Just over a year ago, small clusters of anonymous individuals settled into darkened rooms in a dozen cities across America to watch “sneak previews” of upcoming television shows.
It was a consumer test of the sort advertising agencies have been conducting for the past 20 years. The shows themselves were irrelevant: It was the commercials that were being tested.
But what was different was the product. The Fahlgren Benito ad agency wasn’t test-marketing detergent or beer.
It was testing the state of Florida.
The viewers were pitched a whole series of catchy ads and pithy slogans for the Sunshine State. Afterward, they were asked about their responses to the individual ads.
“Florida: Out of the Blue” didn’t cut it. Mercifully, neither did “Come On, It’ll Be Fun.”
The slogan that tested best-“One Florida, Many Faces”-wound up as the new slogan for the state’s $31 billion tourist business. The line now appears in magazines and TV commercials throughout America and in Europe.
What Florida did, many other states are now doing.
Madison Avenue has come to state tourism departments.
With the travel industry established as one of the top three employers in 37 states, sophisticated advertising and marketing efforts are becoming the norm. Tourism officials are paying big bucks to agencies and specialized “image consultants” to help them find the elusive slogan and theme that will capture a state’s essence and bring in the visitors and the revenue.
The packaging of the states has come a long way from the days when Dick Newman began his stint as Illinois’ first tourism director. Back in 1963, he had to tell the world about the wonders of the Land of Lincoln on a budget of $50,000. These days, the Illinois travel office leads the country in tourism promotion spending, with a budget of more than $24 million.
Delaware, which ranks 50th, still spends $739,000. Taken as a whole, states will spend more than $110 million in advertising alone this year.
Perhaps because of ad agencies, state tourism slogans tend to sound like variants of popular commercial advertising. Just as consumers are told that grapefruit is not only for breakfast anymore, they are told that Kentucky is no longer just for Daniel Boone. Rather than waking up to a particular brand of coffee, viewers are asked to “Wake Up to Missouri.”
For many states, the key to developing a successful image is in part a matter of recognizing limitations.
Not everyone can offer year-round sun, beaches and monster theme parks.
Consider Indiana. Surveys suggested that people liked the state’s friendly residents, small-town charm and quaint attractions.
But the research also showed that recreation lovers would rather go north to Michigan, while the theme park set would prefer to travel east, where the selection was greater.
The result was a campaign focusing on history and scenery.
“We know Indiana is not a destination state where people go for a two-week vacation,” says Lynne Fuller, the state’s tourism marketing director. “But we do get the two- and three-day trips. So we tried to concentrate on quaint, charming and historical.”
That’s where “You Could Use a Little Indiana” comes in. The slogan tells consumers that the state is a good place for unwinding or for a weekend getaway.
“You have to realize that certain states are endowed with attractions that are intrinsically sexier than other states,” says Stuart Schulman, a professor who studies tourism at New York’s Kingsborough Community College.
Schulman helped design the industry’s most legendary success: the “I (heart) New York” campaign that still pulls in visitors nearly 20 years after its introduction.
It was the New York campaign that essentially launched the modern era of sophisticated state marketing, and led to the marriage of Madison Avenue and state tourism.
States still dream of finding their own equivalent of “I (heart) New York.” But so far, none has. “Virginia Is for Lovers” is about the only campaign whose success and longevity are in the same league.
Tourism directors agree that the crucial step in creating a campaign is figuring out what kind of image the state wants to promote.
But before states decide who they are, they need to know who outsiders think they are.
