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On the Brink - Score 66: Visit Florida lands new CMO amid company review

Miral-Yas Island, specializing in marketing strategy. Traditionally, VF utilizes digital and broadcast.

Although a new CMO is always good news for you, readers, Brand USA, which oversees the operation of all national DMOs, reportedly is facing government-issued existential threats. This will, unfortunately, negatively affect media spend for DMOs across the nation. Unfortunately, the biggest hit for VF (besides the fired staff) will be a $17.8 million reduction in the marketing budget, specifically for the coming winter and family travelers, per the Tampa Bay Times and WPTV. Therefore, sellers, there may not be as many spending dollars as you would hope this coming Q4.

Additionally, sellers, VF will shift spend away from national TV, reports Llanes to Travel Weekly, as well as increase its trade partnerships in efforts to expand its budget. The company has authorization to continue operation with these shifted efforts through September 30, 2019. Basically, if VF can't prove its essentiality to Florida's economy by September, the company will go out of business.

West Palm TV (WPTV) reports VF's projected revenue for the new year is $112.1 million, down $61.3 million from the year end close in June. According to ABC News, My Sun Coast, House leaders have been on VF's case since 2017 due to inflated spending dollars that didn't directly feed state tourism (such as sponsoring a celebrity cooking show host and contracting their own auto-racing team). Agencies who work with them in the future will want to stay humble in campaign efforts, both in cost and in presentation.

VF traditionally spends more on digital display during the summer, per Adbeat; while we see the same cyclical amount of ads, VF is spending significantly less this year. In the past 365 days, VF spent $2.5 million on ads placed largely site direct (67%) on sites including fodors.com ($187.1k), bustle.com ($180.7k), etonline.com, nbclosangeles.com and dailymail.co.uk. The rest were placed programmatically (24%) mostly through Google on sites such as lonelyplanet.com ($28.2k) and nydailynews.com ($16.9k).

According to iSpot, VF has spent $401k on national TV ads, which mostly aired during May, following Llanes's hire. Last year, the company had spent $1.04 million by this time; they began spending in April and continued through July for the summer season. In years prior to FY 2017, VF invested in national TV year-round. If the company manages to save itself, they may have the opportunity to return to their prior year-round spend, but those odds are low. 

VF publicly posts its advertising plans on its website (see here).

Sellers -- Since VF doesn't plan to place many, if any, winter ads, reach out for possible last minute Q3 prospects and keep an eye on the outcome of the September review. Last year, (see here), we felt VF would have more dollars available in broadcast and digital this year than it does currently, an unexpected decrease due to the unfortunate review & possible company closure (our apologies).

Agencies -- Agency reviews usually follow CMO hires. VF hired its two agencies recently: M8 for media planning and buying, as well as digital (2017). VF currently does not have a social agency, so you could possibly offer these services to help salvage the company. According to CBS Miami, the company proposed a decrease of $811k for agency production costs and a $43k decrease in promotional items and sales events, which could negatively affect your odds for landing new work.