On November 19th, the Leon County Board of County Commissioners (Board) approved funding for a new public relations and digital marketing services initiative. This award will go to providing a wide variety of marketing and advertising services geared towards boosting tourism. This comes at the request of the Leon County Division of Tourism, and the combined costs of the two awards is $386,000 annually. The proposal was awarded to the Zimmerman Agency, a local advertising firm with international clients including the Ritz Carlton hotels, helping to promote the HBO Max show “The Gilded Age,” and some promotional material for Belize tourism. The staff recommendation allocates $137,400 designated for the public relations and $249,000 for digital advertising. The contract will run for two years. A part of the digital advertising campaign will be the creation of a mobile app to stimulate visitor engagement. The advertising campaign will promote many of Tallahassee’s most prominent destinations and work to engage influencers and media to garner positive coverage of those destinations. The award requires thorough reporting on the behavior and performance of these initiatives to provide informed feedback. This is part of a larger initiative to increase tourism and build the Tallahassee economy. This funding will help the county support community events like sporting events, festivals, and performances. The meeting agenda states: “With strategic campaigns, media planning, content development, performance tracking, and creative marketing activations, the agreements will ensure an optimized and engaging visitor experience to grow the local tourism economy, its diversity, competitiveness, and economic impact.”