During the pandemic, Eight Sleep CEO Matteo Franceschetti and his wife never felt like they were shopping for a new city. The same goes for House of Wise founder Amanda Goetz.
But as of July 2021, both Franceschetti and Goetz will officially be moving to Miami.
First, they considered other options. Franceschetti’s California, where her family is. Goetz and her three children have been riding out the pandemic in North Carolina so far.
Ultimately, Miami beat out the other contenders.
Back in April 2020, New York City won over Franceschetti. During the pandemic, Eight Sleep let the lease on its Manhattan office space expire and prioritized remote work.
Immediately, it didn’t make sense for him and his wife to live in their small New York apartment.
“We wanted healthier lives and better weather,” he told MarketerHire. So they moved.
“We wanted healthier lives and better weather.”
They’re not alone. Many Americans, estimated at millions, have moved to new states during the pandemic.
Florida is a hot destination, and Miami in particular has attracted powerful business leaders, according to U-Haul. Think Keith Rabois, co-founder of PayPal and partner at Founders Fund, and Jon Oringer, founder of Shutterstock, who lives in the sprawling home and co-working space once owned by Alex Rodriguez, the New York Times reports.
The New York Times isn’t the only outlet reporting on the sudden influx of tech and business leaders in Miami. It’s also covered multiple stories about the trend.
In a Bloomberg report, Jonathan Levin and Amanda L. Gordon argue that Miami could become the “Wall Street of the South,” thanks to so many investment banks and tech companies opening offices there.
Or “Silicon Beach.”
Whatever the nickname, Miami is clearly experiencing a renaissance — or rebranding, if you will — at a time when many professionals are looking for a new city.
Even if they don’t think of it that way.
Meet the mayor, a “great marketer”
While there are no official statistics for new Miami residents, CNBC has a solid number: This tweet from Miami Mayor Francis Suarez received 2.3 million organic views.
The message suggests he’s just bolstering the spontaneous interest from Silicon Valley luminaries, but that doesn’t give enough weight to what’s happening in Miami.
Though he’s only been mayor since 2017, he’s been laying the foundation for Miami’s tech boom for more than a decade.
He’s done so in part through savvy positioning: He thinks his business-friendly, low-tax approach to governing can attract entrepreneurs and tech leaders from Democratic strongholds.
In cities like New York and San Francisco, “not only are you seeing more and more money going to government, but you’re also seeing more and more money going to government that doesn’t want you,” Mayor Suarez told The New York Times. “So it’s like a double whammy.”
Life in Miami isn’t so bad by comparison.
It’s a compelling pitch. As Goetz puts it:
He also has a bit of an executive in his personality. “He runs the city like a CEO runs a product company,” Goetz told MarketerHire, “and he uses social media as a marketing channel.”
Franceschetti echoes that sentiment. “It’s refreshing to see a city leader with the attitude of a startup CEO,” he says.
“It’s refreshing to see a city leader with the attitude of a startup CEO.”
(Mayor Suarez was actually CEO of real estate firm Edge Title Company before he got into politics, according to his LinkedIn profile.)
Now, his marketing acumen comes to the fore. As remote work becomes mainstream and successful people increasingly go mobile, he recognizes the shift in the market—and is spreading the word about Miami through a multichannel marketing strategy.
The Miami 2.0 Message
What message did Mayor Suarez spread about Miami? Not exactly the same message as Will Smith’s 1997 hit “Welcome to Miami.”
Smith did capture Miami’s brand at the time, though. Historically, the city was known for its beaches, nightclubs, art scene and… retirees.
As Smith puts it: “No work, just play.”
No longer.
Both Franceschetti and Goetz say the mantra for Miami has changed these days. It’s more like “work hard, then relax,” or “work hard on a boat.”
The brands that appeal to Franceschetti and Goetz have little to do with Art Basel or nightclubs. Instead, the three pillars of Miami’s appeal seem to be outdoor recreation, a balanced lifestyle and a startup community.
Startup community.
This tweet appeared in a story about transplants to Miami:
Goetz echoes Rabois’s sentiments. In Miami, she joined WhatsApp groups and email chains. She joined a Twitter DM group for founders who play golf. Transplants want to connect with like-minded transplants — and Mayor Suarez helps introduce them to each other.
“It feels like New York in the early 2010s when the startup world really took off… Even during the pandemic, there’s so much possibility and so much social energy,” she says.
In fact, some of the friends Goetz met in New York moved to Miami before her.
That means beaches, year-round sunshine, jet skis — and, for Franceschetti, tennis courts.
“I started playing tennis on Sundays and had a lot of meetings,” he says. In crowded, cold New York, tennis is a rare luxury, not a weekly necessity.
Goetz, a mother of three, also loves the warm weather and the outdoors. “The year-round outdoors is great for my kids.”
A balanced lifestyle. Franceschetti is never one to hit the nightclubs, bahamas phone book but says Miami, with its many wellness resorts and oceanfront yoga classes, could become a hub for wellness and business.
Goetz agrees. For entrepreneurs, she says, “One of Miami’s value propositions is that you can create and do all the things you’re doing and still take care of yourself and have a healthy lifestyle.”
Mayor’s Marketing Channels
So how exactly does Mayor Suarez get this three-part message across? Like any savvy marketer, he doesn’t rely on any single channel. By our count, he taps into more than five.
Twitter
Mayor Suarez has more than 75,000 followers on Twitter, a platform he uses religiously and strategically.
He’s probably best known for using Twitter to share #CafecitoTalks — short videotaped conversations with local and visiting entrepreneurs, including Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy, the Winklevoss twins, and Franceschetti.
Named after the Cuban espresso drink, the videos are a bit like mini-talk shows and have racked up hundreds of thousands of views.