Miami Taps Locals for New Neighborhood-Focused Ad Campaign

The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau hopped on the neighborhood marketing bandwagon last week with the introduction of a new branding campaign.

Instead of beating the drum on the attractions found in popular South Beach, the new ‘People and Places’ campaign taps locals for insights into neighborhoods like Little Havana, Coconut Grove, Little Haiti, and Wynwood.

Content, specifically video tours guided by locals and crowdsourced tips, are at the heart of the campaign, explains GMCVB executive vice president and CMO Rolando Aedo.

“People are thirsting more authentic, more organic experiences. and that is at the heart of this campaign,” Aedo said today.

“The reality is that we can not compete with major OTAs for selling rooms. Where we feel we can compete is on authentic content. We are here in the community.”

Other cities including New York and Philadelphia have also recently launched campaign focused on drawing tourists to a broader and more diverse selection of city neighborhoods.

The trend comes as travelers continue to seek more authentic local experiences.

Miami welcomed a record 14.2 million overnight visitors and daily expenditures increased 4.6 percent to reach $22.8 billion.

Growth is largely driven by visitors from Latin America, but Aedo says the campaign was created to target all travelers.

The first video featuring Little Havana is embedded below: