When Jacksonville officials and business leaders went to England to sell the city, they didn't do it in just board rooms.
They used 10,000 beach balls, a photo booth with Jacksonville landmarks as backdrops, a multiprong campaign on US Airways and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan.
"We were able to reach millions of potential visitors," said Paul Astleford, CEO of Visit Jacksonville.
And, officials hope, hundreds of jobs.
At a news conference Monday, Astleford said through partnerships with the NFL, an aggressive advertising campaign and Khan's connections, including as owner of the Fulham FC soccer team, selling the city was a success.
Included in the campaign was Visit Jacksonville participating in the Regents Street Block Party in London in September, which Astleford said was attended by more than 500,000 people. Visit Jacksonville had a tent and a booth where guests could take a photograph in front of several Jacksonville landmarks, including EverBank Field, the Downtown skyline and the Jacksonville Beach pier.
The day before the Jaguars played the San Francisco 49ers in London, Visit Jacksonville distributed 10,000 Jacksonville souvenir beach balls among the crowd of more than 70,000 fans at Trafalgar Square.
In terms of advertising, Jacksonville was featured in a four-page feature story and an advertisement in "Selling the Long Haul Magazine," which Astleford said is the United Kingdom's leading monthly travel magazine.
Visit Jacksonville had an advertising package on US Airways including a boarding video, a five-minute travel feature that played on all international flights and a full-page ad in US Airways Magazine. "Jacksonville's advertising punch was a huge knockout," he said.
One area Visit Jacksonville is marketing is ecotourism. Astleford said Visit Jacksonville has hosted familiarization tours for British travel providers.
"Ecotourism is huge in Europe. The reception from tour operators was remarkable. When you create that kind of exposure, it drives business," said Astleford.
Selling the city in board rooms was also successful, officials said.
Jerry Mallot, executive vice president of the JAX Chamber and president of JAXUSA Partnership, the chamber's economic development division, said he and other officials "met with a lot of key people" while in London and it will take time for relationships to mature.
Mallot said there are "a couple of deals we think will mature in six months" that could lead to "hundreds of jobs."
He declined to offer details Monday, citing confidentiality agreements, but while in London, meetings were scheduled with several firms, including PPA Group, an aviation and marine company focused on aircraft interior installations. The company has expressed an interest in locating at Cecil Airport.
Also on the schedule in London were two solar energy companies: RUMM Limited, an energy monitoring equipment manufacturer, and Jumar, a software company reportedly considering Florida, Georgia and Missouri as a site for new U.S. operations.
Manufacturers, office-related activities, financial services, IT, logistics and transportation were business lead categories that JAXUSA Partnership began developing during the trip to London, Mallot said.
Greg Smith, chair of the JAX Chamber board of governors, said the local delegation also met the senior executives at Deutsche bank.
"They are very happy with Jacksonville," he said.
Mayor Alvin Brown described the trade mission to London as "a very successful trip."
He said he and city Office of Economic Development Director Ted Carter and City Council President Bill Gulliford would be "part of the process" before the Jaguars return to London in 2014 for the team's second of four international games.
Brown said he wants to be proactive in economic development opportunities created in London.
"We made the case that Jacksonville is open for business. It will be a long process, but at the end of the day, it will mean jobs for Jacksonville," Brown said.
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