Post-Sandy, new Atlantic City ad campaign beckons tourists

Atlantic City is embarking on a new ad campaign. The goal is to tell people that the resort town hasn’t sustained the kind of storm damage that’s overwhelmed other towns along the Jersey Shore.

 

The pictures of devastation, mostly of North Jersey shore towns, have been keeping people away from Atlantic City, says Liza Carmell, president of the Atlantic City Alliance.

The group has conducted research that shows people are misinformed, she said.

“We did a national survey, a quick poll of about 1,400 people around the entire country and figured out 40 percent of people believe the entire Jersey Shore was destroyed and that includes Atlantic City,” she said.

To overcome the misperception, Carmell says the Alliance has made a new commercial and will spend about $2 million over the next six weeks to promote the fact that Atlantic City is alive, well and welcoming tourists. The campaign includes an ad in the New York Times.

“We feel like the New York Times is a vehicle that not only will reach that core New York marketplace and will give us that national reach,” she said. “For example, my parents are snowbirds in Florida but they get the New York Times and they will see it.”

The TV ads are designed to hit the region that’s within driving distance of the resort.