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Sun, sand and corporate blitz

By ROBERT TRIGAUX
Published March 16, 2005

My dimming memory of Spring Break - driving all night in a hulking Buick from upstate New York to get burned like a lobster in sleepy Ocean City, Md. - is as out of date with what's happening this week on Panama City Beach as vinyl records are to iPods.

Spring Break in Panama City Beach should really be called Corporate Fest, given the literally dozens of major corporations that are there to expose their products and services to the 400,000 or so college breakers out for fun, prepackaged entertainment and a gazillion free handouts.

If Connie Francis were to refresh her 1960 Spring Break hit Where The Boys Are, she'd be singing Where The Toys Are. Panama City Beach is literally awash in corporate product placement. Here's a sampler:

Paramount Pictures, a unit of giant Viacom, is on the beach outside the popular Club LaVela with a huge, inflated slide emblazoned with an ad for the April debut of the movie Sahara, starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz.

The Consumer Electronics Association, representing most major consumer electronics companies with the newest gadgets, travels with Mr. Youth to college campuses and spring break locations with a "Techknow Overload Tour." Currently on Panama City Beach, the tour showcases such young-adult toys as Sirius satellite radio; Audiovox flat panel TVs; Nintendo game systems and XaviX games; Verizon, Samsung and Toshiba wireless phones, and Gibson guitars.

The "Ultimate Dorm Room" shows spring breakers what their college living quarters could look like with furnishings from Pottery Barn Teen, and every conceivable electronics gadget.

Since more than 90 percent of Panama City Beach breakers travel there on four wheels, automakers are also out in full force. GM is on hand promoting its new, low-priced Cobalt as its replacement for the mercifully retired Cavalier. Nissan is hyping its Armada SUV, complete with "pimped out" accessories to appeal to the young. Jensen speakers boom inside Jeep vehicles.

A local legend, Club LaVela bills itself as the largest beach nightclub in the country. It also happens to be scheduled for demolition to make room for upscale condos.

"Ignore the rumors! Club La Vela will be here for Spring Break," the club tells spring breakers. The club this month features promotions ranging from U.S. Army recruiting and Close-Up toothpaste to the JPMorgan Chase credit card.

Is this Spring Break or the Mall of America?

Corporations are so eager to reach young adults because, the thinking goes, capturing a consumer at age 20 means an opportunity to gain a customer for life.

That's exactly the same thinking behind Panama City Beach's desire to attract spring breakers to its waterfront each March. The Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau spends $400,000 a year pitching Spring Break at 150 college campuses east of the Mississippi, from Canada to Florida.

"From Panasonic to American Express to Dr Pepper, Corporate America is looking for ways to get its products in front of young consumers and are willing to pay the price to reach a built-in inventory of these college students," says Bob Warren, CEO of the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"We are also looking at a generation of people as consumers of our beach product," he adds.

"We are looking to be a place for them for the rest of their lives, whether as business professionals, families, empty nesters or as retirees."

As big as Spring Break is - the economic impact of breakers in March is worth about $60-million to Panama City Beach - this Panhandle town is starting to see a boom in upscale condominium development.

As St. Petersburg Times reporter Tamara Lush reported this past weekend, the gentrification trend means Spring Break may become less of a dominating event in the future.

Warren has embraced Corporate America's rush to Spring Break. Not only do the companies add their own considerable resources and entertainment from early March to mid April, but the broad range of planned activities means the college students have more to do. And that means less idle time to get into trouble.

Just beware of too much of a hyped thing.

"The Spring Break marketing business has grown dramatically in the past 10 years," says Matt Britton, Boston University class of '97 and now co-founder and executive vice president in New York of Mr. Youth, a firm that helps corporations market their goods to college students.

"But I think we are approaching a saturation point, especially in Panama City Beach."

Britton is paid to help the Florida city reach as many youthful sunseekers as possible.

"Saturation should be a concern to marketers. They spend a lot of money and the impact of their message on students is becoming more diluted," says Britton. "We continue to innovate and come up with new tactics at Spring Break."

There also is new geographic competition. Las Vegas is getting hot as a fresh Spring Break spot.

Jamaica, Acapulco, Cancun and Cozumel are regaining their popularity now that post-9/11 concerns are fading.

But those locations usually attract more upscale students able to afford the air fare and more expensive hotels. Panama City Beach breakers come by highway.

"These kids pile five or six in a car and head this way," Warren says.

Sing it, Connie.

Where the toys are,

Corporate America waits for me . . .

Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or 727 893-8405.

[Last modified March 16, 2005, 01:31:14]