Daniel Cueller Lands as CMO of The Florida Keys & Key West

Four days before interviewing for the open chief marketing officer position, Daniel Cuellar drove to Key West and Key Largo at his own expense to familiarize himself with the destination. Like so many visitors, he liked what we saw and experienced. Yet he made a rookie mistake when meeting with The Florida Keys & Key West DMO team: He didn’t dress for the weather.

“When they teased me for wearing a suit on a hot day, I thought, these are my people,’” Cuellar said. “They won me over in an hour.”

Cuellar’s resume is impressive, albeit a bit unconventional for destination marketing. He spent more than a decade at both Continental Airlines and United Airlines leading their advertising efforts. More recently, he was chief marketing officer, Americas, at Qantas. In other words, he knows travel well—just from a different perspective.

In between the airline gigs, Cuellar was also senior director of global brand and consumer marketing for the National Football League.

Part of the Florida Keys' appeal is feels removed from much of the U.S., Daniel Cuellar said. Photo Credit: Visit Florida Keys & Key West

Three months into his latest adventure in the southernmost destination in the contiguous United States, he is ready to tackle a new era for reaching travelers. AI and authenticity are two “A” words at the top of every CMO’s mind.

Cuellar’s first task may be the most important of his entire tenure in his new home. He is leading the rollout of a new brand campaign built around the tagline “Play in Your Own Key,” a slogan created prior to his arrival but one that resonates well with the newcomer to the region. Every day, he takes two-hour walks to enjoy the weather and acclimate himself with the local businesses and attractions.

He slowed down long enough with us to chat about jumping into the DMO field and selling a bucket-list destination.

Why the Florida Keys and Key West? Why now?

I have an insane amount of experience in the airline industry—a decade at Continental and a decade at United. Going back to my Continental days, we worked with a lot of tourism boards and DMOs, and I saw it as a way to extend our own media plans and storytelling through great partnerships. I was always fascinated with this space, even as a young senior analyst. At United, I focused on building those relationships further, and a lot of the people I worked with back then are still in the industry today.

After the NFL and then Qantas, where I resumed a lot of that DMO work, people had been telling me for years that I should think about moving into this space. It was actually one of my media partners who connected me to this role. When I learned about CVB President and CEO Kara Franker and what she and the team were trying to build, I immediately took a liking to them.

Is it an advantage or a disadvantage to be learning the destination at the same time you're marketing it?

I'd lean toward advantage. I'm not reminiscing about something I saw 10 years ago with my family/ I'm seeing it with fresh eyes right now. I can look people in the eye, watch what tourists are experiencing, and take it all in in real time. Every day after work, as long as it's not raining, I throw on gym clothes and walk for about two hours, getting around 10,000 steps, taking pictures, discovering places, and building a list of restaurants I want to try. Having that "kid eagerness" right now is a good thing for this role.

Aerial view of the Keys. Photo Credit: Visit Florida Keys and Key West

Tell me about the brand and marketing project you're already leading.

There's a tagline that was developed internally by one of the brilliant creatives here: “Play in Your Own Key.” I spent close to three months pressure-testing it in my head and with people I trust. I love it, and I think it has a lot of legs. Whether it's fishing, diving, music, culinary experiences, or literally playing on any of the Keys, the position works on multiple levels. As a marketer, when you launch a new campaign, you want something built to last at least 10 years—I don't want to be doing this again in a year. Right now, I'm focused less on strategy and more on execution. We've launched a public RFP for a creative agency. After that, we'll narrow down agencies, shoot creative, and hopefully launch the first iteration of “Play in Your Own Key” in a big way next spring.

Does your airline and NFL background prepare you for this new era of DMO marketing?

I hope so. The airline industry is a sea of sameness: a pretty picture of a tail or a wing tipping into the sunset says nothing about the brand. Destination marketing can fall into the same trap with a generic pretty picture. What I keep saying is that if you could take our logo off a piece of creative and slap on a Puerto Rico, Bermuda, South Carolina, or San Diego logo instead, then it's not the right creative. We have to do something uniquely ours that no one else could do—that's going to be the filter for everything we produce going forward.

How are you approaching the challenge of rebuilding international tourism?

It's about finding the most historically reliable markets and the low-hanging fruit. For the Keys, that's been the UK and Germany, and we’ve also seen pretty big upticks from Brazil and Argentina, so we'll be focusing attention there. What makes this destination enticing from a marketing standpoint is that it doesn't even feel like the U.S. It is Florida, but it still feels removed from a big hub or a big city. That escape without escaping quality is something we'll definitely lean into.

Photo Credit: Visit Florida Keys and Key West