By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City is planning to shoot a new 30-second tourism commercial that will serve as one of the centerpieces of the town’s 2024 summer marketing campaign.
Who will star in it? How about Tom Cruise? Dwayne Johnson, perhaps? Scarlett Johansson, you say?
Not even close. No professional actors or actresses will appear in the commercial. Instead, the “stars” will be ordinary Joes and Janes who visit and vacation in Sea Isle.
Members of Sea Isle City’s Tourism Commission gave a sneak preview of their plans for the commercial during a discussion at their board meeting Thursday.
When it is ready, the commercial will be shown on many of the city’s marketing avenues, including social media and the visitsicnj.com tourism website, Sea Isle spokeswoman Katherine Custer said.
In the commercial, ordinary people will be interviewed around town and at special events. They will be asked, “What is your reason to smile in Sea Isle?”
“We want people to rave about Sea Isle. Everybody’s having a good time,” Mickey Coskey, the Tourism Commission’s marketing consultant, explained of the concept for the commercial.
Chris Oney, Sea Isle’s tourism representative, said the commercial will close with the tagline, “There’s Always a Reason to Smile in Sea Isle.”
The commercial’s “There’s Always a Reason to Smile in Sea Isle” message is inspired by the whimsical slogan painted on the city’s 135-foot-high water tower that greets visitors entering town on the John F. Kennedy Boulevard corridor.
“Smile … You’re in Sea Isle,” the slogan proclaims on the gleaming, sky blue tower. A comical smiley face adorned in a pair of sunglasses also decorates the water tower.
For the last three years, Sea Isle has continued to use the same 30-second tourism commercial that features the slogan “Reconnect in Sea Isle!”
The “Reconnect” theme has been successful, but now the city will refresh the marketing campaign with the help of a new commercial, city officials said.
Visitors and vacationers from all demographic groups will be interviewed for the commercial “to get the pulse” of what people enjoy most about Sea Isle, Custer said.
“There will be older people, younger people, moms,” Custer said while describing some of the people who will be in the commercial.
The format of Sea Isle’s 30-second spot will be similar to the commercials that feature people coming out of a theater and raving about the movie they just saw, Coskey said.
Each year, the Tourism Commission oversees Sea Isle’s family-friendly marketing campaigns to draw visitors to town during the peak summer vacation season. Different elements of the campaign will be rolled out leading up to the spring and summer tourism seasons.
The marketing campaign blends digital marketing and social media with more traditional forms of advertising such as billboards, print, TV and radio media, visitor guides and travel shows.
Sea Isle competes with other beach resorts along the Jersey Shore to attract both U.S. and foreign tourists. The marketing campaign is the heart of Sea Isle’s strategy to distinguish itself from its rivals.
