Starmark created a bespoke advertising campaign and website for Azul Beach Resorts to differentiate the brand from the rest of the Karisma Hotels & Resorts portfolio and reset the tone to speak primarily to upscale Millennial audiences. The Starmark team delivered a full range of creative assets, including a combined photo and video shoot at Azul Beach Resort Negril. (more…)
In early October, Starmark Chief Digital Officer, Brett Circe, attended the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Innovate Conference. On the heels of the conference featuring speakers from Shark Tank, Virgin Galactic, The National Cotton Council and other innovation leaders, Brett shared these top 4 trends to watch.
On October 4, 2018, Starmark celebrated another record-setting year with the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau (GFLCVB) at the destination’s annual industry luncheon. Starmark and Finn Partners assisted GFLCVB’s President & CEO Stacy Ritter in unveiling the destination’s 2019 Marketing Plan at the Broward County Convention Center. Tourism industry professionals, local government officials and Broward County council members were among the 600 guests in attendance. (more…)
Congratulations to our client, Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau (GFLCVB), and our extraordinary Starmarkers for taking home a whopping seven awards at the 2018 VISIT FLORIDA Governor’s Conference on Tourism, held September 12, 2018.
For “Mixed Media Campaign”, the Henry went to the Greater Together campaign that underscored Greater Fort Lauderdale’s message of diversity and inclusion. The centerpiece video launched on the United Nations’ World Tourism Day, along with a series of integrated campaign components throughout 2018 that continues to warmly welcome all visitors with an open-door/open heart philosophy.
“Niche Marketing” top honors went to the Underground Lauderdale campaign, an umbrella brand for Greater Fort Lauderdale’s emerging talent in music, fashion, film and create. It’s edgy, gritty, young and inclusive of everyone.
In 2017, Starmark took the brand to the next level: developing a master logo; sub branded Music, Fashion, Film and Create logos; and dedicated campaigns for each sector. Digital, print, social, website and onsite assets were developed for national and local events. There was a fully-branded Underground Lauderdale stage beachside at the 2017 Riptide Music Festival. Art hotspots were launched county-wide for Underground Lauderdale Create that visitors could tour by car, trolley, bike, or foot, with a branded U-Create pocket map and insider’s pass for special offers.
For “Radio Advertising”, the Pandora/Spotify Hello Sunny spot was the judge’s favorite. These 30-second broadcast and digital radio spots combined a soothing, yet sophisticated voice sharing Greater Fort Lauderdale’s carefree lifestyle with captivating Hello Sunny “moments”. The digital version interrupted listeners’ “playlists” to transport them into instant vacation mode, complete with ocean/beach and activity-specific sound effects. Spots ran in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago.
For “Resource/Promotional Material – Consumer”, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Digital Vacation Planner scored the top spot. GFLCVB wanted to wow viewers with an immersive tool that satisfied the pre-planning needs of diverse audiences, (including many upscale millennials), and also served as their go-to guide while in destination. This ambitious effort was translated into six languages. The Planner targeted global leisure travelers through strategic SEO optimization and included links, scan codes and promotional assets that transformed it into a comprehensive selling tool for international tour operators.
“Each year we continue to push the envelope with original programs and campaigns to bring more visitors to the destination. Receiving top honors for the quality and impact of our work is really a win-win for everyone.”
— Dale Baron, Executive Creative Director
For “Resource/Promotional Material-Trade”, judges voted for the Hello Savings Meetings Campaign TV advertising, a meeting planner promotion that offered U.S.-based meeting planners up to $10,000 in the form of cash-back rebates, along with extra hotel perks for eligible booking dates. The campaign successfully resulted in 19 meeting bookings closed, adding $7 million in additional revenue impact.
For the “Tourism Advocacy” category, another judging favorite was the 2017 Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau (GFLCVB)’s luncheon event. To showcase continued tourism growth through SMART strategic thinking, a Purchase Cycle video showcased a family and a meeting planner journeying through the cycle. The event culminated with GFLCVB’s CEO demonstrating a virtual reality walk along the beach.
In the category of “Television”, the Hello Sunny TV campaign took Bronze honors, broadcasting the region’s growing sophistication and offerings, while sharing its authentic, welcoming spirit. The campaign featured more than 50 lead talent of all ages, ethnicities and sexualities, including 3 transgender models – a first for any destination.
“Starmark is proud to be the marketing partner for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau,” said Dale Baron, Executive Creative Director. “Each year we continue to push the envelope with original programs and campaigns to bring more visitors to the destination. Receiving top honors for the quality and impact of our work is really a win-win for everyone.”
The Flagler Awards program, including the prestigious Henry award—a salute to Florida tourism grandfather, Henry Flagler—is held annually to recognize the outstanding tourism marketing efforts of Florida’s travel businesses, destinations and attractions.
Compelling content marketing starts with a strong understanding of what your visitors are curious about AND how your organization can provide value through information. In other words, find out what our audiences are asking and find out who has the answer.
At first, it was just Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as we started to understand the factors needed to increase visibility on the Google search results pages, and if we were lucky, the first page at least. But now, we face another hurdle — App Store Optimization. (more…)
Starmark was honored with three WebAwards this year by the Web Marketing Association (WMA) for development of new websites for three clients. Operating under the guiding principle that excellence deserves recognition, the WMA awards organizations and individuals every year for development of various websites for organizations and the government.
