Building Awareness through Events
TAMPA, Fla. (May 1, 2014) As consultants in the hospitality industry, there are many things that you oversee on behalf of your clients, from reputation management, to media negotiation, to social media, to web monitoring, to public relations…and the list goes on. Beyond the day-to-day, however, there is the bigger question of how to build awareness—especially when your client is interested in staycation guests during the off-season.
In late 2013, HCP client, Emerald Greens Condo Resort, posed this very question. Emerald Greens is a 50 room resort located on the golf courses of Carrollwood Country Club, a private country club in North Tampa. The condo resort’s bookings are impacted by both the seasonality of the resort business, as well as the seasonality of the golf business. After much discussion, Emerald Greens and HCP leadership felt hosting the golf tournament during peak season would be a great opportunity to draw attention to the property while supporting a very important cause, as the golf season began to wind down.
In addition to building connections with local organizations, giving back to the community has always been a priority for Emerald Greens. To support this mission, local charity Voices for Children of Tampa Bay (VFC) was named the event beneficiary. VFC is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide a voice on behalf of abused and neglected children in Hillsborough County’s court system by supporting volunteers in the Guardian ad Litem program. All proceeds generated through mulligans, raffles and contests went directly to VFC to support the children of Tampa Bay.
Collaboration between HCP and Emerald Greens resulted in their 1st annual Shamrock Open Golf Tournament. The leadership invited guests and their network of friends to the tournament. By inviting old as well as new friends, exposure to the resort was effectively broadened to a new network of potential guests with an affinity for golf and the North Tampa area.
HCP used a series of marketing platforms to increase awareness through statewide and local PR, social media, online advertising and networking. Through these different avenues, HCP built local awareness for the Shamrock Open.
The tournament was a great success, and included over 100 players. The success of this original tournament prompted Emerald Greens to plan to continue this partnership tournament and grow the tournament each year in the hopes of increasing awareness of VFC’s mission throughout the community, as well as increase awareness of the condo resort itself. HCP looks forward to supporting this annual event.
We have found events such as this to be great tools for our clients in showcasing their community support and building exposure. Feel free to contact us today for more information on how we can help build a successful event that builds awareness for your business or non-profit.