NE Tourism Opps: Discover Long Island launches campaign following DM appointments

Sales Lead: Discover Long Island (DLI) recently launched a tourism campaign.

• Titled "You BeLONG" (ha!), the campaign consists of a series of videos starring local Long Islander business owners sharing their love of the area.
  • Since rolling out on June 1, 2023, the campaign has attracted more than 61k viewers (as of June 28).
  • The campaign's paid advertising is expected to reach an audience of over 6m impressions across various platforms such as Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and Google.
  • Consumers can also find the videos on DLI's YouTube page and a dedicated campaign website.
• It was made with Paradise Advertising and EGC Group with a focus on authenticity and unique, localized experiences.
• In 2023, the organization expects tourism to exceed its pre-pandemic, 2019 spending of $6.3b.
• Per president and CEO Kristen Reynolds, leadership is getting d"more strategic in how we market the destinations."
  • This strategy involves targeting places populated by people who spend the most on Long Island.
  • This is part of the goal of bringing more dollars and fewer visitors.
• The company will likely:
  • Launch additional work
    • This is actually not a "likely" event but an inevitable one; according to president and CEO Reynolds, the organization will do additional videos throughout 2023.
  • Ramp up experiential efforts under a relevant DM (more)
  • Return to higher spend
  • Seek additional new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • Millennials

Recent leadership shifts:

• It has also been less than a year since DLI named Angelica Miceli as its partnership engagement and events director (September 2022) and Allison Brown-Taylor as its marketing director (October 2022).

Additional spending insights:

• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, DLI has spent roughly $15.7k on digital ads, less than a quarter of the roughly $70.5k spent within the same timeframe last year.
  • YTD data: The organization has earned around 2.2m digital impressions YTD, 63% via Facebook, 36% via Instagram, and 1% via mobile display ads.
  • Last year: DLI spent approximately $87.8k on this channel in 2022, 39% more than the approximately $63.3k spent in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The organization invests in partnerships with other organizations in Nassau County such as Old Westbury Gardens, restaurants, and other event venues.
  • DLI also utilizes Google Ads.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: The two agencies with which DLI worked on this campaign seem to be relatively new partners, so reach out soon to see if the organization is in search of additional new agency partners.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Paradise: Creative, media buying, and PR AOR
  • EGC Group: Creative agency partner

Insight Sources: Digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix.