Discover Long Island has retained a Florida marketing firm as its first agency of record.
St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Paradise Advertising & Marketing secured a three-year deal to assist Discover Long Island in its ad campaigns to promote the region as a tourism destination.
Paradise is tasked with providing “strategic marketing, destination intelligence, creative development and media buying services” to further expand the Discover Long Island brand and promote Long Island tourism, estimated to be a $6 billion industry. Though Discover Long Island has contracted with outside firms for some marketing services, this is the first time it has designated an official agency of record. Paradise will be paid per project.
“After six years of rebranding and award-winning work to elevate our destination in markets across the globe, Long Island has welcomed a record number of visitors year after year,” Kristen Reynolds, president and CEO of Discover Long Island, said in a written statement. “Our region is in a pivotal moment with game changing, transformative developments on the horizon – providing tremendous opportunities for our industry and Long Island’s economy. Now is the perfect time to amplify our efforts and extend our team by bringing an industry leading agency of record on board.”
Discover Long Island plans on highlighting some of the key projects planned for the region, including the expansion of the Long Island Rail Road with East Side Access and its connection to Grand Central Terminal, a new LIRR station in Elmont to service the new UBS Arena, and the $2.8 billion Midway Crossing project, which plans to connect the LIRR to MacArthur Airport in Islip.
Awarded “Best Social Media” in the nation by the US Travel Association, Discover Long Island produces content for 10 prolific social media channels which garner upwards of 10 million views annually. The organization also hosts a YouTube series, “Long Island TV,” as well as the “Long Island Tea” podcast.
Earlier this year, Discover Long Island launched its first long overhaul campaign to Phoenix, in a bid to attract luxury and family travelers and plans to leverage Breeze Airway’s new direct flights to Nashville, Tenn., and Charleston, South Carolina, among other national destinations.
“It is such an honor for our agency to enter a coveted partnership with one of the most recognizable tourist destinations in the U.S.,” Barbara Karasek, CEO and co-owner of Paradise, said in the statement. “Successful marketing is as much about data and intelligence as it is about creative ideation, evidenced by our track record of increasing the tourism economy in the communities our clients’ serve. We’re thrilled to be working with a group of marketers who understand that creativity and destination intelligence beLONG together to attract the elevated and responsible traveler, while delivering innovative solutions.”