OC Marketing Strategy Debated

OCEAN CITY — The Tourism Committee resumed the discussion about the town’s advertising strategy last week after questions were raised about how and where Ocean City is marketed.

Earlier in July, the Mayor and Council exercised an option to renew Ocean City’s contract with advertising agency MGH, but not before a spirited discussion about the need for some kind of market study to determine how best and where to direct the resort’s advertising budget. Last Monday, July 10, the Tourism Committee took up the discussion again, focusing on a marketing survey to help ensure the town’s advertising efforts were reaching the desired audience.

Tourism Director Donna Abbott said the town has not done a comprehensive marketing analysis to determine what visitors like and don’t like about the resort in about six or seven years. Abbott did say the tourism department and its allied agencies including the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce and the Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association, for example, each year conduct random surveys from visitors that include information such as where they come from, how long they stay and even median household income, for example, with varying degrees of success.

MGH President Andy Mallis said the first step into a deeper dive into market research is determining what goals a survey hopes to accomplish.

“What are you looking to do?” he said. “There are many different ways of doing studies. You can collect data like zip codes, age and place of origin, but you’re doing that somewhat already. The key to any kind of research is finding out what you want. I don’t think we should rush into anything without determining that first.”

Council Secretary and Committee Chair Mary Knight said the need for a marketing evaluation study was borne out of questions raised by Councilman Wayne Hartman.

“Wayne was interested in finding out the trends for families visiting Ocean City,” she said. “He pointed out there are a lot of new hotels and other amenities that should attract families. We want to find out what we are successful in doing to bring in families and maybe what we’re missing.”

Committee member Stephanie Meehan said there were likely a variety of reasons why families choose different options for vacations.

“Why did some families stop coming?” she said. “Maybe their kids are grown up and they are no longing taking the traditional family summer vacation. There are a lot of families who come to Ocean City as a tradition and they stay in the same place at the same time each year. Maybe their kids are grown and they aren’t doing that anymore.”

Meehan said it likely wasn’t an issue specific to Ocean City.

“Are there trends out there?” she said. “If there are trends regarding family vacations, are we trending differently than other vacation destinations? I think the word ‘family’ means something different than it used to mean for a lot of people.”

Ocean City Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melanie Pursel agreed family vacations are likely different for many than they used to be just a few years back and drew from her own experiences.

“When we were kids, we always went on vacation with our blood relatives, meaning our mother and father and our siblings and maybe aunts and uncles and cousins,” she said. “Now when we go on vacation, we often travel with other families. It’s just different now.”

Abbott said because of the changing dynamics, Ocean City and MGH are constantly re-evaluating the town’s marketing strategy.

“Because our target audience changes throughout the year, we might need to do mini-campaigns at different times of the year,” she said.

About The Author: Shawn Soper

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Shawn Soper has been with The Dispatch since 2000. He began as a staff writer covering various local government beats and general stories. His current positions include managing editor and sports editor. Growing up in Baltimore before moving to Ocean City full time three decades ago, Soper graduated from Loch Raven High School in 1981 and from Towson University in 1985 with degrees in mass communications with a journalism concentration and history.