The state's "Come Experience a State Where Everyone Belongs" campaign is designed to reach LGBTQ+ individuals and families in Florida.
At some point during the preceding several months, the state of Florida's tourism board quietly removed an "LGBTQ Travel" section from its official website, the AP reported last month. In response, the state of Connecticut last week launched a tourism campaign specifically targeting LGBTQ+ Floridians, inviting them to "Come Experience a State Where Everyone Belongs."
Anthony Anthony [sic], CMO for the state of Connecticut, told Marketing Daily that Connecticut's Tourism Office shifted the creative assets and tactics of an existing campaign running in Florida after learning of the Sunshine State's decision to remove the section from its website.
"It worked quite well in terms of ease of the transition," Anthony said. "This is a no-brainer opportunity for us not just because [of the effectiveness of the message], but because it's the right thing to do."
"Come Experience a State Where Everyone Belongs" is running on digital channels, primarily utilizing Google ad tools to target LGBTQ+ individuals and families in Florida, with campaign messaging driving them to the LGBTQ+ section of Connecticut's CTVisit website, as well as a "Make It Here" page featuring personal stories.
The campaign also utilizes the Connecticut Office of Tourism's owned social channels - primarily on Meta channels - to spread the message, including some promoted posts. Anthony said the campaign would include a press conference and additional social media assets in October for LGBTQ+ History Month.
Ultimately, the hope is this translates beyond tourism. "I do see people visiting the state as a pandora's box of visiting the state and potentially living here," said Anthony.
Florida is arguably the state with the most onerous laws targeting the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals. It is the only state given a "Do Not Travel" designation on a "legislative risk map," published by trans journalist and activist Erin Reed. Advocacy groups including Equality Florida and the Human Rights Campaign have issued travel advisories for the state.
Anthony said that Connecicut's campaign was ""Not necessarily about politics in the red versus blue way," but rather about "being inclusive versus shutting people out. Until the governor of Florida made it an issue, it wasn't one."
Connecticut, ranked second for its LGBTQ+ business climate by Out Leadership, has received perfect scores for several of its cities on the Human Rights Campaign's Municipal Equality Index, and is a recognized leader in transgender healthcare access by the Transgender Law Center. Still, LGBTQ+ organizations within Connecticut have reached out and said that while the state is "very welcoming" there are still areas for improvement and Antohny admitted it was "by no means perfect."
"Medical tourism is something we benefit from, because of the quality of healthcare we have in the state, especially Yale New Haven Health," Anthony said, estimating between 25 and 50 people come to Connecticut annually for gender-affirming care and surgeries, in addition to those seeking to access reproductive care in the wake of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision.
Connecticut's appeals to the LGBTQ+ community are not a new phenomenon, and the state has long made appealing to LGBTQ+ audiences a key part of its marketing strategy, according to Anthony.
The approach employed in the current campaign, designed to leverage earned media to further campaign messaging, stems in part from limited resources, as Anthony claimed Connecticut has one of the smallest tourism budgets in the nation.
The campaign comes on the heels of an attention-grabbing activation that saw the state replace its "Welcome to Connecticut" highway signs on the borders of Massachusetts and New York with messaging declaring Connecticut "Home of the Basketball Capital of the United States" and "Home of the Pizza Capital of the United States."