5 Ideas for Marketing Gulf Coast Tourism During This Oil Spill

A a gulf coast resident (New Orleans) I've got a front row seat for yet another record sized man made disaster and how that disaster is disrupting one of the largest economic drivers of the gulf south - Tourism. So today I thought I'd do a sort of take off on my Free Idea Days and offer tourism marketers in the gulf south my two cents on how they might want to approach the upcoming summer travel season.

First thing I'd suggest is to spend wisely. BP has given Florida $25 million and Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana are each getting $15 million to support summer ad campaigns telling tourists to "come on down." Already Florida and the other states are planning to spend fast.

Kathy Torian, a Visit Florida spokeswoman, said the state had already planned a $2.5 million advertising buy to promote the state’s Gulf beaches chiefly to a “drive-time” market stretching through much of the Southeast.

But the problem is, you're not going to be able to advertise your way out of this one. It didn't work for Vegas when they wanted us all to believe they were family friendly and it didn't work for New Orleans post Katrina when we wanted everyone to believe we were back to 100% and ready for tourists. Consumers don't believe advertising anymore and frankly, there is no way an ad on a network is effective when just moments after the newscast on that same network shows b-roll of oil washing up on a beach. So spend wisely folks -- and don't just default to advertising and PR for that matter.

Second, embrace digital channels. Consumers are going to be actively seeking out information about the status of the gulf south beaches and they'll do that online. These consumers don't want to cancel their beach vacation so they're looking for a reason to maintain their plans -- it's up to gulf coast tourism marketers to provide the rationale for keeping the vacation versus canceling it.

Show don't tell. Look at what Sandestin is doing with a simple webcam Webcams are your friend but don't hide them three pages deep in your site and get them down close to the beach so I can get a really, really good view of that pristine beach. Get them on the home page so I can see them as soon as I land on the page versus having to dig around to find it. And add photos, blog posts, testimonials, etc., to leverage bread crumb marketing and ensure that a consumer thinking about coming to your beach knows it's still clean and still a great summer vacation option. You might even want to go so far as to create a living website that immerses the consumer in the gulf coast right now -- virtually -- so you can use social media and digital technology to alter any negative brand perception like we did with Mardi Gras this year.

Third, use the blog a day strategy. There are lots of great bloggers out there -- not just travel bloggers -- that would love an excuse to hit the beach this summer. Invite them down. Every time someone cancels, offer that room up to a blogger (one room to one blogger per day). You have minimum costs (cleaning fees) and the room is likely going to go unused, so why not give a blogger a killer deal and give yourself more inbound links to that webcam we just talked about.

Fourth, redefine the beach experience. Beach vacations don't have to be just about the beach. Get creative and come up with activities -- especially focused on kids -- that give families a reason to come anyway...even if some or all of the beach may be unusable. Yes it will cost a few bucks, but it will go a long way towards saving your summer and just might expand your market in the long run.

Fifth -- repost all the good news. Form a committee, hire a volunteer army, or flat out pay for a service to find every single news article, blog post, tweet, Facebook post, etc., here and abroad that says anything good or bad about the state of the gulf coast tourism/beaches and then start feeding that content to your social media channels. Use it as ammunition to counter negative or inaccurate reports. If a news story appears that says your beaches have oil and they do not, comment on that story online and provide links to other news sources that contradict the messy beaches story. You'll make sure that future readers see the corrected information and you'll even give them a third party resource to trust vs having to take your word for it.

What's happening to the gulf south is simply terrible. But what's going to make something terrible become something catastrophic is a lack of true information. I live in New Orleans and honestly, I couldn't tell you for sure which beaches (if any) have oil and which don't. If tourism marketers on the gulf coast are going to win this war, they need to get active, get coordinated and make sure they keep they create plenty of positive news today, tomorrow and all summer.

But that's just my two cents -- what do you think? Care to help the folks on the gulf coast by tossing out your ideas for what they should/could do to market the area this summer?