The Green Carpet Rolled Back: How Tampa Took Bollywood
Posted on Nov. 20, 2014 / Subscribe 0
On Wednesday, Nov. 19, 27 PRSA members and guests heard from Doug McClain, Vice President of Marketing & Communications and Susan Williams, Director of Convention Services & Special Events from Visit Tampa Bay as they discussed the rollout of hosting the 15th Annual International Indian Film Academy’s Weekend and Awards – the first time the four-day IIFA gala was held in the United States.
What was the impact of the IIFA and how did you promote the event itself?
The impact was more than incredible with “13.2 billion earned media impressions and garnering 800 million viewers worldwide,” McClain said. “Approximately 30,000 visitors traveled here to Tampa,” - an economic impact of $19.9 million.
With such a wide audience and demographic, McClain told listeners the beauty of Visit Tampa Bay is – its a partner organization.
“It takes local citizens to make things happen,” McClain said. “Local media, national media, and international media were all a part of making this happen. Our partnership with Wizcraft [India’s leading communication and entertainment agency] was integral to our success. All of these different groups helped break it up to tackle the world.”
How did Visit Tampa Bay prepare Tampa Business owners for the event?
During those four days, visitors spent money throughout the Tampa Bay area on restaurants, retail, hotels, public/private transportation and cultural attractions.
With out-of-towners coming into Tampa, Williams said that partners and the community continuously brought up the need for cultural sensitivity since it was such a different group that they were used to.
“Our solution was sensitivity trainings,” Williams said. “Using GET Tampa Bay, a frontline destination guest experience training, we streamed for surrounding businesses and partners.”
“We used a local Indian woman who owns her own dance studio in the video – which was perfect!” she said. “She was accustomed to living in the United States as well as the Indian culture." By using a local, Visit Tampa Bay was able to show the dos and the don’ts through a culturally-sensitive spokesperson.
“We learned a lot from the event about their culture and customs,” Williams said.
Some of the experiences we learned from such a large country and culture include:
- “You have to ask more than once,” Williams said. “If you ask, would you like some tea, their first response is always ‘no’ even though they probably do.”
- “They just won’t say no,” Williams said.
- Timelessness – “Indian Standard Time,” Williams said. “Their expectation was when they do get there, they’re ready.”
- They love a souvenir – “We made sure that we had a take-away.”
Why Tampa?
Williams and McClain believe that there is a chance that the awards could come back to the states. However, the event alone has made an impact on the Tampa area.
“Indian cinema is being brought here because of this event,” McClain said. “Trust was important to this group,” McClain said. “We had extreme cooperation with the IIFA. They love cities that are culturally unique and loved the whole story of Gasparilla.” Tampa’s pirate invasion tradition was even depicted on the Bollywood stage opening the awards.
“We also have several Southeast Asian groups that are now interested in holding their conferences and business meetings in the area,” Williams said.
Although the two admit that there are ways that the group could definitely improve upon in the future, they admit that Tampa has a way of bringing things together. “Despite neighboring competitors including Orlando and Miami, Tampa’s held the Republican National Convention, the Super Bowl and the IIFA awards – they just go for it! I think that’s Tampa’s new brand.”
If you attended this event, please fill out our feedback survey!
0 Comments