Myrtle Beach Area CVB Partner Connect

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Visit Myrtle Beach Summer 2023 Marketing Campaign

Cori Hutslar

In 2023, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and CVB’s long-term branding objective is to position Myrtle Beach as a year-round destination of 60 miles of “beach plus” among a high-value traveler influencing measurable overnight visitation from our core audience segments. Beginning as early as May 2020, Myrtle Beach led the way for destination demand and the goal is to continue this as well as grow market share. The 2023 destination marketing key strategic priorities are designed to further increase that demand, enhance partnerships, and expand insights. 

The summer campaign is just one of many layers of marketing the CVB utilizes during a calendar year to achieve a robust messaging strategy.  See the chart below for the 2023 leisure campaign/messaging roadmap.

Summer Media Mix

The focus of the campaign is a once again full-funnel approach which includes three phases: Inspire, Engage, and Convert.  Each phase has its own unique purpose, messaging, and individual media content.  The mix of media that was included in the campaign is as follows:

  • Audio

  • Integrated Packages

  • Linear TV

  • CTV

  • Cross Channel Programmatic

  • Paid Social

  • Travel Endemic/OTA

  • OOH

The campaign was also supported with additional marketing efforts that include public relations, email, and promotion via owned media channels.

Summer Audiences

  • 3P Data Segments

    • App usage segments

      • The Visit Myrtle Beach audience indexes 146 for travel and event app usage

    • Transaction data

    • Weather targeting

  • Terminal personas

    • Beach Sophisticates

    • Family Tides

    • Classic Beachers

    • Playful & Practical

  • Behavioral

    • Is planning a trip, and search for family, beaech, unique destinations

    • Interested in finding a destination to fulfill needs of their whole group

    • Enjoys beach vacations and trying new things

  • Keyword/Content/Domain

    • Searching for summer family travel, SC beach resorts, summer vacation, family beach destination, NC hotels, Florida summer travel, etc.

    • Interest in Travel, news, lifestyle, food & drink, outdoor adventure and entertainment

    • Researches travel, travel activities, boat tours & events, outdoor activities

  • Pixel Activity

    • Site visits

    • Time spent

    • User journey

    • Number of sub pages on site

  • Geo-targeting

    • Key markets

    • Past visitors

    • Competitive visitors

Summer Markets

The summer market mix is determined by many factors, including:

  • Market size and proximity

  • Direct Lift access

  • Relative advertising costs

  • Current macro and micro trends

  • Arrivalist visitation

  • Measured online demand

  • Consumer planning behavior

  • Key Data vacation rental data

Key Leisure Markets

*Markets below in bold are focus markets and will include linear TV

**New York will be a video and CTV focus market

  • Harrisburg/Lancaster

  • Johnstown/Altoona

  • Knoxville

  • Lexington

  • Louisville

  • New York**

  • Norfolk/Portsmouth

  • Philadelphia

  • Pittsburgh

  • Raleigh/Durham

  • Richmond/Petersburg

  • Roanoke/Lynchburg

  • Tri-Cities-Tn-Va

  • Washington DC

  • Wilkes Barre/Scranton

  • Youngstown

  • Albany/Schenectady/Troy

  • Atlanta

  • Augusta

  • Baltimore

  • Boston

  • Buffalo

  • Charleston/Huntington

  • Charlotte

  • Chattanooga

  • Cincinnati

  • Cleveland

  • Columbus OH

  • Detroit

  • Greensboro/High Point

  • Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville

Markets, audiences, media channels, and timing varied for each campaign and were chosen based on insights from our various data sources and past performance.  Of course, these campaigns are all fluid and will be optimized to maximize the results or as conditions change.

The following are highlights from each channel, as well as sample creative for current campaigns. 

Linear TV

Strategic Details

  • Focused on cable as it had the largest share of linear summer viewership in 2022 compared to network broadcast. Total flight will be 6-8 weeks. 

Partners

  • Ampersand – Local Cable

Placement Types

  • :15 and :30 spots

Linear Markets

  • Atlanta

  • Augusta

  • Baltimore

  • Cincinnati

  • Norfolk/Portsmouth

  • Philadelphia

  • Pittsburgh

  • Roanoke/Lynchburg

  • Washington DC

Connected TV

Partners

  • Hulu

  • MiQ

  • Peacock

Placement Types

  • :15 and :30 video

  • Standard CTV

  • Dynamic CTV

  • CTV Overlay

Beach with The Beach Commercial Play List

Cross Channel Programmatic

Strategic Details

Targeting

Partners

  • Jun Group

  • Zeta

  • Vox

  • Epsilon

  • Amazon

  • Bidtellect

  • MyCode

Placement Types

  • Display

  • Video

  • Native

Amazon

  • Interactive Audio Ads

Digital Audio

Strategic Details

  • Turn the concert-goers of the Carolina Cuontry Music Festival into repeat visitors and destination ambassadors that view Myrtle Beach as a place that shares their passion for live music.

Partners

  • Pandora

  • Spotify

Placement Types:

  • :15 and :30 audio spots

  • Mobile Welcome Interstitial

  • Audio Everywhere

  • Mobile Overlay

  • Sponsored Session

  • Video Takeover

Pandora

Mobile Audio :15 or :30

Mobile Welcome Interstitial

:30 Host Read Pre Roll: 99% Invisible, a weekly exploration of the process and power of design and architecture. Hosted by Award winning producer Roman Myers.

Integrated Packages & Content

Strategic Details

Targeting

Partners

  • Buzzfeed

  • New York Times

  • Okra

  • Southern Living

  • Garden and Gun

  • Grit

  • Magnolia

Placement Types

  • Custom Video

  • Social

  • Display

  • Custom In-Stream Crossword and in-stream Wordle Sponsorship

  • AV Display

The Idea

  • utilize placements where the media adds value to consumers during the advertising experience to deliver a teaser of the fun-loving experience to be found in Myrtle Beach. 

  • Custom Posts

  • Leveraged classic BuzzFeed native posts created to drive Beach Lovers to Myrtle Beach. A variety of different formats were designed to draw in high-value travelers and showcase all the exciting outdoor experiences  Myrtle Beach has to offer. 

  • Custom Myrtle Beach Crossword

  • Custom Myrtle Beach Wordle

  • Southern Living

Paid Social

Partners

  • Meta

  • Pinterest

  • TikTok

  • Reddit

Placement Types

  • Video

  • single image

  • carousels

  • stories

  • reals

  • organic boosting

  • conversation and in feed image and video

New for summer ’23:

  • TikTok Premium Placements

    • Top Feed Placements: This ad placement is served as the first ad that users see after opening the app

    • Pulse Placements: pulse ads are placed directly after a trending video.

Travel Endemic/OTA

Strategic Details

Targeting

Partners

  • TravelZoo

  • Priceline

  • Booking.com

Placement Types

  • Display

  • Video

  • Custom Content

  • Custom Landing Page

  • Homepage Sponsorship 

OOH

Partners

  • Project X

  • GSTV

Placement Types

  • Billboards

  • Video Spots

Other Summer Campaign Elements

Visit Myrtle Beach’s Passport to Fun

Articles – New and Updated

Myrtle Beach Beer Trail

Brand Partnerships

Spirit/Vacations

Harris Teeter and Huggies

PROOF