By Brian Shane

Staff Writer

(Oct. 11, 2024) Drumming up new tourists to visit Maryland’s Coast using Google and Facebook will account for a majority of advertising dollars spent by Worcester County’s tourism office in 2025.

“The most targeted, effective and measurable medium is digital,” wrote county tourism director Melanie Pursel in a memo to the county commissioners. She introduced the fiscal 2025 ad budget items at the board’s Oct. 1 meeting in Snow Hill.

Overall, the county is budgeting $587,481 on destination advertising in the next fiscal year, with marketing buys earmarked for digital, TV, outdoor, print, and radio platforms, according to Pursel.

One specific approach to digital advertising involves what’s known as a programmatic campaign. This is a direct media buy that delivers niche messaging, either using Google ads or social media ads, to specific target markets like golfers, outdoor enthusiasts, or fishermen, for example.

The projected digital ads spend of $245,000 accounts for 42 percent of the budget. Television ads on local TV stations and Comcast are $162,000 (28 percent), and marketing in print will be $94,625 (16 percent).

Lesser campaigns will include $54,856 for local radio spots (9 percent) and $31,000 for billboards and outdoor displays (5 percent).

Worcester County approved $456,000 toward the tourism advertising budget. Another $173,396 is coming from a state tourism grant.

That brings the total advertising allocation to $629,396 – though Pursel noted she’ll hold back about $42,000 in the budget for other spending opportunities that may arise during the fiscal year.

Some of the advertising agreements, like those with Salisbury-based television stations WMDT and WBOC, are contracted 12-month media buys. Each TV agreement is a customized plan based on seasonality, which includes saturating the airwaves with tourism ads during the spring season leading into summer.

Most of the print and outdoor advertising is aimed at local audiences (or “in-market” to use ad jargon), to inspire overnight guests in the north end of the county to consider visiting other nearby points of interest – for instance, a family visiting Ocean City could be gently reminded of opportunities to visit a state park in Snow Hill, or a retail shop in Pocomoke City.

“This creates more interest in the region, thus extending stays or generating repeat visitation,” wrote Pursel.

This month marks four years since Worcester County’s tourism department rebranded as “Maryland’s Coast.” Pursel said the campaign has been a success, especially among locals who are evangelizing the brand on their own social media pages.

“It’s really been an opportunity for us to take it in so many different directions,” she said in an Oct. 7 interview. “It creates that sense of place. We’re the only place in Maryland where the Atlantic coast meets the land. We wanted to kind of own that space and identify who we are as a recognizable destination. We are tourism-based, agriculture-based, water-based – it’s that sense of identity we’ve created.”