A Thank-You Note to Locals: How the 727 Day Savings Passport Helped Turn St. Pete Clearwater Residents Into Tourism Champions
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“We need to make sure that people understand and appreciate the impact that tourism makes in the destination,” said Eddie Kirsch, Director of Digital and Data for Visit St. Pete Clearwater.
Tourism is big business in Pinellas County, but they understand it’s crucial to make sure locals comprehend that. Visit St. Pete Clearwater does an excellent job of communicating the value of tourism and they have data laid out in a clear way that reflects impressive numbers. Making locals aware that tourism saves the average household in Pinellas County, Florida more than $2,000 each year is extremely important, but the DMO also wanted to find a way to show appreciation to the residents who share their home with millions of visitors each day. The answer was 727 Day, a grassroots program that the DMO has taken ownership of and revitalized over the last few years.
The 727 Day Deals Passport
727 is the region’s area code, and is the namesake of the day designated to show local love – July 27. Over time, the initiative grew to include deals. It was built as a way for local businesses to thank residents by offering them special discounts for one day only.
“At first, those deals were just living on a landing page,” said Jessica Morrow, Visit St. Pete Clearwater’s Marketing Project Manager. “But since we had access to Bandwango, we doubled down on those deals last year.” They decided to create a digital savings pass that also rewarded residents with a special prize if they visited a local business and redeemed a deal.
There was also another change last year. BaiLeigh Carlson, the DMO’s Content Coordinator, shared, “It was our first 727 Day weekend. It started on Friday and went to Sunday, and the deals were also good that entire time.” She said she was pleased with the amount of businesses that participated – 135 total.
“We had everything from attractions, to coffee shops, to breweries, and local stores,” she said. “It was a really big success.”
The DMO has utilized Bandwango for other ongoing passports such as the Gulp Coast Craft Beer Trail and the FunShine Savings Passport, but they had never used the platform for a short duration pass, and the 727 Day Deals Passport was completely different. “We were really trying to test it over a shorter period of time with a more specific audience,” said Kirsch.
There was also another key asset that they hoped the digital pass would provide. “We were trying to figure out the best way to get better data in terms of how people were using the passport and visiting these different destinations.” He added, “We were pleasantly surprised with the performance of that program.”
Marketing the 727 Day Deals Passport
The DMO’s marketing efforts consisted of paid media and local activations that were focused on reaching residents. They also utilized local influencers. However, local businesses were also involved in spreading the word, and the DMO made it very easy for them by providing assets and collateral. “We gave materials to the businesses to use,” explained Carlson. “We provided door clings and social media, digital, and email elements. They were able to promote the passport in their own way and tag us. We were then able to engage with them and help boost their deals as well.”
Earned media played an important role in the promotion of the pass, too. In previous years, the DMO’s leadership served as the spokesperson for 727 Day. With the addition of the new digital savings pass came another key change that involved the public relations initiative. “This year, we didn’t focus on having our team speak as much,” explained Morrow. “Instead, our PR team started to send media out to some of the folks offering deals so they could tell those different stories and get people to engage with the individual deals, versus just promoting 727 Day in general. So that was kind of a pivot, and I think it's a good success that those businesses are featured.”
Stories that featured local businesses received placement in multiple print, digital, and broadcast outlets, including:
Results
- The initiative got the attention of locals – 8,588 locals signed up for the pass.
- The huge amount of earned media served as an additional way of spreading the DMO’s message in the community.
- The new digital version of the 727 Day Savings Passport was measurable and gave Visit St. Pete Clearwater reporting data to be able to communicate their ROI.
Morrow said,“It was a really good show of return on investment for us and showed that people were engaging with this campaign.”
Kirsch added, “Real customer records are hard to come by when you're a DMO, but this gives us a sample of who it is that takes advantage of the program, and we can see that in the data.”
- Local businesses were happy.
“The biggest measurement of success was the positive feedback we got from the businesses themselves,” said Kirsch.
Visit St. Pete Clearwater’s Tips for Success
Visit St. Pete Clearwater has been promoting 727 Day for years, but took the program to another level last year by moving their deals from a landing page on their website to a digital experience. They’ve learned a few things along the way that they feel has helped contribute to their success in that transition.
Give yourself plenty of time
“Get the deals as early as possible to give yourself as much time to build out the passport,” said Carlson. Their team created a form where businesses could submit their deals. Kirsch added, “We were sending out communications at the start of June to get industry involved.”
Encourage businesses to create good deals
Carlson said, “We gave them a few examples of deals that we thought would be top-performing ones.” They encouraged them to get creative with the 727 theme, and many like Island Grand at TradeWinds did, offering a $7.27 resort pass. But Kirsch said he has one type of deal that he favors: “I think BOGO is the best.”
Morrow said they were flexible with the types of deals that were offered, but shared a tip for others, “If other organizations are looking to replicate the program, it might be a little bit easier to manage if you set very clear on your parameters for what these deals businesses have to offer.”
Provide unique prizes – and make them attainable
Morrow felt that including a prize helped contribute to the success of the program, saying, “That incentivized them to engage with the deals.”
They worked with a local artist to create a custom t-shirt and print that passholders could win if they visited a local business. Kirsch said, “It was a unique prize. It's a collector's item in some sense, because each year we're doing a different art t-shirt for that experience.” They’re excited to already have a local artist commissioned to create the design for the next 727 Day Deals Passport.
Making it easy for passholders was also important, and one deal redemption scored passholders enough points to win a prize. He said, “Just make things easy for people and they will appreciate it.”
Communicate with your local businesses before, during, and after the campaign
“It’s important that you’re keeping open communication with the partners – and not just when you’re collecting the deal,” said Kirsch. “By the end of July, they’re not always going to be aware of what they submitted in June.” The DMO reminded businesses of the deals they submitted, and also provided the marketing toolkit prior to 727 Day. Carlson said, “We saw a lot of the collateral being used across social and different people just wanting to get involved.”
Their team also created a survey that was sent to participating businesses after 727 Day to get industry feedback.
Designate tasks within your team
The team says the 727 Day Deals Passport was a group effort, and attributes the success to their entire team. By having multiple staff members collaborate, they were able to achieve success.
Conclusion
Visit St. Pete Clearwater is pleased with the results and is happy that they incorporated the digital pass into the resident appreciation initiative. “We're planning on doing it again,” said Kirsch. “I would love to see it grow into an appreciation period that lasts the entire month of July.”
The DMO’s team has customized a unique strategy that uses Bandwango’s technology for targeted programs that reach both visitors and locals. If you would like to learn more about creating a customized experience for your destination, reach out to the Bandwango team to set up a free demo.
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