DAYTONA BEACH — "Wide Open Fun," the theme of a new marketing campaign to be launched this year by the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, is touted by area tourism leaders as the product of extensive research, including out-of-town focus groups of potential visitors.
But based on viewing video tapes of those sessions obtained through a New-Journal public records request, a consensus for the slogan didn't clearly emerge in the groups that met in Miami, Orlando and Atlanta.
Newspaper staffers watched nearly 12 hours of footage of focus groups discussing various slogans conducted by Ormond Beach-based Mid-Florida Marketing & Research. The sessions took place on Oct. 3 in Miami; on Oct. 11 in Orlando; and on Oct. 26 in Atlanta. Moderated by Evelyn Fine, Mid-Florida’s president, the groups consisted of two panels of eight participants in each city and unfolded as fluid, often freewheeling conversations.
At times, participants didn’t make the connection between "Wide Open Fun" — a slogan that triggered an avalanche of online criticism from News-Journal readers when the CVB first announced it — and Daytona Beach. One woman in Orlando, for instance, offered her opinion that the concept didn’t fit Daytona Beach because the area is too crowded.
“It’s crowded and there’s not really that much to do,” she said. “I wouldn’t turn down a free trip there, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. Technically, the ocean is wide open. I guess if you, like, go out on the beach and go into the ocean, then, yeah.” (The identity of group members is not disclosed.)
In other moments, focus groups also offered praise for Wide Open Fun, such as the Miami man who said the concept suggested that there was “lots to do.” Another man in the same session praised a prototype ad based on the theme as “attractive.” Two other prospective catchphrases, "Vacation Outside the Lines" and "Dare to Daytona Beach," also received a mixture of cheers and jeers over the hours of discussion.
"It runs the gamut of emotions when you hear them talk about your hometown, but you learn something," said Lori Campbell Baker, executive director of the Daytona Beach Area CVB. "We know there are some people with outdated ideas of the area. We want to introduce them to the best of what the area is like."
Cost of the campaign
The Wide Open Fun campaign is the brainchild of the Brandon Agency, a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina-based advertising firm that on Oct. 1 started a two-year contract with the CVB to market the area to potential visitors.
Based on a contract that the Halifax Area Advertising Authority board of directors ratified in September, the ad agency will be paid $200,000 to produce and place ads using the new slogan in various media outlets for the campaign. The agency is paid a monthly retainer of $44,375 that includes media commission, coordination and analytics. Together, that represents an investment of $732,500 for the year-long campaign.
The HAAA is one of three tourism ad authorities in Volusia County supported by bed taxes collected by the county from local hotels, campgrounds and short-term vacation rental properties to promote the respective areas as destinations for tourism and special events. The advertising committee of the HAAA board of directors will take its first look at finished images for the upcoming campaign at a public meeting at 3 p.m. Jan. 9 at the Residence Inn by Marriott, 3209 S. Atlantic Ave. Daytona Beach Shores. Committee recommendations will be brought to the HAAA board at 2 p.m. Jan. 16, also at the Residence Inn. The public is invited to both meetings.
During the fiscal year which ended Sept. 30, more than $21 million was collected in bed taxes countywide, with half of the revenues going to fund the county-run Ocean Center convention complex in Daytona Beach. The other half went to the county’s three tourism ad authorities to market their respective areas — the Daytona Beach/Halifax Area, Southeast Volusia and West Volusia — as tourism and special event destinations. More than $8 million went to the Daytona Beach Area CVB, according to the county’s revenue division.
Cost of the focus groups is included in Fine's annual contract with the HAAA, which was renewed for one year in April 2017 by the HAAA board.
Fine’s contract calls for $54,000 in annual agency fees in exchange for services that include monthly, seasonal and annual visitor profiles, occupancy and average daily room rate reports, statistics on visitation trends and an annual economic impact report.
Mid-Florida typically conducts three focus groups a year, Fine said. Topics of discussion vary depending on the interests of the HAAA board of directors, she said.
Last year, Fine conducted three focus groups in Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia, cities based on potential new air traffic markets for Daytona Beach International Airport. The previous year, focus groups were conducted in Houston, Tampa and Orlando, she said.
The focus groups consist of a diverse assortment of subjects with a household income ranging from $45,000-$81,000-plus, and ages from 28 to 69 and older. Respondents must have traveled to Florida at least twice in the past four years, with at least one trip to a destination other than Orlando. They must not have been part of any past travel surveys, nor in any focus group for the past 18 months, she said.
Respondents typically receive $125 and lunch, Fine said.
Volusia County tourism officials and advertising agency representatives generally watch the group’s reactions from behind two-way mirrors in sessions that last roughly two hours. At the October focus groups, observers included executives from the Brandon Agency.
Conversation, not consensus
Consensus among participants isn’t part of the process, Fine said.
“This is not statistical research,” Fine said. “It’s interpretative. I’m not looking for consensus. We don’t expect them to agree on things.”
Instead, the conversational observations must be interpreted by Fine, ad executives and CVB officials.
“I’ve been talking to people about Daytona Beach for focus groups since the late ‘70s,” Fine said. “Over time, I figure out where the clues are to what they are thinking. You put it all together and put it into the context of the other research that we have, and you form conclusions. Focus groups are never the be-all and end-all. It all has to be part of the research program.”
That additional information includes research on the market conducted by the Brandon Agency that was used to create potential marketing themes, said Baker, of the Daytona Beach Area CVB.
“The focus groups are an important part of choosing the ultimate advertising campaign theme, but there is a lot of research — recent and compiled from past studies — that goes into deciding which concepts to actually test,” Baker said by email. "Through 12 hours of focus group input it was found that, of the three solid concepts presented, one rose to the top. There were some elements of the other two concepts that did not work for our target audiences."
Additionally, the CVB and Mid-Florida Marketing also conduct “Image and Use” studies, months of surveys done in the summer and fall that yield statistics about why tourists visit Daytona Beach — and why they don’t, Fine said.
“Those are very important perceptions, even if the people haven’t been here,” Fine said. “From that information, the agency comes up with what they consider compelling concepts.”
It’s a combination of statistical surveys and fluid focus-group conversations that inform decisions made by the HAAA board to be executed by the ad agency and CVB, Fine said.
“Research is either statistical or qualitative,” Fine said. “They are both valid and recognized and accepted methods of research. We didn’t invent them; they’ve been used for years and years. The methodology is the methodology.”
Regardless of research, tourism marketing decisions ultimately are subjective, Fine said.
“But understand that it’s subjective coming from people who have been looking at this industry for a long time, so they have earned the right to have their input,” said Fine, whose company has been the source of Volusia County's tourism data for decades. “These are experts. We hire them to be experts. I would consider myself to be an expert in Daytona Beach tourism. The people in the advertising agency are experts in advertising and people’s responses to it.
“Everybody’s intentions are honorable, to understand what happened and come up with the interpretation.”