The Wilmington and Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) launched a campaign this month to market Wilmington as a fly-in destination to Atlanta area residents.
The campaign, which officially began Feb. 1, includes digital marketing components, public relations efforts and a partnership with Wilmington International Airport and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, which oversees Visit North Carolina, the state’s unit in charge of tourism promotion.
Atlanta was selected as a city for marketing efforts for several reasons, one of them being that the Visit North Carolina group has plans to market to that area through its “Vacation Big” campaign this spring.
“This gives us a real one-two punch to do our campaign before theirs launches,” said Shawn Braden, vice president of marketing for the CVB.
Traffic research on both CVB and ILM websites also revealed a high percentage of visitors from the Atlanta area, officials said. The city has been targeted in the past along with other major cities in CVB marketing efforts, but this will be the first time the visitor’s bureau is focusing specifically on one city in hopes to increase awareness of Wilmington as a vacation destination.
The fact that nonstop flights are available from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to ILM was another element in the decision to launch the campaign.
The CVB sees merit in aiming marketing efforts toward cities that have nonstop flights to Wilmington to take advantage of an emerging trend in shorter vacation stays.
“We hope that people come here and take a seven-day vacation,” Braden said. “But, in reality, people are so crunched for time that they are coming here and staying for only three or four days … It has been an ongoing goal of ours to partner with the airport.
“We mostly have a lot of drive-in visitors to Wilmington, but this quick, 90-minute flight from Atlanta offers a great opportunity to promote the area as a fly-in destination.”
ILM continues to see demand for nonstop flights, particularly the flights to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport and to Atlanta. Airport officials announced this week that American Airlines has added an additional flight to LaGuardia, and Delta Air Lines will reinstate a daily flight to New York starting June 5. On May 1, Delta will add another daily flight to Atlanta, which will make a total of six daily nonstop flights to the city.
After the Atlanta February direct promotion, the CVB will focus public relations and social media marketing efforts in other nonstop-flight cities such as New York City and Philadelphia with the primary target audiences being women, families with children and multigenerational families.
CVB officials said they see these nonstop-flight cities as perfect targets for their “48 Hours in Wilmington” itineraries, and their plan is to pitch these story ideas to lifestyle and travel publications.
The CVB partnered with ILM for the digital component of the campaign, which includes website ads that will click through to a landing page with links to the airport’s website where potential visitors can book their flights, as well as suggested itineraries and Wilmington tourism images. The bulk of the digital marketing will take place during the month of February when many people are starting to think about planning spring vacations.
“We see a lot of people dreaming about going someplace warmer this time of year,” Braden said.
As part of the CVB’s partnership with Visit North Carolina on the campaign, three to six trips to “Vacation Big” in NC will be given away, which will include a hotel stay, partial meal credits and passes to area attractions coordinated through the CVB.
ILM, for its contribution, will allocate dollars toward the trips’ flight costs. The trip giveaway is set to be promoted on national morning shows to give the area added exposure in new markets. “It’s difficult to advertise outside of your area,” said ILM finance and marketing director Jim Morton. “When this opportunity came up, we were excited to take part in it.”
