By MADDY VITALE
The water tower when entering Sea Isle City says it all — well, the whimsical smiley face painted on it gives a hint at the feeling visitors may have when vacationing in the popular shore town.
“Smile … You’re in Sea Isle,” it declares.
In keeping with the happy theme, a new commercial for the 2024 summer marketing campaign was unveiled Thursday during the Sea Isle Tourism Commission meeting. The commercial touts the city’s new slogan: “There’s Always a Reason to Smile in Sea Isle.”
Mickey Coskey, the Tourism Commission’s marketing consultant, gave a presentation on the nearly $100,000 marketing plan and showed the latest commercial.
“When we met in January, we focused on the kickoff resolution and now we transition to our full season campaign, ‘There’s always a reason to smile in Sea Isle,'” Coskey said.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio still has to give his final approval, but Tourism Representative Chris Oney said that once that happens, the new commercial could air in as little as a few days.
The commercial starts off with a group of children in the water, their arms around each other and they’re smiling. The next scenes fade in and out with images of the Promenade, beach, bay, people kayaking, doing yoga, fishing, playing pickleball, shopping, and more.
Then comes this: “Looking for smiles? Then you should plan a visit to Sea Isle City, New Jersey.”
Then the new slogan comes in and the commercial ends with a Sea Isle-themed song.
“I love the song. It gives us something unique,” Oney said.
In the middle of the commercial, there is a spot where another promotion or event could be added.
“The commercial has versatility,” Oney noted.
In addition to the new commercial, the city does billboard promotions, uses social media platforms and TV, digital and print, as well as a reference guide.
The new photo that highlights the new campaign is a smiling family riding in a surrey cart on the Promenade. The family is featured on the new rack cards as well as other advertisements for the campaign.
The city also participates in travel shows in partnership with New Jersey tourism officials. The city’s tourism billboard on the Walt Whitman Bridge in Philadelphia has been up since Christmas and will remain there until May 12.
In the winter, the Tourism Commission kicked off the campaign to attract summer visitors with digital billboards focusing on the New Year’s resolution to “Spend More Time in Sea Isle City.”
Coskey said that Sea Isle’s target audience continues to be New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. She also said that Philadelphia and New York are the No. 1 and No. 2 cities searching on the Sea Isle City vacation website www.visitsicnj.com.
