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Continued from Page 1 vacation planners between 25-50 years of age, who are married with children, live in the northeast, and make between $100,000 and $200,000 per year.

“We have developed a new brand campaign,” BVK Account Supervisor Kristin Wood, told the commission, explaining that it aims to update the look and feel of the destination while also increasing engagement through different mediums.

Between April and July, the agency will focus on increasing awareness about Ocean City and its summer activities and from August through October it will focus on the awareness of activities in the fall. The rest of the year will focus on winter, as City Council members continue to push Ocean City into becoming a year-round resort.

In 2023, Wood added, efforts of rebranding Ocean City will go live.

Rather than focus on traditional means of advertising like television and print, which the resort used primarily in the past, BVK plans to launch new tactics like paid social media and search engine placement, digital video, streaming audio, branded playlists on platforms such as Spotify, stickers, and magazines, just to name a few.

Nick Marrazza, the creative director on the project, said his team opted to use photos and videos on file since BVK could not shoot summer footage last year.

Using those assets, Marrazza plans to update them to feel fresh and new to convince potential visitors to leave their day-to-day worries on the west side of the bridges leading to Ocean City and find time to enjoy what’s offered on the coast.

Marrazza and his team also developed a vibrant color pallet he called “a new coat of paint” that was based on the colors found in the art on file. Some of the colors include names like Ocean City Orange, Cotton Candy Pink, Deep Ocean Blue, and Light Golf Green – all of which are associated with activities and features in the resort area.

Several graphic components were introduced as well, including a cookie-cutter style template that allows images of activities in the resort, like fishing, golf, Jet skiing and riding a Ferris wheel to be swapped out, along with phrases like “Enjoy Summer,” “Enjoy Boardwalk Bites, “Enjoy Summer Savings,” and “Enjoy Summer.”

BVK plans to use the graphics in social media posts and several other outlets. “Enjoy Summer” graphics have already been updated on the city’s website, ococean.com.

Marrazza also walked commission members through one of the television commercials that can be tailored to fit a 30-second, 15-second, or even 6-second spot.

To get people engaged in the idea of visiting Ocean City, BVK also plans to run campaigns with social media influencers, or people who have many followers on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, and TikTok.

Marrazza said the four influencers chosen would be based on the type of target they reach. The influencer could, for instance, tell their audience they are going to Ocean City for two to three days before asking them what type of activities they should do.

The influencer could then pick the top responses and shoot videos of themselves doing those activities, allowing the audience to follow along.

“The goal is to position Ocean City as a place to release and feel carefree in a destination that’s serious about the power of levity and play,” Jeremy Whitt, the senior vice president of media strategy at BVK said.

Whitt said between April and December, there is a $5 million budget and 70-percent will be spent on the summer. The remaining amount will go toward fall and winter. The audience BVK plans to target are mainly East Coast vacationers, 25-54 years old, married, and with children.

With the pandemic still fresh, people still want to travel close to home, Whitt explained. The markets they plan to tackle include Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and several in Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre Scranton, Altoona, and Pittsburgh.

After those markets are addressed, Whitt said they plan to reach out to major markets like New York City that research showed sends a strong contingent to Ocean City.

For print, BVK plans to run ads in high-profile publications like All Recipes, Travel & Leisure, and People, which have over 1 million subscribers.

Advertisements about Ocean City will also run on streaming video platforms like YouTube, audio platforms like Spotify and Pandora, and travel websites like Travelzoo and Trip Advisor.

“I think it’s great,” Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association Executive Director Susan Jones said.

Jessica Waters, the city’s director of marketing and communications concurred, adding that they are working on an all-encompassing rebranding of the resort as they work on the ad campaign, so there is a lot in the pipeline.

Tourism Director Tom Perlozzo said the presentation was about a tenth of what they have been working on and that there are some surprises and things that are being worked on that were not being presented during the meeting.

“The media mix is way different than it was in the past,” he said. “It’s just a different take on our destination.”