On April 15 the Atlantic City Alliance (ACA) relaunches it’s $20 million tourism campaign to spur spring/summer travel to the seaside resort destination. Just one year ago this month, the ACA introduced a new campaign for AC – “Do Anything. Do Everything. Do AC.” – to broaden the image of the destination beyond just gaming and to attract more leisure tourism.

The second year of Atlantic City’s tourism campaign features all new TV, radio, print, digital and out of home advertising in the New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia DMAs. The advertising campaign’s call to action remains the same, “Do AC.” Extending the ad buy reach will be social media, communications, corporate partnerships, a new event roster and a soon-to-debut, multi-city “Do AC” roadshow.

What’s different?
Building upon last year, the marketing campaign will create even more urgency to visit “now” by focusing on a myriad of experiences and events throughout the iconic oceanfront destination. The goal is to drive people to book a trip. Atlantic City is also adding gaming back into the marketing mix to emphasize one of the activities that distinguishes AC from other getaways. Last year’s campaign debuted without gaming since gaming is what people would have expected from an AC marketing campaign. The campaign was created by Havas in New York City and the media was placed by Havas Media.

2013 “Do AC” campaign highlights are:

New TV and radio spots and full-page ads evolve from a brand identity campaign to a brand and event driven campaign. The new creative features event listings and the “AC To Do” list.

ACA is working to support and market destination defining events, like the Atlantic City Airshow, and is launching a robust series of new events designed to drive visitation off-season and mid-week.

The digital, online ads will shift the emphasis from web site ad banners to more deeply integrated brand content. In addition, “Do AC” will make its way to travel sites such as Trip Advisor and Expedia.

Social media will include more crowd sourcing from AC’s growing social community. AC’s social media campaign now expands to Pinterest, Foursquare and a new video series on YouTube.

Hyper-local PR agencies in New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia will focus on reshaping perceptions about AC. They will also promote a new “Do AC” roadshow and develop direct to consumer activations in each of their markets. The “Do AC” road show will launch in early June. The agencies are Crenshaw Communications in New York, Sandy Hillman Communications in Baltimore and Cashman and Associates in Philadelphia.

Hurricane Sandy
A lingering challenge comes from Hurricane Sandy. Atlantic City’s national image took a hit due to sensational, out-of-context and (at times) erroneous news reports about the famed Atlantic City Boardwalk, which is still intact and as beautiful as ever. The perceptions of a damaged city linger, making this spring/summer ad campaign a crucial part of the efforts to increase visitation and revenue.