OCEAN CITY — While the debate continues over some of the resort’s motorized special events, the Tourism Committee this week gave a favorable recommendation to a request for a shared marketing opportunity with OC BikeFest at the tune of around $20,000.
Tourism Director Donna Abbott recommended the sponsorship investment as a means to promote the town’s other fall special events during OC BikeFest, the most attended of the shoulder season events each fall.
Abbott explained the proposed $20,000 shared marketing investment would put Ocean City’s tourism banner on all OC BikeFest websites and social media platforms with links to the town’s other special events and goings-on around the resort area. In addition, the Ocean City banner would be displayed on all OC BikeFest signage at events along with a two-page advertising spread in the OC BikeFest guide.
The $20,000 marketing buy-in is down from the $25,000 the town committed last year. After some debate, the committee voted to send a favorable recommendation to the Mayor and Council, which will ultimately decide on the investment in the event. The $20,000 would come out of the Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) funding. Abbott explained the virtues of partnering with OC BikeFest on marketing and advertising.
“The events sell out,” she said. “When we looked at it from a marketing standpoint, the only thing we might be able to do better on is social media marketing. Their website gets a lot of traffic with something like half a million impressions.”
Councilman and committee member Matt James agreed the marketing partnership represented a good investment for the town, but held out reservations about the social media aspect.
“Their followers are not necessarily social media enthusiasts,” he said. “They tend to be a little older than some of the other motorized events. The same thing can be said about the cruisers.”
Nonetheless, Abbott said the $20,000 investment in shared marketing and advertising with OC BikeFest represented a good bang for the buck.
“It’s certainly an important event for our tourism economy,” she said. “It’s hard not to advocate for this event. We know there have been problems with some of the motorized special events, but Bike Week scored well on the Police Commission’s motorized events ratings.”
Last year, a divided council approved the sale of liquor at Bike Week events at the Inlet and there were no problems reported.
“I went to the Inlet three times and I was one of the naysayers on them serving alcohol, but I was wrong,” said Councilwoman and committee member Mary Knight. “It is a great event and they are generally very well behaved.”
