James Bennett, chairman of the Tourism Commission, and marketing consultant Mickey Coskey preview a new 30-second commercial showcasing Sea Isle.
By Donald Wittkowski
Sea Isle City officials are hoping that it will take only 30 seconds to persuade tourists to spend their summer vacations in the beach town.
The city’s Tourism Commission previewed a new 30-second commercial Thursday that is one of the centerpieces of a family-friendly advertising campaign featuring the slogan, “The Forecast is Fun in Sea Isle City.”
Launched March 1, the ad shows a young family frolicking in the ocean, beachcombing, crabbing, doing yoga under a full moon and savoring some of the city’s family-style entertainment.
Mickey Coskey, owner of Seven Mile Publishing, the marketing consultant for the Tourism Commission, said she believes a 30-second commercial is ideal for catching the public’s attention.
“They really recommend shorter commercials because people have a short attention span,” Coskey told the Tourism Commission’s board members at their meeting.
The online ad will be featured on Sea Isle’s tourism website at www.visitsicnj.com, the city’s Facebook page, YouTube and 6abc.com, Coskey said.
It is part of a $100,000 marketing and publicity campaign for 2017 announced by the Tourism Commission in January. Different elements of the campaign are being rolled out leading up to the spring and summer tourism season.
The campaign blends more traditional forms of advertising such as billboards, print media and visitor guides with a digital marketing strategy that recognizes the big, upward trend in mobile communications.
On a typical summer weekend, about 50,000 to 60,000 visitors will pour into Sea Isle City, a barrier island with a year-round population of 2,100. During peak summer holiday weekends, such as the Fourth of July, the number of tourists will balloon to 65,000 to 75,000, city spokeswoman Katherine Custer said.
James Bennett, chairman of the Tourism Commission, and marketing consultant Mickey Coskey preview a new 30-second commercial showcasing Sea Isle.
Sea Isle got a taste of summer-like activity in February, of all times, during its wildly popular annual Polar Bear Weekend festivities. An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 visitors came to town Feb. 17-19 for a weekend of partying, dining and shopping. The main event was the Polar Bear Plunge, a dive into the nippy surf by thousands of people clad in costumes and bathing suits.
Coskey noted that the popularity of Polar Bear Weekend was reflected in the surge of hits on the city’s tourism website. Web traffic was up 36 percent from Jan. 1 to March 15 compared to the same period in 2016. On Feb. 18, the Saturday that the Polar Bear Plunge was held, there was a 60 percent jump in the number of web visitors using their mobile devices, she said.