Because of Starmark’s previous higher education marketing experience as well as its proven ability to penetrate the millennial generation, the agency was selected to assist Nova Southeastern University (NSU), based in Fort Lauderdale, in developing a new website from scratch that would not only be the single voice for the university’s newly launched MD college of allopathic medicine program but serve as a qualified lead-generating machine that would attract and distill enough applicants who would achieve success in their innovative new program.
The new program grants students the rare opportunity to experience a new model of teaching and practicing medicine that aligns more closely with today’s real-world health issues and tomorrow’s opportunities so Starmark facilitated in-depth target user experience testing to drive recommendations for site structure, organization and layout; a mobile-first, cutting-edge design to appeal to the target; and concise, yet compelling copy that differentiates the program.
In fall 2017, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau (GFLCVB) wanted to transition from a printed Vacation Planner to a digital-only platform that would meet their business objectives through one dedicated resource. This enhanced version had to be the best-in-class representation that would not only serve as a planning tool but the in-market go-to source for a diverse target audience, including upscale millennials.
Starmark conducted vigorous in-market user-experience testing that resulted in many enhancements including customer-centric options for dining, shopping and entertainment with short and compelling copy that would ensure easy navigation and facilitate translation into six languages. To enhance the experience even more, in lieu of traditional ad placement, advertisers were solicited to share visually-striking imagery, engaging videos and editorial content that would appeal to visitors.
The results: significant website traffic increase and print cost savings; marketing flexibility to update guide year-round; new efficient and inviting mobile experience.
“View on mobile sites is very clean. Easy to navigate. Desktop view is very well laid out – Good use of visual for each main topic. Facebook and Instagram feed well done.”
Azul Beach Resorts, a family of four high-end Caribbean destinations under the Karisma Hotels & Resorts brand umbrella, struggled with lack of identity due to the fact that its only online presence was commingled with nine other Karisma luxury hotel families. Clearly differentiation was the key to the company’s success.
Once again, Starmark facilitated user testing throughout each stage of design and development offering up compelling imagery with engaging copy that highlighted the unique character of each location: Azul Beach Resorts Riviera Maya, The Fives Playa del Carmen, Sensatori Mexico and Sensatori Jamaica.
Of course, mobile-first design was deployed in an effort to drive conversion and finally, the team fine tuned SEO, social and email strategies.
The results: www.azulbeachresorts.com now tells the Azul story in a modern, engaging way, motivating consumers to browse and plan all in one place. Website visitors praised the exclusive, special feel; beauty of the imagery; and “focus on family fun” that everyone can enjoy together and separately.
And here’s what one WebAward judge had to say, “View on mobile sites is very clean. Easy to navigate. Desktop view is very well laid out – Good use of visual for each main topic. Facebook and Instagram feed well done.”
Reprinted from South Florida Business Journal. Updated 3/14/19.
At its annual developers conclave last June, Apple, in partnership with animation company Pixar, announced a new, standardized 3D file format called Universal Scene Description File (USDZ) — making it as easy to share 3D experiences across multiple channels as it is to share a JPEG today.
How Do You Distill Success Down To A Science? You Become Agile
Agile is much bigger than a single “process” or “approach”. It’s a holistic, science-based methodology that helps people problem-solve, work, manage projects and communicate more successfully. Agile has been around for many years in other industries, primarily software development. Recently other industries are beginning to leverage the benefits of Agile too, which means an all new audience is getting up to speed on this better methodology.
Starmark implemented Agile company-wide in 2015, and with that, introduced Agile to many of our clients too. We immediately saw the need to created some cheat sheets to “welcome” people to a new way of working.
Now discover the proven science behind it; why it’s so different from (and better than) traditional management styles and five core truths about how we all work that can dramatically accelerate your success. It’s all in our Welcome To Agile Marketing Overview Cheat Sheet.
But wait…there’s more!
This is just the first in a series of four sheets we ended up creating, to get a copy of the others, please contact us!
Welcome to Agile Marketing: Overview
Welcome to Agile Marketing: Roadmaps
Welcome to Agile Marketing: Sprints
Welcome to Agile Marketing: Weekly Status
Ever wonder how companies such as Amazon and Netflix predict what products and shows you’re likely to view or purchase next? The key to this magical mind-reading talent is the marketing science discipline called Predictive Analytics! (more…)
“The Benny Award is one of the most coveted in the printing industry,”
The Starmark team and Solo Printing recently earned two 2018 Premier Print Benny Awards from the Printing Industries of America (PIA). The Karisma Hotels & Resorts Connoisseur Collection brochure was ranked “Best of Category” in both the “Booklet or Brochure Series” and “Media Kits” groupings.
(more…)
SEO strategists are always on the hunt for the next new feature, tool or influential factor to increase organic search, which inherently drives higher SERP placements.
Since its infancy, SEO strategies have incorporated ways to “cheat the system” to leverage higher placements from hiding text behind the background of the website to keyword-stuffing, it has always been about finding loopholes. (more…)