By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Even in the dead of winter, people in the Philadelphia region will have thoughts of spending leisurely summer days on Sea Isle City’s beaches.
They will be reminded that the summer vacation season is but a mere seven months away by three strategically placed billboards inviting them to visit Sea Isle.
At its meeting Tuesday, City Council is expected to award a $25,900 contract for the billboards. Sea Isle already has had one billboard up on the Walt Whitman Bridge and plans to add two more on the I-95 corridor in the Philadelphia market.
The billboards are one of the centerpieces of the city’s family-friendly “Reconnect in Sea Isle!” tourism campaign for 2020. The campaign will encourage visitors to post photos and videos on the city’s Facebook page that highlight their vacations. The idea is for friends and family members to show how they are “reconnecting” in Sea Isle.
Sea Isle spokeswoman Katherine Custer said the winter billboards serve as an early reminder for people to book their shore vacations. She noted they are an effective way to reach tourists.
“It’s cold out and they’re driving to work and then they see the billboards and say, ‘Aah, it’s Sea Isle City.’ It reminds them of the summer season,” Custer said.
Sea Isle’s three billboards that were located in Philadelphia for the 2019 marketing campaign were seen by nearly 11 million people traveling to and from the shore, according to the Sea Isle City Tourism Commission.
“We certainly do hear from people,” Custer said of the public’s reaction to the billboards. “We do think it’s a very effective way to remind people in the Delaware Valley that Sea Isle City is always happy to welcome visitors.”
At their October board meeting, members of the tourism commission discussed the possibility of using geofencing technology in 2020 at Sea Isle’s billboard sites to enhance the city’s marketing and advertising campaign.
For instance, geofencing would track someone’s cellphone as they drove by the billboards and then would send them a Sea Isle tourism advertisement on their phone, marketing consultant Mickey Coskey told the board members.
Sea Isle annually spends about $100,000 to $110,000 for its tourism campaign. The 2020 campaign will be rolled out in phases leading up to the summer season. The advertising and marketing blitz is intended to distinguish Sea Isle from other Jersey Shore towns in the fierce competition for tourism business.
Key parts of Sea Isle’s marketing strategy include social media, internet videos and a combination of more traditional types of tourism advertising, such as billboards and the city’s visitors guide. In 2019, Sea Isle gave out 45,000 visitor guides.
On a typical summer weekend, about 50,000 to 60,000 visitors will pour into Sea Isle, compared to the town’s year-round population of 2,100. During peak summer days, such as the Fourth of July, the number of tourists will balloon to 65,000 or 75,000, city officials say.
