Visit Florida Keys and Key West How Do You Turn a Slower Season into a Reason to Go?

For The Florida Keys & Key West, late summer and early fall had a perception problem. Travelers were concerned about weather and storms. Yet The Florida Keys still offers all the experiences, events and values people wanted year-round.

Starmark and Visit Florida Keys saw an opportunity to turn one of The Keys’ most recognizable assets, the Overseas Highway, into the creative foundation for a new seasonal campaign named Keys Season. It gives travelers more reasons to consider, more confidence to book and a more compelling way to see The Keys this time of year.

From Slow Season to Keys Season

The answer was not simply another sale. It was a coordinated product, promotions and messaging strategy built around four ideas:

• Stay and save
• Experience bundles
• Events and happenings
• Book with confidence

Together, these four ideas position late summer and early fall as a distinct time to experience The Florida Keys, with fewer crowds, seasonal experiences, added value and, with flexible accommodations cancellation policies, more reasons to book with confidence.

The name Keys Season gives the campaign an identity that we can return to year after year. The line “One Road. Miles of Savings.” connects the value message to the physical experience of traveling the Overseas Highway.

It makes the campaign authentic to The Keys while appealing directly to priority drive markets. The visual system is designed to work across outdoor, digital, email, social and the Visit Florida Keys website.

Bringing Local Partners Along

To be successful, Keys Season relies on strong participation from local businesses.

Because this is the first seasonal program of its kind for The Keys, Starmark created a clear partner recruitment system that makes it easy to:

• Understand the campaign
• Sign up
• Submit an offer
• Add an offer to the Visit Florida Keys website

The partner message makes the shared goal clear: “You bring the offer. We’ll help bring the visitors.” This turns partner participation into a coordinated Keys-wide effort built to support local businesses and give travelers more reasons to book.

Building the Campaign System

Out-of-home and display ads support both awareness and booking.

Paid social extends the campaign into priority markets and gives travelers more ways to discover Keys Season.

Rich media units let users swipe through offers, experiences and reasons to visit.

The landing page brings the full campaign together, connecting travelers with deals, packages, events and booking information.

Travelers Started Saying Yes

Keys Season launched May 1. By mid-May, we were already seeing measurable improvement in forward-looking projections. Occupancy levels for June, July and August, which had been projected to decline just two months earlier, recovered to at or above the previous year’s levels. These early results suggest that travelers are responding to the campaign’s value and confidence messaging.

One Road. One Connected Strategy.

Keys Season brought together:

• Research and strategy
• Campaign naming and identity
• Partner recruitment
• Creative and media
• Digital implementation
• Booking-focused content

The result is more than a seasonal ad campaign. It’s a new way to position late summer and early fall in The Florida Keys & Key West.

Need to Turn a Business Challenge Into an Opportunity?

Let’s talk about how Starmark can help turn audience insight into strategy, creative solutions and measurable action. Get in touch.