The Santa Rosa County TDC, like many publically-funded organizations, comprised a board of directors, all with different views of how to advertise the county to increase bed tax collection and visitor stays. To gather all the diverse voices, idgroup conducted several Branding from the Core facilitations to uncover the unique selling point of the whole county. In the end, it was determined that it wasn't just the woodlands in the north, or the beaches in the south, but rather, both.
As a result, the TDC launched its first unified brand position: Santa Rosa County: Beaches to Rivers.
In addition to in-fighting within the boards, the main threat to the success of the TDC were a series of rampaging hurricanes in the 2003-2005 seasons, in addition to the oil spill crisis of 2010.
As a result of our efforts, and despite that the state of Florida saw a 2.3 percent decrease in bed tax collection and visitor travel, Santa Rosa County saw a 3.2 percent increase. In addition, the Navarre Beach destination spot saw a 24 percent increase in bed tax collection. Since then, the TDC has witness a steady trend in increased bed tax collection and hotel occupancy since 2005, in spite of devestating hurricane damage.
