Big Fun on the Choctawhatchee
Holmes County is starting to find its voice
Perhaps you, too, have heard it.
I first encountered a radio advertisement promoting Holmes County while listening to a broadcast of a Yankees baseball game aired by WFAN Sports Radio in New York. There is an algorithm that accounts for that happening, but don’t ask me to explain it.
The highly enticing and effective 30-second spot opens with the call of a bird that is not a pigeon. A babbling brook is heard along with a “Whack!” as a golf club strikes a ball.
“Pretty nice, right?” purrs a soothing feminine voice, sweet as Grandmother’s sun tea and a little bit sensual. “Well, that could be you, right here in Holmes County, Florida, the place where folks come to slow down and recharge.”
The spot positions Holmes County (estimated 2022 population, 19,651) as simultaneously pristine and open armed, suggesting that the natives, even if relatively untamed, are friendly. It is the work of the Kerrigan Agency in Mexico Beach, which responded to a request for proposal and landed the Holmes County account on the strength of its experience in rural Florida tourism marketing.
COVID-19 shut down the Holmes County Tourist Development Council for two years, and when its members regrouped, they decided to go looking for help.
“None of us on the board has the time to run the TDC in addition to our day jobs,” said Lesley Hatfield, who serves the council as its secretary and treasurer. “And as a fiscally constrained county, we just aren’t great at spending money. We don’t have experience in making the kind of investments that it takes to compete in tourism in Florida.”
Prior to the pandemic, the TDC, working with an intern, had managed to produce a brochure and a website that mirrored that piece. Kerrigan has moved the organization into another era. It started work for Holmes County on Feb. 15. By May 30, it had completely revamped its website, making it much more dynamic and a source of valuable intelligence in the form of analytics. The radio ad and a campaign built around it followed.
“The Kerrigan team has great buying power and expertise in reaching our target market,” Hatfield said. “Our ideal people are those who come to spend a week or two at the beach. They wake up one morning and the kids are sunburned, or there are double red flags or it’s raining. We invite them to breeze up Highway 81 or 79 and come hang out with us in Holmes County. We have our springs and other natural amenities, and it’s not hard to get a tee time at our Dogwood Lakes Golf Course.
“But visiting here, things are unscripted. We don’t have all-inclusive vacation packages. You get to choose your own adventure.”
Hatfield is not a newcomer to either Holmes County or marketing. She grew up in Holmes County, then earned a degree at Florida State University before moving south. After 20 years in the Tampa area doing marketing work for certified public accountant firms, she and her husband decided they would rather raise their kids in the country than a metropolis.
“We renovated my grandparents’ home, and we’re back on the farm,” Hatfield said.
The marriage between the Holmes County TDC and Kerrigan works because both organizations possess a wealth of local market knowledge. They understand one another. They know there’s no place like Holmes.
The radio spot continues …
“Discover natural springs, forests and big fun on the Choctawhatchee. Enjoy good eats, great golf and one of the best rodeos in America, all just north of the Emerald Coast beaches. Discover wild, welcoming, unexplored Florida.”
Holmes County never sounded so good.
“Come join us,” Hatfield extended me an invitation. “Castaways Seafood has great shrimp, any way you like ’em. The M & W Smokehouse has a great menu — really good barbecue. And if you’ve never been to our rodeo, you need to make plans to come. This year will be our 79th, and it’s going to be a big one.”
See Florida first.
Take care,
Steve Bornhoft,
Executive Editor
sbornhoft@rowlandpublishing.com
