Newsday campaign to encourage localism is an advertising success

By Nannette Fevola

Newsday Media Group

Melville, Long Island, New York, USA

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Long Island, New York-based publisher Newsday needed a way to help local businesses regain native visitors and attract tourists post-pandemic.

Our already successful Brand360 content studio has created custom content and videos for mid-sized clients since 2017. However, it was looking for a way to make it easy and affordable for local restaurants, area attractions, and hoteliers to promote themselves, regain lost business, and acquire new customers altogether.

The Let’s Go! campaign took advantage of the rise in localism and the pride of place Long Islanders feel and used it to generate awareness and traffic for local merchants and restaurants. The multimedia programme offered ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to do, and how to enjoy day trips, weekend getaways, staycations or vacation fun during two key seasons on Long Island: summer and fall.

The Let's Go! campaign was built around things to do during the summer and fall seasons on Long Island.
The Let's Go! campaign was built around things to do during the summer and fall seasons on Long Island.

The secondary goal was to drive new business and generate incremental revenue for Brand360 by making branded content affordable for small local businesses.

Supporting local merchants 

Let’s Go! appeared on Newsday.com in the Brand360 studio twice in 2023, showcasing what to do on Long Island in key seasonal months (summer and fall). The digital programme was formatted as a modular photo listicle that offered 10 large images and captions with live links throughout.

Both the sole and shared sponsors received a vanity URL and were encouraged to promote and repurpose the content in their own marketing efforts. The multi-sponsor photo listicle ran for six to eight weeks and remained on the Brand360 site for a year after its active promotion. 

Community sponsors

The Let’s Go! programme was funded by an overarching sponsor, a community-focused financial institution. The financial brand appeared as the “proud sponsor” on each season’s branded content photo listicle, with open and closed copy, live links, and a persistent brand ad on the right rail.

The exclusive sponsor was also prominently branded on all the traffic-driving tactics that drove viewers to the content. These tactics included digital display, print ads, and social media.

In each seasonal tourism drive, five to eight non-competing local businesses received two dedicated copy blurbs and visuals each to tell their stories and attract visitors. Shared sponsors included local restaurants, retailers, hoteliers, area attractions and events, and local organisations such as chambers of commerce. 

The campaign showcased what Long Island has to offer and was a success for advertisers, too.
The campaign showcased what Long Island has to offer and was a success for advertisers, too.

Attracting new readers — and revenue

The initiative was considered a success, garnering nearly 6,000 pageviews, and the average embedded link enjoyed a 30% CTR. It generated 135,000 social engagements, 700,000 digital impressions, and more than 761,000 gross impressions in Newsday’s newspaper. On average, users spent three minutes on the page. 

It was also successful from an advertising perspective, attracting 14 advertisers, seven of whom were new to branded content. Four accounts generated new business for Newsday, and the incremental revenue from the programme exceeded US$55,000. And, since participating in Let’s Go!, 40% of the programme’s shared sponsors said they plan to advertise with Newsday in print, digital, or both.

About Nannette Fevola

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