Our city marketing plan and media buying strategy leveraged 3 strategic approaches:
1. Market Expansion
Language-specific digital targeting attracted key affluent European, and North and South American tourists. This helped establish brand recognition for the destination online, with reinforcement through traditional channels such as inflight print media. Over time, our global market expansion media strategies raised awareness and grew direct Food & Beverage and Tourism Tax revenues from a global customer profile.
2. Inbound and Opportunistic Opportunities
As new international air carriers such as Turkish and Qatar Airways arrived, Criterion Global capitalized on these new avenues to build additional inbound travel for the destination.
In 2017, a Category 4 Hurricane struck competing destinations. While the destruction cause $50B in total property damage, it also created an opportunity for our luxury travel audience. Swift efforts allowed us to gain consensus for a shift in media tactics, which ultimately led to a +16.4% increase in YOY resort tax revenues between 2017 and 2018.
3. Cultivating Community Consensus
Destination Marketing Organizations are living, breathing things. Success is impossible without consensus on strategic direction. In addition to its subject-matter expertise in global media buying, Criterion Global is versed in presenting to the needs of committees and stakeholders in the political organizations driving DMO decisioning. In our experience, a collaborative relationship and rapport is essential to winning the buy-in and endorsement of key constituencies within any DMO.