Sanibel's $80K Live, Work, Play campaign draws national eye

Sanibel Island officials launched an $80,000 marketing campaign May 1 targeting regional and national tourism markets impacted by hurricanes Ian, Helen and Milton.

“[The campaign] is letting the world know that we’re back,” Sanibel Vice Mayor Holly Smith said.

Since Ian in 2022, nearly three-quarters of the total number of restaurants, retail shops and accommodations on the island that were closed have reopened, Sanibel & Captiva Island Chamber of Commerce CEO John Lai reported. That count includes only chamber member businesses, both legacy organizations and those that reopened with similar services but under different names.

The joint effort between Sanibel City Council and the chamber utilizes print, social media and paid digital advertising to encourage visitation with an eye toward boosting the island’s real estate sales.

“We all know there’s a synergistic nature between visitation and becoming a resident and real estate development,” Lai told Council during an update on the campaign at the city’s Sept. 8 meeting.

The campaign is focused on visitors in the Northeast and Midwest, the local Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties and a larger regional market that includes Pinellas, Hillsborough, Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

Organizers have spent $19,109 on online promotion for the Live, Work, Play campaign, which still has three months left to run. The effort has already surpassed its initial goals of generating 50,000 ad clicks and 1.5 million impressions.

Google paid ads so far amassed a total of 20,322 clicks and about 516,000 impressions, performing better after schools reopened in August. Meta’s Facebook and Instagram social media ads have totaled 28,553 clicks and 1.59 million impressions, performing better over the summer break. Both formats peaked around midsummer.

Viewers who clicked on an ad were led to websites that encouraged them to either book a room on the islands or browse real estate listings. A snapshot of campaign performance on Aug. 9 and 10 showed that sponsored ads performed better than standard ones and more people viewed ads on their smartphones than on desktop computers or tablets.

Lai also noted during his update on the campaign that while recently declining visitation from Canada’s market remains a concern, there is an uptick in visitors from Brazil.