The barrier islands and white-sand beaches of Florida’s Gulf Coast are a world away from upstate New York. Our cool mountain lakes and green, grassy countryside couldn’t look more different.
Yet the creativity and culture of the business community in the Clearwater-St. Petersburg, Florida region is just as inspiring to our team.
EXPANDING OUR REACH
Several years ago, BLKDOG joined two incredible groups: AMPLIFY Clearwater and the Pinellas Beaches Chamber (formerly the Treasure Island & Madeira Beach Chamber). With a robust and growing set of clients in the area already, we’re looking forward to deepening our connection with these communities.
As the team grows (hi, Ant!) and we spend more time in the Gulf Coast region as visitors, we’re excited to connect with business leaders in the area. BLKDOG is certainly capable of working with clients all over the country, and successful at it too. But there’s still something special about connecting face-to-face over a coffee.
We’re hoping these connections act as our atlas, guiding us toward new ways to support local business. From St. Petersburg to Clearwater, Treasure Island and beyond, we want to help local businesses through effective marketing, design, and branding.
TOURISM MARKETING WORK IN THE GULF COAST REGION
Chamber memberships keep BLKDOG close to what’s shifting in the Gulf Coast community. But the real proof is in the work already underway there. Naturally, much of it centers on protecting what makes this region worth visiting: its history, its coastline, and its story.
For Pinellas County Heritage Village’s 50th anniversary, BLKDOG led a heritage tourism marketing campaign. The work included brand identity, interpretive signage, out-of-home ads, and anniversary merchandise, honoring five decades of preserving Florida’s past.
That same instinct to protect and share local history carried into a fresh rebrand for the Gulf Beaches Historical Museum. After 30+ years telling the story of the barrier islands, the museum needed a modern look that still honored its roots.
BLKDOG brought that same thinking to the coastline itself. We partnered with Ocean Allies, a Clearwater Beach nonprofit connecting local businesses around sustainability. We rebuilt their digital presence, giving tourists an easy way to find ocean-friendly businesses and keep the beaches worth coming back to.
Preservation, storytelling, and place all show up in this work. Whether the subject is a 1917 church or a stretch of Gulf Coast sand, the threads of good storytelling hold them together.
It’s the kind of tourism marketing that only comes from being actually embedded in a community. Not just on a client list.