Daytona Beach, Florida, is, of course, known for the Daytona 500 and Bike Week. And they don’t call it the “World’s Most Famous Beach” for nothing. But this oceanside destination wanted planners to know that meetings at the beach — from the sand to the Speedway — make everything better. With the help of Digital Edge, the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau was able to change the perception of the destination, build awareness that Daytona Beach is a premier place to meet and generate new group business.
The Daytona Beach Area CVB had concentrated heavily on leisure tourism but wanted to focus on meetings marketing. It has the fifth largest convention center in Florida — the Ocean Center Daytona Beach — located just 400 feet(!) from the Atlantic Ocean. And the iconic Daytona International Speedway had just undergone a $400 million renovation that included a beautiful meeting space that was not well known yet.
The CVB needed an agency with a strong background in B2B marketing, particularly in the meetings and conventions industry, to position Daytona Beach competitively, target highly-qualified new planner audiences and highlight the destination’s new meetings product and renovations.
Time to meet (at) the World’s Most Famous Beach…
Daytona Beach partnered with Digital Edge to leverage the destination’s brand for meeting planners, as well as sports organizers, with a digitally focused campaign. The goals were to elevate Daytona Beach to reach new planner audiences and show them how the destination and its product had evolved to attract a higher ROI group clientele.
The awareness-focused strategic plan spotlighted the meetings package first and foremost, followed by the beachside destination’s appeal. Utilizing Daytona Beach’s existing brand assets, voice and tone, Digital Edge developed a hyper-focused spin to message the meetings product. We ensured the campaign elements screamed ‘Daytona Beach’ and showed the destination’s overall evolution, especially for hosting meetings and events having equal or more product to offer groups compared to other high-tier destinations. This strategically positioned Daytona Beach across digital channels to make the destination competitive with Tier 1 and 2 destinations pursuing the same group size post-pandemic.
As a Florida native, Digital Edge Associate Creative Director Austin Sherrill was familiar with Daytona Beach as a spring break spot, so he wanted to think of a fun, clever way to help usher in the destination’s focus on meetings. And the campaign messaging — “You’ve Grown Up. So Have We.” — was born, and an A/B split test of banners on Facebook and Google determined that headline messaging resonated most with the audience.
Through strategic marketing, Digital Edge has helped the Daytona Beach Area CVB change the destination’s perception among planners, build awareness that Daytona Beach is an excellent meeting destination and create new group business.
With a shift in focus to targeting new meeting planner audiences, like the corporate market, and highlighting new meeting space, the CVB reports it’s seeing a lot of positives in that market. And as of mid-2023, the CVB said that leads were pacing ahead of 2022 and booked business was about to go ahead of last year.
In addition, the virtual sales kit has provided Daytona Beach’s sales team with multiple one-sheets that include the information planners need. The team is able to use these for their appointment shows and sales calls.
(April 2022–July 2023)