To help boost reservations, bookings ,and ticket sales during traditionally slower seasons on Long Island, New York, Brand360 — Newsday’s in-house content studio on Newsday.com — launched Date Night!

This sponsor-supported sales promotion was designed to create awareness, convey information, drive traffic, and stimulate sales at local restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues. 

During January and February’s post-holiday sales slump, Brand360’s Date Night! content encouraged Long Islanders to go out and spend quality time with loved ones by showcasing the appeal — and deals — at local restaurants, entertainment options, and area hotels.

A boon to bookings

The objective of Date Night! was to provide local restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues with an affordable introduction to the power of branded content. It also offered local businesses a unique marketing tactic to drive traffic in the “off-season” and promote mid-week visits.

Date Night! also served to pre-sell Valentine’s Day, Super Bowl, and Restaurant Week events. A 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

Date Night! appeared on Newsday.com in the Brand360 studio in Q1 2024. The digital programme was formatted as a modular photolisticle that offered 14 large images and captions with live links throughout.

Each participating local business received two dedicated copy blurbs and visuals to tell their stories and attract visitors. All seven shared sponsors received their own vanity URLs and were encouraged to promote and repurpose the content in their marketing efforts.

All advertisers benefited from traffic-driving tactics that drove viewers to the content. These tactics included digital display, print ads, and social media.

The Date Night! promotion ran for a period of six weeks and remained on the Brand360 site for a year after its active promotion. With over three minutes spent on page by consumers, Date Night! generated nearly 4,000 pageviews, 60,000 social engagements, and a click-through rate of over 25% during its promotion period.

Four of the seven accounts in Date Night! were new to branded content, three represented new business for Newsday, and four of the local businesses said they planned to advertise in Newsday again.

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