A fortnight ago, HGTV’s Battle on the Block featured three Ybor City couples — neighbors — competing against each other in a master bedroom redesign contest. Who won is not all that material — although the winners were the first gay couple to have their bedroom featured on an HGTV show. The biggest winner: Ybor City. The street car and streetscape shots never looked so hip. It’s nothing less than a marketing coup when the show’s host references Ybor as a “trendy hotspot for young, chic couples.”
“We love getting coverage of Ybor,” says Ybor City Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Tom Keating. It helps Tampa Bay.”
Keating is in a position to know a marketing coup when he sees one. He says a Southern Living spread on Ybor a while back was probably worth “several hundred thousand dollars.” The HGTV spotlight? “Well, this is national TV,” assesses Keating, “so I’d say this was certainly worth at least as much as Southern Living.” And, no, the budget would not have accommodated such an expense, assures Keating.