Room occupancy tax collections the last few months are the highest they’ve ever been for this time of year, which means Wrightsville Beach has more money to spend on marketing: $278,000, a budget the town’s marketing committee members finalized during a May 10 meeting.
“A lot of times we’re in here having to cut things,” said Shawn Braden, Wilmington and Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau vice president. “This time we get to do everything [in the budget].”
The town’s marketing budget is up about 8 percent from 2015, so it gets to spend more across the board, creating what Braden called “a good variety of all types of media, which is good because we’re not putting all our eggs in one basket.”
The town will use the same campaign as last year: “Just another day on the island.” The campaign features large, scenic images, and committee members agreed to spend money to obtain updated imagery.
Those photography costs plus video costs bumps the town’s video and imagery budget up $2,000 from last year, Braden said, emphasizing the importance of video for platforms like social media.
The biggest increase from last year is for E-specials, which Braden said was due to the need to continue to improve them. They will be redesigned to be more elegant on mobile devices, Braden said, since that’s how about 55 percent of the people read them.
The social media and public relations budget is also up 5 percent from last year, to allow the town to start targeting more regional markets instead of just in state. In general, the town is switching its marketing to target specific cities in out-of-state markets. Those markets include cities like Bethesda, Maryland, Columbus, Ohio, Greenville, South Carolina, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Social media efforts will be focused more on Instagram, Braden added, and mining user-generated content, or posts by people visiting Wrightsville Beach. Channels that allow user interaction, like social media, require extra time and energy to maintain, Braden pointed out. Agencies have to monitor the comments and respond when necessary, which often requires research.
“It’s a lot more labor-intensive now, with digital,” she said.
Now that the marketing committee has approved the budget, it will pass to the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen for final approval during the board’s June meeting.
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