Space Florida launches "We are go" campaign
Rockets are launching from the Space Coast at a steady clip — nine already this year — but a myth persists that the nation's space program is dead, shut down with NASA's shuttle program.
With "three little words," a new, state-funded ad campaign aims to attack that misperception, calling attention to an increasing launch rate and encouraging visitors to experience something few other places in the world can offer with any regularity: A rocket launch.
"We are go," a narrator's voice intones at the start of an online video that launched the campaign this week. "Just three little words. Three little words that have inspired a people. Three little words that have united a planet: 'We are go.' "
A familiar montage of Apollo highlights shifts to footage of present-day blastoffs, including United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket and the Delta IV Heavy that boosted NASA's Orion capsule on a first test flight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
"We are go for launch, with more launches than ever before in the birthplace of where it all began," the script continues.
The video, a companion website — WeAreGoFL.com — and planned ads in media and on billboards is the latest initiative paid for by $1.5 million the state has given Space Florida to promote space-related tourism for each of the past two years, and likely again next year.
The initial goal was to stem a sharp drop-off in local tourism when shuttle launches stopped in 2011, especially at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, which was just opening its $100 million Shuttle Atlantis exhibit.
A Chicago subway train and New York airport kiosks were wrapped with the slogan "Where Dreams are Launched," hoping to grab the attention of travelers in chilly places.
The new campaign, produced by St. Petersburg-based Paradise Advertising, Digital and Entertainment and so far costing about $350,000, shifts focus to the now frequent pace of launches and the unique opportunity to see one, perhaps during a family vacation to Central Florida attractions.
"It really drives attention to the fact that today we're the busiest spaceport in the world," said Frank DiBello, president and CEO of Space Florida. "We're the only place where the average global citizen can come and watch a launch and experience the excitement of a launch."
Eric Garvey, executive director of the Space Coast Office of Tourism, called the campaign "huge" and said it would help overcome perceptions that space was a thing of the past.
"The fact is that there's more rocket launches now than ever before, and the public needs to know that," he said. "And the future of the space program is so exciting as we talk about the return of manned spaceflight."
The new website includes a launch schedule and information on hotel packages and things to do. It plans to help local businesses promote launch-related activities, from hotel or restaurant launch parties to watching rockets lift off during a kayak tour.
The marketing program eventually hopes to promote opportunities for tourists to launch into space from Florida, as companies like XCOR Aerospace begin commercial suborbital flights from Kennedy Space Center.
But it attempts to persuade people that there's exciting action to see now, even if launches of astronauts are still at least two years away.
Brad Cohn, chief creative officer at Paradise, said brainstorming about the campaign began by writing "#We are go FL" on a board.
"And it was immediate that taking those three words, that are really synonymous with the program, it was a winner from the get-go," he said.
Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at facebook.com/jamesdeanspace.