TDC marketing team reports social growth, plans new creative and upgraded visitor tracking

Courtney Brokaw and Angie (marketing staff) presented the tourist development council’s July–September quarterly marketing update on Oct. 15, summarizing website content, social performance, paid media and upcoming creative investments.

Broader highlights included content strategies that map to a visitor’s journey — awareness, planning, booking and experience — and a calendar of seasonal blogs and social features (family summer content in July, golf and culinary content in August, and the new “Flavors of Flagler” coffee series and fall events in September). Social metrics the team shared included large view counts across platforms: July reported roughly 1.7 million Facebook views and 164,000 Instagram views; August and September showed continued engagement with several posts reaching tens of thousands of users.

Angie highlighted three high‑performing organic videos: a Fourth of July roundup, a short feature on La Creperie Cafe and a Flagler Surf School reel. The team credited in‑house video production for a large portion of partner exposure and said they featured dozens of local partners and events across the quarter.

On paid media, staff noted two Clear Channel billboards (I‑95 and I‑4), Expedia native banners, and a 15‑second YouTube pre‑roll. The TDC’s ad agency, Aqua, will present the 2026 campaign at the January TDC meeting; Courtney said the agency provides quarterly performance reports that show click rates and cost per click.

The marketing team said they are finalizing a two‑day photo and video shoot at month’s end to refresh creative assets and are nearing completion on a revamped trailhead guide. They also said the TDC will onboard a new analytics vendor (named in the presentation as Zardeco) to replace Arrivalist; staff said the new vendor provides credit‑card data and website tracking that will help connect ads to in‑market visitation and spend.

Council members asked for more year‑over‑year comparisons in future reports and for clarity about how much social reach is local versus out‑of‑market. Staff said paid advertising dollars are targeted to out‑of‑county markets by requirement of the tourist development tax but that social channels and website traffic capture both local and visitor interest.

Courtney and Angie said the TDC will provide more detailed, year‑over‑year metrics in the next quarterly report and that Aqua will attend in January to discuss strategy for 2026.