Orlando CVB Announces Plans to Take "Smile" Campaign Global

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. August 31, 2009

AUGUST 31, 2009 - Proving that smiles can be powerful, the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc. (Orlando/Orange County CVB), announced plans today to maintain its successful domestic marketing campaign, "Orlando Makes Me Smile," this fall and to launch it in key international markets including the United Kingdom and Canada. The "Smile" campaign will continue into 2010 where it will also appear in marketing programs around the globe.

"The campaign's creative approach has resonated extremely well with consumers and has provided us with a campaign platform we are very excited to move forward with," said Gary C. Sain, president and CEO of the Orlando/Orange County CVB. "Our spring ad tracking studies showed domestic intent to visit Orlando in the next 12 months was 14 percentage points higher among those target consumers who recognized our smile advertising than those who didn't. The campaign is impactful both in promoting all there is to do in Orlando and the great value we offer. This is exactly the message we need to stimulate demand in all of our key markets this fall and beyond."

The ongoing "Smile Campaign" marketing efforts emphasize the combined brand/retail message, highlighting Orlando's key vacation attributes with strong value offers from partnerships with travel companies around the world and Orlando's hotel and attraction businesses. The campaign will also involve a greater Orlando presence online, where research shows 77 percent of consumers are gathering travel information and 59 percent are booking.

Key areas of focus and activity around the campaign include:

Domestic Leisure

Programs have been designed to highlight Orlando's #1 U.S. value destination positioning and to expand consumer knowledge of the breadth and depth of vacation experiences offered:

---| Orlando's "Free-for-Fall" program launched last week with a variety of "Get One Free" offers designed to appeal to families with small children, couples, girlfriends getaways, seniors and foodies, all target fall weekend getaway travelers. The campaign primarily reaches the Southeast region with radio, print and online advertising. The Orlando/Orange County CVB will "blitz" Miami and Atlanta in September with a week's worth of television and radio appearances, baseball game in-stadium promotion and travel trade activity.

---| Orlando's unique 67 Days of Smiles social media campaign begins August 27 with New York City best friends Kyle Post and Stacey Doornbos tackling all of Orlando's more than 100 attractions in 67 Days and sharing their adventures via Facebook (67 Days of Smiles), Twitter (67 Days) and You Tube (VisitOrlando). The duo was chosen from hundreds of entries from more than a dozen countries to take on the mission of educating travelers about Orlando's varied offerings from arts and culture to outdoor adventure to shopping, dining, spas, golf, nightlife and world-famous attractions.

---| Based on the strong performance of the spring 2009 campaign, "Bundles of Free Smile" retail offers will return in spring 2010.

International Leisure

Through campaigns launching this fall and continuing into winter/spring of 2010, international visitors will be reminded that Orlando's experiences, value, affordability and accessibility create many reasons to smile:

---| The U.K. campaign launches early September with television advertising and newspaper advertorials including travel deals from top travel and tour operators Virgin Holidays, Travel City Direct, and Thomas Cook. Promotions, press tours, travel trade events, an online smile viral campaign and first-ever mobile marketing campaign round-out the exposure.

---| Canada marketing efforts kick-off in November with extensive television flights, special inserts in Toronto area newspapers, prominent outdoor digital boards and an innovative transformation of Toronto's Union Station. Promotional efforts begin in January with publicity and trade efforts throughout the winter and spring.

---| Globally, a fall television and print advertising campaign is in-progress in Brazil and travel trade marketing in Mexico and Germany will begin in 2010, supported by a travel trade and publicity campaign. And, as the host destination for Pow Wow 2010, the largest international travel trade show in the U.S., the "Smile" messaging will take center stage for approximately 5,000 show attendees from around the world.

Meetings and Conventions

Meetings and Conventions messaging will continue to emphasize the destination's innovation heritage with the brand tagline, "Orlando: Where Creative Minds Meet" and the destination's meetings infrastructure with, "Orlando Meetings Mean Business":

---| A new meetings Web site, OrlandoMeeting.com, was recently launched featuring an online toolkit for planners; a powerful search engine for venues, entertainment and services; and a customizable RFP function.

---| Fall efforts will concentrate on initiatives to enhance Orlando's perception as a smart choice for corporate and government meetings. A new C-Suite campaign targets CEOs, CFOs and COOs to positively influence them that Orlando is a serious business destination for face-to-face meetings.

---| A Medical Advisory Board has been formed including both existing and prospective clients to provide insight on how to enhance and sell Orlando's medical meeting experience to this important niche market and will hold its first meeting in October.

---| Operation Connect, a joint program started in 2009 with the Orange County Convention Center that puts key community leaders and resources in touch with potential new meetings prospects, will continue with a goal of reaching 1,000 meeting planners.

---| An aggressive schedule of trade shows, blitzes and educational program will take the Orlando/Orange County CVB sales team to 62 events in 30 cities in 2010.

About the Orlando/Orange County CVB

The Orlando/Orange County CVB is the branding, sales and marketing organization responsible for positioning Orlando as the destination of choice for leisure and meetings business for the economic benefit of the Orlando region. The organization celebrates 25 years of destination management excellence in 2009.