On June 24, 2010, NYC & Company – the City’s official tourism and marketing organization – announced the launch of the Get More NYC campaign and a new tagline to pitch New York City to visitors.

Get More NYC

The new tagline now says “See More. Be More. This is New York City.” The campaign includes special offers from corporate partners. There’s also a facebook game which tells visitors what kind of a New Yorker they are.

The intent, as per Willy Wong, NYC & Company’s chief creative officer, is to tap the feeling of personal transformation that lingers long after a trip to NYC ends. Speaking of the art, Wong says it “reflects the energy, diversity and passion of the city and will hopefully inspire a sense optimism for future visits.”  

They might as well have used the tagline “This is New York City. Not Las Vegas.” In fact, Jane Reiss, NYC & Company’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, does say that the Get More NYC message is a counter-point to Sin City’s “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” message.  They’d rather you take home the experience and cherish the memories until your next visit.

Also to be noted that instead of spending taxpayer funds on tourism promotion, NYC & Company has worked out partnerships with private companies - American Express, American Airlines, AT&T, Travelocity and Nickelodeon Channel.

The Get More NYC campaign is valued at $30 million, most of which NYC is getting without spending, in return for access and preferential treatment to the aforementioned companies.

NYC & Company forecasts that New York City will get 47.1 million visitors in 2010, and aims to reach Mayor Bloomberg’s target of welcoming 50 million visitors by 2012.

More info: www.nycgo.com/getmorenyc

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Visit Baltimore’s latest gimmick will put a smiley on your face, and that seems to be the intention of their newly launched ’Find Your Happy Place in Baltimore’ campaign.

Visit Baltimore Smiley

As part of the launch, Visit Baltimore put together the world’s largest human smiley face outside the Maryland Science Center, composed of over 250 tourism professionals and Baltimore residents wearing brightly-colored orange and black ponchos.

Looks more like a squashed halloween pumpkin than a smiley face, but it still makes you want to smile, and that’s what matters. Besides, its going to be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as a smiley, so who can argue with that?

Visit Baltimore’s new campaign officially begins on the Memorial Day weekend, accompanied by ads on television, radio,  print, and online in key target markets. To hammer home the happy message, they’re even decking up the harbor with ‘Happy Place décor.’

A special micro-site (bmorehappy.com) will launch on May 21, and will direct visitors to happy stays hotel packages. Visitors will have the ability to build custom itineraries, and there’s also a “Sweet-stakes” with prizes including a Royal Caribbean cruise, and a trip to Sarasota, Fla. for Orioles spring training, among others. 

Tom Noonan, president and CEO of Visit Baltimore, has a message for visitors – “No matter what makes you smile, we encourage travelers from all over the country to come and find their happy place in Baltimore this summer.”

Apparently the campaign wasn’t just concieved on a whim, but is based on extensive research and a study conducted by Context-Based Research, which shows that people are looking to do things that make them happy after the economic downturn.  

Find Your Happy Place will run through December 2010. More info:- www.bmorehappy.com/; www.baltimore.org/

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British Petroleum is paying $200,000 for a joint tourism ad campaign being run by three Gulf Coast states to spread the message that the beaches are oil-free and safe for visitors.

Alabama Gulf Coast beach ad

The media campaign is being run by Pensacola, Fla. based BPM Inc. on behalf of Alabama, Florida and Mississippi, with the total cost of the campaign expected to cross over a quarter million dollars.

The message the BP funded 60-second ad intends to convey is that Gulf Coast beaches are open for business, there is no oil and the fun is the same as before.

BP is not mentioned anywhere in the ads. Louisiana, the fourth state most impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, is handling its own ad campaign.

Bruce Johnson, director of governmental affairs for BP in Ohio, met with around 150 Mississippi Coast tourism officials on Tuesday.

He is quoted as saying that BP will spend $500,000 in tourism promotion to help counter the negative media stories and opinions about visiting the Gulf Coast while the giant oil slick looms offshore.

The Gulf Coast state tourism bureaus - after an initial period of panic where they themselves warned visitors about the dangers of beach vacations with an oil spill in progress  - have now latched on to this message about the beaches being open with no visible impact from the oil spill.

PR campaigns aside, the question of what will happen to tourism when the oil actually reaches the beaches was vividly demonstrated when tar balls started washing up on Alabama’s Dauphin Island a couple of days ago. 

The massive worldwide publicity quickly killed off the island’s beach tourism businesses and even put a damper on statewide tourism. Alabama didn’t waste any time and came out with a new video ad promoting Alabama’s Gulf Coast beaches and turned the screws on BP to spread the message.

Based on the harsh response from travelers to the Dauphin Island tar balls, it looks like if and when the oil slick and tar balls reach Florida, there will be large-scale cancellations, and the media campaign will have to be huge to stem the flow.

Keith Overton, chairman of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, told a US Senate Congressional hearing (CSPAN video) on Tuesday that Florida needs a $75 million media campaign to counter the damage to tourism from the oil spill. 

Is BP going to pay Florida $75 million to promote tourism? Not going to happen. The $500,000 they’re planning to spend across 4 states is too little for a sustained national or worldwide media campaign, and its going to take years for BP to reach a final settlement and shell out anything close to the $75m that Florida tourism needs.

Update 1: May 12, 2010 - Florida Governor Charlie Crist has asked BP to pay out $34.75 million for an emergency tourism campaign. VisitFlorida officials only have $2.5 million available right now, but they’re plowing ahead with a media buy and their spot is expected to be on television in a week or so. Meaning BP will either have to say yes or no inside one week.

Update 2: May 17, 2010 - BP CEO Tony Hayward came out of a meeting with Gov. Crist and announced that Florida would get $25 million for tourism promotion from BP. Hayward also announced that Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana would also get $15 million each for tourism promotion. That’s a total of $70 million that BP is pledging for Gulf Coast tourism.