with IGLTA, as well as ongoing rainbow promotions hosted on the CVB’s official tourism site, www.sunny.org/glbt, will continue throughout the coming year.

To grow meetings business, a Customer Advisory Board will be created and midsized meetings will be targeted. There is also a new meetings app in the works and the Lauderdale Convention Collection, a marketing coalition of the Convention Center, and a cluster of six hotels near the center for increased convention marketing.

Also, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau has launched a new video to promote destination pre- and post-cruise vacations just in time for Cruise Lines International Association’s (CLIA) National Cruise Vacation Week.

Port Everglades is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world, hosting 12 cruise lines and 45 ships. Among the major lines calling the area home are Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, MSC Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Seabourn and Silversea Cruises.