If one is creating a guide to planning a vacation, would one not want to point to specific places?

In one respect, the Orlando Travel & Visitors Bureau is missing out on some great conversion metrics by failing to include specific links to visit. In one podcast the "travel expert" mentioned the fact that "Orlando has a great Opera". Such a statement could hardly be more true, but they fail to follow through with this idea. Not only that, but they don't give their listeners an opportunity to follow through. They say "just go to our homepage, you'll probably find what you want there... probably... but the homepage is the only important page on the site. We won't tell you what to click on or what to search for. You're on your own, have fun!"

You can spend all this money on a theme song and make us invest how many minutes in listening to it, and then miss the point entirely.

You made a podcast simply to make one. If there were goals in mind, I don't think they came close to being fulfilled.

Here's a possible list of goals:

1. Set up this travel expert as a travel expert
2. Reaffirm in the minds of people that there's... something to do in Orlando
3. Tell them not to bring any extra t-shirts with them, spend your money here so we get sales tax
4. Let people know we have virtual tours of the parks on our website - too bad Disney has a whole video game devoted to this on their website
5. Let them know there's variety

OK, great. But aren't you guys a for-profit venture? How did this one slip through the cracks? Here are some possible goals for a podcast:

1. Promote our new "Endless Summer" campaign (this is a real campaign of theirs)
2. Sell some hotel room stays
3. Sell some Opera tickets
4. Introduce people / drive traffic to our events directory
5. Get the word out that Orlando is a great place for festivals
6. Let people know about the awesome DIY culture in Orlando, or the vegetarian restaurants, or Vietnam Town, or Eatonville, or local businesses - something

That's all for this installment of "What Were They Thinking?" See you next time!