British invasion

A Sarasota tourism official headed across the pond earlier this month, to spread a little sunshine in London.

Visit Sarasota County Communications Manager Lynn Hobeck Bates was one of several tourism officials statewide who participated in Visit Florida's official London campaign for January. The extensive campaign is timed to get in front of Londoners during what's normally a dreary winter and show them a piece of the Sunshine State. Promotions range from on-the-ground activities and storefront presence in high traffic areas to taxi wraps, in-taxi videos and a takeover of London's busiest train station, Waterloo Station.

Visit Sarasota County, the county's tourism arm, is participating in the on-the-ground promotional activities, in addition to the taxi wraps. Officials were also scheduled to hand out promotional items Jan. 13 to people at Canary's Wharf, a major financial hub and business district in east London. The office was able to get some Sarasota-specific ads through a subsidized program with Visit Florida, says Visit Sarasota County Director of Brand Erin Duggan.

“The U.K. has always been a strong market for Sarasota,” Duggan tells Coffee Talk. “But London is a very expensive place to advertise.”

The taxi wraps will run the entire month of January on five London cabs. The outside of the taxis will be wrapped with colorful imagery of Sarasota's beaches. The office worked with Sarasota-based Miles, a destination-marketing agency, to incorporate augmented reality components into the taxi wrap ads. The ad also encourages viewers to download an app that takes people to a one-minute, 360-degree video of Siesta Beach and visitsarasota.org.