Wrightsville Beach’s proximity to Wilmington is a powerful selling point — and vice versa — but the town’s marketing committee is worried creating a joint campaign touting that wouldn’t support its goal of getting tourists to patronize shops, restaurants and lodging on the island, not near the island.
The marketing committee heard a recommendation by its hired agency, Clean Design, Feb. 9 to combine part of its marketing budget with that of Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Wilmington to create a campaign to raise awareness for the entire area.
Wrightsville Beach’s closeness to the diverse activities offered in downtown Wilmington sets it apart from its competitors in the market like Brunswick County beaches, the Outer Banks and the Crystal Coast, Clean Design account executive Eleanor Talley said.
Part of Wrightsville Beach’s advertising budget as well as its public relations and social media would still specifically market the island, but the joint campaign would reach people further away in the initial stages of planning an East Coast trip. The North Carolina tourism industry runs a similar campaign, so together the campaigns would gradually narrow potential tourists’ focus, like a funnel.
“The more people at the top of the funnel means more people at your individual destinations,” Talley said.
But the committee members said they were hesitant to use part of their $400,000 marketing budget on a campaign that could ultimately funnel people to Carolina Beach or Wilmington.
The committee members represent factions of Wrightsville Beach’s tourism industry like dining and lodging and they struggled not to view similar businesses across the drawbridge as competition, especially since room tax collections and a new Carolina Beach hotel indicate the neighboring beaches’ tourism is thriving.
“Isn’t that cause for us to focus [our marketing]?” said Blockade Runner Beach Resort general manager Nicolas Montoya, who, like many other board members, was skeptical but not completely against the proposed campaign.
Many people from out of state have never heard of Wrightsville Beach, Clean Design brand strategist Travis Conte pointed out, so the island’s brand could benefit from Wilmington’s name recognition.
“We hear people say ‘I went to Wilmington beach.’ And that’s not a thing,” he said. “So do we put the budget we have toward fighting that wider perception or do we leverage it as a strength and try to build the larger area destination brand?”
Wrightsville’s competitors to the north have implemented a similar joint campaign to market the coastline instead of the individual beaches, Conte added. People from out of state talk about taking an Outer Banks trip, he said, not a Kitty Hawk trip.
The marketing committee did not vote on the joint campaign yet. First, Clean Design must introduce the idea to Carolina and Kure Beach’s marketing committees. Then, if the other beaches buy in, the agency will bring joint campaign scenarios to all three beaches next month.
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